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.

The post How does Promotional Marketing fit into today’s marketing mix? appeared first on IPM Bitesize.

Zipjet, the leading on-demand laundry and dry-cleaning service company in the UK and Europe, is running a face-to-face leafleting campaign focused around key London transport hubs and other locations where the brand’s target audience – 25-40 year old time-poor business men and women – can be found.

The activity, created and managed by specialist experiential staffing agency StreetPR, kicked off in mid-January and will continue for the foreseeable future, covering locations including Oxford Circus and the West End, Kings Cross, Liverpool Street and the City of London. StreetPR will be recruiting and managing teams of brand ambassadors in branded Zipjet clothing, who will be handing out flyers promoting an offer of £10 off an initial order.

The face-to-face flyering campaign is part of an integrated marketing strategy which links the company’s online marketing with its offline activities, which also include bus and train ads.

Cory Egitton, Zipjet’s Marketing Manager for the UK market, says: “We are trying to connect our online advertising to direct interactions with potential customers. We’ve used face-to-face marketing in the past – we find that direct contact with potential customers is a huge boon to our brand. With face to face contact, we’re able to answer questions in real time, engage with people and really emphasise what Zipjet is all about. By using face-to-face flyering – concentrated in high-footfall areas our target groups are known to frequent – we’re able to relay our message directly to the consumer.”

Dorian Payne, Head of Operations at StreetPR, observes: “We’re delighted to be working with Zipjet on this ongoing campaign – as we’ve demonstrated with a number of other on-demand tech-based companies like Deliveroo, Uber, UberEats, Urban Massage and Chariot, experiential and face-to-face marketing can help bridge the gap between the screen and the street and introduce a human face to an online brand.”

Zipjet’s marketing emphasises how the brand is built around its customers and their needs. It offers competitively-priced and flexible laundry and dry-cleaning services, including pick-up and delivery times to suit customers anytime from 6.00am to 9.00pm and an Express service with a 24 hour turnaround. There is a minimum charge of £15 for consumers, and the company also offers a corporate service, plus services for restaurants and airbnb hosts.

Consumers download the Zipjet app, choose their collection and delivery times and place their order. They get two laundry bags when they register, one for individual items like shirts and dry cleaning, and the other for bulk, everyday items. Once they have booked collection, they hand over their laundry to their Zipjet driver and it will be cleaned, ironed and delivered back to them within 24 to 36 hours, depending on the level of service selected.

Zipjet was founded in London in 2014 and is backed by German high-tech start-up incubator, Rocket Internet. The startup has since expanded to Berlin (2015) and Paris (2016). Zipjet’s says its mission is to revolutionise the way laundry is done, liberating consumers from tedium and enabling customers to unlock extra time. It is now the leader in its market across Europe.

Launched by entrepreneur James Rix in 2012, StreetPR is the biggest individual supplier of staff to London’s competitive nightlife industry and in recent years has expanded to supply promotional staff and brand ambassadors to gyms, hotels, restaurants, event and festival organisers, retailers, sports and event stadia, the public sector, FMCG brands, telecoms and tech companies. More recently, it has won significant business from online services providers including Deliveroo, Gousto, Hello Fresh and Hassle.

The post On-demand laundry start-up Zipjet in F2F leafleting campaign appeared first on IPM Bitesize.

Grace Foods UK is encouraging consumers to #RebootNormal with its biggest ever investment in its Grace Say Aloe soft drinks range.

The £1million campaign runs from July to October. It will reach more than 10 million consumers, encouraging shoppers to ‘Reboot Your Normal’ with a light-hearted take on everyday ‘normal’ activities.

The integrated campaign includes underground advertising, digital escalator panels, sampling, social media advertising, influencer outreach and a national PR campaign.

Nyree Chambers, Grace Foods UK’s Head of Marketing, says: “The ‘Reboot Your Normal’ campaign highlights that Grace Say Aloe breaks with what’s expected. It’s the drink for people who want to escape the norm and want their reality rebooted in some way. Its unique texture, flavour and ingredients are truly distinctive and a real reboot of the soft drinks category. The range is made with real Aloe Vera pieces and meets shopper demand for thirst-quenching drinks that are a bit different. We’re hoping to create a spot of spectacular in a very normal world, even if it’s just for a few minutes.”

The campaign follows the recent launch of new pack designs and limited edition £1.15 price-marked 500ml packs which are creating on-shelf stand out.

Chambers adds: “Grace Say Aloe already has a commanding market share of almost 80% [of the UK Caribbean drinks sector according to IRI] and the new campaign is set to increase this.”

The post Grace Foods puts biggest ever investment behind Grace Say Aloe appeared first on IPM Bitesize.

Team GB gymnast Nile Wilson, Britain’s Got Talent finalists Twist and Pulse and ballet star Alessia Lugoboni have teamed up with Lucozade Ribena Suntory and Transport for London to promote an offer for commuters of free journeys on the London Underground, using ‘contactless’ Lucozade Energy bottles.

From May 30 to June 2 at Oxford Circus Station during ‘Whoosh Hour’, Lucozade brand ambassadors will be handing out thousands of limited edition Lucozade Energy bottles with contactless chips, like the ones found in TfL’s Oyster Card, embedded in the base. Lucky recipients will be able to use the bottles like Oyster Cards for one free Underground journey.

Lucozade Energy also enlisted Wilson, Twist and Pulse and Lugoboni to help promote the activation with three films featuring them using their talents to get through the station to their tube trains. The contactless bottle give-away and the videos are in support of the brand’s ‘Find Your Flow’ campaign message. The Lugoboni film has been posted to YouTube.

Whoosh Hour is a fully integrated campaign with support from integrated agency The Big Kick, shopper marketing agency Valenstein & Fatt (formerly Grey Shopper), event agency TRO, media agency MediaCom and PR agency Frank PR.

Lucozade Ribena Suntory is putting a considerable marketing budget behind the various offshoots of the umbrella Lucozade brand at the moment. A week ago, it launched a new campaign for Lucozade Sport featuring an on-pack promo offering consumers the chance to win more prizes the more active they are, including fitness trackers, gym memberships, tickets to events such as the FA Cup Final, England football matches, the Tour de France, an Adele concert and holidays to Australia, the US and the Middle East.

At the beginning of April, Lucozade Zero and fashion retailer Missguided announced a collaboration, ‘Zero To Pay’, which was brought to life through on-pack promotion and experiential marketing. The on-pack promotion offered consumers a range of discounts which could be unlocked through codes on mini cans of Lucozade Zero. Targeting city centres, train stations and shopping centres, a sampling campaign offered bespoke miniature cans featuring unique Missguided discount codes. The activity was bolstered at high footfall locations with a ‘Zero to Pay’ nail bar, offering Lucozade Zero-inspired complimentary nail art.

The post Lucozade and TfL create contactless payment bottles to support ‘Find Your Flow’ campaign appeared first on IPM Bitesize.