Category High Impact Marketing that Gets Results

Evidence of cultural stereotypes holding back innovative new business and marketing opportunities for British companies

halal meatThe recent food labeling controversy where supermarket meat products were halal but not labelled as such threw a spotlight on the choices as consumers we want to make not just about the quality of our food but also the method of its production and manufacture.

We live in a world of infinite choice and it’s absolutely right that as consumers we are given the choice of eating halal or non-halal food which is why labeling is so important.

Taking that one step further, when flying long-haul, many airline passengers will be asked for their food preferences ahead of such a journey and of course many Muslim travelers will choose halal food to be served to them on the flight.

But M...

Read More

Sponsorship works!

adidasAdidas has posted £1.6bn in global sales of football shirts, shoes and balls largely as a result of the exposure delivered by its sponsorship of the FIFA World Cup Brazil 2014.

The company says it’s “definitely” on track to break trading records this year having registered strong sales figures pre and during the current World Cup. Adidas has been gradually building demand for its shirts, boots and balls since last November to try and ease the pressure on its retail network during the tournament trading period.

As a sponsor of nine national teams, Adidas has sold more than 8m shirts, a significant increase on the 6.5m shirt sales it achieved for the 2010 World Cup...

Read More

“Engaged time” could replace CPM as a new online advertising model

internet advertisingCPM metrics could be a thing of the past as website owners look at delivering more than eye balls to advertisers.

The traditional metric of cost per 1,000 page views (CPM) relies on the advertiser paying the website owner in advance to showcase their ad on the website for a certain number of times that the web page is accessed by visitors to the site.

Typically, CPM rates ranged between £4-£10 per 1,000 page views and could be more for reaching niche audiences. Website owners that sell traditional advertising on their sites have to be prepared to show advertisers detailed reports of page view visits and click-through rates in order to cash in on the traffic to the site.

Adv...

Read More

Have you been left behind in the digital revolution?

John-Hamm-Mad-Men-dealThere can be few sectors that have been disrupted to the extent that marketing has been by digital.

The days when marketing directors splashed the cash on elaborate global TV campaigns with gigantic budgets and expenses to match harks back to a bygone era that’s much more Mad Men than the reality brand owners face today.

Most marketing is campaign driven. Brand owners are constantly under pressure to get product and service to market in the shortest time possible. This then takes on a life of its own, spinning activity on a monthly, quarterly and seasonal basis.

Just take a look at the adverts on TV if you don’t believe me...

Read More

Does “Content Marketing” matter?

The Big PR issueLast week I sat in a meeting with colleagues from across the PR industry that was discussing precisely this question as part of the “Content Marketing” work stream set up by the PRCA, the largest body representing PR professionals in the UK and the largest body of its kind in Europe.

By the middle of 2014, the PRCA hope to have moved our thinking forward on the subject and attempted to clarify what is – and what is not – “Content Marketing”. For the moment, the field is wide open for interpretation and potential confusion. So why does “Content Marketing” matter and is there any merit searching for some form of clarification that will enable our thinking to be bi...

Read More

Are you a consumer-ologist?

mash upAmazon built a gigantic global business on the back of choice and delivering products when the customer wants it.

As I mention in my previous blog, Amazon has taken this a step further and is planning to box and deliver products that it expects customers in a specific area will want based on previous orders, product searches, wish lists, shopping cart contents, returns and other online shopping practices it gleans from its customers’ shopping patterns, even before they’ve clicked ‘buy.’

However, some researchers are predicting a backlash to these and other strategies that are all designed to get us to spend more.

The main contentious point of consumer-ology, a term coin...

Read More

Samsung gives Apple a Love Bite!

SamsungOver the past eight years the South Korean giant has gone from being a virtual unknown on the high street to one that’s on the cusp of becoming Britain’s ‘most loved brand’ and has come up with a brand marketing platform that’s as good as anything its rival Apple could’ve dreamt up.

‘Launching People’ is an advertising funded programme (AFP) series to be broadcast in Spring 2014 where stars from film, music, photography and cooking mentor promising new talent on the back of a nationwide competition.

It’s a neat way for Samsung to humanise its brand rather than constantly rely on technological innovation to get people talking as the product gap between itself a...

Read More

Amazon in full frontal attack on traditional retailers with “anticipatory shopping” play

Amazon and King KongThe Seattle-based company successfully obtained a US patent on Christmas Eve 2013 for what it calls “anticipatory shipping”. This was the gist of the news item that appeared in the Wall Street Journal (17 January 2014) that’s caused something of a stir on social networks, such as SlashdotAccording to the WSJ, Amazon in the US may box and ship products that it expects customers in a specific area will want based on previous orders, product searches, wish lists, shopping cart contents, returns and other online shopping practices it gleans from its customers’ shopping patterns, even before they’ve clicked ‘buy’.

Amazon has worked out how to cut delivery time...

Read More

Accenture leverage RBS Six Nations sponsorship by showcasing technology

Ben and AccentureEarlier this week I attended a fascinating insight given by the Accenture analytics team and former England rugby player and now BT Sports Rugby Expert Ben Kay on how the individual performance of a player is capable of being improved through the use of cutting-edge technology and sophisticated algorithms that give ‘real-time’ feedback whilst the game is in progress.

Accenture is the ‘Official Technology Partner’ for the RBS 6 Nations Rugby Championships (2014-17) and the sports sponsorship is something of a shop window for the world’s largest management and technology consultancy...

Read More

Collaboration is #1 strategy for success in emerging global markets

There was a time when global brand owners thought all that mattered was their own brand. Coca-Cola led the way in showing how powerful the monolithic brand of its eponymous carbonated drink can be around the world. And of course the same could also be said of other great global brands like McDonalds, KFC, Levis and Microsoft.

However, the assumptions about power of brands and the way they need to be built in emerging markets are being turned on their head.

The Guru at StarbucksLet’s take the humble cup of coffee and what US-giant Starbucks is doing in India right now to get Indian consumers to drink more coffee rather than just tea...

Read More