5 things that mattered this week

From Paralympic sponsors failing to engage consumers to Instagram boasting 500,000 monthly advertisers, it has been another eventful week in the world of marketing. We have lined up the five stories you need to know about.

Samsung Paralympics Rio

Paralympic sponsors are failing to engage consumers

When it comes to this summer’s Rio Olympics, sponsors did a relatively good job in engaging the public. Sadly, the same can’t be said for the Paralympics.

Ten of the biggest Paralympics sponsors only generated a combined 5,116 global mentions during the week-long Games, according to a Brand Agility Index study by PR firm Waggener Edstrom Communications [WE].

While Atos was the most mentioned sponsor (1,658 mentions) followed by Samsung (1,028 mentions), major brands such as Coca Cola only created 312 global mentions, with Panasonic (130 mentions) and Omega (64 mentions) faring even worse.

“Overall the Paralympics had a very positive start for brands, but as the weeks went by efforts became sporadic, diluted and tired,” said Gareth Davies, head of digital and insight at WE.

Adidas justifies its focus on digital by comparing TV to the
fax machine

adidas final

Adidas is currently on a mission to regain dominance in North America, after losing ground to Nike and newer entrant Under Armour. To do this, the brand has put in place a three-pillar strategy, which includes plans to work more closely with celebrities following the success of its Kanye West collaboration.

Earlier this week, the brand’s global head of digital ecosystem design David Greenfield told Marketing Week that he is confident Adidas can “absolutely” win back ground, but that digital will be key to achieving that goal.

“If we look at our recent marketing activity for the NMD brand it was 100% on social. It wasn’t a 30-second TV spot or some slogan but a digital-only strategy that made us sell out of those shoes in a matter of hours,” he said.

“Of course TV still has a place but the fax machine still has a place too and I’m not about to create a fax machine marketing strategy. Digital is the most relevant channel for our audience.”

Instagram talks up ‘Stories’ success as it doubles advertiser base

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Instagram is going from strength to strength, with the brand revealing earlier this week that it has doubled its advertiser base over the last six months, having grown to just over 500,000 active monthly advertisers.

It is the latest milestone for the Facebook-owned social network, with it hitting 500 million global users back in June.

In August, Instagram also launched ‘Instagram Stories’, which allows users to share different moments of their day into a single post. Speaking at a press briefing, Instagram’s head of brand development for EMEA Amy Cole said the new feature has given marketers “extra flexibility”.

She said: “We have seen brands make use of the fact that you can message people through stories and they go straight into your direct messaging. Brands can use this to obtain feedback, for competitions or to privately ask for email addresses. It gives brands that extra flexibility.”

Brands are struggling to sustain ‘purpose’ commitments

Publisher Pearson takes sixth place in Radley Yeldar's 2016 brand purpose ranking thanks to initiatives like Project Literacy.
Publisher Pearson takes sixth place in Radley Yeldar’s 2016 brand purpose ranking thanks to initiatives like Project Literacy.

Many brands are keen to mimic Unilever and talk up their purposeful efforts. However, a new report suggests many brands are struggling to retain a long-term focus on commitments when it comes to social purpose.

In consultancy Radley Yeldar’s 2016 list of the top 100 companies for social purpose, 28 brands from the 2015 list have lost their places. Many of these are high-profile businesses, with Johnson & Johnson, Volkswagen, Orange, Apple, Samsung, WPP, JPMorgan, Diageo and Carrefour among the casualties.

Paulina Lezama, brand strategy team leader at Radley Yeldar, believes the drop-outs show that embedding purpose takes longer than many brands expect.

“These things take a long time,” she says. “You can change the business and define the marketing in a year, and then think this is a road map to brand purpose, but the reality is it will take four to 10 years to actually get there. It won’t happen over night.”

Heineken launches recruitment campaign to tell the world ‘it is more than one brand’

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Heineken as a brand is generally well known. However, there is only one problem: Heineken wants its other 250 brands to be equally as famous and attractive for potential future employees. To do this, it has launched a campaign to present ‘Heineken the company’ and convince potential employees that it is “more than just the Heineken brand”.

Gianluca Di Tondo, senior director of the global Heineken brand, told Marketing Week that “now was the right moment” for the company to present itself to the world.

“There are way more brands in the Heineken company than Heineken alone. We want to make sure that we convey what the company is about compared to what the single brand is about,” he said.

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