Zappit.co is a leading tech player in the promotional marketing industry, delivering insight led shopper marketing & customer care solutions through digital coupons and instant cashback.

Zappit’s digital-first proprietary tech stack underpins their Coupon, Cashback and Customer Care platforms helping Clients to attract NEW customers, GROW footfall, INCREASE rate of sale, REINFORCE loyalty and REPEAT custom.
The journey starts wherever a customer is able to click, scan or text and can drive sales in-store, online or into hospitality venues.

ZAPPIT activations are;

·        Brand-led and drive sales

·        Rich in 1st party data and insight

·       Built with proprietary technology to minimise fraud

·     100% digital, trackable and eco-friendly from start to finish

·        Accessible to everyone – no login, no app, no paper

·        Easy to redeem via your mobile phone

Clients include Unilever, P&G, Colgate, Fever Tree,  AB InBev, Arla, Costa Coffee, Mitchells & Butler

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Agile start-ups are subverting the grocery aisles – older brands must learn their tricks to stay ahead of them, says Sam Bannister of Brass Agency

You only have to explore a few aisles of a supermarket to see that we’re in a golden age for ‘challenger brands’ – the fast-moving, agile start-up brands that are changing the norms of grocery shopping. From Fever Tree in drinks, passing by Propercorn in snacking, Freaks of Nature in chilled and Halo Top in frozen.

Even the trip to the supermarket itself is being challenged, if we think about brands like HelloFresh and Gousto.

But how is this possible? How can these young companies, often crowd-funded and with limited budget, take on the might of established FMCG companies? We believe three factors play a key role in this disruption:

An intuitive sense of consumer needs and trends.

These new challenger brands are often created in response to a specific gap in the market and, as such, often exploit a new and burgeoning demand from consumers. Be that healthy, local, artisan, or free from, they find a void and fill it quickly, benefiting from being first to market. Part of the joy of shopping is discovering a new brand that better meets your needs. Sainsbury’s are playing back this sentiment with news that more help will be given to help incubate start-ups, including listings, mentoring, free Nectar data, and even equity for exclusivity.

The ability to be agile.

Not constrained by large estates, legacy systems and (dare we say it) bureaucracy, challenger brands have the ability to be much more flexible and entrepreneurial in the way they operate. Whether this is product innovation or packaging design, they implement change in a fraction of the time that a more established brand may be able to.

A mastery of marketing direct to consumer.

Quick to embrace digital-first, challengers are often bold and creative in their marketing. Not afraid to experiment with guerrilla tactics and social media channels to shout about how well they understand consumers and, in turn, build a strong connection.

So that’s it, then? If your brand has been around a while, it’s doomed? Well, we’d argue that this is very much not the case. All of this artisanal craftsmanship and soy-replacement has to be balanced out with something else, right? Heritage brands possess attributes that don’t come easily to challenger brands:

Familiarity

Status to a large audience – heritage brands often have latent awareness, and media spend may be more effectively deployed to reach a mass audience

Inherited affinity

Whether it is inherited from parents or siblings, or recommended by friends and colleagues, heritage brands that consumers ‘grow up’ with are very often adopted into their adult households

Emotional attachment

It might be the jingle. Maybe it’s the smell. It might even just be that you’ve seen the brand on almost every single trip to a supermarket. Heritage brands have the ability to stir powerful consumer emotion through nostalgia.

The goodwill of heritage itself

Being around for a long time can carry weight. It suggests a brand has stood the test of time, consistently delivering quality and consistency… an elevated status. This can be very powerful if used correctly, particularly in categories where purchase frequency is low.

So what does this mean for heritage brands?

In short, there isn’t a ‘one size fits all’ solution for a heritage brand to remain contemporary and relevant. But it’s imperative that they are dynamic in their marketing, and here are some pointers for thought:

• Don’t disregard what your brand has done well for so long; but at the same time learn from what the challengers are doing well
• Place the consumer at the heart of your brand. Gain insight from them, and use it to your advantage
• Understand not just current trends in the marketplace, but also what the future might look like – where next?
• Innovate, innovate, innovate. In product, flavour, packaging and marketing.
• Reflect the excitement that consumers have been trained to expect, but do it in your own way
• Be bold, and challenge the norms. In outward communication with consumer, but also through internal practices
• Innovate some more!

Sam Bannister is Head of Insight 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 and promotional marketing. Clients include Coty, Lucozade Ribena Suntory, Perrigo and Burton’s Biscuits. This comment originally appeared on Brass’ website.

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There is a growing trend for brands to create their own loyalty programmes, rather than sign up to coalition loyalty schemes, says Belinda Clark of RAPP UK

When Sainsbury’s announced it was buying Nectar from Aimia earlier this year, we all nodded knowingly. That made sense. As the retailer that issues the most Nectar points and provides the most rewards¹, it’s not surprising they saw value in owning the coalition, rather than merely being a part of it.

But when news broke that Avios.com would close on May 20^th, with Avios currency transferring across to the Executive Club², it signalled a clear change. And, of course, we can’t ignore the imminent merger between Sainsbury’s and Asda and what that means for its loyalty strategy – but we do know that there is a growing trend by big brands away from third-party-owned coalition programmes and towards brand-owned programmes.

So if brands (especially big brands) are no longer buying into coalition-driven loyalty, that raises the question: is there any future for coalition loyalty programmes?

Recent evidence would suggest, no.

Why? Because coalition programmes are not designed to drive loyalty to any one brand. They drive loyalty to the coalition at the expense of individual brand loyalty. Yet this individual loyalty is ultimately what brands are after, as it offers the best long-term value.

Coalition programmes have instead leant on the marketing potential from their massive customer databases. But many brands have found this access to be limited, too – limits that could deepen when GDPR legislation comes into force on May 25th – less than two weeks from now. While aggregate data, insight and trends are useful to a point, customers are demanding more than being treated in aggregate. And brands have responded by creating their own customer databases, which are arguably bigger and better than those available from a coalition.

Coalitions undoubtedly benefit the consumers who are members by allowing them to earn and burn points from just one programme. But as the value of a point begins to decline³, so too does a coalition’s popularity. Without value, the simplicity of earning and burning in one program simply loses its sparkle.

So what lessons can brands learn from coalitions?

When done well, brand-owned programmes can achieve many of the benefits of a coalition… and more. Yes, it will require investment, or a coalition purchase such as Sainsbury’s and British Airways have opted for. But this investment is in more than just a programme; it’s in your customers, your company’s data collection capabilities and your competitive advantage.

There are some simple tips for those running loyalty programmes:

OPTIMISE THE VALUE EXCHANGE
Coalitions were known for their no-brainer value-add. Over time this became a reason for customers to share their data; but while the value-add has eroded over time, the principle of offering a strong value exchange (namely, rewards for data) still holds true as it makes the exchange valuable for both sides.

TO REMAIN RELEVANT, ENSURE YOU REMAIN VALUABLE
For all customers, a valuable programme is one that offers something in exchange for their continued purchase. But as the point declines in value, so too does a programme’s popularity, unless it’s able to demonstrate value beyond just monetary terms. In the case of Nectar, this meant its alignment with Sainsbury’s and its ability to target their customers with personalised offers based on their purchases. Something which gave loyal Sainsbury’s customers yet another reason to shop.

SIMPLICITY, SIMPLICITY, SIMPLICITY
Coalition programmes that last get this one right every time. They offer a programme with a minimum of steps to join, participate and earn and burn. This familiarity of structure was key to their success because it meant customers knew what to expect without having to re-learn the rules every time.

But if brands are to succeed in a coalition-less world, they also need to go above and beyond this. They need to:

BE GENEROUS:
With much more than just their money – their time and people too. Because money doesn’t talk like it used to! Customers demand brands be generous with their entire offering in an effort to make them feel special and give them a reason to return again and again.

BE VALUABLE – AND MAKE PEOPLE FEEL VALUED…
To be valuable means to offer something that customers see real value in. While rational reasons like money are still core parts of this equation, to be a valuable programme means to give customers bragging rights (think myJohn Lewis…free coffee and cake anyone?). To make people feel valued, means to make the programme feel like it’s been created just for them – even if its offering is available to everyone (think Harvey Nichols’ complementary concierge service…yes please!).

DELIGHT WITH AN EXCEPTIONAL CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE…
A simple, seamless end-to-end customer experience is now expected as standard. To delight now means to make customer’s lives easier; to demonstrate shared values and to improve their experience not only with you, but with the environment and community you both live in.

The best of both worlds really is possible, as Sainsbury’s and British Airways will no doubt demonstrate in time. While coalition programmes used to make sense, they just don’t cut it in today’s world. And as Sainsbury’s and British Airways have now shown us, a new world is opening up. And that world just so happens to be owned and run by brands.

Belinda Clark is Senior Strategist at RAPP, a London-based integrated agency which is part of the Omnicom Group. Rapp works with clients including Rapp UK is based in London, working with clients including PayPal, Virgin Media, Mercedes Benz and Nestlé Waters.

Sources:

¹ Sainsbury’s buys Nectar rewards scheme from Aimia for £60m. The Financial Times. February 1, 2018 https://www.ft.com/content/584f106e-0766-11e8-9650-9c0ad2d7c5b5

² British Airways’ Avios scheme is closing down – here’s everything you need to know about your points. UK Business Insider. April 11, 2018
http://uk.businessinsider.com/british-airways-avios-frequent-flyer-scheme-closing-points-2018-4?r=US&IR=T

³Sainsbury’s Nectar point cut angers customers. The Guardian. 10^th April 2015. https://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/apr/10/sainsburys-cuts-to-nectar-points-anger-its-customers

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International marketing group St Ives has merged three of its businesses to create a new agency, Edit, which unites data science and marketing technology to power through-the-line CRM and media.

The three agencies which have come together to form Edit are Response One, Amaze One and Occam will merge to become. With clients including Cosmos Travel, Azzurri Group, Pizza Hut, Citroen, Fiat and JLR, Edit will bring CRM and media under one roof with a focus on the intelligent application of data.

Powered by cutting-edge marketing technology solutions, Edit will help clients to drive customer engagement from acquisition to advocacy, under their banner ‘One Consumer. One Conversation’.

Over 200 of Edit’s staff will be based in its new offices in central Bath, which will see its CRM, media, technology and data science teams work seamlessly to help client projects flow through the business from start to finish. An offshoot office in Manchester will support the headquarters and clients in that region.

Edit CEO Damian Coverdale (pictured) says: “Disruptive technologies, complex consumer journeys and the speed of change make engagement today extremely challenging. Brands address this by co-ordinating marketing across internal teams, specialist agencies and numerous channels often resulting in inefficiencies and a lack of effectiveness. Bringing the three businesses together means Edit can deliver results across the entire consumer journey, from awareness and acquisition to retention, repurchase and advocacy.”

Coverdale adds: “We’re focused on filtering out the noise and delivering simple, actionable advice with clarity, precision and speed. Our sole aim as Edit is to drive greater ROI for our clients with a more dynamic, transparent approach to customer engagement.”

St Ives is an international marketing services group comprised of 15 companies offering digital and mobile creativity, intelligent data analysis, research, production and marketing.

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Brand experience agency ignis has launched the first product from its new tech venture, ignovation labs.

Ignis claims its new Retailemetry is “a unique data capture, reporting and insights system that delivers live audience and activity analysis, when activated in a retail promotional environment.”

The launch took place at the recent Tax Free World Association Exhibition & Congress in Cannes, as part of the TFWA Digital Village. TFWA attracts the world’s leading travel retail operators and the brands which sell through the travel retail channel.

Ignis says Retailemetry collects data at point of purchase and allows it to be assessed in real-time to instantly measure how campaigns are performing. Data is automatically uploaded to the cloud with a web app front end meaning that data collection can be made across multiple devices at the same time.

That data, such as demographic, attitudinal and purchase insights, can then be accessed in real-time to monitor, measure and report on the success of each event activation.

An API means Retailemetry can be deployed to work with other tech-driven applications and products. For example, it can be used with intelligent flooring to record footfall in store and produce heat maps of shopper movements in real-time, or it can be used with local weather data to analyse the impact of changes in the weather.

Ignis announced the launch of ignovation labs in September. It is a new in-house department tasked with identifying and developing pioneering technologies and reinforcing a culture of innovation within the agency.

The department is headed up by ignis’ Oliver Carew. Carew says: “Innovation has always been an integral part of ignis’ DNA, and the ignovation labs are an extension of that philosophy. The labs exist to develop several new proprietary technologies each year that solve big problems for existing and new clients. At times parties may feel uncomfortable in the ideas we put forward, but ultimately we hope to inspire them to push boundaries further then they have ever done before.”

As part of ignis’ commitment to innovation, the agency has also invested in DRNK?, a spontaneous socialising app that helps users meet new individuals and groups when they’re out and about.

Stephanie Whitaker, Managing Director of ignis, observes: “Incubating and accelerating growth in tech start-ups allows the agency to operate on the cutting edge. DRNK? has significant potential in its own right, and also provides an interesting opportunity for our current roster of drinks brands to advertise on the platform.”

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