Posts

Looking to Get More From Your Marketing in 2019? Join Us For Our Free Annual TLC Business Marketing Lunch in the New Year

With 2018 drawing to a close, it’s that time of year again when we review the marketing trends of 2018, what has been working, what hasn’t and what we’ll be doing in 2019.

Designed for SMEs, our free marketing lunch will provide SMEs with useful insights, tips, guidance and advice on how to get the most from your marketing in 2019.

What we will cover:
• Choosing the right marketing channels for SMEs
• ePrivacy regulation changes – GDPR take two? What to expect
• Digital Marketing and GDPR best practice
• Getting the biggest bang for your buck
• Social Media, PPC, SEO and more

Date: Thursday 7th February 2019
Time: 12pm – 2pm
Location: East Horton Golf Club, Mortimers Lane, Fair Oak, Eastleigh, SO50 7EA
Refreshments: Buffet lunch provided
Price: Free

If you’re an SME and would like more information about our event or to secure your place, get in touch today by emailing sophiewells@tlc-business.co.uk or by calling Sophie on 01962 600 147 to receive your free invite!
This event is invite only, you must book and secure your place if you wish to attend.

/by

Black Friday: The biggest consumer event of the year?

The term Black Friday conjures up those scenes we’ve all seen on the news of frenzied chaotic shoppers grabbing anything they can get their hands on, seemingly regardless of whether they actually want the item. Undoubtedly, Black Friday is one of the biggest consumer shopping days of the year and generates billions of pounds in sales as retailers offer some of their most competitive deals of the year to customers. The annual event has become ever-bigger, year-on-year and is now perceived to mark the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. This year it will take place on Friday 23rd November. However, retailers typically release their deals much earlier, often lasting one or two weeks, and incorporating Cyber Monday (Monday 26th November 2018), another day dedicated to discounts by online retailers. As Black Friday falls before Christmas, the previously largest sales day, Boxing Day, is experiencing a decline in sales, as customers get ‘shopped out’ by the time it comes round, resulting in Boxing Day sales losing their appeal.

So where did Black Friday come from?

Black Friday originated in the US and always falls on the day after Thanksgiving. In the US, Americans are generally given several days off work for this holiday, therefore, US retailers saw it as a prime opportunity to make extra money by offering great savings on products. The day was given its name because it is considered the period before Christmas that retailers ‘move into the black’, meaning they are in a strong financial position and have enough money to cover their costs while reducing prices.

In the past, many shops have been known to release details of their discounts and offers at the very last moment, before their deals go live. Some also increase their offers, where stock persists, as the days go on, often resulting in sell-outs. Retailers can also be expected to stay open for longer and many offer online discounts and promotions now too.

The supermarket Asda takes credit for bringing Black Friday to the UK over a decade ago; however, they no longer participate, due to incidents of fights and brawls in stores across the UK, which one year saw customers wrestling over a television at an Asda store in Wembley. Instead, they offer alternative discounts on selected products that run on for longer instead of flash sales.

 

What to expect in 2018?

In 2018, we can expect Black Friday to see many retailers offering their deals and discounts for longer in the weeks leading up to Christmas. In recent years, when Black Friday deals were more akin to flash deals that lasted 24-hours or until stocks lasted, shopping centres were flooded with out-of-control consumers running in to stores as the doors open and fighting with other customers to grab the last products on the shelf. But with many retailers now dragging out their deals over many days, and in some cases weeks, to avoid the peak in footfall, and with many consumers opting to shop online, retailers are having to become more competitive with their offerings, as consumers have more time to research and consider the best deals. Footfall this year is expected to drop by 3.7% compared with Black Friday last year, and by 2.7% over the weekend as a whole, according to reports by The Springboard Group. Meanwhile, online transactions are expected to increase by 4% this year, although year-on-year growth of online sales has been at a slower pace compared to last year.

How does Black Friday affect marketing strategy?

In November 2017, Google search encountered approximately 2,240,000 hits of the search term “Black Friday 2017”, meanwhile in this same period UK shoppers spent £1.4bn online, 11.7% more than the previous year. Without a doubt, it would be a missed opportunity if a business taking part didn’t optimise their website for SEO purposes to target searches around Black Friday Deals and drive their audience to a Black Friday-specific landing page, particularly for an e-commerce site. However, with many other retailers and businesses doing the same, the competition is soaring. Black Friday planning should therefore start well in advance. In-fact, the bigger retailers will have a consistent year-round Black Friday webpage on their website to secure themselves a space in the search engine’s index, which may also start to develop some traffic from as early as August, when consumers start thinking ahead of the deals. Once the page is established, you can work to improve the user and page experience; which will help improve your search engine ranks. A month or so in advance of the big day the marketers are busy. We are seeing Black Friday paid ad campaigns pop up, re-marketing kicking in and social media ads start appearing in our feeds, not to mention the flurry of promotional emails filling up our inboxes.

With retailers fighting one another to offer the best deals and competitive prices, strategies such as offering exclusive access to the first 100 customers, incentives for free products or entries into competition draws can help to make brands stand out. Some businesses may also take a more ethical approach to the event and donate a percentage of profits made to their favourite charity.

Many brands/businesses will also join forces with other retailers or make partnerships with publishers to further increase their audience reach. In 2017, one of the most shared content pieces from a UK-relevant website was a news article detailing Virgin Train’s Black Friday Offer in the Liverpool Echo. Whilst it was not a very long piece, it still managed to capture 7,700 engagements on Facebook alone.

In this cyber age, people who fall into the categories of ‘influencer’ or celebrity can also be found promoting products to consumers through social media and PR. Around the Black Friday event, we can expect ‘famous’ faces at the forefront of brand campaigns, promoting a variety of “unmissable” Black Friday offers.

Are retailers really offering the best deals of the year?

The whole frenzy around Black Friday attracts massive hype and makes customers feel pressured to spend their money or miss out on the “biggest deals of the year”. But according to research by idealo.co.uk, 9 out of 10 products included in Black Friday deals are actually cheaper at other times in the year. The report analysed 21,047 products over a 12-month period and found that only electricals such as laptops were offered at a bargain price, whilst most other products could be found cheaper during different sales and times of the year. The report also revealed that the most popular products to purchase over the Black Friday event were smartphones, but on average they were £72 cheaper in early August.

Some retailers may also feel that Black Friday discounts are counter-productive and are therefore reluctant to offer a significant discount. As Black Friday typically brings Christmas spending forward to mid-November, naturally they see a decline in footfall and sales in the final weeks before Christmas; which should be the peak trading period leading into Boxing Day and January sales.

So, what are your thoughts on Black Friday? Does it deserve the hype it receives? Let us know your experience by emailing us on info@tlc-business.co.uk!

/by

TLC host a bake off!

With the Great British Bake Off final taking place this week, it was time for another TLC bake off! Opting for a traybake theme, the team baked several delights including brownies, cakes and rocky roads.

/by

TLC brave the choppy Solent waters for a jam-packed treasure hunt

  

It’s not every Friday that you get on a high-speed rib boat, to cruise across the Solent for a treasure hunt! As part of our most recent team day out, the team were split into two groups, to go head-to-head in a jam packed treasure hunt that saw us visit several locations – including The Needles, Cowes and Hamble. After a full day at sea, the team were treated to a well-deserved slice of cake and team Edamame were crowned the winners, with an overall total of more than 500 points!

/by

Clever Halloween marketing campaigns

In case you’ve missed it over the last few years, Halloween has taken on a lot more commercial significance to businesses and retailers. Heavily influenced by the holiday’s popularity in America, Halloween in the UK has become bigger, spookier and  more important than ever for engaging with customers and prospects. In fact, businesses are even beginning to market Halloween products as early as August; and it seems to be working, with spending surveys highlighting a consistent year-on-year increase in consumer spending associated with the autumnal holiday. It seems that as the schools go back, enthusiastic ‘halloweeners’ take to the shops to find that perfect costume and start preparing for the ghostly festivities. With the eerie holiday just around the corner, TLC Business have taken a look at some of our favourite (and unnerving) Halloween campaigns of recent years. Which is your favourite?

1. Asda

This 1980s themed Halloween commercial for Asda was launched in Autumn 2017. The advert featured a family Halloween party with multiple generations, from kids to the grandparents, dancing freakishly to 1986 hit ‘Word Up’ by Cameo. The advert, entitled “Home For All Things Haunted”, showcased the wide selection of Asda Halloween costumes, cakes, pumpkins and decorations, positioning the supermarket as the go-to store for all Halloween supplies. The advert had a Shazam feature, enabling viewers to scan the ad on their devices; which would then re-direct them to a custom Halloween landing page on their website with their list of holiday-themed products. The campaign also ran alongside social media posts, a radio ad and PR.

2. Burger King

In 2015, the hashtag #GreenPoop became rather popular on Twitter, all down to the Burger King ‘Halloween Whopper’ burger, featuring a suspiciously black bun. The coloured bun trend started in Japan, where they have a variety of unusually coloured burger baps; including pink and red. The Halloween Whopper was brought to UK Burger King stores nationwide for a limited time until October 31st 2015. The black bun, which used a natural colourant, was also BBQ flavoured. As the hashtag that started trending might indicate, it was the burger’s effect on customers’ stools, turning them a funky green colour, that caught the public’s attention. We don’t know what’s spookier, the black bun or the after effects?

3. M&Ms

In 2016, the memorable red and yellow M&Ms featured in a series of TV commercials leading up to Halloween. Employing comical references to trick or treating, red and yellow opted to stay in for fear of getting eaten, but that didn’t stop red eating a yellow M&M and referring to itself as a cannibal. M&Ms’ clever approach to marketing has helped keep the popular chocolate treat going for over 75 years.

4. Topshop

Stranger Things is of one Netflix’s most popular original shows and with their announcement of the Season 2 release date last October, high-street retailer Topshop curated a Stranger Things product line which launched at their Oxford Street flagship store. The store itself was transformed and featured interactive reconstructions of the Stranger Things set, including the Hawkins laboratory manned by actors, where customers could be tested for telekinetic powers by moving a can of coke using the power of their mind. The product line reportedly sold out immediately in store and online, leaving many Stranger Things and Topshop fans disappointed. The release was just in time for Halloween and the store also held exclusive screenings of the show.

5. Fanta

For several years, the Coca-Cola owned brand Fanta has been releasing Halloween-themed cans featuring skulls, witches and vampires in a playful, spooky twist on their iconic branding. In 2017, the campaign also included a series of snapchat filters and lenses, where you could transform yourself into a cracked China Doll or bathe in a bath of blood.

What are some of your favourite Halloween campaigns? Get in touch by emailing us at info@tlc-business.co.uk.

 

 

/by

5 unique advertising methods

Trying to get heard amongst all the competing advertising noise out there is not easy. Estimates suggest we are exposed to over 10,000 brand / company messages each day. Clearly, advertising is highly competitive. Millions of different companies and brands are fighting for the attention of their target audiences each day. Online, in print, on TV, radio, billboards, mobile and more, advertisers are in danger of drowning each other out.  With this in mind, companies are always on the lookout for unique and innovative ways to get their message across.

This week, we thought it would be interesting to take a look at some of the more unusual advertising techniques. Here are some of our favourites.

 

1. Wi-Fi network names

In March 2016, Audi attended the New York auto show with a unique and clever advertising hack. The German car company set up a number of free Wi-Fi networks and gave each network a name that doubled up as an advertisement for the back-then brand new Audi A4. Each network was named with one reason to choose the A4 and also bashed their rival BMW 328i at the same time, including statements such as “#:1 A4 more horsepower than 328i” and “#4: A4 has CarPlay”. It’s not the first time a company has used Wi-Fi networks to double up as advertising, but we can see how it could be an effective and amusing marketing technique to get your brand or product stand out, particularly for an event where free Wi-Fi is just about the first thing mobile users look for.

 

2. On our food
Using a laser etching technique, brands have even found a way to safely advertise on our food! This advertising technique is most commonly found in Butcher’s markets to advertise sellers produce, or in the health and fitness industry for advertising the likes of gym memberships or nutritional advice. Laser etching or printing on foods has typically been used in the food industry to mark produce with dates and numbers to identify their location or factory source. Taking inspiration, some brands have now hijacked this technique, adding messaging to their food. Alongside meat, the technique has been seen on egg shells and even the skins of fruit and vegetables, including avocados, melons and potatoes.

 

3. Human Body

Have you ever heard of forehead advertising? No, us neither! But some people are willing to do bizarre things to make money, one of which is getting yourself tattooed with a logo or company’s website address. The tattoos can be temporary or permanent and are not just limited to the forehead; people have sold areas of their arms, neck, chest and legs to make some serious buck! Similarly, a Japanese advertising firm recently sold advertising space on commuters armpits to a beauty treatment clinic. The advertisements measure nearly 2” x 4”, are placed in the armpit and cost approximately £68 for one hour of exposure on a commuter train or bus. We’re not sure if this advertising technique will take off in the UK but keep an eye out.

 

4. Captchas

We’re all familiar with captchas, those annoying boxes that appear on websites. They often appear when entering personal credentials to purchase something online or to access an account. A captcha will usually ask you to type a series of letters or a phrase into a box to prove that we’re not spam robots. They display text in a distorted font, a range of upper case and lower case letters or with a line straight through, supposedly making it too difficult for anything non-human to decipher. Sometimes they may even show a series of images to click on or a short video with a message at the end which you need to copy into the box. The aim is to ensure that a response is not generated by a computer, but copied by a human behind a screen and they are deemed necessary for protection against spam. While banner ads can often be overlooked and ignored, captchas require a user’s undivided attention and advertisers caught onto this. Captcha’s use of words and pictures are more often random and have no significance, but some companies have purchased captcha space to use them to advertise their names, slogans and brand. They can also include clickable links to their website and run on a PPC model or cost per impression basis. They might be irritating, but they cannot be ignored.

 

5. Hi-Jack other advertisements
Advertisements can be costly and coming up with an ad that is creative and unique can be hard work, costly and time consuming. So why not save the money and effort of designing an ad and instead deface another advertisement by placing your own label right on top of it? In Germany, Hubba Bubba adopted a questionable-at-best guerrilla advertising campaign which involved using other brands’ advertisements to display their iconic bubble gum. They hijacked billboards advertisements containing people, including a model advertising a lingerie brand, and added pink balloons with the label Hubba Bubba over their mouths to replicate a bubble gum bubble. Hubba Bubba is iconic for their creative and unusual advertisements and this type of guerrilla marketing definitely caught people’s attention.

What are some unique or clever advertising techniques you’ve come across? We’d love to hear your thoughts! Email us at info@tlc-business.co.uk.

/by

VIDEO: TLC take on Clip n Climb Chelsea

Throwing it back to a few weeks ago when we were monkeying around at Clip n Climb in Chelsea, London!

/by

The rise of augmented reality for strategic marketing

Social media platforms have become a critical place for advertisers to showcase their products to their target audiences, and with new technologies emerging all the time, businesses are finding new and innovative ways to integrate them into their marketing strategy.

When Snapchat first introduced face filters to their app in 2015, the potential of augmented reality to engage consumers started to be realised. Recently, Facebook announced at its F8 developer conference that it had started to test out AR in the news feed section of the platform. After the recent data security scandals and the associated decline in user growth that have hit the company, wiping billions off its value, it’s no surprise they are trying to find new and engaging ways to win over advertisers and consumers.

These new AR features are only available to a few big-name brands currently, such as Michael Kors, Bobbi Brown and Sephora, but if the tests go well, you can be sure to see them rolled out universally soon.

Instagram also features AR filters in the ‘stories’ section of the app, and since the platform is owned by Facebook, the two apps jointly promise to be the biggest AR platform in the world.

 

VR vs. AR – What’s the difference?

Many people will remember VR (Virtual Reality) being the big buzz phrase a couple of years ago, enabling consumers to enjoy an immersive experience in a virtual world, using a VR headset. Although the technology is still going strong in the gaming industry, with companies like Google launching new headsets all the time, it has taken a backseat to AR on social media because of AR’s more promising ad revenue potential.

The difference between virtual reality and augmented reality is essentially VR’s ability to take you into a new virtual environment, with 360-degree visuals that you wouldn’t be able to experience in full without a headset. In contrast, augmented reality allows graphics to feature as an overlay on videos or photos on your smartphone or tablet device, providing companies like Facebook with new advertising opportunities to offer their business customers. As Ty Ahmad-Taylor (Vice President of Product Marketing) stated: “People now expect a personalized and visually inspiring experience wherever they shop — whether on their phone or in-store, which is why video will play an increasingly important role in the mobile shopping experience.”

 

Apple AR Kit, one step ahead?

Apple recently launched a new AR kit which overlays 3D graphics on the screens of the user’s surroundings. Unlike, the experience offered by Facebook and the like, the AR kit has the ability to measure dimensions of objects in the room, as well as delivering motion tracking, making it a more sophisticated all-round experience. The AR kit appears to be a step in the right direction for Apple, as the company looks to innovate in the wake of a surprise drop in sales of its flagship iPhone over the last 12 months.

With technology giants like Facebook, Apple and Snapchat all introducing AR technology into our everyday lives, it is clearly just a matter of time before it becomes a mainstay in the advertisers’ toolbox. Brands are already encouraged by AR’s potential to fuel impulse buying by consumers. If you are a social media user, the chances are, if it hasn’t already, AR will influence you to make a ‘spur of the moment’ purchase soon.

/by

5 World Cup marketing campaigns that caught our attention

Just under two weeks into the World Cup and there has already been many surprising results. The England team have won their first two tournament games, against Tunisia and Panama, with 18 million people tuning in to watch their 2-1 victory and 6 -1 win. Russia has managed to prove their pre-tournament critics wrong, winning their first two games against Saudi Arabia and Egypt, giving them the best start any hosting country has ever had. Finally, as we were finishing this post, Germany went out in the group stages! However, with many companies jumping on the World Cup bandwagon with their marketing campaigns, it seems the matches haven’t been the only thing catching the audience’s attention. As one now expects, when the World Cup rolls around every four years, businesses large and small look to capitalise on the event in ever new and creative marketing campaigns. So let’s take a look at some of the biggest campaigns that have dominated this year’s competition so far.

 

  1. Interactive Budweiser Campaign

One of the biggest global campaigns to be unveiled was by Budweiser, who is the official beer of the World Cup. Unsurprisingly, they released a series of short video advertisement’s to be featured on TV. However, they have also taken the opportunity to target a younger demographic with their marketing by partnering up with the social media platform Snapchat. It came with its risks, since Snapchat’s age policy is 13 and upwards, meaning they had to be careful they weren’t encouraging underage drinking. The brand said they were confident their campaign didn’t reach under an under-18s audience, but this remains to be seen. Underage drinking aside! The innovative campaign launched the first sound activated Snapchat Lens, designed to respond to the sounds of frenzied football fans. In addition to this, Budweiser is also releasing a ‘Snappable’ lens which is a new form of interactive technology that encourages users to share their experiences with friends through playing augmented reality games. Budweiser are establishing a reputation for embracing new technology in their marketing (who could forget their noise-activated beers cups), using it effectively to engage their target audience and generate a buzz.

  1. Nike VS. Adidas

With Nike and Adidas being two of the biggest sports brands in the world, it’s no surprise that they have spent huge sums of marketing budget battling for consumer attention during arguably the biggest sporting event in the world. In terms of video marketing, both brands released ads that were emotionally engaging and it seems Nike came out on top in that battle, by scoring a higher percentage of engagement amongst fans. However, with Nike and Adidas focused on each other, upcoming brands, such as New Balance, are gaining World Cup market share by adopting a different approach. With their biggest rivals allocating much of their marketing budgets to expensive sponsorship deals, New Balance has focused their strategy on engaging consumers through social media campaigns. During the World Cup, New Balance has successfully used social media influencers on YouTube to gain brand awareness and consumer mind-share.

  1. MasterCard Controversial Campaign

MasterCard’s recent World Cup social media campaign, entitled ‘Goals that change lives’, made waves for the wrong reasons when they experienced a Twitter backlash. The insensitive campaign drew criticism across the board with users describing it as ‘’easily the worst marketing I’ve ever seen’’. The crux of the campaign centred around the company’s promise to give 10,000 children a meal for every goal scored by Messi or Neymar, inspired by the drive to eliminate world hunger. Predictably, the campaign provoked a wave of verified Twitter users criticising the campaign, arguing it was a cruel proposition and ‘’why not give them the meals anyway?’’ Although the football players were proud to be a part of helping change people’s lives, many argued it was the wrong type of issue to include in a World Cup marketing campaign and management should have realised before going forward with it. Since the recent uproar on Twitter, MasterCard has decided to discontinue their campaign and instead adopted a target to donate 1 million meals by the end of the year.

 

  1. Paddy Power Pledge

In a similar, but more well-received campaign, Paddy Power has offered to donate £10,000 to LGBT charities for every goal scored by Russia as part of their campaign. As with many of the World Cup marketing campaigns, this one is being backed by celebrities, including Caitlyn Jenner, Danni Wyatt and Gareth Thomas. With Russia unexpectedly winning both of their first matches and scoring a total of 8 goals in the process, Paddy Power has already donated £80,000. With home advantage and momentum on their side, you’d bet Russia has still got more goals in them.

 

  1. Coca-Cola

No global sporting event of the magnitude of the World Cup would be complete without the drinks giant Coca-Cola getting in on the marketing campaign act. This year is no different, with Coca-Cola launching a series of video ads soundtracked by Jason Derulo and AC/DC and a set of limited-edition numbered cans so you can make your match score predictions.  The third of their ads takes an innovative approach and employers virtual animations of players from the FIFA 2018 game. A pre-release version was launched in Time Square earlier in the year on what was hailed as the ‘’first 3D electro – Kinetic Billboard’’ in the world. The ad is part of a strategy to appeal to a younger demographic, in which they have also teamed up with EA Sports FIFA 2018.

 

We hope this has given you some inspiration for your marketing this World Cup and don’t forget to let us know your favourite World Cup-themed marketing campaigns!

 

/by

Sophie takes home the winners trophy!

A couple of weeks ago, team TLC took a trip to TeamSport Go Karting in Gosport; where we put our driving skills to the test in an F1 style Grand Prix! After 30 minutes intial practise, all six of us went head to head in the race to be crowned the winner. In the end, it was Sophie who took the winners trophy, with Sophie W following closly behind in second and Shannon in third place.

/by