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In the News

First UK shopping centre uses revolutionary technology to deliver targeted promotions

New solution to help retailers narrow gap between ‘clicks and bricks’ 

A shopping centre on the UK’s south coast has become first in the country to use the revolutionary Beacon technology that enables retailers to Swan Centreacknowledge customers’ presence and deliver targeted ads.

The roll out of the technology – popularised by Apples’ iBeacon version in the US – in The Swan Centre in Eastleigh, allows shoppers inside the centre to receive discount offers from retailers straight to their phones – without having to open an app or browse a website.

The service has been developed by Brighton-based tech start-up TagPoints. Using Beacon technology, the company has incorporated its unique ‘TagBeacons’ platform into The Swan Centre’s popular white-labelled ‘SmartRewards’ app.

What are Beacons?

Beacons are low energy blue tooth devices that ‘ping’ a location message to smart phones, allowing consumers who have downloaded a retailer’s app to receive location-based content and advertising.

Along with a welcome message, customers entering the centre receive 10 points to their loyalty account (which can be used in conjunction with merchant discount offers). As more TagBeacons are installed throughout the centre, they will receive retailer-specific promotions. The frequency and targeting of these messages with be carefully controlled to ensure no single customer is bombarded with messages. The focus is on delivering a relevant message to the consumer while boosting merchant sales. The TagBeacon solution also helps shopping centres and their clients accurately measure footfall figures in real-time.

How TagBeacons works:

  1. Users download and install the white-labelled ‘SmartRewards’ app and turn on their phone’s Bluetooth connection
  2. On entering the shopping centre, low energy transmitters detect the customer’s presence. The Beacons have a maximum range of 50m and allow advertisers to locate a user within a few feet.
  3. Customers receive loyalty points and targeted sales and promotions alerts as they travel through the centre, based on their physical location within building
  4. TagBeacons can also be used for non-promotional activity like way-finding and customer service.
  5. Beacon technology was first introduced in Apple’s recent iOS7 update – both Android phones are compatible with the system.

Mark Robinson, investment director at Ellandi, owner of the Swan Centre, said: “There’s a real buzz within the retail industry about the potential of location-based technology to help engage with and market services to the public.

“It offers them the ability to connect with motivated customers and deliver filtered offers and discounts – based location and proximity – directly to their mobile phones. Our merchants are now able to communicate directly with customers and positively influence their spending patterns without having to lift a finger.”

The company that delivers the white-label solution – known as TagBeacons – says the installation ushers in a new era of mobile advertising.

Jess Stephens, co-founder of TagPoints, said: “While this is the first time this system has been used in a UK shopping centre, the technology is being used overseas in places including New York’s iconic department store Macys.

“Retailers are comfortable with integrating consumers’ mobile habits into their stores and an increasing number realise that to counter the impact the internet shopping is having on sales, they have to do more than offer their own apps and Wi-Fi within their stores. Location-based technology allows them to use digital marketing strategies to improve the shopping experience.”

TagPoints’ co-founder, Dave Mitchell, added: “We’ve already seen that when shoppers receive targeted offers – based on where they are within the shopping centre – they’re more motivated and hence likely to use them and connect with the brand behind the offer.

“As well as building customer loyalty, the system enables retailers to gain data about their end users that previously has been beyond them – and help close the loop between the digital and bricks and mortar worlds.“

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In the News

Online retail will outstrip in-store sales, says study into size of European and American e-commerce sector

online-retail1Despite a difficult economic environment, the e-commerce sector in Europe and the US is continuing to grow rapidly, according to major international research commissioned by digital coupon marketplace RetailMeNot, the owner of Vouchercodes.co.uk

The study, conducted by the Centre for Retail Research, forecasts that online sales in the US will grow by 15% in 2014 to £189.3 billion, while in Europe sales are expected to rise by 18% to £131.2 billion.

The UK, France, and Germany are projected to be responsible for the bulk of this growth in Europe, accounting for 81% of the online sales in the eight European markets expected in 2014.

The UK is the largest market in Europe, with sales of £38.8 billion 2013, and is expected to account for more than a third (34%) of all online retail sales in the eight European markets surveyed in 2014. The report forecasts that £45 billion will be spent online in the UK in 2014 – an increase of 16% on online consumer spend compared to the previous year.

Commenting on the results, Giulio Montemagno, SVP of International at RetailMeNot, said: “While the e-commerce sector is continuing to grow rapidly, we are starting to see the German, the UK and the US markets mature as shopping online becomes a commonplace activity. Today, growth is being mainly driven by an increase in the frequency of consumers shopping online and spending more money through online channels while, in previous years, e-commerce growth came primarily from an ever-growing number of first time online shoppers.

“In 2014, we are expecting to see online sales across Europe grow at a rate that is 11.9 times faster than in-store sales. In the UK, online retail is expected to increase by 15.8% this year, while the offline segment will grow by only 2.4%. With such a competitive retail environment it’s more important than ever that retailers look to mobile devices and the web to incentivise shoppers to make purchases online and in-store.

“Successful retailers will consider the Internet not as a threat but as a powerful complement which can help them increase their sales.”

Growth in online shopping spend and frequency  

The report shows that 46% of Europeans and 55% of Americans now shop online. Online shopping is particularly popular in Sweden and the UK where more than two-thirds of the population make purchases on the web: 71% of Swedes and 67% of Brits use the internet to shop. While growing, online shopping is less popular in southern Europe: one in five people shop online in Italy (20%), while one in three (32%) use the Internet to shop in Spain. Around half of people in France (52%), Poland (51%), Netherlands (49%) and Germany (45%) shop online.

The study, which includes phone interviews of 100 major retailers and 9,000 consumers, reveals that most consumers expect to shop online at least once a month in 2014. On average, European shoppers will make 15.2 online purchases this year with a typical basket size of £49, while American shoppers will make 15.6 online purchases, with an average spend of £71. In the UK, shoppers are expected to make 18.0 purchases online this year, spending an average of £59 each time.

Throughout 2014, European shoppers are expected to spend £749 online, an increase of 18% compared to 2013, while American shoppers are expected to spend £1,106 online, on average – 14.4% more than in 2013. In the UK, shoppers are expected to spend £1,071 on the web this year – 15.8% more than last year.

Online retailers accounted for 6.3% of all retail sales in Europe in 2013 and 10.6% in the US, and in 2014, this share is set to grow to 7.2% and 11.6%, respectively. In the UK, the research found that the internet accounted for 12.1% of all retail sales last year and this is expected to grow to 13.5% in 2014.


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In the News

Boardroom beckons for marketers, thanks to big data

Are today’s marketers tomorrow’s data-empowered CEOs? New research from dnx and Circle Research highlights that more marketers being tunnel greenerconsidered for the top job.

With a unique skill set among boardroom contenders (customer insight custodian, cross-function project leader, calculated risk-taker), CMOs are increasingly credible CEOs-in-waiting.

dnx and Circle Research partnered to produce comprehensive research exploring exactly what is behind this dramatic change in fortunes for the CMO – which they say is a remarkable turnaround, given that marketing is a function long sidelined in boardroom terms for its inability to link customer insight and marketing activity to business results.

The researchers looked into whether the turnaround is due to the advent of big data – which 83% of enterprise organisations they quizzed now view as a mission-critical business intelligence tool.

They surveyed more than 50 enterprise marketers from both B2B and B2C organisations across the UK and Europe, to get latest insight on the extent of their usage of big data, the dos and don’ts of successful collaboration around big data, what other opportunities and challenges they face in the shifting digital landscape, and what they think the future holds for the marketing role.

Drew Nicholson, CEO at dnx, said: “We think CMOs now have the biggest opportunity they’ve had in 50 years. Big data will give them insights and opportunities they’ve never had before, but if they don’t negotiate the data minefield with the right skills and know-how, they will lose credibility.”

The findings were published this week in a report titled, ‘When will Marketing be promoted to the Boardroom? The reality of big data’s promise’. Download the free report, here. 

 

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Europe Global Insight Strategy and Management

The ineffective CMO?

the ineffective cmo

Professor Merlin Stone explores exciting but challenging and changing times of the ‘marketing director’.

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France In the News UK

GMA survey: French twice as likely as British to buy goods from other countries

David Cole (pictured), MD of online research company fast.MAP, analyses French and English data from a new GMA survey.

Maybe it’s because we’re an island race that the British have parochial online buying habits. The French, for example, are twice as likely to buy sans frontiers.

But new research reveals it’s the British aversion to foreign languages which is a more likely cause.David Cole - May 2010 (WEB)

In mid-February, the GMA commissioned fast.MAP to ask panels of 550 French and 1,120 UK adults (each panel demographically representative of the country) about their online buying habits.

While both nations have enthusiastically embraced online purchase, the French are far more likely to buy from other countries – probably because they are also twice as likely to speak the language. Click here to view/download the chart.

While almost half of the French online buyers (47%) made cross-border purchases in the last year, in the UK only a quarter (22%) did so. Of these, 31% of the French, but only 17% of the British spoke the language of the country they bought from.

Two in 5 French buyers (38%) and 7 in 10 of the British (70%) bought these imported goods from a website translated into their own language, showing the importance of investment in multi-language website options to companies wishing to tap into foreign markets (especially those wishing to sell into the UK). Click here for the chart.

The French were also twice as likely to use – and have no problem using – online translation software (13% v 6%). And although twice as many of the French encountered problems using this software (5% v 2%), this is as expected since twice as many were using them.

The French were also twice as likely to enlist the aid of a bilingual friend (4% v 2%), but only one in 100 of either nationality was helped linguistically by the company they were buying from.

The French are to be congratulated on their persistence, since 8% of those who experienced language problems managed to complete the transactions compared with only 3% of the British.

French cross-border buyers are also far more open to a wide variety of sourcing routes than the British. Fewer than 1 in 10 British buyers use a wide mix of multi-national sourcing methods, while the French are more than twice as likely to use several.

In fact, the British seldom stray outside of four main sourcing channels – auction site; search engine; company website; and email. This implies that for those selling into the UK, concentration on these media would be cost-effective, while those selling into France would be wise to consider a wider mix of promotional media. (Chart )

Two in 5 UK buyers heard about foreign goods and services via auction sites (UK 39%; F17%). The second largest UK influence search engines, was by far the most important source route in France (UK 36%; 49% F).

Second most prevalent in France was company websites (F 27%: UK 23%) followed by email (F 26%; UK 16%), while 22% of French and 7% of British buyers of foreign goods used comparison websites.

Between one and two in ten French buyers also used: comparison websites (22%); online ads (13%); social network sites (13%); TV and radio ads (12%); print ads (10%); and exhibitions (9%).

To download a variety of fast.MAP/ DMA/ IPM/ IoF annual marketing/ fundraising tracking studies, click here. 

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Australia Europe In the News UK USA

Demand for key digital roles 'fuelling salary inflation'

Account directors earning $125k (£75k)-plus up 45%, creative directors command 41% more in North America versus Europe, technical architectsSalary-increase-200x150 wanted worldwide, says report.

Competition for talent at digital agencies and production companies is leading to sharp salary rises and remuneration gaps of up to 45% between some regions.

Globally, there’s never been a better time to be in the three most sought-after digital roles: account director, creative director, and technical architect. Senior-level strategists and user-experience leads also command strong salaries, although these vary according to where they live.

These are key findings the annual Salary Report by SoDA, the invitation-only organisation that represents top digital agencies and elite production companies worldwide.

The number of account directors earning more than $125k (£75k) increased by 45% between 2012 and 2013; while creative directors commanded up to 41% higher salaries in North America compared with their European peers.

Last year, the average salary for technical architects in North America was between $101-$110k (£60-65k) compared with $91-$100k (£54-59k) in Europe and Australia. The result suggests uniform global demand for this area of expertise, particularly in light of the sometimes significant salary gaps between these regions for other roles.

The SoDA Salary Report underscores a significant – and in some cases widening – salary divide between regions such as Europe and North America. In Europe, average salaries for project managers, creative directors, producers, graphic designers and copywriters stagnated last year as the cost of living rose.

While salaries for some of these positions in North America were also stagnant, they were, on average, 42% higher than salaries in Europe. This fact could lead to some top talent exploring expat opportunities.

The SoDA Salary Report also reveals:

  • Account directors earned 11% more on average last year compared with 2012.
  • Creative directors’ salaries rose by eight per cent, the most common salary range in 2013 was between $126-$150k (£75-90k).
  • Unlike some corporate sectors where CEO pay has risen significantly, compensation for CEOs and managing partners in the study actually dipped 16% in 2013, from $200-250k (£120-150k) on average in 2012, to $176-200k (£105-120k)in 2013. This decline can partly be explained by a shift towards incentive-based pay (not captured in the study’s baseline salary figures).
  • SoDA’s findings also suggest that top executives are shouldering some of the burden associated with tough economic times, in order to maintain or increase the salaries of key talent.

North/South America highlights

Overall, the highest salaries are paid in North America, with some roles such as account managers ($91-$100k or £54-59k) and social media directors ($101-110k or £60-65k) standing out. This contrasts with Europe and Australia where account managers earned between $61-$70k (£36-41k) and $51-$60k (£30-35k) in Latin America.

Salaries for top digital talent in Brazil remain above the rest of Latin America for many positions such as executive creative director, senior graphic designer, copywriter and front-end developer. But the gap is beginning to narrow given the economic strength of other markets in the region, such as Colombia.

Last year a senior Latin American producer could command between $41-$50k (£24-29k) compared with $71-$80k (£42-48k)in the UK and $101-$110k (£60-65k) in New York.

Europe highlights

Creative directors earned $126-$150k (£75-90k) in North America compared with $91-$100k (£54-59k) in Europe, $61-$70k (£36-41k) in Latin America and $111-$125k (£66-74k) in Australia.
While salaries for most key positions in Europe stagnated in 2013, the role of technical architect bucked that trend, rising more than 100% last year. APAC highlights

The Australian bull run of salaries in 2012 abated in 2013, with pay for producers, creative directors, graphic designers and copywriters declining last year.
Median pay for Australian executive creative directors fell from between $176-$200k (£105-120k) to $126-$150k (£75-90k)– the same as Europe. This reflects tightening margins on the continent, increased competition, with clients cautious over the direction of the economy keeping control of budgets.

Chris Buettner, SoDA’s executive director, said: “On a global level, most salaries analysed by SoDA were either stable or slightly up on 2013, despite the slow economic recovery in many regions. One of the reasons is that the world’s leading digital agencies and production companies are fighting hard to keep top talent from jumping ship to start-ups that offer high salaries and promise a golden lottery ticket.

“SoDA’s international growth over the past year has allowed us to segment the response data in more ways than ever before. In this year’s Salary Survey we are seeing pockets of salary inflation due to global demand for top talent in areas such as design, user experience, strategy and technical architecture.”

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Data Driven Channels In the News UK

Surge in sales through Smartphone and Tablet devices in 2014

After generating more than £50million in revenue for its online retailer clients for the period of 2013, European affiliate marketing company, Optimus Performance Marketing (OPM), is closely monitoring the percentage of sales being generated for its top clients through different devices like computers, tablets and smartphones.

OPM specialises in generating greater sales for its collection of clients, with expertise in the area of dedicated affiliate programme management, affiliate marketing training and consultancy. The company works with a range of online retailer clients which fall under a vast array of different sectors including fashion, pharmaceuticals, jewellery, furniture, daily deal sites and visitor attraction sites.

Patterns spotted with regards to the fashion sector highlights that so far in 2014 there has been a significant increase in OPM’s clients making an increased number of sales through smartphone purchases. One of OPM’s biggest fashion retailer clients saw just 1.6% of its sales come through smartphones in 2013, yet since January smartphone purchases have accounted for 6.5%, indicating a 397% year on year increase in smartphone sales. A similar trend has emerged for a voucher site client of OPM, which has seen its sales generated through smartphone increase in percentage from 3% in 2013 to 22% this year, an increase of 735%.

After studying the results of two of the furniture brands on OPM’s roster, the company noted that one company’s sales generated by tablet device purchased had enhanced from 11.4% in 2013 to 17.6% so far in 2014 (a year on year increase of 153%). The second company had also seen a year on year increase of 134% for purchases made through tablets.

Looking at clients from a wider angle, with regards to the total revenue made in 2013, 81% of sales were generated through computer sales, whilst 16% came through tablet devices and 2% came through mobile. For the first two months of 2014, computers have produced 69% of client sales, with tablets accounting for almost a quarter of sales (24%) and almost 6% coming through smartphones.

Mark Russell, CEO of OPM, said: “We are constantly striving to improve our services to clients. One of the ways to do this is to monitor exactly how different sectors are making the most sales, and for which platforms they need to see improvement.

“From simply looking at the first two months of sales activity regarding some of our top clients, it is clear that 2014 is going to be a turning point with regards to more and more customers using their smartphones and mobile devices to make purchases.”

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Belgium Denmark Europe France Germany In the News Netherlands UK

Census shows door drop recovery continues

A major census has revealed that the door drop channel is continuing to see recovery across Europe and the UK and it remains a highly effective tool for marketerselma-logo-frei

The European Letterbox Marketing Association (ELMA) has published its third pan-European census of door drop media covering 22 markets and 180m households. The research found that the door drop market in Europe continued to recover from the recession with an increase of 2.2 per cent to 115 billion items in 2012. However, pressure on costs resulted in media spend falling marginally to €3.9bn; a decrease of 0.7 per cent compared to 2011.

Croatia was the only country to see an increase in the average number of door drops from 7 to 8 per week. The large economies of France, Germany and UK (244m items) all increased use of door drop, balancing the stabilisation and slight decline of volumes in the CEE and Scandinavian markets. UK households receive 5 door drops per week.

The largest volumes by country in 2012 continued to be Germany (23,300,000,000 million), France (21,177,000,000 million), Italy (12,000,000,000 million) and The Netherlands (11,020,000,000 million). The UK is ranked fifth with 7,214,000,000.

In a new development for the ELMA census, it looked at spend on door drop as a percentage of total advertising spend. The Nordic region, on the whole, allocates more spending to door drops with Denmark at 15%, followed by Finland (11%), France (9.6%) and Norway (8.1%). The lowest advertising spend on door drops is in the UK (1.5%), followed by Poland (1.8%) and Germany (2.0%).

Households in The Netherlands continue a three year trend of receiving the highest number of door drop items in Europe, although this fell by one to 35. Considerable distance remains between the highest and lowest users of door drop with Irish and Romanian households continuing to receive two, despite media spend on the medium rising in Ireland in the past year. The average number of items received by households across Europe remains 12.

Commenting on the research findings, Mark Davies, ELMA president and managing director of TNT Post DoorDrop Media UK, said: “The ELMA census confirms that the door drop sector in Europe has recovered from the recession but is experiencing pressure on price despite a welcome increase in volume.

“Our new data highlighting spend on door drops as a percentage of total advertising spend is illuminating and shows that the sector has to work hard to make its argument for a fair share of the advertising budget.

“Recent research from Experian, where 52% of household decision makers said door drops were the most important source of research about their purchases, followed by the internet at 24%, shows that door drop remains an, if not the most, effective tool for marketeers. It is our job to re-educate marketeers across Europe of the effectiveness and cost benefit of using door drops.”

ELMA represents the leading Pan-European distributors of print media, such as leaflets, flyers, catalogues, brochures, free newspapers and product samples. More than 130,000 people work for the companies within ELMA of which the vast majority are distributors. The aim of the association is to guarantee quality standards of member operations and promote the door drop channel.

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In the News UK

Haymarket choses Air Business as preferred supplier

Haymarket Media Group has chosen Air Business as their preferred service provider for a further five years based on excellent service and competitive pricing.

Air Business, the only global mail, distribution, fulfilment and integrated subscriptions management bureau, has been handling all of Haymarket’s Adam_profile photointernational distribution and a section of their fulfilment since March 2012; they also handle freight and exhibition shipments. Coming up against strong competition in the tender process Air Business was chosen as Haymarket’s preferred supplier, for a further five years, based on the quality service they have provided for the past two years.

Gary Charlton, head of production and procurement for Haymarket, commented, “Air Business is a great supplier for us. When we moved our work to them two years ago, they promised that the delivery complaints we had would be greatly reduced and this has been the case. Of course competitive pricing is a great incentive, but we also take into account the service that they provide us, and ultimately our customers – the subscribers.Air Business has put a lot of effort into working with us on the service level agreement but the stand out from Air Business is the ability to deliver the final product to our customers.”

Adam Sherman, group managing director at Air Business, (pictured) commented: “Our customer support group have implemented a quality service over the last two years and we are delighted Haymarket Media Group has chosen us as their supplier for a further five years.”

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In the News

70% of marketers (still) got it wrong in 2013

Last year, the majority of marketers failed to deliver the (real and P&L-quantifiable) business results their management expected them to deliver, such asWrong Way Signmore sales, more market share, more sales-ready prospects and/or more conversions.

That’s one of the findings identified by The Fournaise Marketing Group through its 2013 Global Marketing Effectiveness Program, in which it measured the performance of marketers through multi-nationa interviews with some 1,200 decision-makers and also via actual performance results, to identify what worked, what did not (or what worked less effectively), where, when and why.

Fournaise tracked that in 2013:

  1. 71% of marketers focused more of their campaigns/activities and budgets on New Media Platforms (particularly Mobile, Social & Digital) to deliver their marketing messages and engage with their target audience – thinking that using New Media Channels is the best way to get their campaigns/activities to deliver results. Unfortunately, Fournaise measured that the same marketers also spent less time and efforts researching, developing and testing attractive & relevant ‘Product Customer Value Propositions (pCVPs)’ and/or ‘Communication Customer Value Propositions (cCVPs)’ for the same campaigns/activities. The results: Fournaise tracked that these CVP-neglecting, New-Media-Will-Deliver Marketers performed 3 times lower on average (in terms of business results & ROI) than CVP-focused ROI Marketers – who also happened to use the same Mobile, Social & Digital Media in their message delivery channels mix.
  2. 70% of marketers believed Marketing Automation, Ommichannel executions & Big Data management would be ‘game changers’ for them in 2013 – they therefore spent more of their time, efforts (and money) on these areas last year, instead of on pCVP and/or cCVP crafting and optimisation. The reality of results Fournaise tracked showed that 79% of these marketers admitted they still failed to unquestionably deliver (or prove their marketing spending unquestionably delivered) the level of business results & ROI expected of them by their management.

Jerome Fontaine, global CEO & chief tracker of Fournaise, said: “The key 2013 Marketing Performance Lesson is simple: campaigns/activities without crafted, researched and optimised CVP (pCVP and/or cCVP) Architectures will under-perform, regardless of the media channels they are deployed in. Unfortunately, we tracked that most CVPs were not audience-attractive and not audience-relevant enough last year.

“One of the diseases in the marketing industry is that marketers too often forget New Media, Marketing Automation, Omnichannel, Big Data and the likes are only Tools (the ‘Form’) used to best deliver, analyse and/or optimise the messages (CVPs). Those marketers who made the tools the core of their strategies got it wrong in 2013. In the tyre industry they say that power is nothing without control. In the marketing industry, form is nothing without the right content (CVPs).

“So, our #1 Marketing Performance Boosting advice to marketers for 2014 is that if they want to deliver (real) business results, they should remember that everything must start with the right CVPs & the right CVP Architectures – without them, talking about Customer Experience or Engagement (the 2014 buzzwords) is just a (big) waste of time.”