Spending confidence at highest level on record but huge rise sees economy become #1 concern

British consumer spending confidence has hit its highest level on record but a huge rise in concern about the economy saw it overtake terrorism and immigration as the nation’s biggest concern.

The latest Nielsen Global Survey of Consumer Confidence and Spending Intentions revealed that across 2016, the economy saw the biggest rise in the amount of Britons citing it as their 1st or 2nd biggest concern. The proportion doing so rose 12 percentage points to 28%. Political stability saw the next biggest rise, jumping eight points to 10% – five times higher than at the end of 2015.

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Viewability situation “not really improving”

UK advertisers spent about £606 million on online ads last year that didn’t meet minimum viewability thresholds, according to the latest quarterly benchmark report from ad verification company Meetrics.

In the final quarter of 2016, only 49% of banner ads served met the IAB and Media Ratings Council’s recommendation that 50% of the ad was in view for at least 1 second. This was the same figure as Q3, which itself was a marginal improvement on the 47% in Q2, but a noticeable drop from the 54% viewability level in Q1 2016.

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