apt blog

Happy Birthday Jack... (Daniel's)

For those of you who don't already know, this summer we were joined here at apt by an University Intern called Grace. Currently studying Marketing, Advertising and Communications at Gloucestershire University, Grace is just about to leave us to return to her studies. We are really sad to see her go and will definitely miss having her enthusiasm and energy in the office!

It's not all doom and gloom however as this of course gave us the excuse to go down the pub! Little did we know that a trip to the Slug & Lettuce would show us a fab marketing campaign that really grabbed our attention!

Happy Birthday to Jack Daniel's, a well known friend for many and an enemy for a few...

Whilst in the Slug, benefitting from 2-4-1 on cocktails, someone ordered two Jack Daniel's based cocktails (risky we know). Along came the drinks and with it, a square of card with the Jack Daniel's challenge:

 
The square of card has four detachable corners and the idea is you grab three friends, each take a corner and pull. The corners pull out and you'll either see 'congratulations' or 'unlucky' - Congratulations and you are now the proud owner of a Jack Daniel's hat or t-shirt, unlucky and, well you're not! Regardless of the outcome, you will be left with a Jack Daniel's beer mat!

Plenty of pulling and numerous drinks later and we're finally the proud owner of a Jack Daniels Cowboy Hat! Buck couldn't be happier and can now be seen sporting his new attire in the wall in the office - Us, we're really inspired by the campaign and only wish we were working with Jack on the next big idea...

Buck proudly sporting his new hat...

 

 

It’s a social sort of thing…

Earlier on in the year, we praised Topshop for their Augmented Fitting Room; allowing customers to see how the clothes would look on, without having to queue or get changed! Well now it’s time to turn our attention and praise to Republic.

Customers of their new Westfield Stratford City store are in for a treat! Republic are one of the first retail chains to introduce interactive technology to the shopping experience. In collaboration with Toshiba Tec, Republic are trailing the ‘MiMirror’ technology at their Westfield store.

The interactive ‘MiMirror’ technology allows shoppers to capture images of different outfits they’re trying on. The digital screen features an inbuilt camera that also doubles up as a mirror. Customers can then share their looks with friends online through social media sites and emails.

By releasing this new kind of shopping experience, Republic wanted to reflect their commitment to keeping their customers at the heart of the brand. As shopping is often a social activity, it makes sense to give customers the opportunity to share their experience with others. Take a look at how it works…

 

Or to see Topshop’s Augmented Fitting Room one more time, take a look at our post from May…http://aptmarketing.typepad.com/apt_blog/2011/05/augmented-reality-topshop-trys-it-on-for-size.html.

PR Blog - Taste of Gloucestershire Food & Farming Awards 2011

If coffee is the rocket fuel of the business world... it might explain why our client SOHO Coffee Co is today celebrating winning the award for Food Business of the Year at the Taste of Gloucestershire Food & Farming Awards, held at the Cheltenham Racecourse last night.

Our team is chuffed to bits for the company Directors, Penny Manuel and Chris Copner, who took   over Cheltenham-based SOHO Coffee Co in 2006 when it had just five outlets. With our continu ing support, the company has now grown to include 21 stores in the UK and 3 European airports.

Penny Manuel, Director of SOHO Coffee Co was thrilled to receive the award, as she commented, “The whole SOHO team are very excited to have won Taste of Gloucestershire Food Business of the Year at their inaugural awards. We are especially pleased to have the quality of our food recognised amongst such great competition as Kitchen Garden Preserves, The Bottle Green Company and Cotteswold Dairy. Everyone in our team has contributed to this award but special mention goes to our great brigade in the kitchen who apply their own high standards to our food every day.”

The team at apt put on our posh frocks and headed to the black tie prize-giving ceremony hosted by Prue Leith, joining dozens of food businesses from across Gloucestershire to support two of our clients picked as finalists in separate nomination categories. Our other foodie client, The Inn at Fossebridge also made it to the finals in the Best Pub Food category for the use of locally sourced, fresh ingredients and strong ‘back to the land and no waste’ attitude within its menu.

The whole evening was fantastic and as you can imagine the food was superb (and  the sort of occasion you wish you could wear the stretchy trousers!). We were  treated to a 3-course meal using all produce sourced locally in Gloucestershire, Hobbs house bread and flavoured butter, Coln Valley smoked salmon, braised rump of lamb, apple and cinnamon crumble tart and a selection of local cheeses served with Cheltenham chutney.

We would like to congratulate all the finalists and winners who attended the ceremony and a big thank you to Gloucestershire Media for hosting such a fabulous event!

A little date we had…

Earlier this month we mentioned the Facebook teaser ad for by British Airways. After they had released a pre-ad snippet, to drum up interest for the premier of their first advert in two years, we added the release date to our calendar.

So the date has arrived; its11am and screening time for British Airways’ new advert. Titled ‘Aviators’, the advert features BA and its customers’ over the years. From pre-war through to modern day and back again; you’re taken on a journey as the pilot enters the plane, the passengers take their seats and the plane takes off - throughout all eras.

Although we loved the sentiment, it’s hard not to think that it was possibly over hyped! What do you think? Take a look for yourselves…

 
www.facebook.com/britishairways

Read our A date for your diary post from earlier this month… http://aptmarketing.typepad.com/apt_blog/2011/09/a-date-for-your-diary.html.

The United States of Retailtainment!

It’s now day 5 and the last instalment of our favourite uses of Retailtainment by worldwide brands. We’ve been through toys, fashion and chocolate so far but it’s fair to say that we’ve saved the biggest and best until last - our passion for retailtainment is going stateside!

Ever the exhibitionists, it’s no surprise that the Americans have got this one down to a tee. From themed brand stores, stand alone wonder-stores and extravagant mall experiential stores, America has tried it all; with the Mall of America being a longstanding entertainment centre, it wasn’t going to be long before other malls, stores and brands picked up on the in-store entertainment experience!

The Californian store John’s Incredible Pizza holds 9 chains, both stand-alone and in malls throughout America. This mega store not only provides the family with an unlimited pizza, pasta and salad buffet it also provides a level of entertainment similar to that of a brilliant theme park! With over 100 games and rides, John’s Fun World lets kids enjoy glow in the dark golf, bowling, bumper cars, laser tag and much more. John’s even features a redemption shop where tickets won in the Fun World can be exchanged for prizes and gifts. Even the adults get some entertainment with an in-store bar and TV set so parents can enjoy the weekly Football event on a Monday night!

 

Super stores in America are providing a world of experiences for their customers to enjoy. Restaurants are no longer just a place to eat and cinemas are not longer just a place to watch a good movie – rather, welcome to the world of combo cinemas. iPic in Wisconsin hosts a restaurant and bowling alley alongside their theatre screening rooms whereas E-Town in North Carolina boasts a collection of cinema screenings, bowling, a bar and restaurants all packaged as a family entertainment centre. With so much on offer, disagreements on how to spend the evening should be a thing of the past!

Over recent years, themed brand stores have started cropping up in malls throughout the US. These stores are in place purely for experiential purposes - take American Girl Place, for instance. The brand store allows mothers and daughters to enjoy time with their ‘American Girl’ dolls, dine out, take them to hair salons, pose for a picture in the photo studio and course shop!

 

With so much to choose from, the American Girl Place is definitely every little girl’s dream. Even if consumers aren’t entering the store for purchasing, American Girl are providing a sensational experience for mothers and daughters alike. Given the strength that word of mouth has among consumers today, American Girl are sure to get maximum expose when each young girl tells friends and family about their exciting time in the store!

When a store offers big entertainment it makes you wander what could be left. The experience factor of course! American extreme sports store Adrenalina hosts a Flowrider Wave Machine to offer surfing experiences to their customers. Only $20 for 30 minutes, customers can get that real life surfing experience in the safety of their favourite store. With such fun and creative retailtainment, even if customers are only drawn in to catch a wave, Adrenalina are sure to get valuable word of mouth from the in-store surfers!

 

Now from big waves onto something a little calmer… California Pets based in Orange County has stepped into the world of retailtainment with their Party Shack. California Pets are hosting birthday parties and offering Party Shack packages in their spacious beach hut, known as the Party Shack. Children can learn all about pets and how to care for them from California Pet’s own expert educators. From being introduced to up to ten pets as well as pet games, party food and a take home craft, California Pets have covered it all. They even offer educational visits for schools to introduce students to the world of pet animals, either in school or as a day trip out. Now if that’s not a reason to get down to the pet store, what is!

From the exciting and crazy to the cool and glamorous, we’ve seen it all and are certainly on the lookout for what’s going to come next! Can a giant chocolate wall, pizza buffet complete with in-store theme park or swimwear clad sales force really be topped? We don’t know, but we’re excited to find out…

Retailtainment Day 4 - Now that’s a kind of M&Magic!

It’s time for instalment 4 of our retailtainment week! So far we’ve seen the fun that fashion and toys have had with their stores and now on to what could possibly be the most exciting of all…chocolate!

M&M world in London’s Leicester square features four interactive floors of fun, excitement and of course, chocolate. As the first interactive store dedicated to a confectionary brand in the UK (excluding of course the Willy Wonker-esque Cadbury World), it’s a pretty special place to be.

The whole store is like one big tasting session. Large crowds build around each attraction in the store on a daily basis; including the big blue M&M character, in the driver’s seat of a silver Aston Martin, whom you can have your picture taken with.

The £10m Mecca is the most recent instalment of all the M&M worlds, with the first 3 all being in the US. The first of the four was launched in Las Vegas in 1997. The four storey shrine features a gift shop, 3D movie theatre, and a replica of the M&M race car featured in the US’s NASCAR Sprint Cup. As awesome as these attractions all are, the show stopper has got to be the display of M&M’s themselves. In nearly every colour, M&M’s are displayed along a huge wall ironically called the ‘My Colour’ wall.

The New York store was created in 2006, inside a three level glass box in Times Square. New York’s largest confectionary store features a 50-foot, 2-storey high Wall of Chocolate made up of 72 continuous M&M’s filled tubes.  In the same year, the Orlando store was named ‘International Store of the Year’ by Visual Merchandising & Store Design Magazine.

Although the previous three Worlds’ are monstrous mansions hidden with treats, they have nothing on the 35,000 square foot London manor; the worlds largest confectionary store!

As exciting as chocolate can be, not every visitor that goes through the door can be there to buy the product? After all, with a 50ft wall of chocolate, 3D M&M’s Nascar model or M&M’s London bus, wouldn’t you want to take a peak? As Peter Cross, one half of the Yellow Door management team, said “Why would you just not go somewhere that just gives you joy?”

The ambiance of Abercrombie & Fitch

When you think of young, trendy, casual fashion, what comes to mind? Would it be booming music, an attractive sales force and an air of pure, cool, exuberance? We think so, and so do Abercrombie & Fitch.

Abercrombie & Fitch, and their sister brand Hollister, have managed to recreate a cool, trendy world in all of their stores that their target market would love to be a part of. With their retailtainment package, it’s easy to see why customers would keep on coming back…

Before you even approach the store, the casual mood hits you. As you’re drawn in through the entrance way, the air becomes dark and mysterious. Winding your way around the old mahogany tavern style space, it’s hard not to be absorbed into the ultra-cool lifestyle Abercrombie embodies.

With the booming music and in store plants you get the overall feel of a Californian beachside bar; a true reflection on the brand identity. As if the senses weren’t overloaded enough, the stores are scattered with half-naked greeters that have a striking resemblance to a team a lifeguards. That’s got to be reason enough to get you through the doors!

Abercrombie’s use of retailtainment projects a clear reflection of the brand identity and personality into their stores. Customers are not just walking through the doors to stock up on their Abercrombie fave’s, they’re there to experience the culture that embodies the brand. You really do feel a part of that cool, casual, Californian lifestyle.

 

Day 2 – Nobody does it like Disney…

Following yesterday’s revelation about our love of retailtainment, out next focus is very magical indeed. If a store full of magic and mystery sounds exciting to you, then you’re going to love The Disney Store’s new abode that opened on Oxford Street earlier this year.

The largest of all the brand’s European branches, the Oxford Street marvel is a treat in itself. Spanning two floors, the delight took two years of planning and a life size replica in their Californian warehouse before it was even launched.  The sheer volume of the experience is bound to bring out the eternal youth in even the most grown-up of grown ups!

The mystical features of this Disney goldmine are endless. From pixie dust trails and animated trees to cartoon animations whizzing around the walls, there is something for everyone to be amazed by. By far the most astonishing aspect of the entire store is the 28ft castle which you’re immediately drawn to as soon as you enter. Every morning during the opening ceremony, you can also spot Tinkerbell sprinkling the castle with pixie dust for that added sparkle!

Yes, you read that right. The store even has its own opening ceremony on a daily basis. That has got to be half of the attraction in itself! Every morning, one lucky child is picked to open the rope barrier with a giant key. The idea is to entice children to return to the store with the hope that they will be picked for the ceremony (and a clever idea at that)!

Now, back to the store itself; as if the quirky atmospheric features weren’t enough, the in-store interactive entertainment surely has got to give you that awe factor! By waving a wand in front of the magical Disney Princess mirrors, short hologram style scenes are screened featuring the Disney Princesses themselves. You can even turn your visit into a day out style treat for the kids with the in-store theatre. With a number of events being held throughout the day, kids can take part in animation classes, quizzes and even learn to dance just like their favourite characters!

The detail that has been put into every aspect of the entertainment factor is incredible. The scent of freshly cut grass is pumped into the entrance of the store to give an outdoorsy feel whilst mood music is controlled by the sales team using an iPod touch.

The marketing and guest experience manager for the Oxford Street store, Jonathon Storey, has emphasised the importance of providing an experience and not just a place to buy products. Their aim was to ensure that customers would enter the store to be entertained even if they weren’t looking for merchandise. He said "Being the Walt Disney Company, we're primarily an entertainment company. While it's important to have great products we wanted to entertain out guests at the same time. We thought, 'How could we entertain children and families?' The idea was to create the best 30 minutes of a child's day."

Well, surely a visit to this magical marvel will be most exciting 30 minutes of everybody’s day!

 

Coming tomorrow…a look at Abercombie & Fitch’s retail theatre.

A week of Retailtainment – Day 1

When you walk into a shop, what would you like to see? Bland beige walls, poorly displayed stock and a quite obviously disinterested sales team that mutter a half-hearted ‘hello’? Doesn’t sound too appealing does it? Well how about if you were greeted by a glittery trail of pixie dust, beautiful bronzed bodies or a shiny Aston Martin? Welcome to the world of retailtainment.

If you’re wondering what we could possibly referring to…Retailtainment is the exciting way of pitching retail marketing as entertainment and incorporating an ‘experience’ factor into the retail mix. In other words, it’s giving clients a reason to come in store, whether they’re looking to purchase product or not.

With online retail on the rise, offline stores need to give customers some extra va-va-voom to entice them through the front door. With internet access to the same products and availability within 3-5 working days, more people are choosing to get their retail-fix from the comfort of their own homes. So what exactly can stores offer to get them back out on the High Street?

Following the recent launch of White Stuff’s take on retailtainment, we’ve picked some of the most eccentric, magical and eye-catching goings on in the world of retail to bring to you every day this week; starting with White Stuff’s quirky new ‘Swap Shop’.

 

To get rid of the gloomy stigma currently attached to the High Street, White Stuff has launched an exciting new venture that aims to increase the brand engagement with their customers. The stores will allow customers to bring in their old White Stuff items and exchange them for something else on the Swap Shop rail. What a fab way to get customers back into store and find unworn items an exciting new home!

To add further excitement, White Stuff will be trailing a monthly White Stuff Book Club sponsored by Penguin Books. The stores in Cardiff, Edinburgh, Battersea, St Albans, Norwich and Farnham will be the first to take part. Let’s hope that the launch is a success, maybe their will be a Book Club coming to a White Stuff near you!

Watch this space for more retailtainment we love, coming to you this week…

They’ve moved on to bigger and better things…

You may have noticed our love of clever little QR Codes and the creative ways they’ve been put into practice. When we came across the ways General Nutrition Centres Inc (GNC) had used theirs, it really made us look at the bigger picture.

Gone are the days when a little QR code would appear in the corner of an ad or website, GNC has displayed their code loud and proud…

 

…what a way to get consumer interaction going! Accompanied by the slogan ‘The most phenomenal thing you’ll do all day’, GNC has used the QR code to drive traffic into store. After scanning the code with your smartphone, passers by are directed to a web page containing the message ‘Congratulations, you won a free Phenom coconut water drink’. Naturally, consumers are then entering the store to collect their free drink… genius!

GNC used their first round of QR Codes in magazines and lead consumers on a trail to videos and further information about the brand with links to buy products online. If this wasn’t enough, the nutritional brand is planning to release codes on individual products later this year.