The Marketing Week – 17/5/2013

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

Audi AR app

Audi unveiled plans to transform all logos into augmented reality (AR) triggers earlier this week. The car marque has created its own AR platform which allows users to bring logos on its vehicles and branded content to life. The company plans to tie the initiative to a broad spectrum of marketing channels in the future as it looks to put mobile at the centre of its digital strategy. Audi joins the likes of Lego and Stella Artois in throwing its marketing weight behind technology that has struggled to have an impact on the mainstream after years of hype. AR champions will be hoping Audi’s bold move will help reduce the scepticism around AR and position it as another tool to enhance revenue streams.

A GOOD WEEK FOR….

Marketers

Next has promoted marketing and sales director Jane Shields to its executive board as part of a reshuffle of its c-suite. Deserved acknowledgement of 27-years of service – Shields worked her way up from sales assistant to hold several senior marketing roles including stints as retail marketing director and sales director.

Her promotion should also be seen as a vote of confidence in marketing. Not enough consumer facing businesses have a marketer on their executive board. Marketers provide the consumer with a voice at the top table and have a keener eye than most on fast-moving multi-channel trends. More B2C companies need to follow Next’s lead.

A BAD WEEK FOR….

Brewers

MagnersGlass-Product-2013_304

In recent years, cider has been as a panacea by brewers looking to offset the declining beer volumes and sales. AB Inbev,with Stella Cidre, and more recently Carlsberg with Sommersby and Molson Coors with Carling British Cider have tried to exploit and swell the buoyant category.

Sobering news, however, has been delivered by Magners owner C&C Group, which published CGA/Nielsen figures revealing cider sales in the UK slumped 15 per cent for the year to 28 February.

Could sales in the saviour of the British brewing industry have bottomed out? The industry will be hoping not and wishing for a better British summer to help grow sales in 2013.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlOhxJLDJ9M

Volkswagen is putting a humorous twist on safety messaging in the latest advert of its Passat range in the US. The ad follows a man as he bonds with his wife and son through several scenes set to the Emerson Lake & Palmer song “Lucky Man”. However, his luck runs out as he is hit by another car while leaving his driveway in his Passat. The twist neatly emphasises the car’s safety features and the campaign’s “Safety starts where luck ends”.

ONE TO WATCH

Mozilla announced it will delay its controversial decision to automatically block all third-party cookies on its latest version of Firefox. The developer says it is postponing the update for around six weeks to collect more data on the effect of blocking some third-party cookies. The company adds: “Our next engineering task is to add privacy-preserving code to measure how the patch affects real websites. We will also ask some of our Aurora and Beta users to opt-in to a study with deeper data collection.” Firefox 22 is now scheduled to be released in the week June 24.

This week’s best tweets

@mark_barber planning director at RAB:
“At last! Someone speaking sense: MT @MarketingWeekEd MEC’s Justin Taylor: ‘A lot of data we get is myopic.. Data doesn’t understand humans’ #iabmobile”

@dsbeckz web producer on David Beckham retiring and the effect it will have on his commercial worth:
@MarketingWeekEd I think it will change but I believe sponsors will still line up. The name “Beckham” is a massive brand all on its own!

@adidasUK in response to David Beckham retiring:
“534 top flight appearances, all in adidas, David Beckham, always #allin. t.co/RfdkkclklG”

@NickStringer director of regulatory affairs at the IAB:
‘OMD’s Alex Newman: “Outside ad industry, people don’t understand what the Ad Choices logo is…” #mobileengage > awareness campaign coming!’

@Weetabix:
Weetabix creates the world’s first Twitter feed made of biscuit to celebrate the launch of #WeetabixOntheGo vine.co/v/bEDDWWIhXLa

@BenedictEvans, freelance consultant and strategist:
“Google is the new Microsoft”

@Sherliyn_TMA , founder of The Marketing Academy:
And Finally…30 Scholars 80 Mentors 30 Coaches 20 Judges 30 Charities 10 Faculties 3 Boot Camps and an Owl called Merlin. 2013 Scholarship!

DATES FOR THE DIARY

  • 21 May Marks & Spencer to announce its full-year results. Analysts predict a modest increase in revenue, although the retailer is set to post a profit drop, which could threaten Marc Bolland’s role as chief executive of the company.
  • 21 May The glittering Marketing Week Engage Awards will be held at The Grosvenor House Hotel, celebrating the most magnificent marketing campaigns and marketers of 2012.
  • 23 May Leading advertisers, agencies, media owners, regulators and policy makers will join IAB Europe for a two day debate in Barcelona on the theme “the battle of the screens: compete or collaborate?”

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