Partnerships based on advanced sports analytics can lower costs and open up creative sales promotions opportunities around major sporting events, says Martin Bailey of Opia

Data analytics now dominate the coverage of sport, as broadcasters and journalists gain access to detailed performance statistics used by coaches and bookmakers.

The ever-growing sophistication of sports analytics conducted by powerful algorithms and machine-learning provides instantaneous breakdowns of almost every useful match or career detail, from passes completed, to their direction, length and recipients. Goal-scoring opportunities, yardage covered, cautions incurred on a wet Tuesday – all the data is there along with its analysis.

There are massive benefits for marketers, too: tapping into this data offers brands and agencies the opportunity to run bespoke sports-based promotional campaigns around specific events.

The biggest opportunity in the world

With the FIFA World Cup, the world’s biggest single-sport tournament, looming, retailers and manufacturers will use the unmatched pulling-power of football to boost sales promotions for everything from consumer electronics to cars, fuel and furniture, with cash-for-goals or cashback campaigns relating to wins by the UK home nations.

Sports marketing has been around for decades; but developments in technology and social media have revolutionised opportunities for creativity.

One example is the English Sports Council’s 2015 #ThisGirlCan campaign, which addressed health issues such as obesity after research showed that two million more men than women participated in sports in the UK. In this case, the use of sports analytics was backed up by showing positive, normal women as role models. The resulting video content was viewed and shared over eight million times. Two years later the hashtag is still going strong and women across the country have been inspired to be more active.

Real Madrid recently cemented its position as one of the biggest international football brands by launching its own Snapchat account. In just three months, the club gained almost half a million subscribers.

These sporting organisations used insights derived from data analysis to enable them to engage with fans effectively. They used analytics to segment their fans, estimate customer lifetime values (CLV), generate leads, predict retention of existing fans, and measure performance of marketing activities. All to great effect.

Big sports data is the difference

Until now, the approach used to calculate insurance rates involved in a sports cashback promotion has been based largely on assumptions, loss ratios and subjective form, with bookmaker odds often acting as a base point. This means rates have been historically impacted by cognitive bias (for example the expectation that England will do better than they are actually likely to do in the World Cup) and influenced by a herd mentality on how the rest of the market acts.

As more bets are placed on the home nations the cost to place the bet increases, simply because more bets have been placed. In reality, the underlying conditions have not changed.

Accurate sports data can remove this bias and ensure the most accurate promotional pricing.

Disrupting sport risk promotion market

More recently, we have seen new partnerships disrupt the status quo, for example between consultancies designing customer-grabbing, bold, creative sales promotions and incentives, and the companies supplying the data to the sport and betting industries. Sales promotion strategies are now crafted from these advanced data-sets, reflecting the reality on the pitch and not the sudden enthusiasms or group-think of the betting market.

Now, insurance underwriters can see that the consultancy has designed a sports risk promotion based on hard, detailed and thoroughly-analysed data from sports risk companies.

The significant advantage to retailers and manufacturers in all this is that premiums become lower. It means that far more companies can undertake the kind of creative promotions they have hitherto only considered as fantasy football items on a wish-list marketing plan.

Creativity and expertise in promotion-design

Promotions can be quirky and distinctive, but they need to be easily understood so that the ordinary consumer feels included. It would be too easy to use the wealth of big data analysis to come up with a promotion that appeals to a relatively narrow band of devoted fans.

A cashback offer that rewards a consumer buying a high-value washing machine for every goal scored by a high-profile team or player is more likely to hit the right demographic than one related to the number of bookings achieved by players with poor disciplinary records. This is an obvious example, but it is all too easy to get it wrong and end up with a costly flop or a promotion that over-achieves and leads to higher-than-expected levels of redemption and very high costs. This is where access to consultancies with the creativity and long experience of running such campaigns, is a pre-requisite.

Retailers and OEMs must launch their promotions now

In fact, the science of promotions has been operational for a decade, using predictive analytics and specialist underwriting guarantees to ensure that the promotion hits the back of the net without the retailer or manufacturer ending up out-of-pocket. Ordinarily, the downside of not being able to predict how many customers will take up the offer would be the risk of the promotion lingering on a firm’s balance sheet, as well as the potential financial risks if the promotion was more popular than anticipated.

Now, however, end-to-end management of risk-managed promotions with a sports hook has been taken to the next level of performance through the application of big data sports analytics. This heightened level of big data insight, combined with the creative expertise and flair of a risk-backed sales promotion consultancy is an unbeatable pairing. It will enable any retailer or manufacturer to stand out from the crowd and achieve far greater revenues than competitors when the World Cup comes round. The tournament is however, approaching fast and organisations need to grasp the opportunity now. It should be a great summer.

Martin Bailey is an Account Director with creative sales promotion consultancy Opia. Opia has recently partnered exclusively with sports risk experts Siepe Sports, who specialise in the provision of sports analytics data to the insurance industry, to enhance the assessment of risk levels in sports-related promotions.

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Jim Conning of Royal Mail Data Services (RMDS) provides some practical advice for how to use customer data in promotions, based on new research

Accurate, comprehensive data on customers and prospects is the essential bedrock of successful promotional marketing campaigns. But as it becomes more vital to marketers, new challenges, such as ensuring compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), are growing in importance, according to a new study from Royal Mail Data Services.

Based on research with UK brands and marketing agencies, the survey highlights four trends:

GDPR compliance is marketers’ number one concern

Nearly three in 10 (29%) of respondents listed GDPR compliance as their biggest worry, up from just 12% in the 2016 study. Breaking this down, a quarter (25%) of brands saw GDPR compliance as their greatest challenge, rising to 35% among agencies.

The study drilled down to ask brands and agencies how confident they were that their internally held customer data was GDPR compliant. The positive news is that 78% of all marketers were either “very” or “reasonably” confident that it complied with the new regulation – although worryingly, 11% were not confident, including 2% who did not know if they were compliant or not.

The barriers to using marketing data effectively

Marketers are facing churn rates that see nearly one in five (19%) customers leaving every year. Consequently, finding and acquiring replacements remained the number-one objective for marketers, with 42% citing it as their biggest challenge. However, this has fallen from 52% in 2016. Interestingly “analysing customer data”, a new option for 2017, has emerged as the top concern for just under a quarter of respondents (24%). Clearly, boosting analytics capabilities is a fast-emerging priority for brands and agencies alike.

Companies also seem to be giving up on the idea of reactivating dormant customers, rather than searching for new ones. In 2014 nearly one-quarter (24%) said this was their number-one marketing priority, but by 2017 the figure had dropped to just 6%. This could be linked to worries about poor-quality customer data or whether dormant customer data is GDPR compliant and can be used in marketing to this group.

Turning data into successful campaigns

How can marketers effectively use the huge amount of data they now hold? What is holding them back?

When asked where the gaps were that need filling, the results mirrored overall marketing challenges. The same number of respondents (24%) pointed to analysing customer data as their biggest issue, a figure that rose to 28% within brands. This demonstrates a clear need for greater analytics skills and capabilities, particularly for brands.

Perhaps reflecting that they already had analytics skills, the biggest area for improvement that agencies flagged (29%) was access to better-quality customer data. Brands also struggle to embed data cultures within their businesses. More than one in five (21%) said that a having a better understanding across the organisation of the importance of good-quality customer data would improve business performance.

When it comes to driving successful campaigns in terms of response and conversion rates, marketers agree it is all about data and how you use it. On a scale of one to five, the four top success factors reported were quality of contact data (4.6), segmentation and targeting (4.6), personalised content (4.4) and timing (4.3). In comparison, creative design scored just 4.0 out of 5. These top-four factors all rely on good-quality data and analytics in some way, and marketers reported that they had all increased in importance dramatically since last year.

Ensuring better data quality

Poor-quality customer data was cited as their biggest challenge by nearly one in five (18%) marketers. The main drivers of poor-quality data were basic errors – specifically out-of-date information and incomplete data. This was above factors such as duplicate data, spelling mistakes and data in incorrect fields.

Marketers understand that data is a living entity and quickly becomes out of date. This is leading to them focus on more formal, regular data cleansing – 22% do this daily or continuously. However, one-third (33%) still have no formal processes in place to clean customer contact data, although this has dropped from 37% in 2016. This means a sizeable minority are putting themselves at risk of data-quality issues – and potential GDPR investigations over non-compliance.

Poor-quality data hits business performance – marketers estimate that the average cost of poor-quality customer data is 6% of annual revenue. For major brands this is measured in millions of pounds – and excludes any potential fines for GDPR non-compliance, which can be as much as 4% of global turnover.

Data is the lifeblood of promotional marketing campaigns – having the best ideas in the world mean nothing if you can’t reach the right customers and prospects. However, as the Royal Mail Data Services research has found, marketers face key challenges around GDPR compliance, analytics, and quality that they need to overcome if they are to deliver successful campaigns that boost the bottom line.

A full copy of the report, “The use and management of customer data”, can be downloaded from the Royal Mail Data Services website.

Jim Conning is Managing Director of Royal Mail Data Services (RMDS), which is the specialist data business of Royal Mail Group. It provides organisations with customer contact and address data, data-quality, addressing and marketing services. It is committed to developing new ways for customers to look up, capture, validate and use contact and address data more effectively. Royal Mail Data Services helps organisations improve customer data quality, marketing performance and customer engagement.

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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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Fixed-fee company Mando has launched a new partnerships agency, Mando-Connect, which uses a data-fuelled approach to leverage a range of different data-sets to develop partnerships based on science.

Mando is part of global marketing services group WPP, and Sir Martin Sorrell, WPP’s Chief Executive, says: “Mando-Connect makes smart use of over 40 years’ hard-won knowledge of people’s response to promotions. Their clients should love it”.

Mando-Connect will design partnerships and rewards based on the smart use of cutting-edge data and insight. Its custom-built Partnership Engine leverages three extensive data sets, including WPP and YouGov data, Mando’s own ProNet database, covering 20 data points from over 3,000 promotions, and the Connect PartnerBank, which covers 2,000 audited brand partners.

Mando-Connect will specialise in partnerships for customer acquisition and awareness, loyalty, promotions and brand perception shift.

It is already working with Merlin Entertainments, MoveGB, Readly and breast cancer awareness charity Coppafeel!.

Charlie Hills, Managing Director of Mando-Connect and also its Head of Strategy, says that smart use of data can create more impactful partnerships, with higher ROI for clients. She observes: “Our unique data-fuelled insights enable us to know which partnerships will meet our client’s expectations, and which will exceed them. Did you know, for example, that by including an element of personalisation in your approach, a brand can see up to seven times more impact from a promotional partnership?”

The Mando-Connect senior leadership team includes Becky Munday (Mando CEO and former Chairman of UK marketing industry trade body, the IPM), Charlie Hills and Jo Ashdown, Head of Partnerships. The three bring decades of experience in partnerships across sectors including media, leisure, sport, travel, telecommunications, financial services, restaurants, FMCG and retail.

Becky Munday is excited to make the step-change: “Mando’s unique promotional and rewards data is the fuel that will enable us at Mando-Connect to propel partnerships to the next level. By working together and leveraging our unique data, brands can achieve far more together than they can alone, creating purposeful and cost-effective relationships.”

The picture show (left to right) Jo Ashdown, Becky Munday and Charlie Hills.

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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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A new experiential marketing company, VIP (Very Important Pooches), has launched to offer brands a route to target dogs and their owners.

VIP will be appearing at more than 30 events this summer, kicking off with PugFest – the UK’s only official pug festival – on June 18^th. The agency plans to run a VIP Zone, a dedicated event space offering an array of attractions for pooches, at each event. The VIP Zone will feature a VIP bar offering treats, Snuffle brand dog beer and pooch-friendly ‘pawsecco’; fun for four-legged guests in need of refreshment to unwind, including a giant four-metre tennis ball, ball pond and paddling pool; and a glamorous red carpet area and pooch photo booth for VIP selfies, allowing dog owners to capture and share their VIP experience.

All visitors to the VIP Zone receive a free doggie bag of exclusive samples, goodies and promotional vouchers from the industry’s biggest brands. W

Maria Amany, VIP event co-ordinator, says: “We believe every pooch is a VIP. That’s why we’re so excited to be launching The VIP experience at shows across the UK this summer. We look forward to welcoming and meeting thousands of very important pooches and their owners to enjoy all of the attractions and free treats in our VIP Zone.

With the UK’s 8.5 million dog owners spending more on their pets each year, the dog product market is booming. A January 2017 U.S. study found that the average dog owner uploads a picture or posts about their pet on social media six times per week, while one in ten have even created a social media account for their pet. VIP points to the rise of dedicated pet social media sites such as Dogster and MyDogSpace as evidence that the UK’s dogs are more valued than ever before, both by their owners and by the pet industry’s leading brands.

VIP is a bespoke marketing and promotions agency working solely within the dog marketplace. Its mission is to deliver outstanding promotional campaigns for clients using a suite of proven marketing approaches to build brand awareness with dog owners and drive sales. It aims to use online and offline channels to create an integrated marketing network that will enable VIP and its brand partners to target 8.5 million dog owners across the UK. With a focus on sampling through local dog shows and events, VIP plans to develop a comprehensive database and use sophisticated data analysis to provide both VIP the agency and its brand partners with insights into product trends as well as information for product development and marketing.

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Amaze One, the CRM agency based in London, Manchester and Bristol, has appointed Paul Kennedy as its new Data Strategy Director.

Kennedy, the former Head of Consulting at Callcredit Information Group, will lead data strategy for Amaze One with input into Occam, the St Ives sister company. His role will include sourcing, designing and packaging of innovative new data propositions – and new revenue streams – for clients.

“Paul’s skills and experience make him a natural fit for Amaze One,” says Managing Director, Neil Evans. “The new opportunities he will be identifying and developing will be a key point of difference between Amaze One and our competitors.”

Kennedy, who also held previous roles at Experian/ClarityBlue, MM Teleperformance, Royal Mail and PA Consulting, says: “Given the absolutely critical role that data now performs in marketing communications, I am looking forward to helping brands realise its full potential by enabling customer experiences that are profitable for clients.”

Amaze One is a collaboration between St Ives Group companies Amaze Ltd and Occam DM Ltd. Established to break down the inherent silos of traditional CRM processes, Amaze One provides insight-driven creative communications by blending data and digital disciplines to engage customers and deliver long-term, profitable relationships for clients.

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Eagle Eye, specialist in digital promotions validation and redemption, has partnered with Mediavest to launch a cutting edge digital campaign for Nicotinell, enabling the brand to track the customer journey from online activity through to in-store sales in real-time.

This will also be the first UK national campaign where coupons are redeemed in Asda via a smartphone and 2D scanner capability.

For the next two months until the end of February, the campaign will dynamically serve digital content to targeted consumers based on their previous online history and location data, with the aim being to drive online activity through to in-store purchases.

Consumers will be served a message allowing them to download a £2 off coupon and store it in their passbook or digital wallet. They will also be able to view an interactive map pointing them to their nearest Asda store where they can redeem a coupon for a Nicotinell Lozenge product.

Eagle Eye’s AIR platform is being integrated into Asda’s Point of Sale system to verify that coupons are valid and that the relevant product is in the shopping basket.

Eagle Eye’s integration into Mediavest’s tech stack will enable Mediavest and Nicotinell to see which channels are working the best, allowing them to optimise campaign messaging in real-time to enhance ROI. This data, including date and location, can then be used in a re-marketing campaign to consumers fitting a similar profile.

Duff Borer, Business Director, Mediavest, says: “This is a ground-breaking initiative that will provide real-time analysis of the campaign’s success. Traditionally, demonstrating the immediate effectiveness of digital advertising on sales has been a challenge; however, this collaboration with Eagle Eye will allow us to measure the campaign in real-time, providing for the first time the capability to track online activity to in-store behaviour.”

Phill Blundell, Chief Executive at Eagle Eye, adds: “Recognising the need for relevant, timely incentives is the cornerstone of providing the customer with an offer they will be interested in redeeming. As our codes are verified against the basket data in real-time we can also eliminate any fraud or mal-redemption, ensuring the correct product and brand is being purchased.”

Eagle Eye supports the distribution of mobile and online coupons and vouchers for loyalty and shopper marketing. Redemption is handled via retailers’ smartcard ‘chip and pin’ validation systems, meaning there is no need for additional hardware in store.

Last week, it announced the appointment of former Tesco Deputy Chief Executive Tim Mason as its new Chairman.

In July 2015, it signed a massive deal with Sainsbury’s to handle mobile coupons. It already had a similar deal with ASDA and works with Marks & Spencer, Greggs, Mitchells & Butlers and Pizza Express. It has strategic partnerships with Toshiba, K3 retail, Zonal, and Comtrex.

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TCC, a global leader in retail loyalty campaigns, has appointed Perry Valkenburg as new CEO of the company.

Valkenburg joins from advertising agency TBWA, where he has worked for the past 20 years. He will take up his new role on January 4th 2016.

In his previous role, Valkenburg served as President International & Global Operations, overseeing among others TBWA’s globalised digital, shopper marketing and data offering.  He has delivered many industry firsts and is responsible for campaigns which have won numerous awards including Cannes Golds.

Richard Beattie, TCC’s acting CEO, says: “In the new world of retail, where the digital and real worlds are interchangeable, it’s vital that we help our customers navigate this new terrain effectively. The environment has changed, but loyalty has not and Perry’s appointment comes at a time when TCC is looking to strengthen its position, preparing for future growth as a fully independent and privately owned company. As we enter our 25th year, we’re better placed than ever to help retailers foster the pairing of strategy and creativity so vital in inspiring passion and excitement in their customers. ”

Commenting on his move to join TCC, Perry Valkenburg said: “In today’s marketplace, where bricks, clicks and commerce fully integrate audience understanding, data planning, activation and loyalty have never been more important.   For future success, retailers and brands need to ensure an emotional connection with their customers.”

TCC is a global marketing company that works in partnership with a broad range of retailers to create and implement in-store loyalty marketing campaigns that grow their sales and profitability.

With a portfolio of licensed consumer and entertainment partner brands including Disney and 20th Century Fox among many others, TCC enables retailers to engage with their shoppers and reward them for their loyalty with a wide range of exclusive offers. Active in over 60 countries, TCC employs around 600 people in 34 offices throughout Europe, the Americas and Asia Pacific.

TCC, a global leader in retail loyalty campaigns, has appointed Perry Valkenburg as new CEO of the company.

TCC, The Continuity Company, digital, shopper marketing, shopper, data, data analytics, retail, retailer loyalty, loyalty, licensing, licensed promotions, international

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