Is this the worst Christmas ad season on record? Data reveals that less than half the number of ads compared with last year have scored three stars or more – with John Lewis just scraping into the top 10.
Tongue-in-cheek spot from Waitrose shows a family fast-forwarding through the new John Lewis ad because they simply can’t wait to eat some festive Waitrose fare.
We arm you with the numbers marketers need for the coming week including consumers’ video viewing habits, programmatic ad spend growth and mounting Black Friday fatigue among shoppers.
The $4bn US company that has taken the fitness sector by storm is investing £50m in the UK, including £7m in advertising, as it looks to get its “unique” product and proposition in front of as many people as possible.
Now all the retailers’ Christmas campaigns have been revealed, it’s time to vote for your favourite. Click on the relevant links below the poll if you need a recap.
Welcome to the Marketing Week Christmas blog! A chance for the Marketing Week team to cram all the latest festive advertising news into one place.
As Gary Vaynerchuk continues to dominate much of the debate on marketing around the globe, our branding columnist suggests he is wrong – repeatedly – about the respective value of TV and social media.
Elton John has replaced the likes of Moz the Monster and Buster the Boxer this year after John Lewis pushed its long-standing creative agency adam&eveDDB to try something new.
Market research companies need to make the most of machine learning to devise research methods that adapt to consumers’ changing digital habits and attention spans.
McDonald’s is bringing back its ‘Reindeer Ready’ campaign for the second year as it looks to remind customers of its role during the festive period.
The introduction of the chief growth officer position more than 18 months ago has focused the minds of Coca-Cola’s marketers on business growth, rather than awareness and winning Cannes Lions awards, as it looks to reach new consumers and boost brand loyalty.
Michelle McEttrick had never worked in retail before she joined Tesco and admits to feeling out of depth when she first started but says the key to building a great team is having a range of people with complementary skills and experience.
Lexus used data on 15 years of award-winning luxury campaigns, as well as information about the brand and human emotion to create a 60-second film that tells the story of a car that comes to life and will inevitably lead to questions about whether artificial intelligence can do the same creative job as humans.
Given the pace of technological developments, the challenge of embedding a digital culture in order to compete in a fast-paced, digitised and customer-centric world has never been greater for companies. Understanding what the opportunities and indeed challenges are and getting internal buy-in is not straightforward, however. This report draws on a range of survey data, […]
Digital Transformation is an often misappropriated term but understood correctly it can yield extraordinary results. Including interviews with senior leaders from British Gas, IBM, Fuji Xerox, Ogilvy APAC, Oracle Marketing Cloud and Salesforce and thousands of respondents to a survey, the report looks at the challenges that B2B companies face and how they have responded […]
There has never been as many opportunities to measure the impact of marketing campaigns but there has never been as many chances to get it wrong. Digital channels have led to an explosion in available data, offering the chance for marketers to engage, personalise and attribute the success of campaigns. It does, however mean […]
Business and society is changing at a frenetic rate and marketers are at the forefront of technological and behavioural shifts. In the face of this, it is difficult but even more important to take time out to learn and develop. Based on interviews and a survey of hundreds of senior marketing leaders this report highlights […]
As more and more sales gravitate online, the opportunity for businesses to boost revenue and profit grows daily. It is not, however, enough to ‘build it and they will come’. Marketers need to carefully plan and develop their propositions or risk getting lost in a very crowded environment. This report will help you create your […]
Content marketing is considered by many to be the silver bullet solution to engaging with consumers weary of traditional push advertising. But what is it, and how can you build an effective content marketing strategy that helps execute your marketing strategy. Pulling together insight from interviews from senior marketing leaders and content strategists from some […]
Good morning and welcome to Marketing Week’s round-up of the news that matters in the marketing world today.
As data explodes across all sectors, the role of analytics grows in importance, meaning marketers have a responsibility both to connect it to business outcomes and preserve consumer trust.
The big marketing news this week including the launch of John Lewis’s Christmas ad campaign, the impact the chief growth officer role has had at Coca-Cola and the number of brands that aren’t marketing influencer marketing posts as sponsored.
From BMW’s spot showcasing its futuristic electric vehicles to a man being confronted by several versions of himself in Apple’s “there’s a better you in you” advert, these are the top 10 most watched ads on YouTube for October.
John Lewis made the decision to “turn left” for this year’s Christmas campaign, according to its customer boss Craig Inglis. But do marketers think that shift in creative has worked, both in terms of engagement and driving sales?
The 140-second ad, which tells the story of Elton John’s life after he received a piano for Christmas, marks a change in creative direction for the retailer although keeps its festive positioning focused on thoughtful giving.
While some brands do admit to flouting the rules, others are opting to work with micro-influencers in order to build trust and increase credibility.
Agencies’ commercial credentials, innovation and workplace wellbeing are being celebrated in Marketing Week’s sister brand Oystercatchers’ relaunched awards.
Customers expect more natural communications from brands today, with marketers having the challenge of creating a personal connection, increasingly through the use of automation.
The author tells Marketing Week why his advice for young marketers is ‘Do marketing’, and what The Grateful Dead can teach us about targeting and segmentation.
A deliberate ploy to gain publicity or a genuine attempt to raise awareness: whatever the motivation, Iceland’s tie-up with Greenpeace this Christmas shows why taking an ethical stance can change the game.
SAS and Harvard Business Review reveal which companies are most successful at creating real-time customer experiences, and why.
With brands’ use of influencers growing every year, Influencer Intelligence looks in-depth at attitudes towards the channel across the industry and among the public.
There is still time for marketers to adjust and optimise their tactical plans for making the most of the sales opportunities this Black Friday and Christmas.
Personalisation will miss the mark if it is only based on past data – marketers also need predictive analytics to achieve its full potential.
Learn how to maximise the effectiveness of one of the most influential social media ad formats on the market.
Find out which companies are excelling at customer-centric communications, and how they are achieving it.
Businesses’ challenge today is no longer how to collect data on their customers, but which data is most useful and how it can be turned into ‘marketing intelligence’.
Marketing intelligence is the information needed to drive business outcomes, elevating insights to fuel brand strategy rather than just using them to optimise tactics.
Learn everything you need to know about messenger marketing.
Most brands personalise based on who their customer is. Very few are capable of offering online experiences built on an understanding of why a particular customer has engaged at a given moment.
The new marketing world is powerful and eye-opening. But for brands to reach their full potential, marketers must keep on top of technology that makes the most of their campaign assets.
Is it appropriate for brands to comment on social issues and to what extent does it depend on the industry that they work in?
Brands need to have a mixture of short- and long-term KPIs to get the most out of their marketing investment and ensure they are driving profitable growth.
Tom Fishburne is founder of Marketoon Studios. Follow his work at marketoonist.com or on Twitter @tomfishburne See more of the Marketoonist here
The brand is hoping to build a strong sense of community by pitching bingo as a modern and affordable game after rolling out its £40m rebrand to Buzz Bingo two years after acquiring Gala Bingo’s venues.
Lack of contextual understanding for consumers’ behaviour has long held back the effectiveness of personalisation in spite of a wealth of data, but marketers are finally starting to get a grip on it.
Insight-driven brands are growing well ahead of their peers, and understand they must choose their data sources carefully to uncover the needs of their whole market.
The hotel chain understood service was important but wanted a model for assessing its effectiveness to justify investment.
While they can be difficult to spot, there are certain steps all brands using influencer marketing should be taking to help to detect fake followers.
We arm marketers with all the numbers they need for the coming week.
Good morning and welcome to Marketing Week’s round-up of the news that matters in the marketing world today.
From dancing turkeys and baubles, to fairy lights and a plug, Sainsbury’s is hoping its theatrical festive ad will inspire the nation to ‘give all we’ve got for the ones we love’.
KFC is using the festive period to remind people that while turkeys are for Christmas, chickens are for the other 364 days of the year.
The broadcasting giant, and owner of MTV and Channel 5, says it’s focused on “being where the audience is” as it looks to boost brand awareness by creating a social currency around its programmes.
Catch up on this week’s marketing news, including all the retailers’ Christmas ads (so far), M&S’s plans to reform its loyalty scheme and the top brands for customer experience.
Cadbury shows an array of products in its Christmas campaign, as it looks to encourage people across the UK to give a small gift ‘just because’.
Large organisations that have traditionally recruited marketers from within are realising they need the new skill sets external candidates bring, but there is still value in organisational knowledge and opportunities for marketers looking to rise through the ranks.
The grocer has opted for humour this Christmas and in-keeping with its ‘Too Good To Wait’ theme will fast-forward the rest of the ads on ITV ahead of its launch.
The typical marketing agency business model has had to change because the customer journey increasingly starts on mobile and ends up on ecommerce.
Marketing intelligence is the information needed to drive business outcomes, elevating insights to fuel brand strategy rather than just using them to optimise tactics.
A host of technologies and tactical considerations are on marketers’ radars as they seek to help shoppers choose their brands over the competition, especially during key shopping periods such as Black Friday and Christmas.
From discovery of new products to customer care, today’s customer journey is more complex than ever. In this competitive landscape, brand success is centred on meaningful, one-to-one interactions.
New research from YouGov examines whether it’s riskier for brands to speak up on important social and political matters, or to stay silent.
The campaign is a deviation from the usual food-centric adverts we are used to seeing from Marks & Spencer, with social media playing an increasingly important role as it looks to attract a younger audience and combat falling sales.
Marks & Spencer says the world has moved on from the classic blockbuster ad as it looks to target busy families on-the-go with an “unashamedly commercial” campaign.
Brands that create anticipation will have a better chance of building brand value and a compelling user experience that is sought out by consumers time and time again.
The retailer’s festive ad encourages shoppers to buy a present that shows “you really get them” after its research finds thoughtful gifting giving is what matters most to its customers at Christmas.
Visa is hoping its focus on where to buy this Christmas, instead of what to buy or who to buy for, will give it the edge this festive season.
Breaking on ITV tomorrow evening, the 60-second film features a new character determined to ruin Christmas for Kevin and his family with the help of some peas.
Nike is not the first brand to take a stand on social issues but its campaign featuring American footballer and anti-racism campaigner Colin Kaepernick is one of the most divisive, and new research suggests the strategy could be effective.
Virgin Holidays’ personalised approach to email marketing helped it achieve a 49% boost to revenue driven from the campaign, equating to £17.3m.
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