'Fresh' UK Marketing News from theMarketingblog

Nice work if you can get it! @usainbolt and @FinallyMario having a blast in new @PUMA TV ad

Puma has released a TV ad featuring Mario and Usain Bolt in a hot tub to launch its new brand platform.

The ad is called "calling all troublemakers" and was created by JWT New York. The spot is part of Puma’s new "forever faster" brand platform.

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Rory McIlroy spends time with fan, M&S loses top-ranking board member, Remember Andy Murray, Cristiano Ronaldo stands out, Sartorial slumming, How to earn customer loyalty,

Help commemorate the deaths of Andy Murray and Harry Styles, WWI soldiers

From www.fastcocreate.com - 

The Royal British Legion is using recognizable names to promote its campaign to honor every Commonwealth serviceman who died in WWI.


It's not the Andy Murray who won the 2013 Wimbledon title, it's the one who died in 1915. That name, along with Harry Styles, Tom Jones, Alex Ferguson and Gordon Brown are famous in the U.K. and around the world, but they also share the monikers with the fallen fighters of the First World War. 

The Royal British Legion and agency RKCR/Y&R are using these coincidental circumstances to help promote an online campaign to commemorate each and every of the more than million Commonwealth serviceman who died as a result of WWI.

 

SME's / How to earn customer loyalty

From origin-www.businessweek.com - 

Five tips to create the kind of friendly, honest, service-oriented business that will keep customers coming back

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Loyalty really comes down to this: giving people a reason to shop at your business, rather than going across town or hopping online and spending their money at a larger, better-known company. Most often, people go out of their way to patronize small companies because they know and like the people there and enjoy the shopping experience.

 

Another one bites the dust : M&S loses top-ranking board member Jan du Plessis to SABMiller

From www.dailymail.co.uk - 

Senior non-executive director Jan du Plessis yesterday quit his job at the high street giant to take up the position of chairman at Peroni brewer SABMiller.


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Jan du Plessis - A hard hitter, he was seen as a steadying force on the retailer’s board, and one of the men best able to hold to account chief executive Marc Bolland, under whom M&S has encountered mixed fortunes. Although its food business has grown strongly, the Dutchman has failed to turn around its clothing division and presided over 12 quarters of falling sales in its non-food general merchandise division.

Cristiano Ronaldo in the most bizarre endorsement deal ad

From www.fastcocreate.com - 

There shouldn't be enough money in the world to get someone to do this.


Look, we all know sometimes athletes make strange endorsement choices.Scooters, car dealerships, roomy toe areas, it's obvious the pros are just getting a pay day. 

But even in the jaded light of blatant consumerism, this Japanese ad for a company called Pao starring Cristiano Ronaldo stands out.

 

Women for Women : The global business of sartorial slumming

From www.newyorker.com - 

Middle-class kids spend billions to project street cred. The upshot is a pair of jeans, pummeled by a lion or tiger, with a four-digit price tag.

It now appears, according to an article on the British Web site the Conversation, that jeans savaged by wild animals are a trend in designer sportswear. 

A Japanese denim brand had the bright idea, at least for raising its profile, of sewing indigo-dyed cotton fabric around rimless tires, sausage-shaped bolsters, and fat rubber balls, and throwing the objects to the inmates of the Kamine Zoo, in Hitachi City. In an accompanying video, the beasts bound from their cages and fall upon their novel chew toys with such relish that you have to wonder if there isn’t a little catnip involved. 

The scene reminded me of toddlers on Christmas morning, tumbling down the stairs, unable to contain their excitement, and tearing into the neatly wrapped parcels under the tree.

 

Rory McIlroy spends time with fan at Louisville gas station

From www.pgatour.com - 

Rory McIlroy (28237), PGA Championship, PGA TOUR

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Campbell left impressed with McIlroy, concluding the blog by saying: “He’s the #1 golfer in the world and more importantly a fine young man. Those two don’t always go together. He could have easily ignored us and we would have understood — after all, he is trying to win a major championship. 

 But he didn’t ignore us because he has character and recognizes the importance and his responsibility as an ambassador of the game. He took just a minute of his time to create an experience that we won’t forget. The man is one of the best drivers in golf, drives his own car and was going to pump his own gas. 

And he’s even driving on the wrong side of the road compared to how he learned to drive in Northern Ireland. Success has not gone to his head, and I hope that it never does. If he keeps his feet on the ground, it’s hard to say how much of his potential that he will achieve.”

Q. Is the footwear industry on the edge? / Fiona Wyatt

Salman Khan_Relaxo_Hawaiin_Talking Mens Shoes

FOOTWEAR INDUSTRY ON THE EDGE?

It has been 5 years since the Global Financial Crisis, and economic recovery is well overdue. The IMF cited that the two most likely global risks for economic resilience is, fiscal imbalances and income disparity. The Footwear industry has certainly been impacted by both. 

You should include adverse weather, which has seen winter collections and summer collections selling so slow, that sales have been the feature of most retailers for far too long.

According to Euromonitor.com - Apparel and footwear has seen an hourglass consumption shape for 2013. This means that consumers are paying for premium and economy products over the mid price products.

The pattern appears to be, that the little growth in 2013, was not in Europe. Look at these figures from Europe:

  • Italy had unemployment levels of 12% in general, and 35% amongst the young.
  • Switzerland’s low temperatures resulted in retailers selling summer products cheap.
  • The men’s footwear section was hardest hit in the Netherlands, men did not spend as much on athletic shoes in favour of pairing up smart/casual look.
  • Pretty much the same could be said for Spain, France, Greece, Portugal.
  • The few glimmers of hope came from Austria, Finland and Poland who all saw an increase of 1% in their apparel and footwear sales.

The rest of the world fared better, however still painting a picture of cautious sales.

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Changing people’s attitudes towards ageing and getting them to celebrate later life / Age UK

Age UK, a charity dedicated to helping everyone make the most of later life, implemented a marketing campaign utilising Stackla aimed at changing people’s attitudes towards ageing and getting them to celebrate later life.

The charity kicked off the campaign with a TV advert featuring a poem written by Roger McGough that describes ageing as a “way of life” with people encouraged to share their ‘stories’ on social media about why age wasn’t a barrier to enjoying life.

The TV spot is supported by a “Love Later Life” social hub platform provided by Stackla that shows social stories from Age UK and the public that also features support from celebrities including Sir Roger Moore, Alastair Stewart and Zoe Wanamaker.

 It aims to encourage people to think differently about getting older and demonstrate older people’s role in society.

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What type of transparency do online advertisers really need? / Daniel de Sybel, Infectious Media

05 Aug 2014  |  Daniel de Sybel      

What type of transparency do online advertisers really need

Clients are rightly demanding more transparency in digital advertising, writes Infectious Media's Daniel de Sybel - but are they focused on the right type? It's time to make some clear distinctions.

"Transparency" in online display advertising has become somewhat of a dirty topic. Being accused of lacking transparency now carries connotations of nefarious media executives planning new ways of making money by increasingly obscure means. Advertisers are seen as the victims, tempted by promises of smart technology and more efficient buying, persuading them to spend more in areas they don't really understand.

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