Personalisation, social commerce, webinars: 5 interesting stats to start your week

One in two British consumers find personalised ads creepy

Personalisation is a hot button topic in the marketing industry – but consumer attitudes towards the trend is decidedly more mixed.

YouGov’s Attitudes to Personalised Advertising report for 2025 reveals that one in two Brits (57%) find personalised adverts creepy, with women more likely to be creeped out by personalised ads than men.

The research also reveals a generational divide in attitudes towards personalised adverts. Gen Z, for example, is three times as likely (37%) to be comfortable with companies using their online behaviour to personalise ads than baby boomers (12%).

In terms of those who are uncomfortable with their online behaviour being used in such a way, the data shows baby boomers (66%) are the least comfortable followed by Gen X ( 62%), millennials (49%) and Gen Z way back on 35%.

Britons, in general, are more likely to be uncomfortable with personalised advertising (56%) than any other market, including France (51%), Germany (47%) and Australia (41%).

The good news, however, is that one in four Brits do agree that personalised advertising is helpful for discovering new products that they may want to buy – a figure that rises to 38% among millennials and 48% among Gen Z.

Source: YouGov

More marketers feel positive about the future of the CMO role

New research from the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) suggests the longevity of the CMO role and its influence is increasing.

Five years ago, 19% of the global marketers surveyed as part of the WFA’s Marketer of the Future study said the role wouldn’t exist by 2030. In 2025, this figure has fallen to 10%, according to responses from 600 businesses across 25 countries with a cumulative global marketing spend of around $90bn (£69bn).

Just under half of marketing leaders (43%) see C-suite influence as crucial, compared with just 23% of what the WFA describes as ‘struggling marketers’. Almost half (46%) of leading marketers hold leadership influence, such as board-level appointments, according to the WFA.

Successful leaders are showing more clarity when it comes to balancing the long and short, according to the WFA data, which finds they are 11% less concerned about short-term pressures than less high-performing businesses.

The performance gap is also highlighted in how brands are approaching growth opportunities. Over two-fifths (43%) of top marketers prioritise consumer and marketing insight, compared to just a quarter (24%) of struggling brands.

Source: WFA

UK retailers back social commerce as next big sales channel

Social commerce is having a major impact on the UK retail landscape – with over eight in ten (83%) British retail brands agreeing that it is the fastest growing sales channel in the UK.

The UK’s social commerce industry is predicted to more than double in the next four years, rising from £7.4bn to £16bn by 2028. This would represent 10% of the total online commerce market – up from 6% in 2024 – and growing at four times the rate of overall ecommerce sales.

The research, commissioned by delivery management platform Scurri, asked both mid-market brands (SMEs) and enterprise retailers which social channels will drive strategic growth opportunities over the next 24 months.

Mid-market brands identified YouTube (55%), Instagram (54%) and TikTok Shop (54%) as their key channels to focus on – while enterprise retailers plan to focus on Facebook (57%), Instagram (48%) and TikTok Shop (48%).

Irrespective of the channels chosen, both SMEs (90%) and enterprise brands (84%) understand the need to embrace agile communications and experimentation to successfully implement a channel-centric commerce model – though smaller businesses, according to the research, seem more able to act quickly to meet these changes in consumer demand.

The research reveals mid-market brands are more active than enterprise businesses in terms of shopper engagement activities on social commerce, including activation of paid partnerships (42% vs 29%), brand customer content (48% vs 39%) and live shopping events (46% vs 24%).

In contrast, enterprise-level respondents are more prevalent in activating partnerships with macro (32% vs 21%) and lifestyle (47% vs 37%) influencers.

Source: Scurri

Consumer confidence up but remains fragile in uncertain economic environment

Consumer confidence has risen for the second month in a row, driven by increasing confidence in the UK’s general economic situation despite reservations remaining around personal finances, according to GfK’s Consumer Confidence Barometer.

The overall index score, which brings together five different measures of consumer confidence, increased by one point to -19 in March.

The most prominent rise in consumer attitudes came with regards to the general economic situation over the last 12 months, which was up by two points to -42 and is three points higher than the -45 recorded at the same point last year.

This went hand in hand with an increase in sentiment towards the general economic situation over the next 12 months (up two points to -29), which has risen by five points in the past two months.

This was balanced out, however, by a fall in consumers’ perception of their personal financial situation, which showed signs of growth in February.

Attitudes towards their personal financial situation over the last 12 months fell by two points to -9, an improvement on the -13 recorded in March 2024, while the perception of personal finances over the next 12 months fell by one point to 1.

The major purchase index was the only measure to stay at the same level (-17), an increase of 10 points from March 2024.

Source: GfK

B2B marketers find success in webinars as means of driving sales

There has been an increase in B2B professionals attending webinars over the previous year with B2B marketers using them as an effective media channel.

The annual Webinar Benchmarks report from ON24 reveals webinar attendances were up by 7% in 2024, with attendance up across every quarter of 2024 compared to the same periods in 2023. Live webinars were the most popular format in 2024 with 56% of attendees choosing to attend live – but on-demand webinars were also popular with 45% of attendees choosing to watch after the fact. The conversion rate of registrations to attendees sits at 57%.

This has proven a boon for B2B marketers to drive sales and interest in their products. The research shows that demo bookings rose by 18% following a webinar in 2024 while there was a 21% increase in engagement with CTAs per attendee. The data shows that each webinar, on average, produces over 300 individual interactions, with 1.7 interactions per attendee.

On-demand webinars saw a higher increase in overall engagement than live formats. The engagement rate increased 9% year on year, which means engagement is rising faster than the shift towards on-demand viewing.

Poll responses achieved the most interaction among the engagement options, with an average of 130 responses per webinar. This was followed by 91 resource downloads per webinar, 37 engagement reactions, 19 survey responses, and 14 attendee questions.

Source: ON24