Aussie SMEs don’t have time or resource for marketing

A survey by Salmat has revealed only 52% of SMEs have time to measure campaign effectiveness. This figure rises to 75% for mid-tier business (25-200 employees).

The survey, reported by B&T, also found that just 7.1% of SMEs invested in SEO, and only 23% of SME respondents could hire even a single dedicated marketer.

68% of APAC residents believe there is a problem with fake news on digital platforms

The number of those pointing a finger at digital is far greater than those that see a problem with radio, TV and newspapers. The figures come from a YouGov survey of nearly 9,000 people across APAC.

TV was the most trusted medium for news – 75% of respondents placing either a little or a lot of trust in the box. Digital hit just 60% on the same metric, below radio (70%) and newspapers (68%).

fake news

Fifty four percent of APAC respondents would not make purchases from a brand promoting misleading content (by advertising on it). The chart shows other actions respondents would take in such circumstances, from unfollowing the brand on social (29%) to telling friends and family (51%).

More than half (56%) of respondents had carried out independent research to fact-check a story they had seen online.

brands beware

Qualtrics outlines customer experience expectations in APAC

Qualtrics has published 10 findings from its new study into customer experience in APAC. The company surveyed 1,100 consumers across Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand.

Here are the highlights: 

  • Three quarters of Singaporean and Hong Kong consumers indicated that it is very or extremely important for organisations to respond to their feedback, markedly higher than Australia (64%) and New Zealand (52%).
  • Across APAC, 39% of respondents are unlikely to continue doing business with an organisation that does not respond to their feedback. Singaporeans are the most unforgiving (23%).
  • Forty six percent of consumers expect a response from an organisation within the same working day. That rises to 68% in Hong Kong.
  • Fifty eight percent of respondents are open to making the leap to online-only offerings.
  • Almost half (48%) would be satisfied dealing with an organisation staffed by artificial intelligence. 

A fifth of Aussies don’t enjoy their time on social media

Deloitte has produced a fairly extensive consumer survey, with some interesting findings about social media.

Though time spent on social media is showing no signs of decreasing, 20% of Aussies don’t enjoy their time on social media, and 46% saying they spend more time on it than they would like.

Kimberly Chang of Deloitte tells B&T that “Daily social media usage has dropped slightly from 61% to 59% over the last year, and 31% of respondents have temporarily or permanently deactivated one or more of their social media accounts in the past year.”

Other interesting stats from the survey include 59% of Aussies saying watching TV and video content is their favourite activity across media. The chart below shows propensity for binge watching TV shows across each generation, with 36% of matures enjoying a good binge as much as 73% of trailing millennials.

aussies binge watching

Indian spend on Google Play apps increases 300%

Google India revealed this dramatic annual increase at a recent event, as reported by Business Standard. The company says it recently exceeded one billion downloads from Play, amidst talk of a tipping point for mobile apps and their monetisation in India.

Consumers still prefer cash in APAC

A PayPal study finds that 57% of APAC respondents prefer cash to other payment methods.

The study of 4,000 consumers was conducted across China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, so fairly obviously there were big differences between different aprts of the sample.

Only 25% of respondents from China (known for mobile payment adoption) prefer cash, but the figure was 70% in India. However, it may be seen as somewhat surprising that 44% and 43% of those in Hong Kong and Singapore respectively said they preferred cash.

Even in the financial centres of Hong Kong and Singapore, cash was still preferred by 44% and 43% of consumers respectively.

More from CNBC.

Tencent booms in Q2

Tencent’s saw 59% growth in revenues (to $8.4bn) and 70% growth in profits (to $2.7bn). 

  • WeChat’s total global monthyl active users now stand at 963m. Up 19.5% year-on-year.
  • Games revenues were up 39%, partly down to the success of the Honour of Kings smartphone game.
  • Online advertising revenues grew 55% year-on-year.
  • Live streaming, video and music raised social revenue by 51%.

Japan boasts higher out-of-home spend per capita than US

Per capita spend on out-of-home advertising is relatively high in APAC. Though the US market is the largest ($7.1bn), it sees $22 spend per capita, compared to $38 per capita in Japan (a market of $4.7bn).

Magna and Rapport’s global study estimated OOH generated $29bn in ad revenues in 2016, with a rise to $30bn forecast by the end of this year. Digital OOH is responsible for much of this growth, and is estimated to hit 24% of all OOH spending by 2021, up from 14% in 2016.

OOH is responsible for around 6% of global ad expenditure, but this figures is much higer in the Philippines (15%), Singapore (12%) and Thailand (9%).

More from Campaign Asia

ad spend globally

Image via Mumbrella

India’s regional advertisers grow in number

The India Times reports data from Starcom which says that the number of regional advertisers in India rose 4.6% in 2015, and 6.6% in 2016.