ExchangeWire Research’s weekly roundup brings you up-to-date findings from around the world, with additional insight provided by Rebecca Muir, ExchangeWire, head of research and analysis. In this week’s edition: more than half of UK households now own a tablet, up from 2% in 2011; Microsoft’s ‘Value Me’ research indicates a significant data sharing gap and over half of senior brand and agency marketers rate their knowledge of programmatic video as either ‘average’, ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’.

Tablets now in over 50% of UK households

Recent research from Ofcom highlights a dramatic shift in UK household tablet ownership, which has risen from just 2% in 2011 to 54%. The growth in tablet ownership is set to continue further, with 21% of households that currently do not own a tablet indicating they were likely to purchase one within the next 12 months. Kate Reeve, director of consumer research at Ofcom said: "In just five years, tablets have become a must-have device for millions of UK households."

Earlier in 2015 the IAB/PwC data showed that last year UK tablet-dedicated ad spend alone grew 118% to reach £87.4m. Tablets offer advertisers the chance to engage consumers with more creative ads compared to smartphones, more akin to desktop display advertising so it’s no surprise that the trend is for significant increases in spend.

As well as more interactive ad formats, tablets also provide consumers with a more user friendly user interface (UI) to make purchases therefore, as is demonstrated by the higher conversion rates on tablets compared to desktop. However, advertisers need to exercise caution when evaluating performance across multiple devices and make sure they are considering the path-to-conversion not just the final ad interaction.

App usage is also increasing in line with the increased uptake of tablets, with 86% of those that use an internet connected tablet also using apps. However, when seeking out information the browser still remains dominant with 69% of respondents using it to search. Gaming has also risen with 15% of tablet users using it to play games on; this figure rises to 24% in the 16-24 age range.

Read the full Ofcom report here.

Brands losing customer trust through data collection

The Microsoft Value exchange study, carried out in partnership with The Future Laboratory and Sentient Decision Science highlights a shift in the expectations of consumers that are sharing their data with companies. This landmark study took in over 16,500 global online responses alongside 72 in depth qualitative interviews.

Consumers have a perception of data being personal to them, leading to a perception that this sharing could not be useful to them. Consumers were most likely to share personal information (57%) and demographic information (50%) with companies. Consumers are shifting their expectations of what they expect to receive in exchange for data and the personal value they attribute to it.

The ‘sharing gap’ dominates consumers beliefs about data sharing, with 41% of respondents actively sharing data and 56% of respondents believing that companies collect data such as social media activity whether they have agreed to this or not, a 15% difference.  Consumers view social media activity as more personal than other forms of data, so the perception that it is being collected without consent may harbour resentment within consumers. This finding highlights an increased need for companies to make their data collection more transparent, whilst providing consumers with compatible incentives to do so.

Cash reward, significant discounts and loyalty points were the top cited incentives for data exchange, whilst 63% of respondents indicated that they would share information to remove certain steps. Over a third of consumers (37%) believed that companies should provide free services if they were using consumer data. However, the way in which companies incentivise data sharing need not be monetary, with 25% of respondents stating that they would share data in order to have a more connected lifestyle.

Consumers significantly prefer not to pay for new digital services, with 66% of US respondents preferring to share information in exchange for them.  Only 12% of consumers in China were willing to pay for a new digital service, as opposed to 54% in the US.  These findings clearly show a cultural differentiation in the willingness to pay for new digital services and going forward may require tailored solutions addressing these differences.

Download the full Microsoft Value exchange study here.

Quality of inventory top concern for programmatic video sector

Research by Unruly has revealed that quality of inventory is a top priority for senior brand and agency marketers in both the US and the UK.  With nearly 75% of marketers currently spending a proportion of their budget on programmatic the report highlights that two thirds of respondents would be moving their budget from TV to Programmatic video within the next 12 months. However, more than half of those surveyed rated their knowledge of programmatic video as ‘average’, ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’. Scott Button, Unruly, CEO, said: “With budget moving from TV to online, specifically through programmatic channels, it’s alarming to see that less than half of respondents in our survey felt they had a good handle on programmatic video knowledge. Programmatic ad buying provides marketers with a huge opportunity to better target their audiences, however, if we continue to see a lack of education in the industry, it’s going to lead to wasted budgets.”

Quality of inventory, ad fraud and a skills gap in employees’ knowledge of programmatic were cited as the top concerns for marketers. It appears that although marketers are aware of the increasing importance of programmatic within video advertising, they lack the in house skills to act upon this. Moving forward companies need to provide comprehensive training to bridge the current skills gap.

Unruly’s research highlights a paradigm shift within the industry, with the former key key performance indicator of clickthrough rate (CTR) losing influence, making way for a myriad of programmatic engagement metrics. This shift is enabling marketers to establish a more in depth evaluation of their advertising campaigns.  However, 45% of marketers believe that programmatic targeting does not necessarily translate into offline sales.

Read the full Unruly report here.