apt blog

Success for Tena Men Leakage Ad...

Tena Men have created a new marketing campaign consisting of two ads, set to be released on Sky TV channels in three weeks time. The humorous campaign, which has already been released online, introduces a confident and smooth spokesman to sell the Tena Men USP in the style of Old Spice Isaiah Mustafa.

If you haven’t already figured out what the USP is, keep reading... Stirling Gravitas plays the confident spokesman in both ads; his character similar to not only Isaiah Mustafa but also Will Ferrell’s Ron Burgundy, means its set to make this ad a viral hit across the globe.

The first ad shows Gravitas being in control of every aspect of his life including some normal and slightly eccentric aspects. Playing pool, gambling, lion taming, karate, knife throwing, stunt driving and walking on water are all aspect he is in control of even though he has entered into an age in which Tena Men has become an essential part of life too – Yes, these ads are about Urine Leakage!

The second ad consists of Gravitas offering tips on how to live a healthy lifestyle which can also stem urine leakage. The advert shows Gravitas smacking a packet of cigarettes out of man’s hand to removing burgers from a friends reach to exercising regularly. Both of the adverts end with a shot of a small water fountain detailed with a bronze boy ‘weeing’ until the Tena Men pack comes on screen followed by text saying ‘Keep Control’.

We love the humour of this ad; especially as it isn’t really something that people, particularly men want to talk about. Engaging male viewers with a ‘manly’ character as someone they can relate to is always a great way to increase not only sales but awareness of the overall issue in a less serious approach.

 

 

 

 

 

Toys ‘R’ Us removes figurines featuring drugs, cash and guns

Toys ‘R’ Us has withdrawn Breaking Bad figurines after a petition received over 9000 signatures.

One of the figurines depicts Breaking Bad character Walter White, a chemistry teacher who turns into a drug dealer, and includes a bag of crystal meth. Three other figurines showed characters with bags of cash and even guns.

The petition stated that Toys ‘R’ Us decision “to sell a Breaking Bad doll, complete with a detachable sack of cash and a bag of meth, alongside children’s toys is a dangerous deviation from their family friendly values... while the show may be compelling viewing for adults, its violent content and celebration of the drug trade make this collection unsuitable to be sold alongside Barbie dolls and Disney characters.”

A rival petition was also set up to keep the figurines on the store shelf claiming that Toys ‘R’ Us also cater for adult toys but hasn’t received as many signatures.

Although the figures are noted for ages 15 and up, the popular toy store chain has removed the figures announcing that “the action figures have taken an indefinite sabbatical”.

We think that they have made the right decision by removing these figurines and are unsure how they made it onto the shelf in the first place. We have seen a number of brands making mistakes with their designs recently including ASDA who had a crisis during the World Cup after their wearable flags resembled the KKK outfit and the supermarket chain also had to remove a ‘mental patient’ Halloween costume. These examples show that brands should remember who their key target markets are and should think more about the reaction their products are going to receive before hitting the store shelf.

 

Comedy club charges per laugh

Have you ever been to an event where you felt that you didn’t get your money’s worth?

A comedy club in Barcelona has come up with a brilliant method where customers pay based on how much they enjoyed the performance. The club is using facial recognition technology set up on tablets installed to the back of every chair in the club. The technology then registers every time the customer smiles throughout the performances.

The club has removed the entrance fee and is charging 23p per smile with a cap at £18. Although some customers have tried to keep a straight face throughout the performance to try and get a free ticket, the method has proven to be a success with takings increasing.

The bold move came after the Spanish government introduced a tax on theatre tickets which affected the comedy club.

We think that this is a great method where customers will pay more if they’ve enjoyed the performance and those that haven’t enjoyed it won’t feel like they have wasted their money. Those that didn’t enjoy it are more likely to go back to the club on another night to hear other comedians who might be better suited to their taste.

World Cup-Mania leads to Flag Crisis for ASDA

With the 2014 World Cup just round the corner, businesses are doing all they can to get involved in one of the biggest events in the sporting calendar.

We’ve seen Premier Inn reserve rooms for standby players, Mastercard launch a miniature football dream team competition and even Paddy Power team up with physicist Stephen Hawking to analyse the chances of England’s success.

However Asda hasn’t been as successful with their latest product design. To stand out over other England Flags, Asda went one step further and created wearable flags with a hood – which has stirred up complaints on social media due to its resemblance to the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) outfits.

Whilst the supermarket insists that they only opted for the hood on the wearable England flags because of the unpredictable British weather, the flags are still being partially withdrawn from stores across the country due to its similarities with the racist US organisation.

Originally Asda was planning to withdraw the hooded flag from all stores; however they have now given this decision to individual store managers to decide based on how they think the customer will respond in their area.

Just when we thought Asda had hit the nail on their head with their family friendly England gnomes, they have unintentionally caused a storm of unhappy customers right before the World Cup kicks off. Last year Asda caused a similar storm after selling a ‘mental patient’ Halloween costume that they withdrew from stores however this time Asda is sticking by their idea and plan on releasing a Brazilian flag in the same style.

It leaves us to say that whilst Asda clearly only had good intentions by adding a hood to the flag they’ve overlooked a major flaw in the design that has ultimately undermined their campaign and led to ridicule and some backlash from consumers.

Relationship marketing and iBeacons

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? 

Source: The Drum

A valuable Domain

With domains being such a hot topic at the moment as the first new gTLDs have been released we couldn’t help but notice the amount that Mail Online has recently paid for a new domain.

The Mail Online has been dailymail.co.uk since it was established, but they have just successfully completed the acquisition of dailymail.com, with hefty price tag attached! The .com domain for Mail Online has cost the company £1 million; the process was also extensive process and included negotiations with US paper, the Charleston Daily Mail which has held the domain since 1996. Mail Online wanted this acquisition as part of its strategy to grow international traffic, which has already increased by 70%, predominantly from the US. As well as increasing international traffic it will give Mail Online the chance to use US advertising. Mail Online has 161 million monthly unique visitors who will land on dailymail.com instead of dailymail.co.uk. To keep up with this domain shift and predicted increase in international traffic, staff numbers have been doubled to 80.

This shows how valuable domains can be to a company and just by changing a domain, website visitors and traffic can be vastly increased potentially increasing profit for the company. 

Stats

Personalising the customer journey can be highly effective…

As well as referring to individually supplying or labelling products, like these excellent examples here, personalisation can also mean the use of data to specifically target campaigns. It is practiced in one to one marketing and is implemented by segmenting and mining consumer data and using that information to generate better responses. It enables firms to create advertising and promotions that should better engage their audience and can either be done using company owned data, or as part of a promotion with a third party.

For example, Tesco has long been an advocate of personalised campaigns, focussing their ‘Clubcard’ scheme to encourage purchase of new or related items to those already bought; they also elect to include money-off or added-value promotions for items you have purchased previously, in order to help guarantee repeat purchase. Potentially a slightly creepy insight, none-the-less, this mining of their own data has over time increased loyalty and sales; it is also arguably liked by their customers because they feel valued and rewarded. A fine line however…

Facebook has recently had problems with its targeting….

Despite setting profiles to private, Facebook still captures and to an extent shares private data with its advertisers; many are arguing this is a breach of privacy, given that advertisers can still access their profile and target their campaigns according to your information and activity. Although personal adverts can be a good thing for the viewer and the advertiser, the fact that fully private profiles can still be viewed by advertisers is being seen as a step too far.

This form of targeting has been able to develop because of interactive platforms like Facebook; it’s never been easier for businesses to track a consumer’s tastes, preferences and lifestyle characteristics so that they know how to better appeal to them. Companies can either use digital tracking software, database marketing techniques or website cookies to gather the information; it is worth noting that to an extent, the effectiveness of Cookies has been reduced since a change in the law last year (link).

Looking to other examples:

Topshop.com visitors are shown a ‘why not try’ section when looking at an item; it offers consumers additional products that they think they’ll like based on what they are already viewing. As you can see from the following print screen, after selecting the grey Coke t-shirt, similar items have appeared to the right. This in essence is making the shopping experience easier and more profitable, grabbing the user’s attention by showing other items that they may be interested in. It can encourage multiple purchases and the system also saves previously viewed products which can potentially save the user time, if they are returning. 

Amazon uses a different approach; if the user has viewed a product on the site, the product is remembered. When the user navigates away from the page the previously viewed item comes up in a banner along the side showing discounts; this is targeting the user from what they have previously looked at and tempting them with money off the product. Instead of it being integrated into the shopping experience it acts as a straight forward advert.

This is supported by their email campaigns which automates sales emails based on previously viewed and purchased items; a great way of encouraging purchase, sometimes the regularity / accuracy of these emails can seem rather creepy!

 

So is it successful?

As Econsultancy’s research shows, 74% of marketers know that personalisation increases customer engagement. 60% of customers online prefer it if an online store remembers their contact details and purchase information. 

“Tailored content that matches consumer browsing behaviour provides a more personalised and engaging brand experience. Our own research shows that those who engage with dynamic interactive display ads return to a site and convert to a sale 44 per cent faster than those who click through. By using personalisation and dynamic ads to influence consumer browsing behaviour, brands are more likely to lead browsers to a purchase. Static ads no longer cut it; with so much content on the web, it takes a unique experience of the product or even a timely offer to make a brand stand out.” Rakhee Jogia, director of client services, Rakuten MediaForge UK.

These figures show that personalisation is certainly developing and increasing amongst brands as they see how important it is. E-commerce sites are creating a tailor made experience for every user making life easier for consumers and engaging them.  

Heinz gets personal

Following its success last year, Heinz has reintroduced its ‘Get Well’ soup campaign which allows users to personalise and send tins of tomato and chicken soup. This year, they have also teamed up with Starlight Children’s Foundation, donating the money raised to provide entertainment for ill children across the UK in hospitals and hospices. Each personalised tin of soup can be made through Facebook and costs £3.99.

This form of personalisation allows the consumer to customise an everyday product, making it personal to the end user. Not only is this campaign a great idea to be able to send a little gift to someone feeling under the weather but it also helps raise money to cheer up children.

 Other examples of excellent personalisation that we have discussed previously include The ‘Share a Coke’ campaign which was extremely popular in 2013. 150 of the most popular male and females names in the UK were pre-printed on bottles of coke; for the names that weren’t available virtual cans could be made on the ‘Share a Coke’ website or via Facebook.

 Pre-Christmas and it was alcohol on the list; the Famous Grouse Whisky gave consumers the chance to personalise a bottle of whisky by adding text to the label, giving a unique personal gift.

 

So is this personalisation successful?

Heinz ‘Get Well’ campaign statistics show just how effective this form of marketing is. Not only does the campaign provide a strong engagement by offering consumers a unique, personalised product, but it also uses Facebook as an e-commerce platform. According to a statement made to Campaign Live, the “Facebook page had acquired almost 75,000 new fans, while more than 136,000 users engaged with the campaign. The page increased its interactions by more than 650 per cent and saw a 4,334 per cent increase in monthly unique visitors.” Source

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Here at apt the fashionista of the team looks forward to the big reveal of retailers Christmas window displays so it was natural that she brought them to our attention.

This year there are three in particular that have been discussed in the apt office; Selfridges, Harrods and John Lewis. Selfridges and Harrods are traditionally Christmassy and full of detail to enjoy, covered in snow and sparkle.

The Harrods window has a gorgeous 1920’s Great Gatsby feel to it paying the greatest attention to detail and full of luxurious products. Two of our team members have chosen this as their favourite describing the window display as classy and glamorous.

Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

 

Selfridges has also focused on attention to detail with a model of London made entirely from Gingerbread. The model catches your eye and is incredible to look at. Selected Selfridge’s products have been made giant and placed in single windows making them the main attraction within a winter wonderland scene. The giant designer handbag is sure to attract the attention of female passersby. The words “Destination Christmas” in giant neon lights above the department store is hard to miss, the display is set to be a popular London Christmas shot that will be uploaded to Instagram, and we have already noticed several which is brilliant for Selfridges, slightly repetitive for us!

source: www.dailymail.co.uk

 

Following our discussion about the John Lewis Christmas advert lacking products from the department store, they really have outdone themselves with their London window display. The detail is incredible, every animal is made up of a number of products and of course the Bear is a main feature in the window display linking it with the most talked about Christmas ad of 2013. The majority of apt has chosen this display as their favourite.

Our creative director says: “John Lewis hands down for me – love the creative way they've used products they sell to make really contemporary animals. The opposite of their TV ad which has no products in it at all! Very clever.”

source: Wendy's Journal

source: Wendy's Journal

source: Wendy's Journal

 

 

John Lewis Laid Bare

John Lewis is the brand on everyone’s lips this week as their Christmas advert launched during ‘The X Factor’ on Saturday. The ad is over 2 minutes long which meant it was the only advert shown in one ad break of the highly popular talent show.

Although the £7 million pound advert only features one John Lewis product it has certainly got people talking about the luxury department store. After last year’s advert being so memorable everyone had been waiting in anticipation to see if this year’s could beat it. The response has been mixed in terms of whether it has beaten last year’s romantic snowman story. Not only did last year’s advert include more John Lewis products, it also included people which has been said to be a good and a bad thing.

 This year’s advert is magical and has that Disney feel to it but the only item it promotes is an alarm clock, and yes we have checked – you can purchase that exact alarm clock featured on the advert. John Lewis have cleverly launched Bear and the Hare merchandise including wrapping paper, mug, onesie and cuddly toy, a lot of these products have already sold out online. John Lewis’ website also offers a ‘make your own’ Christmas card service which is Bear and the Hare themed.

 

The launch of the advert prompted 86,300 mentions on Twitter over the weekend, according to research from We are Social which was a 29% increase in mentions from last year’s Christmas ad launch weekend. Only 1% of tweets were outright negative about the ad with the positive tweets saying how the ad had reduced them to tears and how ‘cute’ and ‘sweet’ it was. The brands social media presence saw a huge increase over the weekend with 7,000 new Twitter follower, 12,000 new Facebook fans and 4,600 additional YouTube subscribers.

Although last weekend seemed to be the launch of all of the Christmas adverts this seems to be the favourite and most talked about. Radio 1’s breakfast show couldn’t help but discuss the touching ad on Monday as they also played the adverts theme song, sang by Lily Allen which reached Number 5 in the charts on Sunday even though the ad only launched the previous day. The song is currently at Number 2 in the iTunes chart.

Coca Cola has traditionally gone with the classic ‘Holidays are coming’ ad that gets everyone in the mood for Christmas as that is usually the first one shown.  The Coca-Cola logo is unmissable throughout the iconic ad with the trucks covered in large logos and in Coca-colas brand colour scheme. The product is shown clearly as Santa is seen drinking a bottle of coke on one of the trucks as it drives off. Here at apt we love how Coca-Cola has repeated the truck ad making it iconic and is always seen as the start of the countdown to Christmas.

 Here at apt we have been having a bit of a discussion on these two Christmas adverts in particular and one of our employees suggested that John Lewis could’ve maybe shown the same advert as last year although this is debatable looking at the response via social media. However although this ad has been talked about a lot through various forms of media we can’t help but ask the question, does it make you want to buy into the brand? It certainly doesn’t have us rushing into John Lewis wanting to buy Christmas presents from there. We are going to wait until the Christmas sales figures are released to see if the £7 million advert did increase sales for John Lewis or if it has just boosted Brand identity. Even that is questionable as the only form of branding in the advert is the logo shown at the end.

The brand has made a hare raising Twitter mistake. The bio on the John Lewis twitter account directs people to @JohnLewis_Bear and @JohnLewis_Hare: but the accounts tweeting are actually @JohnLewisBear and @JohnLewisHare.

John Lewis Has told The Drum that the Twitter handle was changed to the more streamlined version with no underscore to help people find the accounts.

This is not the only Twitter handle screw-up that people have had with John Lewis since the ad was launched: @JohnLewis was receiving a lot of messages complimenting him on his Christmas ad, which he duly passed on to @JohnLewisretail.

Take a look at the advert for yourself here:

 

What do you think about the John Lewis Christmas advert? Does it have you wanting to go into your nearest John Lewis or do you just think it is a cute advert? Here at apt we would love to hear your views and join in on our discussion.