Marketing distribution specialist mda has been acquired by European logistics business Staci for an undisclosed sum. Staci says the acquisition creates the first pan-European marketing logistics business for brands and retailers.

Creating, storing, distributing and activating point of sale and marketing materials for the world’s biggest brands including Heineken, Coca-Cola, Mars, Unilever, Diageo and Mercedes-Benz, mda, which recently celebrated 30 years of business, becomes part of a £250m Europe-wide fulfilment group with operations across France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Poland, BeNeLux and now the UK.

Wayne Chapman, mda Managing Director, says: “This is genuinely fantastic news for our clients and teams and we’re extremely excited about the years ahead. We’ve operated from the UK for 30 years, but in the last 24 months we’ve seen clients’ desire to operate facilities in multiple European territories under a single contract significantly increase.”

Mda, which currently has turnover of £5m a year, has 350 employees at five fulfilment centres across the UK.

Staci is the European leader in the B2B retail logistics segment for a large group of networks: retail, GMS and GSS, oil companies, agribusiness, hotel and restaurant chains, banks, insurance companies, operators telephone companies, car manufacturers, the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industry and the public sector.

Prior to the mda acquisition, Staci had 35 sites in Germany, Belgium, Spain, France, Italy and the Netherlands with a workforce of 1,550 employees.

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John Lyons of Brandmovers provides some timely advice for those looking at using receipt validation in their promotions

Everyone’s talking about receipt validation for promotions, rebate and loyalty, but why and when should you use it?

In the past, activating a proof-of-purchase sales promotion or loyalty program required significant investment in product packaging, integration with a limited set of retailers – or just one retailer – or cost-prohibitive inflexible solutions, along with the blind hope that the model would deliver ROI.

With a number of technology-based receipt processing platforms coming to market, it’s now possible to use scalable and flexible automated purchase validation as part of your sales promotion, rebate incentive or rewards program.

It may sound complicated – but actually it’s simple.

Customers submit photographs of receipts via a wide range of electronic media – smartphone camera, email, SMS – and have them validated almost instantly. At the same time, any decent receipt validation solution should data capture all pertinent information from the customer’s receipt, including date/time, the store purchased from, and – if you want it – their entire shopping cart, to give added insight into purchase patterns.

A robust system will come complete with fraud prevention built in.

You can use it for:

• Proof of Purchase Promotion – gift with purchase, coupon claim, purchase necessary prize draw, instant win.
• Repeat Purchase Promotion – frequency of purchase, buy x products to unlock a gift, earn entry to prize draw, instant win.
• Rebate or Cash back.
• Loyalty Program – points-based rewards program, incentives and benefits program.
• Trade Incentives Program – reward B2B trade purchases, incentivise and reward B2B sales representatives.

But when is receipt validation best used, and why would you choose this mechanic over more traditional models?

Five Reasons to use Receipt Validation:

1. As an alternative to unique code on pack

Quickly deployable and with no impact on printing or packing, purchases can be validated almost instantly. Run promotions or loyalty programs in a more cost-effective fashion without having to worry about the effect on production lines or packaging design.

2. If retailer support isn’t available

Marketers should be looking for a truly retailer-agnostic digital and mobile solution that is not dependant on integration with POS systems or geography. Ideally, solutions should work with any retailer or with multiple retailers – so if the purchase can be identified, the receipt can be processed and rewards activated. This is especially relevant for products that can be purchased anywhere, such as a can of Pepsi.

3. Gain extra market research

Data capture should be able to digitize not only the content needed to verify the relevant purchase, but also retailer, date, location, payment method of purchase and the entire purchase basket for deep dive data insights and pattern analysis.

4. Connect directly with your brand consumers

Receipt validation should be deployed to create a direct communication loop with brand consumers, without negative impact on retailers. Often this helps strengthen brand-retailer partnerships, with insights leading to mutually rewarding activations.

5. Build towards a loyalty solution

If you’re new to receipt validation, then start small – learn to crawl before you walk before you run. You should be looking to upscale and learn from localised test activities. Data from these should help you plan and implement bigger projects successfully, based around your business objectives and your customer data. The goal should be to design a well-planned multi-territory enterprise loyalty execution and deliver real return on investment.

John Lyons is Managing Director, Europe, of Brandmovers, a global leader in digital engagement promotions and loyalty that help brands connect with their consumers.

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Hyperion Adjusters, which provides specialist promotional marketing insurance and risk management products for brands and agencies, has sold a majority interest in its business to leading specialised loss adjuster, QuestGates.  The two businesses will be integrated but Hyperion will continue to trade as Hyperion Adjusters and the current management team and staff will all be retained.

The investment comes as Hyperion Adjusters beefs up its specialist promotional marketing offering with the recruitment of new staff and the launch of a redesigned website (www.hyperionadjusters.com), which highlights the company’s in-depth knowledge and experience in the field of promotional risk management, the handling of over-redemption insurance claims and the provision of judging and adjudication services.

Andrew Pinnion, Co-Founder and Director of Hyperion, says: “With new technology adding to the complexity of the promotional landscape, and with consumers who have become far more savvy about promotions of all kinds, brands and agencies must be ultra-careful when they run promotions.”

Hyperion Adjusters is a member of the Institute of Promotional Marketing and has been working with most of the major promotional risk management companies for the past 10 years.

Among the services it provides are:

• Promotion and insurance policy analysis.
• Pre-risk assessment which includes identification of the controlling elements and ensuring that satisfactory and adequate processes and procedures are implemented and adhered to.
• Audit and assessment of service providers, including web design agencies, handling houses and recyclers.
• Promotional website functionality and analysis.
• Systems, data encryption solutions and processes for the secure receipt, verification and storage of confidential data.
• Statistical analysis of large volumes of data.
• Security marking.
• Loss quantification.

In addition to the services it offers promotional marketers, Hyperion also advises on issues including handling production losses for Film, Television and Music Video together with contingency and non-appearance claims, lottery and gaming mechanics, systems, processes and security, verification of jackpots and winners and detailed analysis and supervision of televised quiz/game shows.

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Award-winning marketing services business MRM (Multi Resource Marketing Ltd) has launched a new brand identity following the company’s management buy-back from French group HighCo last year.

The new identity has been chosen following a full review of its previous branding overseen by Managing Director Marc Rigby, who was appointed in February 2017. The business undertook a number of internal workshops to help understand the critical components of its operation and define how it wants to be seen in the market.

Marc Rigby says: “We are proud to be able to announce the launch of our brand new logo. We’d like to think this identity captures some of the core elements that make up our business – process, digital, flexibility – as well as using a colour pallet that conveys energy, purpose and a greater sense of modernity. With the logo now in place alongside a revised mission and vision, our next task is an overhaul of our website which we hope to complete before the summer’s end.”

Rigby joined from shopper marketing agency Howell Penny, where he had been Client Director. Rigby has also worked at Interfocus, IMP and Saatchi & Saatchi. Founding partner Peter Kerr took on the new role of Executive Chairman following Rigby’s appointment, while former Chairman Mike Wood became Strategic Director.

Established in 1993, MRM was acquired by the French-based HighCo Group in 2011 but established its independence following a Management Buy-Out in 2016. Now again independently-owned, it is based in Market Harborough, Leicestershire and has strong industry links via the Institute of Promotional Marketing. MRM provides both digital and physical (fulfilment) marketing campaign support to some of the UK’s best-known brands. It numbers the Department of Health, The Co-operative Group and British Gas amongst its 70-strong client-base across a wide range of industry sectors.

In the 2016 IPM COGS Awards for marketing services providers, MRM won the Grand Prix for its work on the 2016 Sport Relief campaign on behalf of Comic Relief. It also won Gold for the same campaign in both the Handling & Fulfilment and Direct Marketing categories.

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Promotional risk management consultancy Umbrella has appointed Nicola Christie as its new Client Services Director.

Christie joins Umbrella from McCormick, the global leader in herbs and spices, where she worked across Brand Management, Category Management and Shopper Marketing for Schwartz.

Beth Johnson, Umbrella’s Founder, says: “Nicola’s skills and experience make her a perfect fit for Umbrella. Not only will she have first-hand experience of the hurdles our clients face, but her marketing expertise will really help steer their promotional campaigns in the right direction.”

Johnson adds: “Data analytics is a crucial part of our business and Nicola will really be able to add value in this area too, along with her understanding of the grocery environment, having worked with Tesco, Asda, Morrison’s, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and other retailers such as Toys’R’Us.”

Christie comments: “It’s great working across such varied briefs and brands. Umbrella, as a consultancy, are all about challenging the brief, so I’m pleased to be involved in a continuous flow of brainstorm sessions and creative proposals.”

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Award winning marketing services, handling and fulfilment business MRM has named ex-Howell Penny Client Director Marc Rigby as Managing Director.

Founding partner Peter Kerr had become Executive Chairman, while Chairman Mike Wood has now taken on the role of Strategic Director.

Before working for brand strategy and activation agency Howell Penny, Marc Rigby worked at agencies including Interfocus, IMP and Saatchi & Saatchi.

The management changes cap a successful 12 months for the business in which MRM were recognised with four IPM COGS Awards, including the prestigious Grand Prix for their work on the 2016 Sport Relief Campaign.

The Market Harborough business – now in its 24th year of trading – concluded an MBO last year following five years as part of the French based HighCo Group. It numbers the Department of Health, The Co-operative Group and British Gas amongst its 70-strong client base across a wide range of industry sectors.

Peter Kerr says: “Whilst last year was hugely exciting for the business, that success needs to be the platform for accelerated growth; the marketing environment in which we operate is evolving. We are no longer just a service company – we are a service agency offering a wide range of marketing solutions. And to ensure our business model is in line with the needs of the market, I wanted to bring some fresh skills into the company from the world of agency and brand marketing. Marc’s background will help us augment our delivery capability and build the breadth of service we can offer to our clients. Along with Mike Wood, our former Chairman and M&A specialist, I will be devoting more time to exploiting some key strategic opportunities that we have identified in the market.”

Marc Rigby comments: “I was astounded not only by the core traditional skill sets here but by the levels of digital expertise inherent within MRM. We are well positioned to deliver a wide range of marketing service solutions as both a strategic and tactical partner. I am looking forward to the challenge of blending our processes, data and people to help our clients connect their brands, products and services with their audiences.”

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The Institute of Promotional Marketing (IPM) has revealed the companies which have made it to the shortlist of its prestigious annual awards program for the best marketing services providers in the UK, the COGS 2016.

The COGS Awards categories cover a wide range of marketing service types, including risk management, print, fulfilment, prize provision, staffing and digital solutions, and any UK marketing services companies are eligible to enter.

Carey Trevill, Managing Director of the IPM, comments: “The IPM COGS have a very special place now in the marketing calendar. We are in our seventh year now of recognising and rewarding the unsung heroes who make promotional marketing campaigns all work so beautifully.”

Trevill added that this year’s judging panel chairs “have commented on the increased quality and standard of entries, not only making these Awards a joy to judge but rewarding to award the outstanding achievements.”

The IPM COGS, now in their seventh year, were created to celebrate the achievements of the marketing services companies which provide the ‘nuts and bolts’ elements behind great promotional marketing campaigns, rather than focusing on creativity or planning.

There are 14 different categories, as well as the Grand Prix and the Company of the Year.

The IPM COGS 2016 winners will be revealed at the Awards Presentation lunch on Friday 23rd September at the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel in Euston. The Winners list will be published at 6.00pm Friday 23rd September.

The full list of the companies shortlisted for The IPM COGS Awards 2016 is on the IPM website.

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