The Marketing Week
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
Coke Zero – Just Add Zero
Coke is attempting to inject some fizz into its Coke Zero brand with a campaign to soften its blokey image.
The Publicis-created “Just Add Zero” push centres around a TV ad showing a man and a woman enhancing their experiences by “adding zero” – such as adding zero to his two sisters to produce 20 attractive friends and transforming a party of 100 people into 1,000 festival goers.
The refresh targets young people who have a positive outlook on life, marking the most significant change to the brand since it launched in 2006, Coke says.
GOOD WEEK FOR…
Sainsbury’s
On the face of it a 0.2 per cent rise in sales in its latest quarter doesn’t seem that great for Sainsbury’s. It did manage to continue its run of 36 consecutive quarters of growth, but barely, as both discounters and premium grocers continue to steal market share. Put that 0.2 per cent growth next to its big four rivals, however, and it starts to look pretty impressive.
Tesco’s sales dipped by 2.4 per cent over the 6-week festive period, while the picture over at Morrisons was even worse, with sales down a whopping 5.6 per cent and the supermarket forced to warn over profits.
No wonder Sainsbury’s CEO Justin King was (not so quietly) confident on an analyst call, crediting its “Live well for less” marketing and improved targeting using Nectar data for the performance.
BAD WEEK FOR…
World Cup Sponsors
While FIFA says it won’t officially decide on the timing of the 2022 World Cup until after this year’s event, there seems to be very little doubt that the date will have to be moved to the winter to avoid Qatar’s blazing summer temperatures.
That poses a nightmare for sponsors. Established FIFA partners such as McDonald’s and Coke will be forced to tweak their strategies to avoid “cannibalising” normally strong festive sales, according to sponsorship experts.
Others will be concerned that the World Cup will affect sponsorship of other events, such as the Winter Olympics, as well as the impact on Premier League and FA Cups sponsors that are buoyed by strong crowds during the festive season. The lack of clarification from FIFA also doesn’t help, especially as calls for a new host grow.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
CES 2014
The world’s biggest gadget show took place in Las Vegas this week. More than 10,000 advertising executives were in attendance, highlighting how the show has evolved from showcasing wacky robots and big tellys to major tech innovations likely to become mainstream among consumers. Brand highlights from the show came from Yahoo, Intel, Sony, LG and the dozens of car manufacturers displaying their futuristic connected cars.
Read Lara O’Reilly’s view on why this year’s show demonstrated that marketers should prepare themselves now for the wearable technology trend.
ONE TO WATCH
The Android Car
Back to CES for our “one to watch, which staged the announcement of the Open Automotive Alliance. The global agreement brings Google together with Audi, GM, Honda, Hyundai and Nvidia and will see Android becoming the common platform for members to create apps and other services designed for in-car information and entertainment. The first cars with Android integration will appear by the end of this year.
TWEETS
@Conderoni – student
on Innocent’s latest ‘Chain of Good’ TV ad
No offence @innocentdrinks, but I’m not buying your smoothies to help charities. I’m buying them to help me SHITE.
@InnocentDrinks
in response to @Conderoni
None taken Connor, we might pitch that to the marketing guys as the angle for our next advert.
@putnam49 – creative director at SapientNitro
on challenging perceptions around the Super Bowl’s audience
Over 51 million women are watching the Super Bowl these days. Let’s hope advertisers “get” that. #3percentsb http://ow.ly/smbaA
@RichardCosta – managing director of digital agency Jam
on what brands can learn from the Consumer Electronics Show
#CES2014 has only further highlighted that a lot of the innovations are shared, meaning brand (and price) still remain the key priorities
DATES FOR THE DIARY
14 January – Vodafone is launching its revamped marketing strategy Vodafone First. The telecoms firm will reveal at a press event what happened when it asked people around the world to do something extraordinary for the first time, using mobile technology.
14 January – Asos will update the industry on its performance over the busy festive period.
16 January – Magners owner C&C Group will post its third quarter revenues, revealing how well it coped with dampening consumer spend and growing competition in the cider market.
16 January – Morrisons’ ecommerce partner Ocado will issue a trading statement.
