Brysa Identifies ‘Loyalty Blindspot’ in UK Media Sector as Acquisition Costs Rise 60% and Retention Investment Lags

Consultancy reports media businesses are losing $29 on every new customer acquired

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM, May 27, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Brysa, a UK-based AI and data consultancy, has identified what it calls a "loyalty blindspot" across the media sector, where businesses continue to invest disproportionately in client acquisition while underinvesting in the retention work that drives long-term profitability.

The consultancy cites industry data showing that customer acquisition costs have risen nearly 60% over the last five years, with businesses now losing an average of $29 on every new customer acquired. At the same time, repeat customers spend 67% more than new ones, and even a 5% improvement in retention can lift profits by 25-95%. Despite the disparity, Brysa argues, most media sales teams remain wired to chase the next campaign rather than nurture the last one.

"Media businesses are spending heavily to win clients and then handing them a performance report and walking away," said Satish Thiagarajan, founder of Brysa. "It's strange given how much the industry talks about audience engagement, but media operators often have a blind spot for their own audience, which is their clients. Once a campaign ends, the relationship goes quiet, and clients drift to competitors who stay actively engaged."

Brysa identifies three points where media businesses most commonly lose clients after the first sale. The first is poor onboarding and follow-through, where the energy of closing a deal fades as soon as a campaign starts, leaving clients without alignment on goals, creative deliverables, or success criteria. The second is a lack of personalisation and communication, with post-sale engagement defaulting to generic performance summaries that fail to reflect each client's specific KPIs or strategic priorities. The third is broken promises and under-delivered value, where missed deadlines, slow reporting, and overpromised campaign results erode credibility in an industry where accountability matters more than perfection.

The consultancy argues the cost of neglecting retention is structural rather than incidental. Acquisition spend rises continuously as competition intensifies. Customer lifetime value erodes as one-time clients fail to convert into repeat business or referrals. Future revenue becomes harder to predict, with businesses 60-70% likely to sell to an existing customer compared with just 5-20% for a new prospect. And operational effort is wasted on resource-intensive campaign setup, creative production, and reporting for clients who deliver limited ROI.

Brysa recommends four personalisation disciplines for closing the loyalty gap. The first is data-driven audience insight, drawing on client campaign history, audience demographics, performance metrics, and seasonal trends to identify what genuinely resonates for each brand. The second is customised campaign recommendations that move beyond standard packages and offer placements aligned to each client's specific demographic targets, budgets, and objectives - high-visibility billboard placements for awareness goals, contextual placements for hyperlocal reach.

The third is dynamic creative optimisation, where ad content adapts in real time to audience data or environmental conditions. Brysa cites the example of a beverage brand whose DOOH campaign shifts from hot coffee creative in the morning to cold brew in the afternoon, with the consultancy arguing that adaptive creative makes campaigns feel responsive and live rather than static. The fourth is tailored reporting that reflects each client's KPIs directly, replacing standard performance summaries with insights specific to engagement lift, location performance, or whatever success metric the client actually prioritises.

"The retention economics in media are obvious once you look at them," Thiagarajan added. "Repeat clients spend 67% more. Existing customers convert at 60-70% versus 5-20% for new prospects. A 5% retention improvement can lift profits by up to 95%. The maths is settled. What isn't settled is whether media businesses build the operational discipline to act on it. Most are still optimising the wrong end of the funnel."

Brysa is encouraging media leaders to audit current post-sale engagement against the four personalisation disciplines and identify where standardised processes are producing transactional rather than strategic client relationships.

Brysa PR Team
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