On Wednesday 8th February, the apt team headed out on a team building event and there was no better way to focus on team building than an escape room followed by lots of food (...and wine)!
The team chose to experience the brand new Trapped Escape Rooms located on Eastgate Street in Gloucester and their two themed escape rooms. If you’ve not heard of an escape room before, it is a physical adventure game where the players are locked in a room and need to solve puzzles and clues to escape, all while being up against the clock!
Trapped Escape Rooms in Gloucester which only opened on Wednesday 1st February 2017 were absolutely excellent and accommodating to our team building event. Upon arrival, we were given the all important safety briefing and the team was split up into teams of five to go head to head against each other...
So with the team split into Team Haunted Hotel & Team Prison Break we were sent to our rooms to escape. It was made all the more humorous with Team Prison Break having to fashion orange and striped jumpsuits!
Team Prison Break however, had the last laugh. The team managed to escape from their room with 30 minutes still on the clock making it to the top of the leader board completing the room in just 29:31 minutes! Meanwhile Team Haunted Hotel were still trapped, although they managed to escape (with quite a few clues) with one second to spare!
The experience that the teams had in each room were completely different, Team Prison Break were thrown into traditional jail cells while Team Haunted Hotel were stuck in a spooky hotel room. It was almost like having a ‘Big Brother’ in the room with the interactive screens as well as some other interactive surprises in the Haunted Hotel room including loud bangs on the walls...which made Sarah, Jess and Dawn all jump out of their skins!
Trapped Escape Rooms in Gloucester have done a fantastic job at bringing the global phenomenon to the local area and we are really looking forward to watching their business grow. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out their website and like their Facebook page to keep up to date with what they’re up to and their exciting offers.
Our MD, Angie recently went for a little R&R at new Cheltenham salon, Margaret Dabbs. Located in the Montpellier district, the salon is a globally recognised brand specialising in manicure and pedicure treatments for both men and women.
The first foot clinic was founded in 1998 in London by Margaret Dabbs herself and since then she has now opened five salons across the UK and one in Dubai.
Angie arrived at the gorgeous Montpellier salon last week and was greeted by Alex the new manager and introduced to the team including the lovely Kay, a celebrated foot expert. Angie was treated to the Margaret Dabbs Medical Pedicure which is renowned for perfectly pampered feet as the end result. The dry foot treatment is carried out by a professional podiatrist who gives your feet a thorough overhaul and addresses all aspects of your own foot health including whether you’re wearing the correct shoes and walking with care.
The treatment is finished off using the Margaret Dabbs award winning product range and a choice of colourful polishes for the ladies, which are enriched with essential oils to help keep nails healthy. Angie chose a bright red (just in time for the festive season) to complete her foot pampering session.
Thank you to Kay and the team at Margaret Dabbs in Cheltenham, Angie really enjoyed her experience and can’t wait to visit again! A really true observation was made during the treatment that we ladies pay a lot for lots of shoes yet we so often neglect to look after the feet that we put in them. Time to take care as we cannot cast off the feet like we can an old pair of shoes! :-)
For more information on the services Margaret Dabbs provide please visit the website here, you might also be able to find that perfect Christmas gift you’ve been looking for!
New figures released from the Advertising Standards Authority have revealed the top ten most complained about adverts in 2015. These particular adverts have made the list due to the themes and issues offending and misleading some viewers.
Of course, the grounds on how an advert can be offensive is based solely on an individual’s opinion, Guy Parker Chief Executive at ASA said “Our Top 10 for 2015 will no doubt get people talking about whether the ads are or aren’t offensive, but there are important issues at stake here. Advertisers must take care not to cause serious or widespread offence.”
2015’s top ten most complained about adverts are:
Moneysupermarket.com Ltd
The advert consisting of Dave strutting his stuff the Pussycat Dolls received 1,513 complaints.
Booking.com BV
Booking.com prompted complaints of encouraging bad language by using the word ‘booking’ in the place of a swear word. This advert received 683 complaints.
Paypal UK Ltd
Their latest Christmas advert sparked 464 complaints after claims that it revealed the truth about Father Christmas after two children recognised that their parents hadn’t been shopping.
Booking.com BV
Booking.com used the same light hearted play on words with their advert of a man swimming back to his holiday resort which received 407 complaints.
Protein World Ltd
After advertising a woman in a bikini, Protein World Ltd was criticised for being offensive. This campaign had 380 complaints.
British Heart Foundation
The British Heart Foundation fell under scrutiny after their advert of a boy sat in classroom talking to his father who had died from a heart attack was released. This advert received 219 complaints.
Booking.com BV
This particular advert showing a couple meeting at a hotel, received 201 complaints after the same play on words was used.
Department of Health
The anti-smoking campaign from Public Health England showed a man smoking a cigarette that had blood and flesh inside it. This advert received 181 complaints.
Nicocigs Ltd
This advert received 145 after many people thought the advertising of e-cigarettes was appealing to children.
Omega Pharma Ltd
An advert for their XLS Medial slimming aid received 136 complaints after viewers felt that it an irresponsible approach to body images.
Canadian clothing store, Mark’s is offering discounts to its customers based upon the freezing temperatures outside; literally allowing their sales to rise and fall with the temperatures. The men’s clothing store, based in Toronto will be offering in-store discount based on days with the lowest temperatures over the next two weeks.
If this freezing frenzy proves successful the idea may expand to other cities; but it will be measured differently. Discounts will be offered based upon the amount of rain in Vancouver, whereas Winnipeg will supply discounted goods according to the amount of snowfall.
It’s a sneakily clever concept to increase sales, as people constantly battle against the miserably hectic weather, a good bargain is almost fool proof to cheering them up!
Although this idea isn’t exactly brand spanking new we still love it; a fast food chain in Quebec called Chez Ashton has been offering weatherly discounts for years. Quebecans can expect to receive quite a discount off the price of burgers as the average low for February is about -15 Celsius! 15% off a hot meal (yes, it’s fast food) but it is sure to get people off the snowy streets and flood into the store shouting orders across to the counter.
The average temperature for Toronto is February is normally a mild minus6, maybe not the bargain shoppers were hoping for; but this year , Toronto has been battling a cruel winter and the weather forecasts are predicting double-digit freezes over the next two weeks which means good news for Mark’s stores providing a cool discount for customers looking to stock up on woollies!
The United States has been in full swing celebrating the National Football League Superbowl and with the championships being one of the most watched sporting events in the world; people in the UK will wait until the wee hours of the morning to make sure they don’t miss a game... but we all know that with the Superbowl comes a battle of the ads.
Many Superbowl advertisements have gone down in history and it’s not because they interrupt the sporting entertainment. In 2013, over 50% of the Superbowl viewers just tuned in to watch the slightly creatively crazed ads. However to advertise to the global viewers comes at a huge price...a 30 second slot will cost you around $4 million and for a 60 second slot you’d be looking at paying a jaw dropping $8 million!
Newcastle Brown Ale couldn’t afford to produce a multi-million dollar advertisement for the 2015 Superbowl; they could however, afford to produce an action packed storyboard! The ad, which can be found on their ‘IfWeMadeIt’ website, details typically unrealistic scenarios that can all be solved with a bottle of Newcastle Brown Ale. The scene is set with a desert beach island in the middle of the ocean, a man washed up on the beach and a bottle of Newcastle Brown Ale that washes up too. The cap is popped and immediately thousands of bikini clad women are before him, a little like the Lynx advert that aired a few years back. The storyboard continues with a handful of surreal scenarios including a wild beach party complete with dancing sharks, deadly deep sea robots, fuming football gorillas and cool skate boarding cats all whilst throwing life saving bottles of Newcastle Brown Ale! It certainly would have been a Superbowl ad that would have kept a significant amount of viewers entertained, especially if they could’ve afforded to make it!
Fast Food giant McDonald’s could obviously afford to have a slot in the Superbowl ads but it’s not the ‘Give Lovin Get Lovin’ ad that is making the news. Brands have been trending nationally on Twitter due to the pre-game and in-game advertisements and McDonalds has been very clever retweeting thousands of other marketing spots and competitions; the best bit is that McDonalds have been adding ‘lovin’ into each one. McDonalds may just be doing better with their social media this year than their actual Big Game TV spot!
Jeep chose to enter the Superbowl battle of the ads to show off their new off-road-lite model Renegade, the ad consists of various environmental shots from around the world with shots introducing the newly modelled vehicle. It is shot with soft camera movements and the transitions are clean cut with background track of folk music titled This Land is Your Land. It could be slightly embarrassing for Jeep because late last year North Face created a very similar advertisement, in fact almost exactly the same; even the same background track was used! The only differences between the two are the different logos and unique selling points; someone must’ve really liked the North Face ad at Jeep and decided to use the idea...
Of course, over the years, many Superbowl ads have been shocking and been stereotypical towards genders and this year’s example has to be the parody advert from Totino’s Pizza Rolls. The advert opens to a room full of men and a woman serving the branded pizza rolls, she then retires back to the kitchen and speaks to the audience saying how bored she used to be whilst waiting for the next batch of snacks to be ready; she then introduces the Super Bowl Activity Pack For Women with small puzzles and toys to keep women entertained whilst serving the ‘boys’.
This year’s Superbowl has seen many big brand companies such as Coca-Cola, Budweiser, Doritos and Toyota all take part in the battle of the ads but some of the favourites this year have been ‘The Brady Bunch’ by Snickers sticking to the ‘You’re Not You When You’re Hungry’ campaign with an appearance from the highly tattooed and slightly scary looking Danny Trejo, as Marcia Brady. Another is The ‘Lost Dog’ ad from Budweiser; obviously the story follows a lost puppy that is rescued by a group of horses from the jaws of a wolf – how heart warming.
So once again the battle of the ads are over for 2015 as NFL Superbowl comes to an end, they’ll be back next year with crazy and shocking ads, many companies may have even started storyboarding already... if not they’ll certainly need to start budgeting for their spot...
After being deemed Oxford Dictionary’s Word of the Year 2013, we thought the term ‘selfie’ had reached its peak – but we couldn’t have been more wrong!
This week we have seen two new products that are set to take selfies to the next level. Both products aim to remove the problem of ‘shaky hand syndrome’ and help to take the perfect selfie shot.
Selfie brush – “The brush that has everyone talking”
The Selfie brush plans on bringing together technology and beauty for all those with an iPhone 5 or 5s (notably not the new iPhone 6 or 6s). The selfie brush also comes with a tutorial to help users take the perfect selfie. Top Tips include using natural light and not a flash, prepping your hair, ditching the ‘duck face’ and finding the right filter.
Selfie Sombrero: - The world’s first selfie hat
Following on from the Selfie brush, the next product to come into the limelight this week is the selfie hat. The selfie hat is a collaboration between first year London College of Fashion student Christian Cowan-Sanluis and technology brand Acer.
The hat can spin 360° allowing the wearer to capture a photo at any angle. The tablet is also installed with Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to allow for instant uploads of selfies to social networking sites.
The hat currently costs £599 and is available by appointment only. The product has been bought by Lady Gaga and has also had interest from other celebrities.
Whilst we can see how these products can help users to take selfies easier, we think the craze has gone slightly OTT where people are beginning to capture their memories through camera lenses instead of through their eyes first!
What are your thoughts on the selfie brush or the selfie sombrero? Tweet us at @apt_marketing!
We’ve seen Nike innovate their trainers with Nike ID and now rival sports brand Adidas is set to jump on the bandwagon with the autumn launch of their latest app; it allows consumers to take their favourite Instagram pictures and print them onto a pair of the brand’s ZX Flux trainers.
In a post on their Instagram site, Adidas unveiled the launch of the app by saying "Print your favourite photos straight on to one of 2014's hottest silhouettes and make a statement on your sneakers like never before... the possibilities are endless."
Launching this August, Adidas’ photo print app will be available on both iPhone and Androids so users can print images from social media sites onto a pair of their branded trainers.
Just over a year ago we wrote a blog post on the marketing trends of 2013. One of the key trends of that blog post was this notion of social re-engineering and how the increasing impact of consumer empowerment is shifting the concept of marketing into the hands of the consumer. There are clear similarities between the trend itself with Nike ID and Adidas’ latest marketing activity – they both base themselves around product personalisation.
While Nike has created a whole e-commerce system on their website so consumers can design their own branded shoes; Adidas has developed their own model by creating an app that uses consumers’ images to design their own personalised shoes. Both of these use product personalisation allowing their consumers to create a design and print it onto the respective brand shoes.
The concept itself is very clever and not only allows consumers to engage with the brand but also to be a part of the product process. This will no doubt lead to greater customer retention which is built on relationship and familiarity, two things that personalisation both facilitates and is based upon.
Once a legendary striker for club and country, Gary Lineker, was best known for his footballing exploits on the field, but this week saw him put his taste buds to the test in a Bushtucker Trial-style taster session as part of Walker’s reinvigorated marketing campaign – Do Us A Flavour.
Do Us A Flavour was re-launched back in January and sets the public the creative task of designing a new flavour for the brand, in a bid to win one million pounds. They have the choice of picking one of Walkers' ingredients as a base and then they will be allowed to choose their own unique flavours.
In their latest advertisement stunt Walkers persuaded the Match of the Day presenter to face some of the public’s more wacky suggestions ‘as it’s part of his contract’ such as tomato smothered in wasabi and beef and beetle.
Some of you may recognise this competition from before as Walker’s previously attempted the activity back in 2008. Although with the rapid movement of digital marketing it has enabled the campaign to come back with a stronger, more interactive and engaging presence.
The competition is a fantastic approach to consumer engagement, ultimately allowing people to interact with the product development process and generate innovative ideas for the Walkers product range.
After all, who doesn’t love coming up with new food ideas?
Social Media is arguably omnipresent; It’s part of everything we do these days but possibly the last place we’d expect to see it is at the dinner table! This week brings the news that Birdseye is adding social media to its product range in the form of ‘Mashtags’.
Mashtags are a potato based product featuring five social media-friendly shapes, including the well-known hashtag, @ symbol, asterisk, heart and a smiley face shaped emoji. Unfortunately you’ll have to wait another couple of weeks to get your hands on a bag, as the product is set to be launched in the UK at the start of next month.
This is smart product development by Birdseye who has seamlessly capitalised on one of businesses hottest trends– Social Media. The product is appealing to the eye and is sure to grab the attention of those shoppers walking past the frozen food aisles; a new take on the smiley’s of our youth
“The addition of Mashtags to our food range is an exciting development for Birds Eye,” says Pete Johnson, senior brand manager at Birds Eye. “Social media is all about conversation and we’re confident Mashtags will resonate across various groups of people. We’re constantly looking for ways to innovate and inspire consumers and hope that Mashtags will get people talking around the table and help to make mealtimes more enjoyable.”
Despite Pete Johnson claims that Mashtags will resonate with various groups of people, here at apt we feel this marketing activity is targeted towards Generation Y. Social Media is becoming an increasingly dominant force in an ever-growing social world and this presents an opportunity to educate children through food. It’s a fun, engaging and very interactive way of learning at the dinner table and could prove to be very successful. After all, we all remember the fun we use to have making words up with Hienz’s Alphabetti throughout our childhood mealtimes; combine the two and we wouldn’t even need a phone to start tweeting!
So, if the thought of these social media potato shapes has already got you licking your lips in anticipation make sure you get down to your local store and grab yourself a bag for £1.75 (RSP) at the beginning of March.
We are all aware of the importance of relationship marketing. Moving customers from one time users to life-time brand ambassadors is the key of CRM, and a move which can significantly increase companies’ turnover. It’s not surprising therefore that most brands now offer a loyalty scheme to motivate repeat purchases. Looking at a specific examples, Nandos is certainly a well-known restaurant loyalty card; they recently progressed from a paper stamp system to an electronic swipe card, storing all of the customer’s data and spending habits, not only enabling them to gather in depth knowledge of their customers, but also allowing them to offer a superior service. In the supermarket world Tesco has had unmitigated success with its ‘Clubcard’ points, not only rewarding repeat purchasers, but incentivising them too. Other established examples of course come from Boots, Starbucks and Nectar.
One company has decided to take its customer loyalty scheme one step further, combining it with the premise of ever popular money-off websites. Food-to-go chain EAT has partnered with Weve’s new mobile loyalty app ‘Pouch’, which stores a retailer’s loyalty cards and then pushes out relevant offers to the customer’s mobile using Beacon technology. The result: happy customers getting the best deals and each restaurant maximising their current and potential consumer base.
Beacon technology works on the basis of tracking a customer’s location through in store markers; if a customer is in the ‘viscometer’ of an EAT restaurant they will receive offers and promotions. Not just standard offers however, the technology enables tailored offers which meet the needs of the individual. Beacon has already been used successfully in U.S stores such as Macy’s and now Coca Cola is interested in iBeacons for their World Cup activity. One of the most interesting things we can envisage about this kind of technology is that it draws on the existing customer base rather than incentivising new, non-loyal customers, and it can help overcome the recent Voucher-site apathy by targeting and personalising offers. Whoever starts using it, it will be important to ensure proper planning and strategy; should companies focus on discounts rather than added value, there is a significant risk that they undermine their existing customer base and serve to reduce rather than enhance turnover.
Currently the app is in the trial stage for EAT, however marketing and media experts The Drum see it being adopted by many other entertainment and restaurant businesses. It seems that the strategic options of relationship marketing are evolving with technology, which is exciting however what does this mean for the smaller independent businesses? It’s interesting to think that originally they were the ones nurturing customer relations but how will they compete in this digitally loyal age? Will they jump on board and maximise technology, or will the cost of the services simply serve to prohibit their successful use?
