P&G, Virgin Atlantic, Carlsberg: Five things that mattered this week and why

All the most important marketing news from the last week including the ongoing fallout from the Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal and how Carlsberg is looking to renovate its brands.

carlsberg

Carlsberg on how it decides whether to ‘innovate or renovate’

Carlsberg is looking to revitalise its brand portfolio following the arrival of vice-president of marketing Liam Newton 18 months ago. That started with Carlsberg Export, and there are plans to overhaul Tetley and its namesake lager brand Carlsberg over the next few months.

But Newton takes an interesting approach on how to revitalise those brands. Some, says Newton, need innovation such as introducing new brews, while others need renovating to remind customers why they like the brand either through new product design or rethinking the marketing.

 

He explains: “We try to start with the overall category growth and where its coming from, then we look at where the brands are within that overall category story and then we decide is it renovation or innovation which is needed.

“For Export, we knew in blind taste tests everybody loves the beer but it was the brand that they didn’t like so there was no need to innovate and instead it was a renovation job.”

Marketers often caught up in innovation, not realising that there is nothing with the underlying product but that the brand needs some love. Carlsberg has seen some big successes with its approach, with initial signs showing that sales across the on- and off-trade were up by 20% and purchase consideration by 8%.

 

READ MORE: Renovate or innovate? How Carlsberg is revitalising its ‘sleeping giants’

Virgin Atlantic ups in-house creative talent

Virgin Atlantic

Virgin Atlantic is expanding its in-house creative department as it looks to spark more creativity ahead of the launch of its new brand identity following the decision to move on from ‘Let it Fly’.

Michael Stephens, head of brand and creative at Virgin Atlantic, was the first new addition to the creative team after joining in January from Ted Baker. Virgin Atlantic is now also looking to hire a creative and design manager, a senior digital designer specialising in motion graphics and animation, a creative content producer to work as an in-house videographer and photographer, plus an intern.

The hope is the hires will spark creativity and help better incorporate digital into the brand’s everyday creative process. The in-house team at Virgin Atlantic has become increasingly important year on year, but Stephens says there was a gap in terms of digital capabilities.

“Digital doesn’t stand alone as a department anymore and needs to be woven into everything,” Stephens tells Marketing Week: “These roles will mean we can be reactive with social content and not rely on an agency. We’re being requested more and more for animation and motion graphics and we know that photography and film are more important than ever.”

READ MORE: Virgin Atlantic expands in-house creative team in marketing effectiveness drive

P&G now wants Facebook and Google to provide proof of sales

Having looked to tackle issues in digital media including transparency and the supply chain, Procter & Gamble’s chief brand officer Marc Pritchard is now calling on the big digital players to help it prove when digital marketing investment leads to a sale.

Speaking to Marketing Week, Pritchard said: “The next frontier with the big players is going to be getting a consumer signal that helps us make sure that investment actually results in a sale and that it doesn’t add excess frequency.

“I want to know if I reach you, and I don’t need to know it’s you specifically, but I need to know it’s a person and that I don’t reach that person 10 other times. And that if I reach you that it actually leads to a sale.”

Trying to link digital investment to real world sales has been tricky, especially for FMCG brands that tend not to own the relationship with the consumer. Yet drawing such a direct link between ad spend and a sale may also be too simplisitic a view of the role of digital in the purchase journey. P&G is focused on brand growth, but that doesn’t always mean a direct sale, although of course that is the end goal for all marketers.

READ MORE: P&G’s Marc Pritchard on the next frontier of digital – We want to know our investment results in a sale

The backlash against Facebook continues as the social network looks to clean up its act

Another week, and more twists in the fallout from Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica scandal. The social network is set to cut down on the amount of data it shares with brokers such as Oracle, Experian and Acxiom, in particular its ‘partner categories’ tool that lets advertisers target consumers based on their offline behaviour.

The move comes as Facebook looks to clean up its data practices in the wake of the scandal and prove to users, advertisers and regulators that it is listening to their concerns. However, the move will be a blow to many advertisers that rely on that data to target customers. And that, according to our columnist Mark Ritson, is part of the reason why many advertisers have been reluctant to speak out against Facebook

READ MORE: Mark Ritson – Marketers’ silence on Cambridge Analytica speaks volumes

Ace & Tate looks to bring disruption to the eyewear market

Ace & Tate marketing campaign

Thought buying glasses was immune from disruption? Think again! Dutch eyewear brand Ace & Tate is looking to redefine how people buy glasses through a focus on the customer experience and digital innovation.

Its stores have more of a boutique feel and it offers free eye tests. It also takes a different attitude to design, doing all its own design in-house and therefore cutting out “unnecessary middlemen”. Plus it is investing significantly in its digital offering, with plans to launch a virtual try-on service and trial of a virtual online eye test that will allow customers to test their eyesight using just a smartphone and computer.

But first it needs people to know about the brand. And so it’s launching its first major campaign, which is running across print and outdoor media, alongside a series of films online that feature six portraits of known and ‘street cast’ people from around Europe – including UK furniture designer/activist Yinka Ilori, German DJ/musician Lena Willikens and Swedish singer/social worker Mona Morrsy.

 

READ MORE: How Ace & Tate is looking to disrupt the eyewear market

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