In-person work, influencer briefs, ethical purchase decisions: 5 interesting stats to start your week

Marketers see in-person work as important for productivity and creativity

Two in three (66%) marketers believe collaborating in-person yields more creativity than virtual meetings, according to research from LinkedIn and Censuswide.

A similar proportion (64%) say they’re more confident signing business deals face-to-face rather than virtually, with 42% saying it’s easier to address sensitive or complex deals in person. Just over half (52%) say they would only virtually sign off on a deal that was £50,000 or less.

The research surveyed 250 marketing professionals and 40 CMOs. Of the 40 CMOs surveyed, a third (33%) say in-person work drives higher productivity across teams and faster decision-making (30%).

Overall, the research suggests marketers prefer in-person interactions for investor meetings (61%), new business meetings (61%), planning meetings with clients (52%), creative brainstorms (57%), and presentations to clients (65%).

Source: LinkedIn and Censuswide

Brand briefs leave influencers scratching their heads

Marketers’ briefs to influencers often fall short, according to a survey of creators. Over half (54%) of influencers say that understanding the brand’s marketing KPIs would lead to far better results, as they’re often left guessing as to what brands actually want.

There is an appetite from creators to learn more about the role they’re playing for brands, with two in three (64%) saying they want to learn about the measures of success (KPIs) that are important to brands so they can create content that’s more aligned with marketing goals. Almost three in five (57%) say they want to learn more about their role in the marketing world.

The majority (76%) of creators customise content for each platform, but 64% say brands don’t understand the level of time and effort this takes. Only a minority (12%) of content creators produce content full-time, and even among the most high-profile influencers, only a quarter (25%) rely on it as their primary source of income.

Almost three in four (72%) influencers say they prefer long-term partnerships with the brands they work with, yet only 54% have these types of relationships.

Source: Influencer and Crowd DNA

Just 5% of consumers cite ethical considerations as top factor in purchase choice

Only one in 20 consumers (5%) cite social and ethical considerations as a top factor in their purchase decisions, finds research from YouGov.

The survey asked consumers to list the one or two most important factors when choosing a product or service. “Cost” (70%) came out as the number one factor, with “quality” (62%) at number two.

No other factor came close to cost and quality as determiners of purchase decisions with, “a brand I trust” coming in a distant third, at 15%.

Young consumers are no more likely than older ones to say social or ethical considerations are one of the top factors when choosing between products. Among the 5% of consumers who do say social and ethical considerations are a top factor, environmental concerns are the most significant area.

Source: YouGov

Fashion sales struggled last month

Non-food retail sales in the UK were flat year on year in February. This figure was below the three-month average growth of 2.5% and above the 12-month average decline of 0.9%.

British Retail Consortium (BRC) CEO Helen Dickinson highlights fashion retail as having performed particularly poorly last month, with gloomy weather depressing sales.

Across the board, total retail sales increased by 1.1% year on year in February, against a growth of 1.1% in February 2024. This was below the three-month average growth of 2.4% and above the 12-month average growth of 0.8%.

Food sales increased by 2.3% year on year in February, against a growth of 5.6% in February 2024. This was level with the three-month average growth of 2.3% and below the 12-month average growth of 2.8%.

Source: BRC-KPMG

Only 40% of marketing leaders called CMO

Top marketing roles are evolving, with only 40% of marketing leaders from Fortune 500 companies holding the CMO title, according to annual research from leadership advisory firm Spencer Stuart.

Of the Fortune 500, 33% of marketing leaders hold marketing-related leadership titles without “chief” – such as senior vice-president of marketing.

Meanwhile, 16% have a dual-function title, such as chief marketing and communications officer and 11% of marketing leaders do not have the word marketing in their title at all. The most common words that appear in those titles are commercial, growth, customer/consumer, brand and strategy.

The findings are from Spencer Stuart’s annual CMO Tenure Study, which tracks how CMO roles have evolved in the past year.

According to the study, 329 of the Fortune 500 companies (66%) had a C-suite marketing leader in 2024, a drop of nearly eight percentage points from 2023 (357) but still higher than 2022 (320).

At an industry level, industrial is the largest sector in the Fortune 500, and it is also the least likely to have a CMO. However, the study finds that the number of industrial companies with a marketing leader has increased five percentage points since 2022.

Source: Spencer Stuart