bbp explains how brands can create a straightforward tech experience in a few simple steps.

Feeling confused these days? You’re not alone.

Because our senses are under constant assault from data – much more than we’re built to process. It’s the kind of overload that leaves us longing for a breather from the noise, a clear way through the clutter.   

And what do we want? We crave something simple to grab our attention.

A straightforward experience. Genuine, sincere, communication.

Things that take real creative effort for brands.

Because what brands can do is simple. Literally. By becoming more simplified, brands can eliminate the gap between themselves and their customers – and the rewards as considerable.

But don’t take our word for it: New York branding experts, Siegel+Gale have done the number-crunching; their annual World’s Simplest Brands Index analyses the ‘simplest’ publicly traded brands. (The index has grown by 433% since 2009, far outperforming the other major economic indices.)

And it found that simplicity makes sense:

• 61% of consumers are more likely to recommend a brand when it provides simpler experiences and communications
• 62% of employees who can be considered ‘brand champions’ were in companies perceived to be simple
• 64% of consumers were willing to pay more for simpler experiences

And if those figures aren’t enough to stir you into action, the report estimates companies could be missing out on US$86 bn (£69.5 bn) when they don’t simplify.

That’s something that every brand should be aware of, but particularly technology brands, who deal in products that may well be able to transform the world, but often aren’t that easy to explain to lay people. The fact remains: most people don’t need to know the inner workings of a technology product; they just need to know what it does for them.

Which means it makes sense that the more complex the service or industry, the more willing consumers are to pay more for it to be simplified. In fact, according to Siegel+Gale they’re willing to pay up to 40% more for a simpler experience in the tech sector:

“Brands that deliver clear, human and useful experiences—win.”

A more human approach

But it’s about more than just being ‘simple. It’s about introducing a human element that’s all too often missing from B2B technology, but one that’s vitally important.

Because it’s not always easy to articulate complex technology in human speak.

And if you’re a company in an emerging tech sector, you might find the lack of comprehension consumers have of your product means it difficult to market yourself.

Take complicated technology like AI – something that’s hard to explain and can seem a bit scary. But that hasn’t stopped Google – who use AI technology across the majority of their products – becoming the world’s most popular search engine.

Why do they succeed? Because they present their brand in a simple, easy to understand way, cutting out all the forensic details. They don’t need people to understand the inner workings; what’s important is a simple customer experience and brand perception (just look at how clean its home page is). It’s no surprise to find it among the top five simplest brands year on year.

Speaking their language

It’s tempting to think that sometimes a level of complication is justified in that the main users of these products are often developers and engineers.

While that’s undoubtedly true in some cases, it’s worth remembering that the decision-makers who actually buy the products are typically non-tech people, who will only be brought on board with simple, benefit-led language; they’re interested in the bottom line.

So, let’s take another major brand: Salesforce. Over the years, the cloud computing giant have evolved to offer a wide range of services, from CRM software to cloud computing, each packed with hundreds of features.

In that time, its value proposition has changed as well. How do they sum it up?

“We help small and medium business to sell, reach customers, and improve service.”

“Blaze a trail to success, whatever your business size.”

Technically, there’s a lot of complex stuff happening under the hood, but all any company thinking of buying it needs to know is that can help them be more successful – whatever their size.

HubSpot is another great example. Their software helps with a variety of complicated parts of marketing and sales initiatives including SEO, A/B testing, keywords, email tracking and more, but all that detail comes later. Instead they offer:

• “Stop interrupting. Start connecting.”
• “Close more deals with less work.”
• “Stop cold calling. Start closing.”

By simplifying, they’ve found a way to cut through the noise to be noticed by consumers – and make their lives easier.

So, our advice: Familiarise your audience with a strong brand identity that demystifies your sector and recognises a human factor, and you’ll create a great base for success. Simple.

The world of technology is fascinating, but it’s rarely straightforward. As a tech-specialist creative agency, bpp understand this and are specialists at explaining the hard-to-explain. They find your truth. Then they bring it to life in unforgettable ways, engaging your audience and promoting the ways it enhances their world. Technology clients are their real passion. Whether they’re talking FinTech or consumer innovation, to bbp it’s about communicating benefits in a relatable, inventive way.

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Chris Baldwin, Director of Consumer Promotions and Loyalty at Sodexo Engage, details the keys to success when running consumer promotions.

There are hundreds of thousands of brands out there, all fighting for the attention of the same key audience: loyal and dedicated consumers. It’s a tall order to be at the forefront of these customers’ minds 24/7, but many brands have learned that creative, well-timed consumer promotions can certainly help.

There’s one important caveat to remember though: a brand can only run a successful promotion if it has a solid, consistent identity. And it’s easy to see why. It’s much easier to develop a sense of loyalty among consumers if a company has a well-established image and ethos. Just think about the reverse for a second: a brand that’s constantly changing its look and feel will clearly struggle to retain the same audience time and time again.

Know your audience

Building a strong brand is only half the battle when it comes to successful promotions though – companies also need to keep up with their customers’ fast-changing preferences and demands. Today’s consumers are far less predictable than they used to be and now expect much more from the brands they interact with. This combination means that businesses have to work harder than ever before to create promotions that resonate with their target audience.

On top of this, the astronomical rise in social media adds yet another element to the mix. Over the last five years alone, the number of Facebook users worldwide has jumped by a huge 1.14 billion. With this rapid growth comes huge opportunities for brands to develop new kinds of promotions. For example, it’s now easier than ever for customers to enter competitions via social media. This shift not only gives the customer a chance to win a prize that they value, but also encourages them to share the company’s social media content far and wide; a win-win for both sides.

Brands should be careful of going exclusively digital though. There’s still a lot to be said for simple on-pack and money off promotions. It goes back to knowing who the company is trying to target. Older generations are often more likely to go for promotions that offer them a high value reward, but far less chance of winning. By contrast, smartphones have conditioned younger generations to expect immediate gratification, so they’re more likely to go for an easy entry, instant win option.

Know your promotion

Even with all of this knowledge to hand, implementing a successful promotion can still be a tough nut to crack. Consumer behaviour will continue to change and evolve at a rapid pace, so it’s essential to stay on the front foot. By constantly gathering and updating information about their customers, brands can make sure they have the information they need to offer engaging experiences that keep customers coming back for more.

 For their part, brands need to be very clear on the purpose of the promotion itself. Is it to increase customer loyalty, change buying habits or to boost sales? The answer to this question will have a major impact on how the promotion is run. For example, encouraging customers to share their own content via social media may help to boost a brand’s followers, but offering a discount for this activity could influence buying behaviour more directly.

Whatever promotions retailers choose, in today’s market there’s no room for bland and boring. Consumers can be a fickle bunch and lose interest in the blink of an eye. The good news is that brands can keep them engaged by making the whole process quick and easy and by making the vast majority of promotions ‘win-able’ in order to draw the highest amount of attention.

Know the latest trends

The more a brand knows about its target customer, the more it’ll be able to create a promotion that hits all the right notes. Engaged and happy customers click more, buy more and shout louder about a good deal. These are the people who will really sell the promotion and boost the brand – often without even realising it.

In an increasingly digital world, this means exploiting social media and the smartphones that are seemingly glued to every customer’s hands. When people have come to expect instant replies and answers, immediate gratification is an attractive prospect when it comes to promotions too. If a brand knows its customer inside out and makes promotions relevant, engaging and easy to enter, they can’t go too far wrong.

Founded in 1966 by Pierre Bellon, Sodexo is the global leader in services that improve Quality of Life, an essential factor in individual and organisational performance. Operating in 80 countries, we serve 75 million consumers each day through our unique combination of On-site Services, Benefits and Rewards Services and Personal and Home Services.

Part of the Benefits and Rewards division, here in the UK Sodexo Engage specialises in employee and consumer engagement, with over 50 years’ heritage in creating award-winning experiences. From growing employee culture and inspiring success in workplaces, to driving consumer engagement with brands, Sodexo gives businesses the tools to create lasting change through transforming behaviours, engagement and performance in people. They believe in bringing people and business together through creativity and excellent service, with their long-standing mission of improving the quality of life of everyone they work with.

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We are seeing a resurgence of on-pack offers, says Paul McGann of marketing agency Brass

From movie downloads to cuddly toys, family holidays to festivals, it seems to me more and more packs have added a ‘Win’, ‘FREE’ or ‘Collect’ message on them. It’s about time!

For years, many food and drink brands have been in a race to the bottom, repeatedly slashing prices to justify a space on shelf and generate any sales growth at all. It wasn’t sustainable and it is increasingly ineffective. In some FMCG categories, over 75% of volume is now sold at a discounted price and shoppers are being trained to only buy when there’s a deal.

Meeting demand for ever lower price points against rising ingredient and production costs means something has to give, and in many cases it’s food quality, or marketing, or both. In doing so, brands sign their own death warrant and fall victims of Project Reset or the latest retailer range rationalisation. Who needs a brand when some own label is perceived to be lower price and better taste?

I think it’s time for brands to fight back. Add value, don’t erode it. Justify your superiority and price premium in the category. Your packaging is one area of shopper marketing activation you can actually control consistently. It is your best salesperson.

Brands can leverage this direct-to-shopper channel with promotional propositions on-pack that really help them stand out in a sea of sameness. Deliver messaging beyond the functional that engages and excites shoppers browsing the fixture. The best on-pack activations mean we throw rational thinking out of the trolley in a desperate attempt to ‘win a Disneyland holiday’ or ‘get tickets to that exclusive gig’.

And they grow sales. Well executed, you can expect sales uplifts in excess of 20%.

In fact on-pack activity can deliver a number of your marketing and sales objectives cost effectively. They help you reinvigorate tired impulse brands. For under a penny a pack, you can attract new buyers and grow household penetration. Build purchase frequency and rate of sale. Secure extra display. Encourage cross sell. Even reward loyalty. They are the perfect communication platform to build a deeper conversation with your shoppers and consumers.

Of course there are plenty of on-pack campaigns that miss the mark. Shoppers are savvy these days and wary of activations offering just a few top prizes with a one in a million chance of winning! Similarly, technology for technology’s sake can sometimes get in the way of a great promotion – be sure your audience will bother to download the App to enter using that clever Augmented Reality experience you spent most of the budget on.

If you are thinking about going on-pack in 2019, here are some things to think about:

1.     Theme – use shopper insight to find the most motivating promotional messages

2.     Awareness – consider the path to purchase, how will a shopper see the activity?

3.     Stand-out, not standard – be creative with the on-pack design to maximise impact

4.     User Experience – make the entry mechanic simple and appealing for the target audience

5.     Reward the many, not the few – think how you can add value for as many shoppers as possible

6.     Amplify – use all your brand channels to bring the activation to life

With many of the big retailers and brands back in growth, I sense optimism slowly returning to the UK grocery market. I hope this observation inspires you to give on-pack activations a go in 2019 and I look forward to seeing you ‘on shelf!’

Paul McGann is Managing Partner at Brass Agency. Brass is a multi-award-winning full-service marketing agency with expertise in strategic thinking and delivery and specialist skills in digital, advertising, design, PR, SEO, media, shopper, consumer insights, brand engagement and promotional marketing. Clients include Coty, Lucozade Ribena Suntory, Perrigo and Burton’s Biscuits. This comment originally appeared on the Brass website.

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What happens to the festival industry in a year when the greatest show on earth, Glastonbury, takes a year out, asks Orla Ryan of ignis

When Glastonbury, a festival the size of Southern England’s seventh largest city, takes a fallow year, you would think that the rest of the festival calendar would reap the rewards – but has it?

Yes, some of the events have filled their fields, some have even hit record numbers. Others have struggled, some have even fallen by the way-side. By no means has it been a bumper year for the industry. So where have the Glastonbury masses gone? And how do you ensure your brand is  investing in an event that is going to deliver?

With 135,000 tickets on offer and two million applicants, each year’s Glastonbury show brings disappointment to roughly 1,865,000 people. That’s a lot of people who have gathered to plan and plot their festival attendance. Having collectively bought into the concept of the festival experience, all it takes is for one of the group to ask, ‘so where now?’ and plans are re-plotted elsewhere. In a year without Glastonbury, these fledgling festival plans never got off the ground, and the disappointed masses were simply not there to be absorbed.

So, what does it all mean for next year? We have digested the 2018 season, beyond the promoter stats and demographics, to analyse some of the trends when considering brand investment in festivals in 2019.

It’s a sell out! (or is it…?)

The true attendance figures of each festival are always difficult to unpick. No show ever wants to admit that they have under-achieved. Having rattled around festival fields for a few years now like we have, you get the feel (and the data) to tell you when an event is under-performing, and 2018 has seen a few of those.

As a brand, how do you know whether or not to believe in the audience figures that are being sold to you? The only answers I can give you are knowledge, experience and a view of the wider picture than the individual promoter is selling you. Be sure of the credentials behind new events, beware of exaggerated growth claims and consider whether the event is delivering ‘best in class’ in the genre in which it exists.

With the disappointed 1,865,000 back in the mix and with so many great events on offer, 2019 has all the credentials to be a booming festival year.

Does the experience outweigh the effort?

Emerging onto the scene in 2004, Bestival and Secret Garden Party were refreshing new concepts – music festivals that were not about the music.

Now, 14 years later, Secret Garden Party is no more, and Bestival has been refreshed after a few tough years. But why? What went wrong for these festival pioneers?

I don’t believe that the concept of putting on a fabulous party is, or ever will be, dead. It’s more that the rest of the festival industry caught up with the realisation that a festival is about experience, and so there are now more events than ever delivering truly great experiences, and the competition is fierce.

In essence, in order to attract the audiences, it comes down to whether the experience is worth the effort of the festival hardships: the travel, the weather, the tent, the port-a-loos… The cons list is long.

When you are no longer the stand out and most unusual event of the year, you need to remove obstacles to remain relevant. For example, in order to survive, Bestival removed one significant obstacle – the Isle of Wight ferry – by shifting location from the island to the Lulworth estate in Dorset!

Urbanisation

One genre of festival that cuts out a number of the festival obstacles is the urban festival. For those less keen on the idea of three days of camping and with more attainably-priced day tickets on offer, urban events become a more accessible option.

With articles on ‘how to ace a one-day festival’ appearing in this year’s Time Out festival guide, you get a real sense of the growth of these events.

The ‘promoter chess’ (which has seen Wireless move to Finsbury Park, Lovebox to Gunnersbury, Field Day to Brockwell and All Points East stake a claim in Victoria Park) just shows how much competition and appetite there is.

London is not the only city hosting these Urban shows – TRNSMT, Parklife and Tramlines are increasingly popular events held in Urban spaces across the country.

These urban parks are also playing host to a wide array of events, aside from pure music festivals. Melas (from the Sanskrit for a gathering, festival or fair) delivering culture and creativity, and festive shows taking winter residencies, provide colour and choice to the event space. The diversity of events on offer provide distinct audiences and an array of opportunities relevant to different brands.

With a reduced initial outlay, and fewer days to budget for, the on-site spend at these events is often much higher, which can make them an attractive option where sales are a factor.

Outstanding in their fields

So which events looked tipped to thrive in 2019?

From the Michelin stars and champagne bars of Wilderness to the immersive theatrical spectacle that is Boomtown, these events are producing true ‘best-in-class’ offerings. Creamfields is another event that has a single-minded purpose in delivering the best EDM (Electronic Dance Music) experience going.

These events attract wildly differing audiences, but they know what they stand for and strive to produce the best in what they do.

Reading and Leeds, on the other hand – with a diversified line-up – missed the mark this year. Their line-up, still an important factor for most music festivals, was found lacking. The traditionally Rock’n’Roll based pair of festivals branched out into a much more Urban scene this year which, rather than attracting a more diverse audience, left it confused. I am sure these festival giants will be back on track next year, but it just shows that even the big events can get it wrong some years too.

Do it different

So how should a brand engage within the festival arena for 2019? It is about fitting in and standing out at the same time.

Find a fit with the festival-going human and be relevant to them. Don’t, however, slavishly follow the standard festival format. Expecting consumers to hunt out your allotted 10 X 10 space is not going to give you the return that you are looking for.

Look to stand out. Do different. Think about how the audience will engage, and what your brand offers that is unique. Consider how you can generate a buzz about your brand, not just about the brand space that you could create.

Hot

Immersive events – the experience is everything

Urban events – making the festival experience more accessible

Whatsapp – the unglamorous glue that holds a festival squad together

Not

Middle of the road – know what you stand for and be the best at it

Secondary ticketing – the rebellion against over-priced tickets is on

Single use plastic – Glastonbury has banned plastic water bottles in 2019

Orla Ryan is Head of Experiential at ignis, a multi-award winning independent brand experience agency based in Fulham. Over its 29-year history, it has worked for a wide range of clients ranging from Jameson Whiskey, Sheraton Hotels and Fuller’s, to Betfair and Cuticura. A member of the Institute of Promotional Marketing, ignis won two Gold trophies and a Silver for its #JamesonBeOriginal360 experience work for Pernod Ricard Travel Retail and Jameson in the IPM Awards 2017; the same campaign then went on to win a Silver and a Bronze in the pan-European IMC Awards.

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The importance of experience within retail is well-known, but how do you measure its success? Paul Stanway, Creative Director of brand experience agency XYZ, explains how it’s a matter of context.

Why do brands continue to invest multi million pound budgets into flagship stores and retail sites when respected e-commerce surveys and forecasts suggest double digit growth of online purchase in the next few years? Many brands have flinched at this prospect, downsizing or closing their large stores, yet some of the world’s most successful and trusted brands have increased investment in their flagship stores, developing the in-store offering to be more than just a transactional one and more of a brand experience.

The reason that they do this, is because they understand the value of context. By controlling the circumstances in which their products and services are experienced gives brands a far more powerful way to tell the stories and develop a more empathetic relationship with consumers that will transcend purchase and lead to a more meaningful, longer-term, and more profitable engagement. Context is everything.

But what does this have to do with the role of measuring the effectiveness of experiential activity? Just as in retail, context here is a crucial element. The terms experiential and event cover such a hugely varied spectrum of activity. It’s this range and diversity that makes any single, rigid metric for demonstrating effectiveness doomed to failure. And that’s the mistake most experiential agencies have been making, in our ever more important quest to find parity with marketing channels such as PR, digital and social media.

Yet, the event is possibly the oldest and most enduring form of storytelling known to civilisation. How does one go about measuring what an experience even is, let alone how effective it has been? We need to focus on the context, choose from the most appropriate measurement metrics for that context, and map those against the client’s goals. Only then are we going to get a meaningful measure of success that is relevant. What we need to measure for a social media-powered product launch may well be fundamentally different to what constitutes effectiveness for an immersion into a brand’s service proposition for a specific consumer group. Does effectiveness look the same for running shoes as it does for financial services? Sometimes it may, but on many more occasions it won’t, and if we’re going to be serious about instigating a measurement mindset then we can’t fool ourselves into thinking that one size will fit all.

One of the reasons we prefer to use the term brand experiences at XYZ is because we see that these take place across digital and real-world settings, and it is brands that understand this fluidity that are successfully navigating the dynamically evolving marketplace. Integrating technology into the heart of the live experience design process gives not just amplification opportunities to increase reach and engagement beyond the event’s physical location, but also provide insights on the actions and reactions of those participating too. Yes, you can provide additional content that reinforces what participants are experiencing in real time, but you can also understand what they do with that content if you design with that in mind.

The convenience of instant and friction-less participation via digital cannot and should not be a point of competition for experiential. The whole point of experiential is that it has depth, requires active engagement and by doing so, unlocks emotionally rich rewards that make an impression and live with us for longer. They resonate, and that is why they become social currency – which we can enable participants to share using digital platforms, where it’s relevant and beneficial as well.

This merging of the online and offline experience is reflected in the earlier reference to the reframing of what a flagship store’s purpose should be in the future. When products are more readily, and often more cheaply available from an online retailer, the raison d’être of a brand’s physical presence must become as much about delivering the reason for purchase as facilitating the purchase. When you drill down into it, we are being tasked with changing consumer behaviour – establishing new purchase behaviour or rewarding existing purchase behaviour. The experience design must focus on triggering that, just as the in-store experience must. The latter is taking cues from the former to ensure it survives in the new world, the irony being that it’s using one of the oldest forms of communication to do so.

How do we measure experience against platforms that naturally lend themselves to measuring interaction, and can provide audiences in the hundreds of thousands? What’s our argument to a client who could divert their experiential budget into Out of Home ads or a social media campaign that reaches hundreds of thousands, with the statistics to prove it? For years metrics of activity have been how many people came to the event, how many samples were handed out, how many people saw what was happening. These are all measures of the event taking place, not its effect.

If the goals of the experience were to get people to attend, to hand out samples or provide visibility, then these metrics may be of use. But what about those experiences that are intended to offer more than handouts? The continued growth of the experience economy in both volume and range shows an appetite for not just more, but better experiences that redefine relationships between brands and consumers. What makes experiential so powerful is what makes it so complex and difficult to quantify, in many ways echoing what it’s like to be a three-dimensional person rather than a stereotype.

The key tenet of the Institute of Promotional Marketing (IPM)’s approach is that experiential effectiveness works in a similar way to that of TV advertising, and as such effectiveness measurement should be approached in the same way.

There are then three key factors involved in measuring effectiveness. Firstly, setting the right objectives for the activity being delivered. As with all measurement, it’s important to be clear and open with all stakeholders on what your experiential objectives are. Objectives can be a mix of strategic goals – such as increasing awareness, improving brand image as well as delivering engagement – and tactical, to increase sales in the short-term as well as data collection based on a certain activity.

Secondly, such measurement must be planned and pre-defined before the event, not afterwards, again for complete transparency and to ensure action will be taken from the measured outcomes. Thirdly, it’s fundamental the right data is collected to measure the pre-defined objectives. The ‘right’ data is there to inform and define customer attitudes and their associated behaviours which an experience can have had a huge impact on.

Looking in more detail at the measurement channels that could be applied, these can fall into 3 channels: Spatial, Content Engagement and Qualitative.

Spatial: Let’s look at what people at our experiences actually do, not just what they say that they do. This will lead not only to greater insights into which elements of the events attract attention, we will be able to then use those insights to input into improved experience design, creating physical spaces that trigger the behaviour we’re looking for in consumers that helps to deliver the targets we have agreed with our clients.

Content Engagement: We firmly believe in digitally-enabled live experiences as the most potent form of event activity. Considered and deliberate use of content to not only build on the in-the-moment experience, but to provide an opportunity to create data points that will allow you and your clients to see how the content is consumed and shared.

Qualitative: Putting flesh on the bones of data is crucial, using tools like the IPM’s Brand Affinity Measure to understand the impact of the experience is key to unlocking these insights. By ensuring you understand you’re looking to find out through qualitative research, it will be possible to conduct it in ways that don’t need to interrupt the experience flow at the event. As experience designers we should be able to find engaging and creative ways to integrate this into our events, as it’s too important not to.

These channels will help to provide us with a suite of tools to choose from, dialling up the most relevant ones depending on the type of activity and the client’s version of success that is being sought.

Think of it as a kind of metrics mixing desk, but instead of music genre dictating the output it’s the context of the experiential activity. These channels will help to provide a suite of tools to choose from, dialling up the most relevant ones depending on the type of activity and the version of success that is being sought – which once again is a matter of context.

XYZ is an award-winning, independent brand experience agency based in London, with a global reach. Founded in 2012, the agency’s mission is to create experiential work that is as effective, as it is creative and innovative.  A commitment to the elevation of brand experience into strategic level consideration by companies is at the fore of the agency’s thinking and the vision is to lead this reappraisal of experiential in the eyes of their existing and new clients and the wider industry as a whole.  Since its launch, XYZ has worked on some of the most complex, unusual and challenging projects with the world’s best-known brands, including Nike, Hotpoint, Celebrity Cruises, Levi, Converse and Chelsea Football Club.

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Paulina Polec of youth marketing specialists BAM Agency explains why it’s not just the biggest brands than can benefit from reaching out to new students

With the new university year, and Freshers Fairs, just around the corner, global and local businesses alike are trying to get a slice of this lucrative time of year to market to students.

As our research has shown, students love a freebie and some will attend the fairs simply to get their hands on everything and anything they possibly can. They almost expect it.

So brands flock to the fairs, full to the brim with freebies for students. These can range from branded clothing to free food samples and everything in between. But which brand is more successful in the global vs local battle to be the students favourite?

The first year of University is a pivotal milestone in student’s lives. For the first time, they can start to make independent choices and they are open to trying new, unfamiliar products. It is a time where they try to stand on their own two feet and find their way in this new life, which makes it a key time for both local and global brands to target the youth market.

With students spending an average of £7.5billion annually on non-essential items, socialising and food, brands pull out all the stops to tempt students.

If students cannot get something for free, then they are certainly on the lookout for a discount. With student discount platforms such as Students Beans and Unidays growing their portfolio year on year, it has almost become an expectation that students should be eligible for a discount, simply because they are a student. The majority of global companies offer discounts and promotions for students. It’s a well-known fact that High-Street clothing brands such as Topshop and New Look for example, offer 10% discount to students.

Freshers is the pinnacle time for brands to expose themselves to thousands of students all in one place in a matter of hours, and global brands like Burger King and Domino’s are renowned for going all out to get noticed in this competitive arena. Big brands are not afraid to make a statement with everything from loud music, generous prizes and interactive activations, in their bid to stand out to the students.

With this in mind, is Freshers the place for smaller local brands to be seen?

Absolutely! Freshers is not just for the global brands. Our research has shown that students are more aware and conscious about “keeping it local”. The trend amongst students of organic eating is on the rise and students are much more aware of the economic benefits of supporting local businesses. Students want to see local brands, they want to see something different and they want to find out what’s new.

It has been proven time and time again that students are looking for places with independence and character. Many students will have moved away from the security of their family home into a new town or city. They are looking for home from home brands that can make them feel at ease in their new environment, so showcase your brand’s personality, show students what makes you unique.

Local brands should also remember that they do not need a bottomless budget to succeed at Freshers, they simply need to tap into the psyche of students, understand what they want and give it to them. If a simple wooden spoon can create demand from students, there is plenty of opportunity for local brands to connect with this youth market.

No matter how big or small your brand is, students are open to experiment with new brands and ready to reconnect with old brands. So big or small, there is a solution out there for you.

Paulina Polec is Sales Executive at BAM Agency, specialists in marketing to students. Clients include Greggs, Wagamama, Wilko, Domino’s, Burger King, Morrisons and Branston.

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It may be roasting outside, but for marketers, Christmas is just around the corner. Maddie Cullen of Ready Agency provides some tips on targeting consumers during the festive period

Christmas. The busiest time of year for marketers. But it doesn’t start as the nights are drawing in; most people are already planning ahead for the festive season.

Christmas is a time for increased sales, but also for increased competition. Brands fight tooth and nail to be one of the items wrapped up in a bow, stuffed in a stocking or served up for Christmas treats.

Here are a few ways brands can make sure they’re the ones under the Christmas tree this year.

Even Rudolf has one

It should come as no surprise that mobile is the top focus for brands this year. People are increasingly having ‘micro moments’, which are the quick searches and checks on their phones, giving consumers instant information at the swipe of a finger.

It’s these minutes/seconds that brands should be slotting themselves into. If a brand can be a solution to a mobile user’s query, that can be the first step on the journey to purchase.

In the last few years 42% of people planned to do all of their Christmas shopping on mobile. Brands should make sure they’ve optimised for mobile and their site is user-friendly, otherwise a busy Christmas shopper could give up and try somewhere else.

However, it’s good news for those brands that do capture the attention of an eager shopper. Research shows that people are happiest online when shopping! So customers are going to be in a good mood and therefore likely to spend more and treat themselves or others.

But it’s not just during the lead up to Christmas that brands need to be on phones. Christmas Day is actually one of the busiest mobile shopping days of the year. People may have cash burning a hole in their pockets, or a bad present to replace, but either way, they’re actively buying on Christmas day.

Like Father Christmas, be everywhere

But not everyone is doing all of their shopping on mobile – for some people the journey goes on for much longer than that.

More and more consumers are researching reviews, images and videos before buying gifts. This can take them from a product website to their Facebook chat to a celebrities Instagram account and anywhere else they can find.

People increasingly start an order in one place and finish it at another, whether that’s changing from browser to app or from desktop to phone. Omnichannel should be the word on every brand’s lips this year.

Consumers are also splitting up their shopping techniques. Some people research online and buy in-store, and some research in-store and buy online. Brands must make sure that they can accommodate both types by making it easy to buy and providing essential information at every touchpoint. Whether this is on their website or social media or on the packaging, make sure that consumers have no excuse to put the product back on the shelf! (Digital or otherwise).

In the festive season people are out and about more. Socialising takes over sitting in front of the TV or browsing on a laptop – but they’re still on their phone. This is what connects all the research consumers are doing in-store and online.

The success of the strategy can be seen when brands that aren’t embracing an omnichannel approach like Next are failing to engage. Having a nice shop front means very little if your online presence is non-existent. Like consumers, be connected.

You don’t know The Ice Queen?

If there’s one thing we’ve learn from the last year, it’s that influencers aren’t going away anytime soon.

In the winter months they have all the same benefits as usual but amplified. Christmas is the perfect time of year for influencers because people are ready to be, well, influenced. Consumers are constantly on the lookout for inspiration for gifts, decorations, food and anything they can buy to make this Christmas ‘the best one yet’.

Influencers are also great at breaking through the noise and reaching consumers that otherwise wouldn’t be aware of what a brand is selling. This is especially important at the most competitive time of the year!

One in five YouTube views are instigated by a search. This means that those viewers have a ‘lean-in’ mindset. They’re the perfect people to reach with YT pre-roll and brand partnerships. A lot of these people are actively looking for information. A carefully selected influencer can start that journey to purchase for them.

Amazon used influencers well with their Prime campaign last year. They teamed up with a few YouTubers to show how useful the service can be in the lead up to the big day. Ingrid Nilsen assembled a box of goodies for her best friend and her dog and Alex Wassabi collected gifts for his girlfriend. Each of the influencers did something personal and real and showed their millions of followers why Amazon Prime works so well, especially when Christmas shopping.

Utilising content creators generates an added advantage for those brands that do it well at Christmas.

Let’s serve dessert before mains

This year, be different.

John Lewis have set a standard for Christmas advertising to create an emotional, entertaining story. The majority of major supermarkets follow suit. But unless the copycats have a clear enough branding, people will just associate the memory of an emotional ad with John Lewis. The brands that break the mould this year will capture much more attention. Amazon’s ad last year that focused on products actually rated higher for likability than the John Lewis monster story.

That isn’t to say don’t be emotional. Christmas celebrations are rooted in feelings. Brands that lose sight of this risk offending people – as Poundland has learnt from their Elf behaving badly campaign. You can joke about Christmas but don’t go too far as to make a mockery of it. Most people love and enjoy celebrating the holiday and don’t want that feeling dragged through the dirt.

A brand that did this well was H&M, with its ad directed by Wes Anderson. It told an emotional story, but still featured a cast of characters decked out in H&M attire. The story was fun, but the brand message was clear enough that when people thought back, there wasn’t any mistaking the brand.

But remember, what worked one year isn’t guaranteed to succeed the next. People and trends change. Christmas is close to the New Year and summing up the finished year – customers want familiarity, but they want something exciting too. (As we all know from the disappointment of opening up a pair of socks again – thanks grandma!)

Brands need to keep a strong presence online but shouldn’t lack in traditional areas either. At Christmas, every touchpoint counts. Techniques that work at other times of the year, like influencers, still work at Christmas. The difference is, everything needs to be rooted in emotion.

Even if some people eat Christmas dinner after presents, we’re all still human.

Maddie Cullen is Marketing Assistant at Ready, a multi-disciplined creative agency specialising in breakthrough promotional and tactical marketing campaigns. Clients include Soap & Glory, Kiddylicious, Burt’s Bees and Molton Brown.

The post How to make your Christmas campaign stand out appeared first on IPM Bitesize.

Too many major brands are coming late to the party and/or delivering paper-thin token gestures in their ‘show’ of support for causes, says Ciara Garratt of global brand experience agency Sense. 

Have you noticed how every brand is trying to prove a point at the moment? How every product you pick up in the supermarket now boldly states its protein content? Or, how the shampoo you bought the other day is suddenly ‘gluten free’?

Perhaps awareness of even a simple form of marketing is heightened for us marketers, but in a society where everything is under scrutiny, and where consumerism is at its peak, it feels like brands are more self-aware than ever before.

In 2008, Heineken brought us the ‘Walk-in Fridge’, racking up millions of views on YouTube. The ad highlights the different values of men and women, as stereotyped in society a decade ago, as a couple show their friends around their new home. The woman shows her walk-in wardrobe to her female friends, while the man reveals a walk-in fridge full of beer to his mates. Both result in enthusiastic screams from their same-sex friends. The advert played on traditional stereotypes in a humorous way – presumably to appeal to what it thought was an all-male audience.

As society has changed, brands have had to adapt to a more nuanced view, which we can see in Heineken’s 2017 #OpenYourWorld ad. Heineken brought together people from different cultures, backgrounds and sexual orientations in a ‘social experiment’, exploring the benefits of finding common ground – Heineken beer and reasonable discussion. The message was raw, empathetic and forward-thinking, which, in the current climate of thriving equality and liberalism, was well-received.

Of course, we expect brands to evolve with the times – they need to stay relevant to the changing attitudes of their audience. But the way in which brands manage that change is critical. Heineken achieved a 180-degree pivot; from clumsy sexist stereotypes to jumping on the equality bandwagon – without irritating the public. Because it was a proactive effort, even though the principle isn’t exactly original, it comes across as relevant and authentic. We’re all entitled to change our minds once in a while (even if it takes the best part of a decade).

What’s more concerning is when real world issues are side-lined, only to later be exploited by brands looking for a hot-topic-of-the-moment.

Plastic no longer fantastic

For example, despite scientists sounding the alarm for years over the impact of plastic on the environment, it seems like brands have only recently started to take action, capitalising on the opportunity to be seen in a positive light.

Do they feel a genuine corporate social responsibility or is it just another tactic to make headlines? It’s particularly galling when the brands in question are category leaders – surely major powers on the world stage should be leading from the front, rather than playing cautious catch up, or only acting when they’re caught out?

Greenpeace has made a number of protests shaming Coca-Cola for its contributions to plastic waste, although coverage of this has been all too scarce. However, when Coca-Cola ‘heroically’ announced that it will recall and recycle 100% of its packaging to help clean up our oceans, it made the news. Shouldn’t we really be celebrating Greenpeace, for acting when it mattered, rather than a huge corporation that showed up late to the anti-plastic party?

Where Heineken has made a positive shift and potentially contributed to changing people’s perceptions, other brands have been less proactive and instead demonstrated a lazy approach to jumping on the bandwagon. A prime example of this is when McDonalds turned the trademark ‘M’ upside down to show support for International Women’s Day. They’re hardly a brand who you would expect to be active on such an occasion, but perhaps like Coca-Cola they were only responding to external pressures.

Brands should be careful about how they portray acts of ‘good’ and must try to avoid looking exploitative. Instead, they should be proactive; earning respect by taking action, instead of just nodding in agreement like McDonalds. What Heineken have done is much more believable and empowering – instead of caring about how they look to consumers, they have focussed on getting the consumer to think about the bigger picture themselves, and hopefully make their own contributions to change.

It’s easy to say “better late than never, Coke” or “at least you’re doing something, McDonalds”; but the reality is that if these brand leaders were more proactive in the first place, they wouldn’t need to jump on the brandwagon. They’d be driving it – and making a real difference along the way.

Ciara Garratt is Account Manager at global brand experience agency Sense.

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Marc Rigby of MRM looks at the relevance of Promotional Marketing to today’s marketing industry

Part of my misspent youth was dedicated to undertaking a degree in Marketing. How shiny and new it all felt back then in the 1980s, with brand spend all hovering above and below some imaginary line.

I chose below the line. Cash, holidays and cars. Neck labels, fix-a-forms and scratch panels. Free flights, treasure hunts and soft toy Labradors. Activity so impactful in its imagination and creativity that sometimes it didn’t even need a press release to make the national news.

Fast forward 18 years into the new millennium and the chance to assess where the trends of integration, omnichannel and the like have taken the old trouper that is Promotional Marketing. And no better place to do that than at the 2018 IPM awards, particularly as MRM was a sponsor this year.

But first, some context. To paraphrase Lord Black of Brentwood in his excellent introductory speech at the Awards, “I have never known such a time of change and flux.”

An economy showing marginal growth with Brexit concerns and growing inflationary pressures, dictatorial government legislation and public health concerns.

After a decade of dominant price promotion activity there is evidence of the usurping impact that EDLP pricing is having in the shape of the sales strategies of German retailers Aldi and Lidl.

And look at the fact that retailers such as Asda, Ikea, Next et al chose to step away from the bun fight that is Black Friday. It is low prices not short term price offers that is winning the promotional day.

So, can added value promotions still have a role to play in building the all-too-important brand equity?

Promotional Marketing as a marketing multiplier

What this year’s entrants consistently demonstrated is that their campaigns defined promotion as less about a proven collection of techniques to drive sales and more about the role Promotional Marketing can play when it has the chance to contribute to the marketing multiplier effect that boosts a campaign’s impact and how its customers really begin to engage with it.

What do I mean by that last statement? That campaigns truly reach another level when a great idea is founded in a brand truth and delivered to a consumer as a total brand experience.

Take the immense piece of work that is Lucozade Energy and TBK Group’s ‘Unstoppable Bottle’ – a multi award winner at the 2018 IPM Awards (see the picture above). Product packaging uniquely adapted to the activity. Check. Product sampling. Check. Relevance of activity to brand proposition. Check. Amplification of activity with advertising and social media. Check. Tangible motivating reward. Check. Add the fact that the activation was the first of its kind and it was delivered flawlessly achieving outstanding results, and you have a deserved winner. And, in striking a sensory, emotional, relevant and behavioural chord with the audience, it truly delivered a brand experience.

Clearly, promotional success need not be as reliant on retail presence as it once was. Packaging still remains a primary medium to communicate through, even if the power of the retailer’s own brand limits the opportunities to stand out in store. Getting listings and facings is a hard and often expensive challenge for any underperforming brand. Today’s marketer has a number of channels to drive communication of a promotion. Digital activity can undoubtedly help to build your story and promote the activity to a targeted audience. Hell, it even serves as an ideal place to store your terms and conditions. But it can also very quickly undermine your best efforts if your activity doesn’t pass the scrutiny of your consumers.

Not that this was a problem for another award winner. Nestlé KitKat and ZEAL Creative’s personalised KitKat packs proved how the public’s appetite for personalisation can be integrated into an established brand’s packaging.

So I hope I am not alone in concluding from this year’s crop of winners that, within the armoury of marketers, Promotional Marketing remains a trusted and effective weapon. And whilst the idea at the heart of any marketing campaign should be embedded in the brand proposition, creativity can only truly thrive with the support and expertise of practitioners who understand the importance of planning, insight and how best to manipulate the Promotional tools; not to merely drive sales but also deliver brand experiences that challenge and engage the audiences they seek to reach.

At MRM, we like to think we are defined by our services but measured by our results.  That is a statement that should be a maxim for our whole industry.

Marc Rigby is Managing Director of Multi Resource Marketing Ltd (MRM), a marketing services agency celebrating its 25^th anniversary this summer. MRM is a sponsor of the IPM Awards 2018.

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Newspapers are the fastest-moving consumer goods industry of them all. David Tymm of i-movo explores what brand owners can learn from how they drive loyalty and turn customers into subscribers

The online world has quietly ushered in the ‘Subscription Economy’. Similar to Louis XIV’S Finance Minister, Jean-Baptiste Colbert who declared that “the art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest possible amount of feathers with the smallest possible amount of hissing”, Spotify, Netflix, Amazon and many others have realised that getting customers to pay “little and often” is the best way of maintaining their loyalty.

Perishable, produced from scratch every day and almost obsolete by four o’clock the following afternoon, newspapers are the very definition of a fast-moving consumer product. Notwithstanding the difficulties the industry has experienced in the face of the competition of instant, up-to-date and free online news, there are lessons for brand owners to be learned from this beleaguered sector in terms of maintaining consumer loyalty.

Given the logistical challenges of producing and distributing a new edition every day and the financial constraints imposed by a low product price, newspapers are sold through retailers rather than delivered direct.

Up until 20 years ago or even later, loyalty was forged as a result of tribal support to the editorial line. But, as with many other sectors, the internet ‘changed everything’ – including, for many former loyal readers, the habit of buying and reading a particular title every day.

The response from publishers was to launch subscription schemes, getting readers to commit to buying the paper for a set time – usually a year – in return for a discount on the cover price.

Four times annually, readers are sent books of 90 or so paper vouchers and use these to pay for the paper. The retailers than claim the value of these vouchers back from the publishers. The original theory was that if readers paid in advance, they would be certain to read the paper every day. For the publisher, the sale and associated advertising revenue would therefore be protected.

It’s a strategy that has proven to be partially successful in arresting the decline in sales. By way of a single example, the Daily Telegraph had 796,000 readers in 2007, of which 327,000 were subscribers. Over the next decade, subscribers fell to 223,000, a 32% drop – but that against a 53% fall in overall average daily sales to 377,000.

Paper is pricy

But paper vouchers are expensive to distribute, expensive to process and vulnerable to various ‘practices’ that can result in considerable, avoidable expense for the publishers. In addition, high fixed costs inherent in the production process result in publishers adopting ‘a one or two sizes fit all’ approach to product strategy. Fixed-term contracts with no escape route are also the norm. Both traits are somewhat at odds with consumer expectations of mass-customisation and a belief that subscriptions should be for their convenience, not to predict the revenue of suppliers.

Digital voucher systems dispense with these operational deficiencies and also provide added benefits. Digital provides insight on subscriber behaviour right down to who is using their subscription (or not), at which retailers, on which days of the week and at what time of day. Critical information for customer retention and product development that is lost in the ether with paper vouchers!

As a result, the Financial Times and Guardian Media Group have been the first to move away from paper fulfilment for subscription services to digital

Other fast-moving product categories face a similar challenge to those faced by publishers two decades ago – and they can learn from the experience of the newspaper publishers.

With consumer decisions often made within 30 seconds or 12 feet of purchase, according to some shopper marketing experts, relying on habit for loyalty and constant investment in marketing programs to influence the consumer at point of selection is, I would argue, economically unsustainable.

Also questionable are the considerable sums spent on digital media when the impact of online promotion is difficult to measure in the context of offline sales. Recent media coverage suggests that the party is over and brand managers are beginning to wise up to the state of the current online advertising market. Texans refer to such arrangements as a ‘Goat Rodeo’…a system rigged in favour of the organisers.

Generation Subscription

With financial innovators such as Zuora and GoCardless democratising the recurring payments market for credit/debit cards and Direct Debit respectively, any business can now collect payments easily and inexpensively from consumers on a regular basis and so sell their wares on a subscription basis.

Dollar Shave Club is probably the most famous example of this model. The disposable razors they sell have a predictable consumption pattern and are easy to ship. The less well-known Batch Brew distillery in Burnley makes fabulous but quite pricy gin. If you sign up as a subscriber, they send you a bottle of whatever they’ve decided to brew up that month for a direct debit payment of £30 a month, just below the price/value consciousness threshold of their target customer, I would guess.

Both examples have the advantage that direct payment and direct fulfilment are viable options. But, as with newspapers, direct fulfilment is not feasible for brand owners where such products are frequently purchased across a range of retailers. Brands will also be aware that retail partners will continue to represent the majority of sales and a direct-fulfilment strategy would effectively dis-intermediate them and damage commercial relationships.

Turning consumers into subscribers is not only good for brands in terms of securing loyalty and stabilising revenues. Consumers welcome it too. The Economist reported in 2014 that 80% favour subscription for preferred brands providing it signifies convenience and is not at the expense of flexibility.

For example, an energy drink manufacturer could pre-sell 20 bottles online and deliver a mobile voucher to let the customer collect at a retailer anytime they want one, but without any commitment to consume all 20 by a certain date. Consumers who have already made their purchase decision and paid are unlikely to buy a competitor product.

Alternatively, firms such as Klarna will extend credit to consumers based on their email address. This means consumers would not always need to pay up front – just settle a monthly invoice for what they have consumed. Purchases can also be added to mobile phone bills using services such as ‘Payforit’, which is supported by all the UK’s major mobile phone operators.

Although the options are many and various and set to evolve further, two truths are inescapable: The ‘Subscription Economy’ is here to stay – and brand owners that cannot supply direct need a method for remote fulfilment of their products if they are to take advantage of this generational shift in consumer behaviour.

David Tymm is founder and CEO of i-movo, one of the largest Secure Digital Voucher networks in the world. i-movo works with over 60,000 participating retailers and has delivered over 300 successful campaigns, processing over 20 million vouchers worth over £400m.

Photo by Peter Bond on Unsplash

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