UK consumers say 75% of marketing feels irrelevant

Optimizely has published research showing that 75% of UK consumers find the marketing they receive irrelevant, highlighting a widening gap between consumer expectations and marketers' ability to meet them.

The survey covered 1,000 UK consumers and 100 UK marketers. It found that many consumers are frustrated by generic, repetitive and poorly targeted messages, while marketers say time constraints, fragmented data and disconnected systems are limiting their work.

Among consumers, 69% said the marketing they receive is often generic or not tailored to them. The same proportion said they often receive duplicate messages or emails from brands, suggesting repetition remains a common problem across channels.

Volume is also an issue. Some 61% of consumers said they feel overwhelmed by the amount of marketing they receive, while 56% said it is becoming harder to find brands that communicate in a useful and engaging way.

The findings suggest poor relevance is starting to affect how people respond to brands. Nearly half of consumers, or 42%, said they disengage when content feels irrelevant, and 35% said they are more likely to unsubscribe from emails and other marketing communications after a poor or irrelevant experience.

Marketer pressures

On the marketing side, the research suggests many teams are under pressure to produce campaigns without the resources they need. Six in 10 marketers said they often have to launch campaigns without enough time or data to optimise them.

More than half, or 54%, said they move from one campaign to the next without enough time to evaluate performance properly. Another 66% said managing multiple tools and platforms creates unnecessary work.

This points to a structural problem for marketing departments trying to meet rising demand for more relevant communications. Consumers want messages that reflect their interests and behaviour, but marketers say the systems behind campaign planning and delivery are often disconnected.

In practice, that can leave brands sending more communications without improving quality. Repetition, weak targeting and poor timing can all reduce a campaign's value, especially when consumers already feel inundated by promotional material.

AI questions

The research also touches on the role of artificial intelligence in marketing. While AI tools have been widely adopted to help teams produce content more quickly, the findings suggest speed alone has not solved the relevance problem.

One executive at the company linked the issue to how the technology is being used. "Consumers can tell when marketing wasn't made for them, and our research shows they're tuning it out because of it," said Tara Corey, SVP, Marketing at Optimizely.

Corey added: "The irony is that AI was supposed to help fix this, but so far, it's mostly just helped marketers make more of the same. The real opportunity isn't more content, it's better content, and that means using AI to clear away the busywork so marketers can actually focus on strategy and creativity again."

The data comes as many brands try to balance automation with pressure for better customer engagement. Businesses have increased their use of email, mobile alerts and digital advertising, but consumers appear to be drawing a sharper distinction between communications they find useful and those they dismiss.

For marketers, the results suggest the challenge is no longer simply reach or frequency. The more pressing issue is whether organisations can organise their data, tools and workflows well enough to send messages customers consider relevant.

The findings also show that when that does not happen, the commercial risk is immediate: 35% of consumers said they are more likely to unsubscribe from marketing communications after a poor or irrelevant experience.