The Marketing Week
Welcome to The Marketing Week, your guide to the good, the bad and the ugly in the marketing industry over the last seven days.
CAMPAIGN OF THE WEEK
Heineken launches Twitter service to find where’s hot in your city
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiUsikDoU1Q
Ever been on a night out but unable to decide where to go next? Never fear, Heineken is coming to your rescue. It has launched a Twitter campaign, created by R/GA London and dubbed @wherenext, that uses real-time location-based social activity to recommend the next pub, bar or restaurant. All a user has to is tweet “@wherenext” and their location, for example “@wherenext Covent Garden” and the service will use an algorithm based on tweets, check-ins and photos across Twitter, Instagram and Foursquare to recommend the next venue. So now you don’t need to pick a spot for your night out, you can let Heineken do it for you. Cheers!
BAD WEEK FOR…
Jaguar
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Less than a month after the advertising watchdog banned one of Jaguar’s ads for glorifying dangerous driving, the car marque has been hit by another ban for promoting dangerous driving. The latest ad, which appeared on Jaguar’s YouTube channel, featured The Avengers actor Tom Hiddleston playing a villain driving its F-Type model in an underground car park and on a public road. A complaint called it “socially irresponsible” because it “featured and encouraged unsafe driving”. The Advertising Standards Authority agreed, saying it could encourage irresponsible driving and telling Jaguar not to repeat it in the future. However, commentators on Marketing Week have jumped to Jaguar’s defence, congratulating the car marque for “standing out from the sea of blancmange that is car advertising” and a “great effort”.
GOOD WEEK FOR…
Aldi
Efforts to widen its appeal and get more customers shopping at its stores appear to be paying off for Aldi, which was rated as the top brand in the first six months of the year by UK consumers. YouGov’s BrandIndex survey showed Aldi jump to the top of the rankings based on Buzz scores, a measure of the positive and negative things said about a brand, overtaking the likes of John Lewis, BBC iPlayer and Samsung. It was also the second fastest riser.
The ratings suggest Aldi’s marketing focus on price and quality is paying off, with consumers getting the message that they can get top quality goods for lower prices. So worried is the rest of the grocery market about the rise of Aldi and its rival Lidl that they have been trialling their own solutions, with Morrisons testing its first M Discount store, Iceland opening discount formats and Sainsbury’s announcing plans to open the first of a planned 15 Netto stores in Manchester and Leeds later this year.
ONE TO WATCH
Birra Moretti deepens ties to food to lift premium credentials
Heineken has kicked off a long-term push to lift the brand equity of its BIrra Moretti beer in the UK with a push to create a “food movement”. It sees food occasions, with family and friends at the core, as a way to differentiate itself in a market where food pairings are becoming a common premiumisation technique for international beers. The Space-developed campaign aims to steer the strategy by creating a more integrated customer experience around the brand’s “food, company and great beer” positioning.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Cadbury vending machine dispenses chocolates based on Facebook profile
The chocolate maker’s response to rousing its social following is to treat consumers to their perfect flavour. Billed as a world first, the Facebook-powered “Joy Generator” matches a person’s profile to one Cadbury Dairy Milk flavour – Hazelnut, Peppermint, Roasted Almond, Fruit & Nut, Rocky Road, Crunchie, Snack, Caramello, Turkish Delight, Top Deck and Black Forest – using data on their likes and interests. For example, if a user is full of energy they are more likely to receive a Crunchie bar, while the Turkish Delight flavour might be a better fit for those with more exotic tastes. The one-day stunt, developed by The Red Agency, ran in Australia and whets the appetite for the “Flavour Matcher” app launch on Cadbury’s Facebook page later this month.
Clear Channel connect outdoor ads to smartphone
The outdoor advertiser’s is rolling out a network across the US and Canada that will let marketers bring to life their out-of-home creative on smartphones. Brands can use the system to push targeted mobile content, based on users’ city, local area or even an individual site. It tags the company’s “Connect” interactive mobile advertising platform to outdoor sites and is able to push content by NFC, QR codes or SMS. Clear Channel says Beacons and other location-based technologies will also be added as dictated by client demand.
TWEETS OF THE WEEK
@mm – founder of Silicon Valley tech talent agency Main on Airbnb’s new logo.
If your genitalia actually looks like the Airbnb logo, you should probably see a doctor.
@carlmartin – lead strategist at digital product studio Ustwo on Airbnb’s new logo unveil
Brands marketing a rebrand is a fundamental misunderstanding of what brands are today. #airbnb
@Paul_Framp – Havas Media CEO on archaic retail systems
How crazy is it that you still need a receipt as proof of purchase in 2014 rather than the business querying their database?
@andynairn – Founding partner of Lucky Generals on the Wonga puppets moonlighting with Dolmio
So, Wonga claim to have retired their puppets – then the next minute, I see them flogging pasta sauce! How stupid do they think we are?!?
DATES FOR THE DIARY
22 July McDonald’s reports its half-year results. Analysts predict revenue increase of 2.8 per cent year on year. The fast food chain will be hoping its run of promotions this spring, such as its popular Monopoly activity in the UK, will have converted into sales uplift.
23 July The Commonwealth Games open in Glasgow. Sponsors of the athletics event include SSE, Ford, BP, Dell and Virgin Media, which are all likely to ramp up activity around the opening ceremony.
24 July Unilever reports its Q2 results. It’s been a busy few months for the FMCG firm, which has focused most of its PR efforts on promoting its various start-up platforms, The Unilever Foundry and Go Global, as well as pledging support for Tech City’s internet of things competition. However, when it comes to earnings growth, much of the focus will be on Unilever’s success in emerging markets.
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