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.

The post St Ives launches new agency, Edit appeared first on IPM Bitesize.

Clipper Teas, the Fairtrade tea brand from Wessanen UK, is launching a three-tiered summer sampling campaign for its green tea range, designed to position the brand as the “Queen of Greens.”

The Fairtrade brand, which currently produces more than 15 green tea variants, will distribute over 250,000 samples of its flagship Pure Green Tea throughout July. The campaign will feature a mixture of face-to-face hit squads, office-based sampling and free samples in ASOS mail deliveries.

BEcause Experiential Marketing has been hired to mastermind the live hit squad aspect of the campaign. An all-female ‘Clipper Crew’ of green tea ‘queens’ in flower-chain crowns, will tour high-footfall outdoor areas within the M25 over nine days of live activity, distributing samples from bicycles and trailers with simple, rustic charm. Public spaces around Wimbledon Park showing the tennis championships on giant screens will be amongst the areas targeted.

To support the hit squad activity, Clipper has engaged GemsAtWork to manage an office-based sampling campaign, whilst Response One has been tasked with coordinating free samples in all mail order deliveries from online fashion retailer ASOS throughout July.

The new campaign aims to champion the delicious, natural taste of Clipper’s Green Tea range as well the health benefits of green tea, and the company’s ethical heritage. It builds on the brand’s quirky Truthful Green Tea Shop pop-up activation earlier this year, which took a humorous hidden camera approach to highlight the difference between Clipper’s green teas and those produced by many other manufacturers.

Gill Green, Marketing Director at Wessanen UK, comments: “Demand for green tea continues to boom, yet within this highly-competitive marketplace we believe our green tea reigns supreme. This concerted sampling drive will allow us to directly reach potential customers that may not have experienced our great-tasting tea before, and to introduce them to our range of delicious, all natural flavours. It is also an opportunity to chat with consumers about the difference they can make to the lives of tea workers and their families, just by drinking a cup of Fairtrade tea from Clipper.”

The post Clipper Teas sampling drive appeared first on IPM Bitesize.

Natalie Betts of Response One looks at sampling in cosmetics

COMMENT The cosmetics industry is based around selling little objects of desire, and its marketers are always eager to innovate and add some gloss to their customer communications. Traditionally, they have been heavy users of sampling and free gifts, in various forms – given away with magazines, in-store or through beauty salons, for example.

But the internet is having a massive impact on the sector. The UK hair and beauty market was worth almost £5bn last year, and there was an 80% hike in online sales between 2014 and 2015.

Recent research conducted by our St Ives Group sister consultancy Pragma showed that web-based research is becoming more frequent among both sexes. For young women in particular, the trend is for consulting vloggers such as Zoella and Tanya Burr, with 85% of 16- to 20-year-old females within the 2,000 people surveyed regularly viewing vlogs.

A key challenge for online shopping is finding a way to stimulate the non-visual senses of people browsing items on a 2D screen. Just as people still want physical newspapers to read, they like to hold beauty products to test them out. In particular, touch and smell are vital considerations. So how can all of that digital deliberation be brought to life with a multi-sensory experience?

A deeper delve into the data suggests sampling is still the answer. Respondents cited it as a key reason for buying a new product, second only to price and offers. Some 41% of women and 18% of men said testers were important in their decision making; this ranks above channels such as advertising, brand image, ingredients, reviews and medical endorsements. The stats show a growing appetite for sampling across age groups. Despite this, however, many brands are still only paying lip service to it.

In-store sampling is the traditional route and remains popular. But from experience we know brands are missing out on trade due to lack of available samples and clearly marked testers. So they should also consider getting directly into people’s hands, giving them a ‘wow’ moment when they are already a captive audience.

One way to do this is via affinity sampling, where brands partner with online retailers who have a matching customer profile to include samples and testers in that retailer’s regular parcels.

Recipients are encouraged to share their delight at their free gift via social media, and this can be amplified by the brand and retail partner. For example, we recently ran a campaign for L’Oreal Garnier Ultimate Blends where testers were placed in ASOS deliveries.

Sampling has traditionally been heavily targeted at ‘warm’ customers, people who are already in the cosmetics section of a department store, for example. Affinity sampling has a much wider reach and also gets to people in their own homes.

It’s a relatively new channel, so there’s a high chance of cut-through in a cluttered marketplace. Getting a product into someone’s hands can be much more effective than bombarding them with messages on the daily commute. Conversely, sampling can also support above-the-line work. Royal Mail research shows TV and print ads resonate longer and stronger when followed up with tangible communications.

Understanding the customer allows brands to plan the perfect moment to reach them. Lots of women, for example, buy make-up for specific occasions, from a party to a night out after work. If a new item is received that day, it’s a great opportunity for someone to test it while they’re in the right environment and in the right frame of mind.

With lots of positive feedback from their family or friends, they are much more likely to return for a full-sized item. Rimmel found this when it placed creams in Missguided deliveries, while Davidoff learned the same process also works for men when it sampled a fragrance alongside shirt orders from The Saville Row Company.

Targeting beauty customers is more challenging than ever. The post-digital customer journey has opened the floodgates to new brands and empowered consumers to discover products in myriad ways. Innovation is critical in this landscape, and harnessing people’s growing desire to test and sample is a potentially lucrative way to engage them.

Natalie Betts is Experience Marketing Manager at agency Response One, a St Ives Group company

The post Do good things come in small packages? appeared first on IPM Bitesize.