The IPM’s 30 Under 30 programme, sponsored by Sodexo, is aimed at identifying some of the brightest and best young talent in the UK promotional marketing industry. The 30 successful candidates are then offered access to a an extensive professional development programme to enhance their capabilities and to provide them with skills and knowledge which they can share with their colleagues in the organisations they work for.

Every year, IPM Members are invited to submit the names of suitable candidates. They can be from any role, any level – as long as the person concerned is under the age of 30 before the closing date of entry and works for an IPM Member.

Submissions are then assessed by a panel of independent professionals and senior IPM Members, who select the 30 successful candidates who are then offered access to a suite of learning experiences to enhance their capabilities and to provide them with skills and knowledge which they can share with their colleagues in the organisations they work for.

Over the next few months, www.promomarketing.info will be featuring comment from selected members of the 2018 30 Under 30 programme on a range of topics relevant to promotional marketing. The first topic is the impact of digital marketing and online shopping on the traditional retail industry…

Alice Hennell

Alice Hennell is client manager at secure digital voucher system provider, i-movo

In this connected, digital age it is true to say that the impact of digital on the shopper journey has been incredibly disruptive. What is less certain, however, is exactly how this disruption will play out in the retail sector in the long term.

You could argue that the prevalence of digital is proving detrimental to our traditional bricks-and-mortar retail industry. Shopping Amazon from your office desk with an abundance of choice and free shipping to your home address is an easy option for most consumers, and it’s one that doesn’t make bracing the high-street on a chilly December evening the most appealing alternative. But the impact of digital on the shopper journey has also resulted in opportunity and growth for retailers, and it is this that I find incredibly exciting.

The grocery convenience market is vast: over 60,000 stores across the UK trade as independent businesses, providing access to essential products for communities. These convenience stores aren’t listed on Amazon, the majority don’t have an online presence or use e-commerce platforms, and a marketing budget is not a common allocation of business funds.

Yet from my viewpoint, the ever-increasing impact of digital on the shopper journey can be leveraged to the advantage of these convenience retailers, leading to increased footfall, basket spend and, overall, profit margin.

In the FMCG sector, brands are increasingly using digital channels to serve consumers with promotional offers and vouchers, and it is this brand behaviour which will support and grow traditional smaller retailers in the foreseeable future.

Digital promotions can drive in-store visits, offering a life-line to sectors like the grocery convenience model, where innovation is required to stay competitive in the ever-changing retail landscape. A free chocolate bar voucher can be the trigger to getting a consumer to visit their local grocery store — and this is the point retailers can use to their advantage.

Publications like Retail Newsagent report on a weekly basis the innovations that independent retailers are employing to delight and retain the customers that visit their stores.

Customer service is key, as is following customer-led demand, driving the creation of extensive ranges of food-to-go, fresh produce and quality frozen meals. Cross-merchandising is another favoured technique for up-selling, while stand-alone services like coffee, fresh juice and ice cream machines are becoming more regular within a convenience store setting. Retailers are adapting to the changing climate and focusing on a more customer-centric approach.

What may seem at first seem like a one-time promotional voucher for an FMCG product can in fact lead to long-term shopper loyalty not just for the brand being promoted, but also for the retailer fulfilling the promotion.

As long as retailers can be agile in their responses to their market’s needs, there is scope for both bricks and mortar and e-commerce retail environments to thrive.

The impact of digital on the shopper journey may be substantial; but with the right strategy, it can actually aid retailers, both on and off the web.

Amber Morin-Farraway

Amber Morin-Farraway is a planner with agency whynot! thinkpeople

There’s a reason why people have been driven to online retailers; with convenience at its heart, it’s a tempting, straightforward path to purchase that you can complete in the comfort of your own home.

This shift from bricks and mortar to online purchases, as well as the rise and spread of social media, has meant that the traditional shopper journey has gained many more touch points throughout the years.

Digital has given us a wonderful and fun opportunity to speak to consumers across a new platform, allowing us to add value along the way by creating content built around the customer experience that supports the physical retail environment.

Bridging the gap between these offline and online worlds is of course our mobile.

It can function as a seamless link between multiple touch points, acting as the glue that holds it all together. It has the potential to be the hub for multiple functions, such as data collection, product availability, in-store experiences, purchases, payment, loyalty schemes etc. Encouragingly, a recent report from Mindshare titled Future of Retail CX, stated that 65% of consumers could see themselves using mobile more in the future to improve their in-store experiences. Therefore, it is vital for retailers to understand at which touch points they can utilize and optimize mobile for the best shopping experience possible.

And let’s not forget the prospect of personalisation.

Although shoppers are visiting a general store environment, there are opportunities throughout to take all of the data points collected and make something truly useful and personalized for shoppers.

Imagine a couple walks into a store, and floor staff is armed with their personal details.

Do they have any un-purchased items in their online basket that you can provide information for? Can you offer advice or guide them to relevant areas or brands based on their previous browsing history? Can smart shelves be utilized to deliver real-time information to their in-store location? Or perhaps to tell what items they have picked up in order to offer personalised incentives to purchase?

Such an integrated system can only offer more exciting and tailored shopping experiences in store, helping to create a richer and more immersive experience.

In my opinion, disruption, evolution and adaptation will continue to drive the shopper journey forward, becoming a frictionless and rewarding experience for the individual, whether making their full purchase online, in store, or a combination of both.

As Trevor Edwards, president of Nike brand, recently stated: “undifferentiated, mediocre retail won’t survive.”

Therefore, digital will not be the death of retail, but second-rate offerings will be its ultimate demise. No matter the platform, we should always be trying to create the feeling of a meaningful relationship between buyer and brand. In the end, the digital and physical environments can live independently from one another; however, when they’re used together, you’ll find you’ve hit your sweet spot.

Fiona Tindall

Fiona Tindall is Head of Domestic Retail at staffing solutions, travel retail and experiential specialist Blackjack Promotions.

The rapid rise of online retail and the continued growth of digital technologies had many people predicting the rapid demise of the high-street store. But like the years before, 2017 proved that this was far from the case. Bricks and mortar stores are likely to be more important than ever this year, as more and more online retailers get physical. The flip side is that high street outlets will increasingly embrace digital technology as they learn more and more from online retailers.

The explosion of online retail has resulted in a rush to create increasingly personal experiences for consumers as each strives for that key point of differentiation to help it stand out from the crowd. Key to this is mining customer data to help retailers get to know their audiences as deeply as possible to better understand their needs and preferences. This is also being used by physical stores to deliver more immersive and engaging in-store experiences.

Meanwhile, consumers are now carrying multiple smart devices which they are increasingly using to conduct their own price comparisons in-store with the likes of Google and Amazon. These are key lessons for physical retailers when creating in-store customer experiences and trying to push the ‘value’ message.

More and more, retailers are also thinking not only about how to create bespoke brand interactions in the physical space, but also how to reach out to consumers through their own devices in the digital space and how to bring the physical and digital worlds together.

Something few experts would have envisaged is digital retailers invading the physical world, yet this trend grew in 2017 and will continue to flourish this year. Amazon’s Christmas truck sent shockwaves through high street brands this Christmas as it set up (mobile) shop in the real world. But, of course, this was just one example of the increasingly popular pop-up retail outlet.

Although used by brands that don’t traditionally have their own retail outlets, as the year goes on, we will see more and more online retailers using them to deliver a physical experience to consumers to create a greater point of differentiation by immersing people more deeply in their brand.

Online beauty retailer Birchbox, for example, opened its first pop-up in London on the famous Carnaby Street not so long ago. Its mission has always been to “offer women a personalised way to shop for beauty” and the brand feels connecting with them face to face will help deliver further on this promise. This followed the opening of two permanent Birchbox stores in New York and Paris earlier in 2017.

What’s interesting is that Birchbox’s stores mirror the online experience putting a more intuitive twist on the traditional store environment, which predominantly physical retailers can learn from. Online retailers’ invasion of the high street – both temporarily through pop-ups and via permanent stores – will continue.

To keep shoppers coming back in a digital world, physical retailers will increasingly turn to presenting real theatre in store. The more advanced ones will lose some of their shelving and convert it to experiential space where brand ambassadors engage with shoppers. Racks of products are becoming less important than telling an engaging brand story and allowing people to experience it.

Furthermore, one of the biggest trends in retail at the moment is instant personalisation, with brand ambassadors actually creating something unique while the shopper waits. At Christmas, for example, you’ll see an outbreak of customised Christmas stockings, names engraved on perfume bottles, even consumers’ own personal messages on food or drink packaging. This makes consumers part of the brand and will be a growing trend.

To further improve the physical experience, this could be the year that augmented reality starts to realise its full in-store potential. Increasingly, customers will be able to use AR to scan a product in a high street outlet using their smart phone, then select the product they want to buy and place the order online. Apps, such as IKEA Place, will grow in popularity, and as AR technology matures, more retailers will explore ways to use it.

Robots are also on the rise. As more consumers embrace instant messaging apps such as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, both online and bricks-and-mortar retailers will use these platforms to talk to customers and streamline communications. For instance, if a shopper wants to track their order, they can just “ask” the retailer on Messenger, and a chatbot can automatically retrieve the shipment information. The use of chatbots will develop further, with retailers widening their use. Victoria’s Secret, for example, is already using chatbots to showcase its product lines.

It’s going to be some time yet, however, before robots replace people in stores – if it ever happens at all. Nothing can offer a more personal service than an actual person. The rise in retail theatre and the growth of pop-up stores means brand ambassadors who truly represent and embrace both retailers and the products they stock will be more important than ever this year.

So from data, chatbots and AR to pop-ups, retail theatre and brand ambassadors, 2018 will see the line between the physical and digital retail world becoming more blurred than ever before.

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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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Carey Trevill, Managing Director of the Institute of Promotional Marketing, says: “Amongst our Membership, we see emerging talent that creates success and innovation at every point. And we’re not just talking financial success – we’re talking about teams being built, lives shaped and hearts won in the pursuit of promotional expertise. Recognising this next generation of leaders is crucial to the creativity, success and tempo of the promotional marketing industry.”

The chosen candidates will now be officially welcomed to the 30 Under 30 2017 programme at an event to be held on December 8th 2016 at The Hospital Club in Covent Garden.

The IPM 30 Under 30 2017 programme was launched on September 27th 2016, with a call for entries from IPM member companies. Candidates could be of any level and any role, so long as they were under the age of 30 before the closing date of entry, which was 23.59 hours on Friday October 28^th 2016. They also had to work for an IPM member.

The IPM is dedicated to championing professional development for the up-and-coming in the promotional marketing industry. Candidates were asked to state clear reasons why their inclusion on the programme would make a difference to their professional and personal development, together with evidence and endorsements.

The judging panel consisted of  Chris Baldwin, Director of Consumer Programmes at Fotorama; Victoria Walsh, Founder, The Believe Consultancy; Richard Pink, PinkKey Consulting; Hina Parmar, Legal Counsel AB InBev; and Sam Jones, Founder, TwentySomeone.

They sifted through a massive number of submissions to find the winners and their choices can now be viewed on the IPM website.

The candidates chosen for the programme will now be offered the chance to participate in a range of learning experiences to enhance their capabilities and to provide them with skills and knowledge which they can take away and share with their colleagues in the organisations they work for.

The next call for entries, for the 30 Under 30 2018 programme, will open in September 2017. If you are an IPM Member and would like to register interest for the next intake, please contact the IPM team.

The IPM 30 Under 30 2017 programme is sponsored by Fotorama, part of the Sodexo Family.

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More than that, the IPM’s 30 Under 30 2017 initiative – proudly sponsored by Fotorama, part of the Sodexo family, without whose support it could not take place – offers the chance for the 30 successful candidates to enhance their capabilities even further, with a range of tailored learning experiences over the course of 2017.

In addition, successful candidates will also have the opportunity to sit on the IPM’s 30 Under 30 exclusive group, which will contribute to the organisation’s future learning offerings and act as an incubator and sounding board for new IPM products and services and generally ensure the body is listening to the opinions and needs of its Generation X and Generation Y members.

Only people working for IPM member companies are eligible to be put forward for the 30 Under 30 program and they must be under the age of 30 at the closing date for entry (see here for all the details about eligibility, how to enter and the full terms and conditions).

Entries are being accepted until 23:59 on 28th October 2016. There is no charge for entry and an IPM member can put forward as many names as they want. Individuals are allowed to enter themselves, but only one entry per person is allowed. Every entry must be supported by at least one person (other than the person being put forward).

Judging will take place in November, with successful candidates for the Program informed mid-November of their success. The results will be published online no later than 28th November. Successful candidates will be invited to a private reception to be awarded ‘IPM 30 Under 30 2017′ status on the 8th December.

The Judges for the 30 Under 30 program will come from the IPM Membership and HR professionals who are experts in employment issues, staff motivation and diversity. Judging criteria are set out in the entry process.

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The IPM, the UK industry body for promotional marketing, has just celebrated a phenomenal 100% success rate for the 2015 intake for both its IPM Diploma and its IPM Incentive & Motivation Diploma.

IPM Diploma graduates received their certificates from IPM President Lord Black and Chairman Graham Temple. IPM Incentive & Motivation Diploma received theirs from Lord Black and John Sylvester, IPM Vice Chairman.

Both courses saw every student pass, with many achieving credits and distinctions. In the IPM Diploma, 60% of candidates were awarded a credit and 9% a distinction. In the IPM Incentive and Motivation Diploma, 40% of candidates achieved a credit or distinction in their final mark.

The IPM Diploma is seen as the best possible grounding for anyone responsible for running promotions within the UK and mainland Europe. The course involves a series of assignments and a set brief that has to be completed within a six-month period.

Candidates leave the course with a foundation knowledge of promotional marketing necessary to understand the discipline’s role within integrated communications campaigns, including planning, instigating and managing effective promotional marketing concepts with confidence.

The IPM Incentive & Motivation Diploma is a qualification specifically designed for the reward and recognition industry. It takes the form of a distance learning programme with seven modules and a set brief that are to be completed over a five-month period.

It provides a thorough understanding of Incentive & Motivation techniques and is widely recognised within the industry as the benchmark for best practice, ensuring that candidates are able to confidently plan, instigate and manage Incentive & Motivation campaigns.

Beth Pridham, Brand Manager at Odeon Cinemas, received a distinction in the IPM Diploma 2015. She says: “The depth of knowledge gained around keeping promotional activity legal, fair and air-tight was especially interesting and crucial to my day-to-day role. The insight modules also encouraged me to really think about how to engage with a particular audience to achieve our desired business-focussed objectives.”

Agencies, brands and service providers frequently highlight the wider business benefits of sending staff on IPM run Diplomas, courses and seminars. To put it simply, businesses that train their staff are more successful than those who don’t.

Jessica Mason, Account Director at Haygarth, mentored Maria Marti, another distinction candidate in the 2015 IPM Diploma intake. Mason said: “The IPM Diploma really benefits team members, especially giving them the confidence to advise our clients and manage demands and expectations. Recently, three of our Promotional and Shopper Marketing team members gained two merits and a distinction; we were thrilled to support them all through this.”

Pia Zeyss, Senior Account Manager at AYMTM, who took the IPM Incentive & Motivation Diploma, added: “Having not had much exposure to the strategic part of reward and recognition, the course provided a very good insight into the way we can currently reward and recognise as well as motivate and incentivise employees. I now feel far more confident in talking to my clients about the communications and reward strategy elements of a programme rather than only being able to comment on event logistics and the end reward. Being able to apply a solution to a brief was especially insightful in understanding this part of the industry we work in and linking the two sectors together.”

Carey Trevill, Managing Director at the IPM, commented: “Our training leads the world in terms of building promotional campaigns from the ground-up, giving candidates of any background and experience the confidence they need to run compliant and creative activities. We’re delighted that all the candidates passed, and that a high proportion did so with a credit or distinction.”

The IPM Diploma 2016 course starts in March, while the IPM Incentive & Motivation Diploma 2016 course kicks off in May. For more information on either, visit the Training section of the IPM’s website. 

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