5 things you need to know this week

1. Pret A Manger introduces ‘Good Evenings’ trial with wine and beer now on the menu

Pret announced this week the trial of a new fine dining evening concept at its Strand-based shop in London, with the chain selling everything from beers to meat balls, and changing its service from 6pm to 11pm to include menus, crockery and jazz music.

With ‘Good Evenings’, Pret, which is built on the lunch time crowd, is aiming to grab late-night customers away from high street restaurant chains.

“We already have a significant number of shops that trade until late night, so this makes sense for us,” said marketing director Mark Palmer. “I think when you pay high rents on an established infrastructure, you have to look if you do something new in the times where you’re not traditionally as strong.”

The story, which was an exclusive to Marketing Week, was quickly picked up by the nationals.

2. Aldi replaces Waitrose to become the UK’s sixth biggest supermarket

We’ve heard so much about the rise of the German discounters that their success is almost becoming less surprising these days.

The latest development saw Aldi, perhaps fuelled by its continued assault on the middle classes, overtake Waitrose as the UK’s sixth largest supermarket.

“Aldi’s growth has been fuelled by over half a million new shoppers choosing to visit it this year and average basket sizes increasing by 7%,” insisted Fraser McKevitt, head of retailer and consumer insight at Kantar Worldpanel.

3. Bacardi goes Vogue as it brings in first VP of fashion

In a move Anna Wintour would approve of, Bacardi has appointed Akiko Maeda to the newly created role of VP of fashion in an effort to further fashion partnerships.

In the new role, Maeda, previously VP of product and platform development for IMG Worldwide’s fashion business, will work alongside Bacardi’s marketing and commercial teams to plan how the brand can work with key fashion industry influencers across events, social and digital.

“We definitely see an opportunity to work more closely with Dolce & Gabbana but also from there work with other Italian, French, Spanish, British and American fashion brands,” Maedo told Marketing Week.

4. Dove asks consumers to ‘Choose Beautiful’ with new global film-focused campaign

https://youtu.be/AwH81q-HlGE

This week, following the viral success of its previous Dove campaigns, the brand launched ‘Choose Beautiful’, the latest film-focused effort to change how women see themselves and challenge perceptions of beauty.

The video, filmed across four cities including London, shows real women’s reactions when they are presented with the choice of walking through two doors, one entitled “Average” and the other “Beautiful”.

Dove will be hoping to follow the success of Real Beauty Sketches. Its previous beauty campaign has hit over 65 million views on YouTube, making it the most viewed video of all time as of 2013 rankings.

5. Virgin Money aims to ‘seize the moment’ as it uses animals for 2015 TV push

Blasting the tired banking ad clichés of the bigger banks, Virgin Money launched its new pigeon-starring ‘There’s Money and There’s Virgin Money’ television campaign on Monday.

The campaign, which aims to present Virgin Money as the best alternative for consumers to manage their finances and was created by m/SIX, will build throughout the year with different animals, including squirrels and guide dogs, taking centre stage.

“We did lots of research with consumers and when you say to them ‘Can you recall memorable financial service advertising?’ and there were zero responses,” said a defiant Paul Lloyd, marketing director at Virgin Money. “We want to change that.”