MAGnet #48 29/04/2022

Magnet #48

It’s a statistic filled edition this week, and we’re talking about a bike ride one our team are doing in support of charity- details below.

Enjoy!

Elon Musk buys Twitter

It’s all anyone is talking about this week- Tesla chief executive Elon Musk has reached a deal with Twitter’s board to buy the social media company for $44bn (£34.5bn). Musk has criticised the platform in the past for its record on “free speech”.

“Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it,” Musk said, in a tweeted statement. If you want to read more, you can find our blog on it here.

 Data

The UK ad market reached a record £31.9bn in 2021, up 34.3% year on year, according to the latest Advertising Association/WARC full year figures.

The UK’s  ad market emerged £8bn larger than April 2020’s original forecast of £24bn, which was set out at the start of the Covid pandemic. The growth is in part due to inflationary pressures on the cost of advertising, but it’s also because of higher than expected growth in  forms of online advertising over the past year.

The UK is ahead of the game in online advertising, as three in every four pounds spent on UK advertising today is invested in one of a wide range of online formats. In fact, only China has an equivalent online share of this proportion.

The UK ad market is forecast to grow by 10.7% in 2022 to £35.3bn,which is  an upgrade on prior forecasts, and this figure is driven by a strong start to the year, higher CPMs and higher demand ahead of the FIFA World Cup.

And, in 2023, the ad market is set to add an additional 5.4% year on year to reach £37.2bn.

Digital ad spend:

Continuing on from above, Digital ad spend saw the biggest growth for 15 years in 2021, rising by 43% year-on-year to £23.5bn. That figure also represents a 50% rise from 2019. Search ads took the largest share of overall spend, up 38% to £11.7bn. In addition, the IAB captured advertisers’ growing interest in retail media, by recording the amount spent on shopping search ads for the first time. This spend totalled £3.5bn in 2021.

Display ads  also grew,  by 53% to £9.7bn, with both social and non-social display up by more than 50%. Video drove the majority of growth in this category, rising by 58% to £5.5bn.

More  media formats such as podcasting and gaming saw big percentage rises in 2021, although they grew from a smaller base. Marketers spent £54m on podcast ads in 2021, up 61% year-on-year. Meanwhile, investment in in-game advertising totalled £9.8m last year.

Bike Bosnia

Our Head of our Data and Insights team, Gemma,  is taking part in an amazing initiative to raise money for Mines Advisory Group. From the 10th-15th June, the 6th overseas Bikes against Bombs ride will see participants cycle 300 hilly kilometres from Dubrovnik to Sarajevo. The team is aiming to raise £10,000 so that landmines and unexploded bombs can be cleared from communities affected by the conflict.

Lytham Gin are also supporting the cause by developing a flavoured gin to help fundraise, and our Designer Hannah designed the wonderful logo. So if you’d like to donate to a good cause, now’s your chance!

The logo designed by our Designer

 The cost of the gin is £38.00 per bottle and £15.00 of the proceeds will go directly to the MAG charity.