The Marketing Week – 22/2/2013
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
Carphone Warehouse is hoping its latest ‘Smarter World’ campaign will inspire consumers to get more from their smartphones. The business has made no secret of its bid grow its content offering and its latest effort sees it running a series of short films and ‘how-to’ videos providing tech advice.
Demand for tablet and smartphones lifted revenues last year, according to the company, so its no surprise to see more resources ploughed into its marketing. It is not the first retail brand to champion how crucial video can be to the shopping journey but investments in growing its content marketing team in recent months will help the business to stand out from the crowd
GOOD WEEK FOR
Samsung
The Korean smartphone maker is hot on the heels of Apple, which despite being named the most valuable brand in the world by the latest BrandFinance Global Top 500 survey is “losing its competitive edge”. Samsung, increased its value by 54 per cent to $58.8bn (£37.5bn) adding more than $20bn (£13bn) to its value in 12 months while Apple’s brand value increased 24 per cent to $87bn (£56.2bn).
BAD WEEK FOR
Soft drinks brands
In what seems to be fairly regular occurrence, the soft drinks industry has yet again been lambasted by doctors calling for a tax on sugary drinks that could increase prices by 20 per cent and a pre-watershed ban on advertising of foods high in sat fats, sugar and salt to tackle the UK’s obesity problem. The AA and ISBA were quick to jump to the defence of advertisers, however, refuting the link between obesity and advertising and shining the spotlight back on what the medics should be doing.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Emirates has launched a global campaign dubbed ‘Share a smile’ highlighting its multi-lingual cabin crew with 29 videos in 14 languages.
4G licences were handed out in the UK this week but in the Far East the“‘super-fast mobile broadband revolution” is well under way. To mark this, Japanese operator KDDI staged an experiential campaign dubbed “Full Control Your City” that let a group of 3,000 participants control elements of their city, such as a projector display and lighting on the Tokyo Tower from their smartphone. The campaign featured J-Pop star Kyary Pamyu and involved agency Dentsu.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRiP7-aclrQ
ONE TO WATCH
Wearable tech/media
With rampant speculation about the ‘iWatch’ wetting the appetite of Apple fan boys, Google has been a bit more open about its Glass project, which effectively lets users search the world around them with the visual aids effectively deciphering the world around them. Earlier this week, the Mountainview giant unveiled a promo video signalling the company’s intentions to take a leap from our desktops to our wardrobes (see below).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BTCoT8ajbI
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
- 24 February The red top launched by News International to plug the gap left by the closure of the News of the World, The Sunday Sun, marks its first anniversary.
- 24 February Expect brand stunts and social media campaigns a-plenty as Hollywood hosts the 85th Academy Awards.
- 25 February Mobile World Congress kicks off in Barcelona. Expect lots of product announcements from handset makers and partnership tie ups over the coming four days.
- 27 February ITV is to report its first quarter results. Traditional linear TV ad revenue is likely to be under some pressure but the broadcaster is likely to trumpet the success of its non traditional revenue streams and Studios division.
- 1 March WPP will report its results for the full year. The advertising group’s financial reports usually act as a good bellwether and forecaster of trends for the rest of the advertising industry.
