Emotion, consumer confidence, influencers: 5 interesting stats to start your week

Emotion is key for effective digital advertising

Creating an emotional response in the brief window you have a customer’s attention when advertising on digital platforms can drive brand recall by 20%.

New research from Pinterest and System1 analysed 50 Pinterest ads and showed digital ads that create a more positive emotional response lead to greater changes in behaviour and engage attention better, therefore making them more memorable. Additionally, digital ads with rapid, clear branding that cause an intense emotional response lead to greater ad recall.

System1’s Test Your Ad platform assigns a 1 to 5.9-star rating based on the emotional response viewers have to the ad, which demonstrates an ad’s ability to drive long-term growth. It also provides a ‘Spike Rating’, derived from the strength of branding and the intensity of the emotional response, which predicts short-term sales potential.

Digital ads with a higher-than-average star rating yielded six times more brand lift, specifically action intent. These ads also generated 20% greater ad recall. Meanwhile, ads with a higher-than-average ‘Spike Rating’ (earned through rapid branding and high emotional intensity) lead to significant ad awareness uplift and three times greater action intent.

Referencing research from Amplified Intelligence which showed that the majority of digital ads are viewed for less than two seconds, System1 and Pinterest believe well-branded emotional assets are the key to increasing effectiveness across the board. Adverts that appeal to the right-hand side of the brain, such as a clear place and characters, can result in a 90% uplift in brand favourability.

Source: System1/Pinterest

Consumer confidence plummets in face of continued economic hardships

Consumer confidence declined significantly in July as the cost of living crisis continues to take its toll.

Inflation fell to 7.9% last week – its lowest level in more than a year – exceeding forecasts, amid a sharp drop in petrol prices. But it has yet to have an impact on consumers who are continuing to struggle.

The overall index score on GfK’s Consumer Confidence Barometer dropped six points to -30 in July, with all measures declining last month. After steadily rising for six months, overall confidence is now back at the same level it was in April.

The biggest decline is in people’s view of the general economic situation over the coming year, which dropped eight points to -33. Consumers’ view of their personal finances over the next 12 months is equally bleak, falling by six points to -7 in July.

Meanwhile, the major purchase index, which indicates people’s propensity to buy big ticket items, is also down seven points to -32, suggesting people are not in a position to spend large sums of cash.

“The recent fall in headline inflation will do little to improve the financial mood; consumers need to see falling prices and interest rates before that happens,” says Joe Staton, client strategy director at GfK. “Reality has started to bite and as people continue to struggle to make ends meet, consumers will pull back from spending.”

Source: GfK

Influencers influence waning as cost of living pushes customers away

Consumers are looking past influencer content in difficult economic times criticising companies for being “out of touch” with how they are coping.

New research from Accenture Song has revealed that more than a fifth (21%) of the 2,000 UK consumers surveyed are now less likely to be swayed by influencer content and recommendations and 16% are less likely to watch influencer content due to the cost-of-living crisis.

Younger consumers, too, are moving on from influencer accounts with almost a quarter (24%) of respondents aged 25-34 years old and 19% of 16-24-year-olds saying they have unfollowed accounts they felt presented a lifestyle not relatable to them.

Customers expect higher standards from the brands they spend with now as almost a third (32%) of the consumers surveyed have stopped purchasing from a brand if they feel it did something unfair, unethical or offensive. And one third (33%) of respondents have stopped spending with a company if they were out of touch with the higher cost of living.

This has led to ‘deinfluencers’ starting to cut through – those who call out brands and influencers for promoting unnecessary products and services – and over a fifth of consumers (22%) have engaged with this type of content since the start of the cost-of-living crisis.

Vix Jagger, executive creative director, at Accenture Song, said: “We’ve all seen the shift from influencers and creators sharing their perfectly curated feeds and strictly showing life’s ‘best bits’, to gradually offering up more of their lives in recent times.

“This year, however, has signalled an even bigger shift towards not just a warts-and-all approach but a willingness to call out the seemingly unattainable against the backdrop of trying times. It has prompted a much-needed reassessment of the social and influencer landscape that is shining a light on the topic of values once again for brands.”

Source: Accenture Song

Sharp increase in direct marketing spend pushes it to a 17-year high

Spend on direct marketing rose at the sharpest rate since 2006 in the second quarter as brands push record levels of promotional activity, according to the latest IPA Bellwether report.

A net balance of 7.3% of the marketers surveyed report increased investment in direct marketing, which Bellwether defines as email and physical mail, in the second quarter of 2023.

Just 11.3% of respondents report cutting budgets in the period, with 18.5% stating they increased them, resulting in the positive net balance. This surge represents the strongest upward revision to direct marketing budgets since the third quarter of 2006. By comparison, the first quarter of 2023 saw a net balance of 4.2% of respondents upwardly revise direct marketing spend.

It’s likely increased investment in direct marketing was in part calls to action to support the acceleration in investment in promotional activity. The net balance of 13.3% of respondents upwardly revising their sales promotion budgets is the highest-ever recorded in the IPA Bellwether’s history.

More than one in five (21.5%) respondents report increased promotional budgets in the second quarter, while less than one in 10 (8.1%) made cuts in the area.

This surge in investment in direct marketing and promotional activity helped total marketing budgets stay in positive territory this quarter, with a net balance of 6.4% upwardly revising their investment.

Source: IPA Bellwether

Authenticity of email open rates questioned amid Apple app change

Email open rates have nearly doubled while click-to-open rates experienced a dip, raising questions over the authenticity of open rates as a measurement of success for marketers, claim Deployteq and the Data & Marketing Association (DMA UK).

The findings of the Email Benchmarking Report 2023 revealed a 13% jump in open rates, reaching a high of 31.8%, inflated by bot accounts taking advantage of a change in Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) policy, marking emails as ‘open’ as soon as they are delivered to the recipient’s inbox.

However, the inflated open rate due to the MPP has raised questions over the accuracy of open rate as a true measurement of campaign effectiveness, calling for marketers to explore new metrics to evaluate success.

Data-driven measurement has become even more important with the cost-of-living crisis limiting consumer spending power, making it harder for marketers to drive a direct response.

Pauline Buil, marketing director for Deployteq, said: “The current landscape of email marketing presents an intriguing mix of successes and challenges. Marketers must recognise the limitations of open rate as a sole metric and focus on developing robust strategies to drive meaningful engagement.

“Additionally, with the upcoming Apple Link policy, it becomes crucial for marketing departments to explore other innovative measurement techniques that accurately capture the impact of their campaigns.”

Source: Deployteq/DMA UK