The Marketing Week – 5/4/2013

Welcome to The Marketing Week, your guide to the good, the bad and the ugly in the marketing industry over the last seven days.

AdidasMessi-Campaign-2013

CAMPAIGN OF THE WEEK

Adidas has launched a Facebook app to serve as the hub for all future activity with Barcelona FC star Lionel Messi. To mark the launch, the sportswear giant is inviting fans to star alongside the reigning World Footballer of the Year in a personalised film they can then share on the social network. Adidas is hoping the digital drive, combined with Messi’s global appeal, can boost sales of its football apparel range following last year’s focus on promoting Olympic-related merchandise. The switch to Facebook is a change in strategy for Adidas as it looks to stretch its dominance of the football market over rival Nike.

A GOOD WEEK FOR

PepsiBeyonceDrink-Campaign-2013

Pepsi, forever in the shadow of soft drinks market leader Coca-Cola, this week gained ground on its arch rival. In the same week it launched its latest Beyonce-tastic ad, it emerged Pepsi outperformed Coke in terms of volume and value sales in 2012, reporting 10 per cent volume growth while Coke saw a 3.3 per cent fall, according to the annual Britvic soft drinks report.

SSE

 

A BAD WEEK FOR

Energy firm SSE was fined a record £10.5m by Ofgem this week for repeatedly mis-selling its products and services to customers. The company turned to social media to highlight its commitments to customer service and to apologise for letting its customers down. It has also run a print advertising campaign in the same vein to reassure customers it wont make the same mistakes again.

INTERNATIONAL

Facebook Home was announced this week to what could be termed as a mixed response by critics. By and large the industry felt let down by the lack of a bona fide “Facebook Phone” – as was previously expected.

As with most Silicon Valley-based companies, the launch is being led out of the US and to win over the popular masses there – and further explain the concept of Facebook Home –  the social network has released the below video.

In a globalised world all eyes in the Western world are turning to the rapidly expanding markets of the East with China being the jewel in the crown. This in mind, McCann Worldgroup, if reports are to be believed will be glowing after they have indeed won the China Telecom creative account.

Given the scale off the huge domestic market there plus the expected rise of Chinese brands across the globe such an account is a glittering prize.  

ONE TO WATCH

ZyngaPoke-Campaign-2013

Social gaming…..but with money now. Online gaming giant Zynga has officially switched on “real money gaming” with this week’s launch of ZyngaPlusPoker and ZyngaPlusCasino, kicking off its partnership with betting company BWIN. In terms of cash generated or regulatory scrutiny, the fusion of social and gambling is bound to generate interest.

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

Tuesday 9thApril How badly did the poor March weather affect sales? British Retail Consortium like for sales data will go a long way to answering the question.

Thursday 11 April Marc Bolland will find out if efforts to improve perception, and sales of its clothing ranges has worked when the retailer issues a quarterly trading statement.

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