Here’s a company that . . . er . . . splashed out in the midst of a major recession to bring a new way of advertising to a particularly captive male audience. It’s a fresh look at targeting . . .
Research from SAS shows that UK Millennials expect a tailored service from retailers that goes far beyond a bit of a discount or a BOGOF. If they are going to share their data, they demand rock-star treatment and a red carpet ride.
And if marketers are to engage with this demanding generation, they had better be on their wavelength. The research reveals that eight out of ten Millennials use their data as a lever; bargaining chips for a quality service that will enhance their lives or somehow make them easier.
Mark Wilkinson (pictured right), SAS regional vice-president – Northern Europe, said marketers need to exploit open and cloud-ready advanced analytics to gain deeper insight into what motivates individual customers; i.e. pinpoint what is relevant to them personally.
He said: “The Data Generation are amenable to sharing more forms of data, provided it gives them control as they navigate turbulent macro-economic conditions and fluid career projections.
“The organisations that will prosper in the future will demonstrate how they can enhance the Data Generation’s life potential and that of society. This will require organisations to embrace analytics architectures that are more accessible, flexible and can easily scale to problems of any size. All industries need access to a simple, open and cloud-ready platform that can complement other technologies and open source software.”
Jennifer Watkiss (pictured left), head of marketing communications at Adestra, added: “This is in line with our own findings from our research with the IDM, which states that 63% of marketers rate personalisation as ‘somewhat’ or ‘extremely’ effective in helping them reach their email marketing KPIs. So it’s no surprise that consumers, especially younger consumers, are comfortable sharing their data with businesses, but expect a more tailored brand interaction in return.
“The challenge for marketers who wish to remain relevant will be to ensure they’ve built a business case internally to continue advancing their use of personalisation across all marketing channels. A blanket offer to a massive list, personalised with a customer’s name in the salutation is no longer sufficient. Successful marketers will ensure both the timing and content of their offers are relevant at an individual level, and based on the entirety of what they know about their customers and subscribers.
The research report, Analytics for the Future: The New Data Generation, from analytics expert SAS and independent researcher Future Foundation, polled 2,000 people across the UK aged between 16 and 34. It explored the current relationship this group has with their own personal data and how they will interact with government, public sector bodies, healthcare, retail, utilities and social media in the future.
The habits, preferences and moods of the Data Generation must be taken into account so that predictive analytics can enhance their health, prosperity and future life potential. Only 12 per cent are happy to share their personal data without a second thought but 57 per cent were more willing when it came to life-enhancing specifics.
More than two-thirds (67 per cent) are comfortable sharing with the healthcare sector, 57 per cent with financial institutions, 50 per cent with the public sector, 45 per cent with utilities, 32 per cent with retailers and just 28 per cent with social media companies. These preferences differed depending on their levels of trust and the value they recoup for sharing their data:
This is a generation that worries their jobs will be replaced by robots – they recognise a need for dexterity in learning, with 78 per cent expecting to keep learning new skills throughout their life, and four out of 10 prepared to invest either their own time or money into acquiring data science skills. But the research also found that they:
Marketers’ biggest task now will be to build the buy-in required to gain the resources they need to execute on this more personalised experience. They’ll then need to follow through with the support of their technology partners to bring those plans to reality. Otherwise, they risk being left behind in both the marketing industry and the minds of their audience.
The key to profitable marketing success and growth is for managers across the organisation to develop deep understanding and insight – empathy – with consumers and customers within the broader context of their lives, as a basis for marketing strategy.
Research shows that 76 per cent of UK customers use online banking and 22 per cent also bank via their mobiles. However, 45 per cent are still visiting their local banks for the traditional one-to-one banking experience.
Chelsea FC has signed a global licensing deal with Stayfilm, a film-making app and networking platform launching in the UK that will enable brands to interact with the hundreds of millions of the team’s supporters worldwide.
The Stayfilm app, which is available as a free download, allows users to create high-quality, shareable movies in around two minutes. Fans can use their own images and videos, combined with the club’s unique styling to automatically create a short movie that appears on a designated channel online and can be shared on social media. The style features exclusive images of the main players and the stadium, as well as the iconic lion logo and the team’s blue banners.
The channel, which is hosted at www.Stayfilm.com/ChelseaFC, brings fans together providing them with a way to interact with one another in a friendly environment. With this captive audience, brands can share more about their products and services, knowing that visitors to this site are highly engaged and relevant.
Douglas Almeida, Stayfilm‘s CEO, said: “Being exclusive licensees of Chelsea FC is the first step in our expansion through Europe. We are providing a platform for global fans to share and connect, and we hope we can provide a new avenue for brands to connect with the team’s supporters outside of traditional sponsorship deals.”
For the fans, this is a fun, slick app that provides more permanence than a quick Snap or a Vine. Tomas Monteiro, a Chelsea FC fan from Brazil, said: “Although me and my friends are not based in the UK, we love the fact that we can share our passion for Chelsea FC with British fans through this app! Come on the blues!”
Here’s the video from Chelsea FC – download the app here.
[youtube id=”YSdXt2Fmgqo”]
Data has been released by eBay this month into how Brits use the site when shopping online – when we shop at eBay, how and what we are buying.
Paul Davies explores surprisingly relaxed viewer attitudes to live TV advertising and shows how they can be transitioned into the online arena.
For all those who struggled with marketers targeting mobiles or questioned the security of the mobile wallet, here is the next generation: the most successful phone game ever, with shares in Nintendo rocketing because of its popularity.
Because of this simple gadget, tweenies and teenagers once remote and hard to engage with are now out walking in the open air, sometimes for hours and miles, in search of the cutesy Japanese characters that began their video life in the 90s for the Game Boy device. Now, since July, the characters have been popping up in random places around gamers’ neighbourhoods, as viewed through their smartphones.
The little cartoon monsters (Pokémon is a corruption of the Japanese, Pocket Monster) lure former couch potatoes from their sofas in favour of finding the creature that variously resembles a rabbitty-eared squirrel, an eagle-like batty chicken or even a goofy crab – with names such as Pikachu or Blastoise (rare) to Zubat and Spearow (common).
It might be just the latest craze, a free summertime app everyone can enjoy, (which has been downloaded more than 500 million times worldwide in the few weeks since launch). But it’s not just players – ‘Trainers’ as they are dubbed – who are jumping on this particular virtual reality gaming bandwagon; there is even a sign in the window of my local library saying: ‘Catch a Pokémon here’ . . . and a poster outside a nearby church tells Pokémon Go gamers they are welcome within.
Of course, marketers are leveraging this augmented reality game – among its features is a PokéStop (shown by a spinning blue icon; it’s where gamers refill on PokéBalls, which they zap the characters with). For example in some areas, Wetherspoons pubs, Prezzo and Pizza Express restaurant chains are near PokéStops and have clearly enjoyed the footfall of customers refilling themselves, as well as their gadgets.
Gamers do battle with each other at PokéGyms (which look like a cartoon rig or tower via the app – pictured). If a business happens to be on or near one such landmark, many Trainers will be in the vicinity and open to offers of discounts and giveaways – even prizes for the best character caught.
Some organisations are offering random acts of kindness to players, such as water or loo breaks, to build relationships. Playing the game to ‘catch ’em all’ drains a phone’s battery, so some marketers have hung up signs offering their premises as a ‘Power station for wild Pokémon hunting’.
Using the ‘lure module’ item, more Pokémon lurk around certain PokéStops and thus numbers of players are attracted to that area. Businesses and organisations are luring one or more near them, sharing the news over social media to spread the word . . . and watching the hunters gather!
A review in The Guardian says Pokémon Go is ‘not a good game . . . but a great experience’. And some authorities are blaming gamers for causing accidents by flouting traffic regulations, for trespassing while distracted and even for falling prone to robbers who attack them as they try to catch the elusive Pokémon. The BBC has reported from Bosnia that gamers are being warned to steer clear of historic minefields, left over from the 90s war.
But various social media sites show how the app is being credited for benefiting the human spirit, with posts declaring: ‘Pokémon Go has been good for my mental health’; ‘Pokémon Go has been a better treatment for my depression than anything my doctor prescribed or therapist recommended.’ ‘Just spent 5 hours out playing Pokémon Go. Not one panic attack.’
Still, they are gamers, gazing at a screen and getting furious when thwarted by servers crashing and those screens freezing . . . but now, there is even a solution to that. The Pokémon Go Plus Wearable (pictured) is now on sale and is sure to be a sales sensation. At around £40, this device can be worn either on a bracelet strap or as a brooch/pin. It flashes and vibrates when a Pokémon is nearby and you can actually ‘throw a Poké Ball’ (ie. zap the critter), without opening your phone – it just has to be a monster you have already caught.
There is no built-in pedometer, but this gizmo will at least mean players’ phone batteries aren’t draining alarmingly away as they stroll.
If your target market is 10-15-year-olds (or their parents) and you have a physical presence – such as a store or restaurant – consider whether Pokémon Go can be part of your strategy to attract visitors. It might even be enough to just be nice to the Pokémon hunters and, like some of the examples above, help them in their quest. They’ll remember you for it.
Website owners are being warned that the days of big pop-up ads are drawing to a close, after Google revealed that it is updating the algorithms used to rank search results in a move which will push them down the placings.
Set to come into effect on January 10, the search giant insists the move is designed to make using some of its results less frustrating, although observers point to the ongoing battle the company is mounting against ad-blockers.
In a blog post, the company said: “Pages that show intrusive interstitials [elements that cover the content] provide a poorer experience to users than other pages where content is immediately accessible. This can be problematic on mobile devices where screens are often smaller.”
Detailing its decision, Google cited three examples of the kind of practices it wanted to eliminate:
However, some pop-ups will be exempt, including those which alert readers to the use of cookies, as well as ones which require log-in details to let visitors get behind a paywall.
Daniel Knapp, a senior director of advertising research at the IHS consultancy told the BBC: “Google is one of the largest advertising companies in the world, but it’s in a very different position to Facebook, Snapchat and other global media consumption apps.
“Google is still very reliant on the desktop and mobile web to make money, and it’s much more difficult to clean up that experience than the native app environments. That’s why it needs to tighten the screws on everyone with this crackdown.”
A new report details the demographics of social media usage in the UK by platform.
