Why UK consumers find so much marketing irrelevant

Marketing relevance depends on more than output

Three-quarters of surveyed UK consumers say the marketing they receive feels irrelevant.

Optimizely sponsored the research, which the draft describes as covering 1,000 UK consumers and 100 UK marketers. The responses show two conditions at once: consumers report poor relevance, while marketers report limits involving time, data and tools. The survey can establish that these conditions coexist within its samples. It cannot establish that one caused the other.

Consumers report generic, duplicated and overwhelming marketing

Consumers describe several problems with the marketing they receive.

Consumer response	Share
Marketing is often generic or untailored	69%
Often receive duplicate brand messages or emails	69%
Feel overwhelmed by the amount of marketing received	61%
Say it is becoming harder to find brands that communicate in a useful and engaging way	56%
Disengage when content feels irrelevant	42%
Become more likely to unsubscribe from emails and other marketing communications after a poor or irrelevant experience	35%

For marketing leaders, these findings put campaign volume in context. The reported disengagement and unsubscribe responses make relevance a factor to assess alongside production capacity. Leaders can examine audience, timing and content when evaluating campaign performance.

Marketers report limits on optimization and evaluation

Marketers also describe constraints on campaign work. Six in 10 marketers say they often launch campaigns without enough time or data to optimise them. Another 66% say managing multiple tools and platforms creates unnecessary work. Some 54% say they move from one campaign to the next without enough time to evaluate performance properly.

These responses point to specific operating conditions for executives to examine. Teams with insufficient time or data for optimisation have less opportunity to adjust campaigns before launch. Limited evaluation time also leaves less opportunity to assess completed work before the next campaign begins. These are operational implications of the responses. They do not show that these conditions caused consumers to perceive marketing as irrelevant.

Sample size sets another boundary on interpretation. The reported marketer sample contains 100 UK marketers. Conclusions should stay tied to the population and methodology represented by the research rather than be treated as universal findings about marketing organizations.

AI can increase content production while other constraints remain

Tara Corey, SVP, Marketing at Optimizely, argues that AI has so far mostly helped marketers create more of the same content. This is Optimizely’s interpretation of research it sponsored. Optimizely has a commercial interest in technology used to improve digital marketing and customer experiences, so that commercial stake matters when assessing the claim.

The survey supports a narrower executive question. When marketers face limited time or data for optimisation, tool-management overhead and limited evaluation time, faster content generation addresses a different part of the workflow. The reported figures do not establish that AI created those constraints or that any specific technology will solve them.

For CMOs, martech leaders and data leaders, this distinction affects investment decisions. They can assess content-generation capacity alongside access to usable data, time for optimisation, tool-management workload and time for evaluation. Those measures help determine where additional production capacity can help and where campaign operations need attention first.

Key takeaways for decision-makers

Relevance requires more than output: Consumer and marketer responses show poor relevance alongside constraints on time, data and tools, although the research does not establish causation. Leaders should assess campaign operations as well as production capacity.
Irrelevant marketing drives disengagement: 69% of surveyed UK consumers report generic marketing and duplicate messages, while 42% disengage when content feels irrelevant. Leaders should evaluate audience, timing and content alongside campaign volume.
Optimization capacity is constrained: 60% of surveyed marketers report launching campaigns without enough time or data to optimize them, while 54% lack enough time to evaluate performance. Executives should examine whether workflows provide sufficient capacity for optimization and measurement.
AI production does not address every constraint: Faster content generation addresses production, not necessarily data access, tool overhead, optimization time or evaluation capacity. Leaders should assess these operational constraints before assuming greater AI-driven output will improve marketing relevance.