Dynamic pricing, personalisation, brand safety: 5 interesting stats to start your week

Dynamic pricing perceived negatively by three in four Brits

Almost three in four (74%) British consumers have a mostly negative opinion of dynamic pricing, according to research from YouGov.

Dynamic pricing is a practice where prices fluctuate with demand. When demand is higher, so too are prices, and when demand drops, prices are lower. It is common practice with airlines, taxis and in the concert industry.

The practice hit the headlines last week following the sale of Oasis tickets. Some ticket prices more than doubled versus what they were originally listed for as demand increased. An investigation into how dynamic pricing was used for the concert has now been launched by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).

Given the attention dynamic pricing has garnered in the last couple of weeks, it is perhaps unsurprising that just one in 10 (10%) British consumers say they have a mostly positive opinion of the practice.

However, YouGov data from April suggests consumers in Great Britain have been wary of the practice since before the Oasis debacle. Almost six months ago, 64% of British consumers said dynamic pricing was an unfair practice for concert tickets.

Source: YouGov

Most consumers welcome personalised content from brands

More than half (60%) of consumers say they “like” personalised content from brands, with a similar proportion welcoming further personalisation.

Almost one in two (48%) believe that data-informed technology and audience segmentation will reduce time spent searching for products, by effectively acting to serve it to them.  Over one in three (36%) think that personalisation stops them from “missing out” on trends, deals  and products.

While most British consumers are happy to have their data utilised for more personalised interactions from brands, 62% feel they need to see more value from this exchange.

Almost three in five (56%) consumers say they appreciate “thoughtful” marketing from brands, such as the ability to opt out of Mother’s Day promotional emails, for example.

Consumers are also broadly happy with brands using technology to help their messaging strategy, with 65% of Brits comfortable with at least some element of AI being used to support brand content.

Source: Intuit

Only 4% of marketers believe X provides brand safety

Confidence in X, formerly Twitter, has plummeted over the past year, with just 4% of marketers now believing that ads on the platform provide brand safety.

Under Elon Musk’s leadership, trust in X has nosedived from 22% in 2022 to 12% in 2024, according to Kantar’s 2024 Media Reactions report.

As a result, a net 26% of marketers plan to cut ad spend on X in 2025 – the largest recorded pullback seen on any major global ad platform, citing brand safety concerns and poor perceptions of innovation and trust.

Kantar’s annual study, which surveys 18,000 consumers across 27 markets and 1,000 senior marketers globally, asked a question regarding brand safety for the first time. Of all the media brands, Google claimed the top spot for brand safety at 39%.

Ad receptivity among consumers has been growing for the past decade. Almost half of consumers (47%) are now receptive to adverts, up from only 24% in 2020. The increase of 9 percentage points on last year (38%) is the highest change since 2020.

Source: Kantar

Global ad tech market to grow by 60% in the next five years

The global ad tech market is forecast to grow by 60% in the next five years. Ad tech solutions are forecast to generate $27.2bn (£20.8bn) globally in 2024.

By 2029, ad tech is expected to generate over $43.5bn (£33.2bn).

The biggest global region for ad tech in 2024 is North America, followed by West Europe, and the Far East and China. The Indian subcontinent and Africa and the Middle East are the smallest markets for ad tech.

The research also finds that rising consumer privacy concerns will require ad tech platforms to implement more privacy-conscious data collection methods and become increasingly transparent around data analysis.

Source: Juniper Research

Hospitality business leaders remain cautious about business prospects

Just under half (49%) of hospitality leaders feel confident about their own business prospects over the next 12 months, despite normalising inflation and signs of improving consumer confidence.

This figure is down by four percentage points versus May’s figure and represents a third consecutive quarter-on-quarter drop. Meanwhile just over a third (36%) of leaders feel optimistic about prospects for hospitality in general over the next year, which is a quarter-on-quarter rise of two percentage points but nine percentage points behind the level of August 2023.

One of the things weighing on hospitality leaders’ minds is the cost of staff, with 58% reporting significant increases in wages in the last 12 months. Another increasing cost is that of food, 75% have seen at least some increase in food prices.

These pressures mean that around one in three (33%) hospitality leaders have reduced their opening hours.

Source: CGI by NIQ