The London School of Marketing (LSM) has published insights on the ways in which social media has contributed to the rise of brag culture in marketing. The article by LSM – which offers accredited marketing and business qualifications in the UK capital – asks the question: in today’s frenzied world of digital marketing, how else can marketers…
“Building on the robust appetite for investment in the marketing services community, this convergence will drive substantial growth and value for marketers and the broad range of solutions providers that support them.”
Supermarkets Aldi and Tesco are in a David and Goliath fight for share of voice on social media in the UK, based on their relative market share, according to a ‘Talkability Tracker’ from big data product company DigitalContact.co.uk, which monitored millions of social media mentions during June.
Aldi is becoming the talk of the town on social and taking on Tesco for the top spot in this first supermarket online Talkability Tracker.
DigitalContact.co.uk has developed a snapshot view of the most talked about supermarkets online via analysis which ran for a five-day period between June 24 and 28 and found that Tesco – by far the biggest food retailer in the UK based on market share – topped the conversation list of supermarkets’ online presence. However, of the tweets, 15% of those received were negative, which was 73% higher than average – akin to the incident caused by their placing of Bacon flavoured Pringles in the Ramadan offer, a forbidden food for Muslims.
However, Aldi is getting value for money from its social presence, securing 17% of market share based on social conversations – despite only commanding 5.5% of market share by UK revenue. Aldi has been encouraging positive conversations about their brand by using #AldiChallenge, promoted using the hashtag to report any savings they have made by shopping there. The tracker shows that, if you take into account Aldi’s smaller market share, it is punching far above its weight, outperforming its giant rival by a factor of 2.3x. If you only look at positive mentions, the challenger is doing even better, beating Tesco hands down by a factor of 2.8x.
As for other supermarket competitors, ASDA is also outshining a number of high street and traditional British retailers, featuring fourth on Digital Contact’s sentiment report, ahead of Waitrose and Marks & Spencer.
It is important to acknowledge that this data is a five day ‘snapshot’ of the most talked about supermarket brands on social media, only taking into account what their customers are saying about them, rather than the conversation they are building themselves. Despite only showcasing a short period, the research reinforces the changeable and powerful impact that conversations had by customers online can have on a brand.
Digital Contact CEO, Gareth Mann (pictured left), said: “Social media is the voice of the consumer and companies need to be listening to what it says if they want to stay one step ahead. Understanding what has been said about your brand should be paramount to any organisation. This calibre and depth of analysis can help businesses establish a better relationship with customers, understand consumer needs, see the differing trends from around the world and help predict future trends in their industry.
“As we can see, social media is making the fight for brand recognition a level playing field and, by understanding and capitalising on social media, many brands can take on the Goliaths in their markets.”
Demand for sales and marketing professionals outstrips supply with 1.6 jobs per candidate In the UK, the number of advertised roles for sales and marketing professionals in the City jumped by 64% in May, compared to last year’s figure. The results of the Robert Walters City Jobs Index, which tracks the number of jobs available and…
Jennifer Watkiss says marketers should make the time to make timely and relevant communications. Here, she examines the findings of a ninth annual report, surveying more than 1,000 in-house and agency marketers.
We buy most of our groceries at the supermarket. Very few buy them online and those who do rarely use a smartphone. That changes in Portugal this week, where El Cortes Ingles launched a mobile grocery-shopping platform powered by Grability, a New York City-based tech company.
Following months of negotiations, Belfast Zoological Gardens (BZG) has welcomed a critically endangered dragon to Belfast Zoo. (Don’t be alarmed . . . it’s the finale of a campaign to showcase Northern Ireland to millions of ‘Game of Thrones’ TV programme fans worldwide.)
Considered all but extinct, the animal (pictured) is now being housed in a specially designed enclosure and, where possible, his prey will be sourced from outside the zoo’s own collection. The infant male currently has a wing-span of 10ft, but when fully grown his skull alone will measure up to 23ft.
Belfast Zoo manager Mark Challis said: “We’re thrilled to have such an exceptionally rare creature here at Belfast Zoo. This dragon is an important addition not only for us, but for Northern Ireland as a whole. Despite their fearsome reputation and fabled ability to burn entire cities to ashes, we’d like to reassure the residents of Belfast that our keepers have received expert training, and we’re looking forward to seeing him thrive in his new environment.”
The animatronic dragon, which is operated by two controllers, marks the culmination of a campaign by Tourism Ireland in partnership with HBO to promote Northern Ireland as the home of ‘Game of Thrones’, and capitalise on the rise of screen tourism.
Last Tuesday, June 9, was arrival day and visitors to the zoo could witness ‘dragon feeding time’ and watch the chief vet give him a check-up. Other events in the series have captured the imagination of Game of Thrones fans, with some tracking down the stunts within hours of them going live. Video clips have attracted millions of views online.
Other stunts in the campaign include:
Three-eyed ravens (pictured), replicas of those used in Game of Thrones, were seen perched on top of old-fashioned wooden signs, specially erected to point the way to some of the iconic locations around Northern Ireland where the series is filmed. And replica dragon eggs were placed among fruit and vegetables in a market stall in St George’s Market in Belfast. The eggs were ‘for sale’ to people visiting the market for the price of 125 Gold Dragons – the currency used in Game of Thrones. What customers didn’t know was that one of the eggs was controlled by remote control and proceeded to rattle and wobble around, much to their surprise!
Tourism Ireland once again joined forces with HBO and its smash hit TV series Game of Thrones, to promote Northern Ireland around the world in 2015. The campaign has run for 14 weeks in total and built on the hugely successful campaign of 2014 – which generated almost one million clicks, comments and shares and reached about 100 million fans across the world.
Timed to coincide with the return of the long-awaited fifth season of Game of Thrones, the campaign was rolled out by Tourism Ireland through Facebook and Twitter in the UK, the US, Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and Scandinavia. It aimed to again leverage the incredible success of the HBO brand and the huge global popularity of Game of Thrones and its strong associations with Northern Ireland – the physical home of the production for the series and where much of the filming takes place.
Photos and videos were taken of the props in the various locations – and have been promoted by Tourism Ireland to some 100 million Game of Thrones fans around the world, as ‘real news’ items in the new campaign.
As well as extensive advertising on the two social media sites, Tourism Ireland has also been targeting its own active fanbase – posting and tweeting to almost three million of its Facebook fans and 270k followers on Twitter, globally. The ads direct fans to a specially-created section on Tourism Ireland’s international website, Ireland.com.
Jonathan Hulford-Funnell says regional differences and challenges are still affecting the cross-border marketer.
New research was designed to revolutionise the way fundraisers select and use their media-mix to ensure their messages are welcomed by donors and prospects. David Cole discusses latest research into fundraisers’ best routes to market.
According to a major survey of marketers by Adobe, marketing has changed more in the last two years than in the previous fifty. So how do we know what best practice now is or even, at a minimum, good practice?
How to tell if you’re ready for today’s world of marketing and business.