Agency pay, AI research, advertising’s economic impact: 5 interesting stats to start your week
We arm you with all the stats you need to tackle the week ahead.
· Marketing WeekBy Emily Manock 28 Sep 2026 11:54 am
Global brands are shifting to paying for agency outputs not time
Brands are increasingly moving away from labour-based payment models in how they remunerate their agencies. The percentage of brands paying agencies through labour-based models, such as by the hour or by the day, has fallen dramatically over the past 15 years, dropping from 54% in 2011 to 17% today.
Just four years ago, the percentage using labour-based models was significantly higher at 33%, meaning the proportion has almost halved since 2022 when the research was last carried out.
The research, carried out by the WFA, shows that over the last decade and a half, fixed-fee/output models have risen from a fifth (20%) to over a third (35%) and labour-plus-performance models have more than doubled, from 9% to 23%.
Looking ahead, performance-based fees (i.e. pay tied directly to specific performance metrics) show the strongest momentum, with almost three in five (58%) brands expecting increased use, followed by value-based models (i.e. paid tied to the quality of work done) at just less than half (43%) and fixed-fee or output-based approaches at just over a third (36%).
By contrast, over two-fifths (42%) anticipate further reducing labour-plus-performance arrangements, while commission models also face more contraction than growth.
Source: WFA
Consumers use AI for research, but remain sceptical of AI-generated content
Almost six in 10 consumers (59.2%) use AI tools often or occasionally for research, while more than half (53.8%) sometimes or often skip websites entirely during that research, according to new data from Kinsta.
However, there is also a trust issue, with a majority of consumers (58%) trusting content less once they suspect it was AI-generated, while more than half (52.1%) trust traditional search results more than AI-generated answers.
Indeed, less than a fifth (18.8%) say they always trust an AI product recommendation without doing additional research, and more than nine in 10 (90.7%) say they are concerned about AI misinformation.
This has also impacted consumers’ trust of website content and reviews: nearly three quarters (70.9%) of those surveyed have suspected a product review was fake or AI-generated, and nearly six in 10 (59%) have stopped engaging with content because they suspected it was AI-generated.
Source: Kinsta
Digital advertising could add 1.2 million jobs to UK economy by 2035
The digital advertising sector has grown its contribution to the UK economy by 35% in just four years, according to research commissioned by IAB UK.
In 2022, IAB UK found digital advertising contributed £129bn to the UK economy. In 2026, this figure is estimated to be £175bn, meaning digital advertising is contributing an extra £46bn to the UK economy, versus four years ago.
The growth rate of the digital advertising industry is 10 times higher than the UK economy as a whole.
There are now 2.6 million jobs supported by the digital advertising industry in the UK, equivalent to 8% of the total workforce. This has increased from 2 million in 2022.
The research commissioned by IAB UK and carried out by research consultancy Public First, estimates UK advertising could add an extra 1.2 million jobs to the market by 2035. The data also suggests the sector could contribute £242bn to the economy within nine years.
Source: IAB
Personal consumer optimism holding firm against global pressures, study finds
Consumers around the world are losing faith in the state of the world but personal optimism is holding firm in spite of this, according to the latest Ipsos Global Trends study.
The report shows that, across the 38 markets it covers, only a quarter of people are optimistic for the world over the coming year, dropping from 28% in 2025 to 24% in 2026. The national picture isn’t much better, with a little over a third of people (36%) optimistic about the direction of their country, with optimism at its lowest in Europe.
Yet when it comes to personal optimism for themselves and their family, consumers continue to see the “silver lining” in their situation, with 55% of the global sample believing things will get better on an individual level.
While this may seem like positive news on the face of it, the report notes personal optimism is at its lowest recorded level since Ipsos began tracking data in 2013. It is resilient but under pressure, the report concludes.
Views on optimism diverge sharply across the world, with Saudi Arabia is the most optimistic country across the three measures (+215) while France and Japan are the least optimistic (both at +53). Great Britain sits towards the back of the pack with a net optimism score of +83.
Source: Ipsos
Businesses are not prepared for holiday season, report finds
More than half (56%) of ecommerce specialists say businesses are not prepared at all for the holiday season, while half (50%) of search specialists say businesses underestimate how long effective optimisation takes.
Nearly a third (28%) of search specialists recommend beginning optimisation work three to four months before peak season, according to Fiverr’s 2026 Holiday Marketing Index, which surveyed 230 top-rated Fiverr freelancers across UGC, search and e-commerce.
In terms of social, almost nine in 10 (87%) of UGC creators recommend working with creators one to four months ahead, while for ecommerce, almost three quarters (74%) of specialists recommend that this work begins one to three months before peak season.
Source: Fiverr