Chart of the Day: Top festive adverts on Youtube since November 1st.
Take a stroll into any retail store and you will instantly know that the festive season is upon us once again. Thanksgiving is less than two weeks away in the US and on this side of the Atlantic the burnt circles remain across the country from bonfire night. Both these events give the green light to marketers across the top retail brands to release their Christmas adverts. These adverts can make or break a brand during the holiday season, whether it is based on humour, humility or emotion the bottom line come January will be - did it increase sales based on last year.
Since November 1st, the six Christmas adverts that have been first to launch include John Lewis, Argos & Burberry. It's been hard to miss the now yearly flurry of social media activity for the latest John Lewis Advert #BusterTheBoxer (67k likes…
Trump defied every expert and still won. The implications for brands are huge.
Yesterday, I prepared a piece about the anticipated Clinton win as President of America.
What a difference nine hours makes…
Despite all the sophisticated big data … the huge political advertising budgets from the Clinton camp… the faceless pollsters who number-crunched rather than listened to the unspoken authentic voice of the people… in the end Trump won.
…So why, from a branding perspective did a reported sexist, racist and narcissistic defy all predictions?
Perhaps the regular American saw what a mess the world has become – despite all the propaganda suggesting the contrary. Looking for example to the UK, they got the impression that its identity had been decimated by an open-door policy leading to the country’s spiritual, commercial, social and political foundations becoming at best ‘in transition’ and at worst, tatters.
They saw Europe down, despondent and divided.
They looked at how former hard-working…
Key lessons for brands emerge from the most anticipated ad of the holiday season
On initial viewing the John Lewis’ £7m Xmas 2016 commercial tells a quaint story of a girl whose trampoline becomes popular with the local wildlife community.
Set against a backing track of Randy Crawford’s ‘One Day I’ll Fly Away’. The commercial features a Boxer dog in a typical Middle-England home. The dog enviously stares out of a living room window as it watches two wild foxes, a badger, a squirrel and a hedgehog liberally jumping on a trampoline built by the household’s father for his daughter.
Come Christmas morning Buster (the Boxer dog) pushes aside a surprised Bridget (the daughter) to merrily jump on trampoline all for itself.
Given a tumultuous political year, John Lewis’s customer director Craig Inglis said:
“You could say 2016 has certainly been quite a year. We…
Ad-blockers are a major threat to digital publishers- but help is at hand!
Whether you’re an online publisher, advertiser or even simply a consumer, the ramifications of blocking internet advertising will be massive. In fact, according to a recent study by PageFair, the publishing industry suffered a $21.8 billion loss from blocked revenue due to ad-blocking software last year. As a result, the war between publishers and advertisers is only continuing to intensify. There are steps that can be taken to overcome the issues created by this technology. Below are seven popular strategies that online publications have turned to in a bid to fight against the rising numbers of ad-blocking users.
1. Ask Users to Turn Off Their Ad-Blocking
“Thanks for coming to Forbes. Please turn off your ad blocker in order to continue. To thank you for doing so, we’re…
Radio isn't dead. Don't make the mistake of writing it off.
The importance of omnichannel marketing is an ever increasing reality for high street retailers to succeed. Online-only retailers are starting to see the benefit of having physical locations to serve their customer in the real world, this year has already seen Amazon opening its own high street bookshops. As consumers across the globe demand more from every retailer big or small, our shopping habits are changing and the internet has opened a new always-on world, where if we want it, we want it and nothing else will do.
Retailers are wising up new customer experiences and implementing real digital transformation change across their business's, to give their customers the choice they desire, to buy online or in-store for home delivery or store pick up, but the marketing departments still have work to do, to prioritise their marketing activities across the whole customer lifecycle.
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76% of adults use multiple devices to access content- only a tiny minority uses desktop only
The results of Comscore's 'Cross-platform future in focus 2016' make for interesting reading. One of the most interesting charts from the report show just how tiny the number of people not using a combination of devices to access content online is. For those aged between 18 and 34 only 3% are only accessing content on a desktop device - if trends continue then the figure for December 2016 will be less than 1%.
But we're not seeing a dramatic shift to pure mobile - instead users are making the most of both mediums and utilising desktop and mobile together in order to suit whatever their needs are at the time. This explains why we are seeing high levels of mobile traffic on ecommerce sites but very low mobile conversion rates. Those people browsing on mobile are converting…
eCommerce can go hand in hand with bricks and mortar, and a bed shop in the Cotswold's proves it!
According to Eurostat, retail footfall in the UK has been down month on month for twenty-three of the past twenty-four months. Bad news. Opening new stores in this climate may seem an odd thing to do, but it is all part of the omnichannel mix.
Beds in the Market Place? Madness.
Back in January, the Sun newspaper published an article about residents of a Cotswold town being up in arms about a branch of Bensons for Beds being opened in their historic market place. The report, culled from reader comments on a local newspaper site and social media, implied that the townspeople thought it was not “upmarket” enough for them.
Had the reporter scratched more than just the surface, he would have discovered the real query was about the practicality of this type of retailer…
A case study on growing a startup to a billion dollar company
7 years ago Zalando was just an inspiration; it was born from Robert Gentz'z fascination of the recently sold German startup StudiVZ which fetched €85 million. After a failed attempt of their first startup, Unibicate, a social media site for Universities in Mexico, David Schneider and Robert Gentz, with the backing of Rocket Internet’s Oliver Samwer, launched Zalando. It was a well-executed clone of the US Zappos, which quickly expanded beyond retailing shoes.
Once a novel single-country startup, Zalando has become a 6-Billion-Euro company and Europe’s top Fashion retail platform. In 2008, Zalando served only Germany, five years later they were serving fifteen European countries.
So Zalando gives an excellent international Ecommerce and digital marketing case study of how digital media and technology can be used to…
There are major obstacles to using brand awareness as a marketing objective
Over the past decade marketers have relied on quantity based measurements as a proxy for campaign performance. The volume of impressions, clicks and likes indicates that people see the ads and find them relevant and compelling.
But with the increase of ad blocking and bot frauds, as well as demand for more data transparency, evidence suggest that traditional metrics do a poor job is measuring sales, engagement and, ultimately, ROI. A study from the IAB and Ernst & Young confirmed this trend, estimating that $8.2 Billion are lost as a result of traffic frauds, bots frauds, ad block and other threats.
Specifically, the IAB found the following major reasons (the full report is in PDF form here):
$4.2 billion is lost due to “non-human traffic”
$1.1 billion is lost due to “malvertising-related activities”
$2.4 billion is lost due to…
From banal to the facile; a review of Cannes Lions thusfar
Cannes Lions has always showcased the best in creative advertising. Each year the event reflects society trends. 2016 is no exception to the rule.
In chandelier adorned halls Creatives and Suits keep fingers crossed, trouser zips in check and lipstick refreshed …all in the hope that they will walk away as champagne winners rather than stumble through the rest of an evening in a drunken stupor.
Behind the scenes, organisers check that entrant ‘invitations’ to submit work have covered costs for food, guest appearances, judge ‘expenses’, photography, staging, hotels and left enough to cover personal executive comfort upgrades.
Beyond behind the scenes smoke and mirrors, the real winners of the Cannes are neither the brands nor agencies that pick up coveted gongs to display in otherwise drab offices (beyond reception areas) or feature in resumes as power-play points for claiming higher salaries. Valiant victors…
