Marketing Trends from Early 2014 Courtesy of Leo Burnett London

February 2014 The Knowledge Centre

The Knowledge Centre Newsletter February 2014



Welcome to the latest of our quarterly newsletters.

The Knowledge Centre is to Leo Burnett LDN what the Tube network is to London –

sure, one can theoretically exist without the other, but everyone will be grumpy and

late and there’ll be a general feeling of despair mixed with ennui. We rumble along

behind the scenes, delivering carriages full of information, pausing at the red lights of

doubt and, er, stretching similes to breaking point.

We work with lots of clever folk who share new and fresh ideas with us, which helps us

to keep a keen eye on what the world’s up to. We’re pleased to be sharing our findings

with you. Inside this bulletin you’ll find snapshots of the various internal publications

that we create and circulate, as well as highlights from a selection of our information

resources, and plenty of press coverage of our lovely new ads. This quarter we’ve

become a little preoccupied with automation – see what you make of that.

From hard-hitting insight to piquant cultural memes, you’ll find all sorts of useful info

within. Organised, reliable info that generally arrives on time, unless someone gets

their briefcase wedged in the door at Sloane Square or something.

Oh, and if you fancy a chat, drop us a tweet - @LeoBurnettLDN

Daniel BevisSenior Knowledge EditorLeo Burnett London


Welcome to the latest of our quarterly newsletters.

The Knowledge Centre is to Leo Burnett LDN what the Tube network is to London –

sure, one can theoretically exist without the other, but everyone will be grumpy and

late and there’ll be a general feeling of despair mixed with ennui. We rumble along

behind the scenes, delivering carriages full of information, pausing at the red lights of

doubt and, er, stretching similes to breaking point.

We work with lots of clever folk who share new and fresh ideas with us, which helps us

to keep a keen eye on what the world’s up to. We’re pleased to be sharing our findings

with you. Inside this bulletin you’ll find snapshots of the various internal publications

that we create and circulate, as well as highlights from a selection of our information

resources, and plenty of press coverage of our lovely new ads. This quarter we’ve

become a little preoccupied with automation – see what you make of that.

From hard-hitting insight to piquant cultural memes, you’ll find all sorts of useful info

within. Organised, reliable info that generally arrives on time, unless someone gets

their briefcase wedged in the door at Sloane Square or something.

Oh, and if you fancy a chat, drop us a tweet - @LeoBurnettLDN

Daniel BevisSenior Knowledge EditorLeo Burnett London


Frisk is a weekly in-house newsletter from the Knowledge Centre and the Planning department, discussing trends, cultural snapshots and general stuff that piques our interest. Here’s some of what we’ve been sharing lately.

Short-form video is everywhere these days. Vine offered us six seconds, Instagram expanded the offering

to fifteen, but that’s more than enough. People want brevity; quick things that they can look at in the short

space before the microwave goes ping or the bus doors heave open with a pneumatic sigh – miniature

video snippets fill in the micro-gaps in the day when we’re momentarily not doing anything else. Such is

the modern world.

The BBC have noticed this. They’re not stupid. So they’ve started condensing the daily news into tiny

15-second bursts and pumping them out on Instagram. It’s an astute observation of modern digital

behaviour, and potentially a way to throw a few current affairs into the consciousness of today’s digital

butterfly, maybe. Well, it’ll either work or it won’t. (Also, I like the retro Ceefax reference in the name.

Ceefax was great.) http://instagram.com/bbcnews#

INSTAFAX

APRON STRINGSAn interesting fact that you may have seen in the news recently - more than a quarter of 20-34 year-olds in

the UK are still living with their parents. (You may also have noticed that many news outlets are using the

phrase ‘still living at home’, which irritates me greatly. Everyone lives ‘at home’, unless they’re homeless.

But I digress...)

Sticking around at your folks’ place has myriad advantages - cheap rent, a well-stocked fridge, you don’t

have to freak out if you break the plumbing... for a lot of people, this greatly outweighs the stigma of being

a thirty year-old who still lives with their mum.


But frivolity aside, for many it’s a necessity to stay

with parents indefinitely - it’s just not economically

viable to do otherwise. Rent’s expensive, house

prices are bonkers, jobs are scarce.

Wanna crunch the numbers? The Guardian’s

DataBlog has you covered. Look:

h t t p : // w w w . t h e g u a r d i a n . c o m / n e w s /

datablog/2014/jan/21/record-numbers-young-

adults-living-with-parents

COMMUNITY SHOPFood waste is an everyday horror story. The amount of food that doesn’t even make it to supermarket

shelves because of some packaging defect is staggering; it all either ends up in landfill or gets squished into

animal feed. But Community Shop is a concept that takes this perfectly good scran and makes it available

to those who need it.

The pilot store is in Rotherham, and its stock is provided by the likes of Marks & Spencer, Asda and Tesco.

Food that’s deemed unsuitable for mainstream sale due to aesthetic defects - but is still perfectly fit for

sale - is available at up to 70% off. The hook is that you can only shop at Community Shop if you’re a

registered member, having proven that you’re receiving government benefits. Great idea, huh? And if it

proves successful (which it should), they’ll be going nationwide. http://www.community-shop.co.uk/


TRANSLATE.COMGoogle Translate is a hilariously hit-and-miss thing.

Sure, it’s extremely useful to have this free, easy-

to-use doodah that allows you to turn text from

a language you don’t understand into one you do

(or vice versa), but it’s not something you’d put a

huge amount of faith in. Words can be ambiguous,

nuances get lost, colloquialisms and sentence

structures don’t cross borders, and you can end up

getting completely the wrong end of the stick (or

‘Kant died engineering, van die erde Stok’, which is

what you get when you translate ‘the wrong end of

the stick’ into Hebrew, then Italian, then Afrikaans,

then Chinese, then Icelandic, then back to English).

So, translate.com aims to circumvent this confusion.

It’s an app that runs on crowdsourced results - you

upload some written text, or an image of some text,

or a sound or video file of someone speaking, and

one of the two million users will offer a translation.

For added peace of mind, these translations can

also be checked for accuracy to prevent this

happening: http://youtu.be/akbflkF_1zY

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/translate.com/

id740974884?mt=8

URINE DETECTORS

It’s a truism that public elevators always smell of

widdle. Weird, isn’t it? I’ve been in lifts loads of

times and have never been struck by an unquellable

compulsion to void my bladder all over the place.

For one thing, it’d be mortifying if the doors were

to open while you were still mid-stream. How would

you explain that? ‘Sorry, it really hums of wee-wee

in here, I thought that was what we were supposed

to do...’

The catchily-named Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid

Transit Authority are, ahem, taking matters into

their own hands with this issue, fitting their lifts

with urine detectors (by which I mean sensors, not

little detectives in raincoats paid to stand there

and point at your winkle).

Brilliantly, the sensors detect the activities of

slashing miscreants and immediately alert any

police officers in the vicinity, who will then

presumably either arrest them or - much worse -

shout in a loud voice ‘THIS MAN DOESN’T WASH

HIS HANDS AFTER HE’S BEEN TO THE TOILET’.

Clever. http://bit.ly/Mf5Afa


CATACOMBOThis is one of those brilliantly odd ideas that doesn’t sound real, but is: a coffin for music lovers that’ll play

them their favourite songs for eternity. The system exists in three parts: CataPlay, CataTomb, CataCoffin.

The first of these is a Spotify-connected platform that allows friends and wellwishers to create playlists - if

you’re the soon-to-be-dead party, it might be an idea to prime these people with a cheat sheet. Or y’know,

bequeath them your iPod. The music gets streamed to CataTomb, a smart 4G-enabled headstone with an

LCD screen, showing any passers-by what you’re listening to down there. And of course, there’s CataCoffin

- your eternal resting place, stuffed with speakers (including a big-ass subwoofer!). It costs $23,500 - but

if you imagine that we’ve got, say, 200 years before the inevitable nuclear apocalypse, that’s only about 32

cents a day. Well worth it.

Of course, if you were particularly mean and had a recently deceased relative who you weren’t that keen

on, you could sneakily erase their iPod and fill it with Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga. Imagine that. Forever.

Your own personal hell.http://youtu.be/SDpC5ZYcA7M

TRANSLATE.COMShort-form video, as previously discussed, is all

the go these days. And now PeekInToo is giving

the format a further twist, by combining it with a

mixture of ChatRoulette-esque randomness and

geographical searching.

Let’s say there’s something happening on the

other side of the world that you’re interested in

- a gig, perhaps, or a speech or sporting event.

You can ping out a request for a 12-second video

of it - if there’s a user there, they’ll whack up a

bit of content. No need to friend anyone, it’s all

anonymous....or let’s say you’re walking down the

street and suddenly an alien spaceship slams into

the side of a building.

You could take a short video, wang it out as a

‘PeekShout’ - then other ‘Peekers’ would get a

notification that something’s going on in an area

they’re interested in. Of course, whether or not this

is a format that’s a) necessary and b) something

people are likely to use remains to be seen, but it’s

certainly of interest. (Just bear in mind the anonymity

angle. ChatRoulette is anonymous, and that’s

full of strange men showcasing their gentlemen-

vegetab les . )h t tp : //www.peek in too.com/


MOMDOMSOoh, cringe. Parents are so embarrassing, aren’t they? Why do they have to try to talk to you about

“intercourse”, instead of letting you learn about it yourself from the dirty mags you find in the woods like

normal people do? Honestly. They only had it off the number of times it required to create you and any

siblings you may have, so what possible advice can they have to offer you on the deployment of your own

fledgling genitals?

OK, from the parents’ point of view it’s pretty hideous too. I’m not looking forward to the day when I realise

that the small person I see as a source of dirty nappies and warming cuddles has morphed into an angry

little thing that wants to do gross stuff with boys. (Or girls, who knows how she’ll turn out?) So approaching

the subject with a smidge of humour is probably the best way to go. And that’s where Momdoms come in.

It’s basically a tin of rubber johnnies that you give to your freshly pubic offspring, bearing such tongue-in-

cheek slogans as ‘wrap that package tightly’, ‘be careful of the crabs’ and ‘because I said so’. This, in theory,

will eliminate any awkwardness from the birds-and-bees chat.

...at least, that’s what we’ll have the kids believe. In actual fact, the whole idea’s designed so that the thing

that presents itself at front-of-mind at the very moment your child is about to get nasty is an image of their

mum’s face, thus immediately putting them off and ensuring that no “intercourse” takes place. Genius.

http://buymomdoms.com/


THE HUMANE EATING PROJECTNote that the word in the title is ‘humane’, not

‘human’. ‘Humane’. That’s very important.

The trend of consumers showing an interest in the

provenance of their grub has been growing for

years now, it’s not really anything new. Food miles,

Fairtrade, all that business. But we’re increasingly

finding that technology is being harnessed to check

up on ingredients while out and about. The Humane

Eating Project is one such idea - it helps restaurant

customers to choose where to eat by seeing

whether the eateries in question source their meat

from suppliers who have treated the animals fairly.

(Y’know, before they went after them with the bolt-

gun.) It also provides healthy conversation ammo if

you’re friends with vegans and feel you’re being left

behind in the chat.

LIVING WITHMental health issues affect a staggering number of people, although you may not always be really aware

of it. A lot of people who are battling such demons prefer not to talk about it. Unfortunately this means

that outsiders’ understanding isn’t all that it could be, and the ensuing perception that it’s a minority thing

serves to stigmatise, meaning that the whole situation is a self-fulfilling spiral of not-wanting-to-talk-about-

it.

So, for those afflicted that might consider a more open forum, Living With offers an alternative. They’re

selling t-shirts that allow sufferers to wear their condition on their sleeve - well, chest - and fight stigmas

with openness. Four are available: depression, bipolar disorder, OCD, ADHD. Their designs are abstract

patterns rather than just signs that say ‘I have ADHD’ or whatever, inviting comment and allowing the

wearer to discuss it on their own terms. They also allow the acceptance of the condition to be worn as a

badge of honour, rather than the monster being hidden in the shadows. Which all makes perfect sense.

http://www.livingwith.co/

It’s a brilliant concept - up until now, there would be

no way of knowing whether your local Utah Fried

Chicken was dressing the poultry up in medieval

costumes and making them joust in the kitchen

without jumping over the counter and checking for

yourself. This’ll save you the embarrassment and

inevitable arrest. http://www.humaneeatingproject.

org/


We work closely with Canvas8, a deep-dive insight network who ‘make the complex simple by helping us make the simple significant’. This quarter, they’ve provided us with a piece on ‘life on autopilot’. If you’ve ever hoped for a smart egg-tray to factor into your lifestyle at some point, you’ll enjoy this…

Depression-era economist John Maynard Keynes and cartoon family The Jetsons might not seem like

kindred spirits, but they shared the same vision: in the future, machines would do all the hard work for us.

Judy Jetson had Rosie the Robot Maid and Keynes predicted that the industrial revolution would usher in

the 15-hour working week. So what happened to their dream? Not much, apparently; studies suggest we’re

working longer than ever. [1]

But a new wave of technological advancements is making it easier than ever to plug into an automated

lifestyle, changing the way people consider time and resources. Why run your own errands, wait for

information or even make decisions when you could outsource all these tasks to machines?

One unassuming Verizon employee – “someone you wouldn’t look at twice in an elevator” – did just that,

farming out his entire job to China, via email. [2] In exchange for four-fifths of his six-figure salary, he

enjoyed eBay-ing and watching cat videos on YouTube. His working day finished with an email update of

the tasks ‘he’d’ completed for his boss. This might not be typical just yet, but it could just be the spirit of

things to come.

This techno-utopianism – the belief that life is full of fixable problems if we can just code them properly –

isn’t just part of the cult of Silicon Valley, but a growing expectation of everyday life. Increasing swathes of

‘lifehackers’ worship ease and efficiency, seeking the autopilot button. But this isn’t about zoning out – it’s

about taking an executive position in your own life, with one finger resting on a switch that just gets the job

done. Minimum effort, maximum output.

LIFE ON AUTOPILOT

© Egg Minder (2013)


THE STRESS THAT COMES WITH ‘STUFF’ We are technologically spoiled. But our tech is

overwhelming us with information, and drowning

us in stuff. The internet’s vast fields of content are

empowering, but they can also be unmanageable,

and even paralysing. Studies have shown that the

more options people have, the less likely they are

to actually choose anything. [3] Other research

has found that multitasking, the habitual stance

of second-screening digital natives, makes people

more stressed and less effective. [4]

In our offline lives, this stress is maximised by

our innumerable possessions: the average person

spends around ten minutes each day ransacking

the house or emptying pockets in search of

misplaced items. [5] A UCLA research team

looking at life at home in the 21st century found

families overwhelmed by clutter, who lamented

their unmanageable mounds of stuff, while stress

hormone levels soared. [6]

But overwhelming as it may occasionally be, the

internet can offer quick fixes that the real world

can’t – and there are signs that its irresistible

allure might actually be making the rest of our

lives more difficult to manage. Recent research by

Scott Wallsten, an economist at the Technology

Policy Institute in Washington, found that for every

minute Americans spend relaxing online, they

spend approximately 16 fewer seconds working,

and four fewer seconds doing household chores.

[7]

BUILDING A RESPONSIVE ENVIRONMENTAccording to Reuters, the home automation market

was worth $1.5 billion in 2012, and is predicted to

more than double within the next five years. [8]

While the top end of the market continues to invent

ever more elaborate ways to automate every part

of the home, simple, time-saving solutions remain

in demand across all markets. Slow cookers –

arguably the original ‘set it and forget it’ gadget

– have seen a recent spike in sales, while the

adoption of wireless technology like RFID and NFC

in products are transforming houses into data-rich

environments, which their owners can measure

and manipulate at leisure. [9]

Home automation company Nest Lab is remaking

the thermostat for the autopilot generation.

Essentially the control panel for personal comfort

and energy efficiency, thermostats are too often

trapped in ugly white boxes with complicated

settings that do nothing but disempower their

owners and waste their time. “What does “fan/

auto” vs. “fan/on” even mean?” implores Nest co-

founder Matt Rogers, berating standard thermostat

controls. “How does a normal consumer understand

these things?” [10]

Nest’s ‘learning thermostat’ monitors your daily

routine and sets itself accordingly - raising the

temperature when you’re home, lowering it when

you’re out. It’s a relationship that grows over

time, so eventually you can totally outsource even

thinking about your heating to the thermostat

itself, leaving you free to just live. It’s one of a

number of smart solutions – see Twine or IFTTT

– that encourage people to turn their homes into

smart, communicative machines.

© Nest (2013) © Twine (2013)


THE HUMAN TOUCHBut while machines win out on efficiency and

consistency, they can never match the judgement

and sensitivity of human beings. A new generation

of personal assistants are providing services that

that only real people can, and they bear little

resemblance to the Downton-esque butlers of

history.

Where neither humans nor computers are enough

on their own, services are emerging to find the

sweet spot between the two. New age personal

styling service Thread combines the strength and

speed of a computer algorithms to filter through

thousands of clothing choices online, while people

are paired with human stylists who further filter

through the resultant choices, with the nuances of

personal taste in mind.

Micro-labour services like Taskrabbit, Mechanical

Turk and Fiverr combine human and computer

in a different way, using the internet to link the

little things people need doing with those who

are prepared to carry them out for the right price.

They’re servants for the middle classes, who can

be switched off and on at will and don’t require

a pension plan. “I delegated tasks that had been

marinating on my to-do list for months,” explains

lifehacker Steven Corona of his experience with

Fancy Hands, a service that lets people outsource

15 tasks for $45 a month. [11]

THOUGHTS ON AUTOPILOTRobots and assistants aside, if you’re having to make

decisions about these things, you’re still technically

working. And if you’re still technically working,

there’s probably a smart product somewhere

designed to make it easier. Google Now is one

such product – a part of the corporation’s mission

to transform smartphones into telepathic personal

assistants. On a basic level, this means getting

reminders to “buy milk” when you’re near a store,

but the underlying message is: “we’ll remember, so

you don’t have to”.

Impressive as this service is, all Google’s really

doing is delaying the results of your ‘search

request’ until you walk near a shop. It still relies

on you consciously signalling that you need milk.

But Google’s ultimate aim is to anticipate those

needs before you do. They can’t predict the future,

but they can predict parts of it. Human behaviour

is actually pretty predictable a lot of the time.

One study from Northeastern University used

smartphones to map how people moved around

the city. Researchers found that 93% of the time,

they could accurately predict people’s movements.

[12]

And with people using smartphones for all manner

of tasks, from maps to emails, calendars to search,

data crumbs are scattered everywhere. After a

few months, Google could accurately suggest –

unprompted – “leave for your meeting early today

because there’s heavy traffic on your route.”

And it’s not just Google, but the increasing potential

of the cloud that supports our spluttering, forgetful

minds. Digital notepad and archive system Evernote

already serves 13 million people. The Toyota Friend

alerts you when your tyres need changing, or the

battery needs recharging. “No one is happy with

their human brain,” says Evernote Founder and

CEO Phil Libiin. “So I decided to make a product

around that.” [13] eBay Head of Strategy John

Sheldon predicts that Nike+ apps that order you a

new pair of shoes after you’ve run 300 miles, or a

bicycle helmet with a sensor that “knows” when a

crash has happened and orders you a new one, are

imminent realities. [14]© Taskrabbit (2013)


© The Jetsons (1963)

Meanwhile, the myriad internet-run subscription

services like Amazon Prime, Dollar Shave Club

and Tie Society outsource the joyless tasks of

remembering to buy essentials, or enter the same

bank details time and again.

The endgame is the brain as a processor, not a

hard-drive. And with technologies like Google

Glass, the distance between our minds and our

technology will be shorter than ever. After all, our

brains seem more than happy to outsource, given

half the chance.

INSIGHTS AND OPPORTUNITIESData-saturated environments create endless

opportunities to tinker with when fine tuning our

daily lives, though of course not everyone agrees

this would be a good thing. For every tech-

utopian or ‘Quantopian’ – that’s a community of

11,000 quantitative analysts whose CEO believes

‘“anything that is subject to human judgement can

be improved by automation and machine learning”

– is a sceptic, even dystopian vision of a totally

‘smart’ world full of autopilots would look like. [15]

As part of the ‘Too Smart City’, an art project by

designers JooYoun Paek and David Jimison, a

bench was designed that detects when someone

sits on it, and slowly begins to tip, eventually

dumping the sitter onto the floor. It’s an absurd

but poignant illustration of the anxieties that are

tied to this techno-utopian future. [16] Too much

‘smart’ and our simple needs will be neglected,

over-complicated by a force that threatens

to make us gradually more uncomfortable.

And outsourcing too many of our decisions to

technology risks errors that only human judgement

can avoid. T-shirt printing company Solid Gold

Bomb thought they were onto a great system when

they handed over their entire process to a series of

algorithms and printers. When the web discovered

they were shipping t-shirts with slogans like ‘Keep

Calm and Rape A Lot’, their slick automated

production line suddenly didn’t look so good.

Ultimately, the best life hacks, gadgets and

solutions don’t provoke this fear – they work in

favour of human dignity, autonomy and control,

and in the service of simplicity rather than against

it. And crucially, the machines work for people, not

the other way round. The key to a happy life as

an autopilot is all about allowing total control. The

most life enhancing products are about creating a

simple but smart relationship between the user and

the service – one that you’re free to leave at any

time. An app that orders you new running shoes

after ‘x’ miles is a compelling idea, but threatens to

turn into a Sorcerer’s Apprentice-style nightmare if

it can’t be switched off at will.

And if commanding an army of smart assistants

and digital helpers is to become the norm, then

real trust is the only way to assuage any fears of

creeping cyborgisation. After all, as John Sheldon

says, “ambient commerce is about consumers

turning over their trust to the machine.” [14]

Sources1. ‘Q. So just how much unpaid overtime does the average UK worker do each week? A. 7hrs 18 mins’, The Independent (March 2013)2. ‘Developer outsourced entire job to China, spent hours surfing the web, watching cat videos’, The Huffington Post (January 2013) 3. ‘Too many choices: a problem that can paralyse’, The New York Times (February 2010)4. ‘Is multitasking bad for us?’, NOVA (October 2012)5. ‘Lost something already today? Misplaced items cost us ten minutes a day’, Mail Online (March 2012)6. ‘Got stuff? Typical American home is cluttered with possessions – and stressing us out’, TIME (July 2012) 7. ‘On the 4th of July, a declaration of dependence’, The Washington Post (July 2012) 8. ‘Analysis: U.S. industrials, telecoms to face off in home automation’, Reuters (August 2012)9. ‘Slow and pressure cookers find favour’, BBC (October 2013)10. ‘Nest co-founder Matt Rodgers on frustration as a muse and learning from Apple’, 99U (April 2013)11. ‘How I automated the boring parts of life’, Lifehacker (October 2012)12. ‘Human behavior is 93% predictable, research shows’, Northeastern (February 2010)13. ‘The Future of Evernote: from memory machine to time machine’, The Next Web (September 2011)14. ‘One day, Google will deliver the stuff you want before you ask’, Wired (September 2013)15. ‘Quantopian, a community of quants, picks up $6.7M from Khosla, Spark’, TechCrunch (October 2013)16. ‘Too Smart City - JooYoun Paek, David Jimison’, Real-time Cities (2013)


Crunch is an Arc newsletter, highlighting interesting campaigns in the area of sponsorship and brand activation, sharing these titbits with the wider group. Here are some snapshots from the latest issue…

For those that haven’t seen the Uncle Drew series - watch it! It’s a great demonstration of a one-off viral

video turning itself into a full-blown campaign.

The Pepsi max team wanted to take a fresh approach and feature one of their newest ambassadors –

Cavaliers rookie Kyrie Irving - and use him to front creative based on the idea that ‘you look at the product

and see one thing, but inside it is something different’. They disguised Irving as an old man and took him

to a real street basketball game.

The YouTube video received 27m views in 3 weeks and 80% of viewers watched for 5 minutes. The viral was

so successful that Pepsi Max created a story by adding 2 more episodes.

UNCLE DREW

In Moscow, subway commuters were able to get a

free ticket by completing 30 squats in two minutes

at a special ticket machine. It was used to generate

interest ahead of the Sochi Winter Olympics.

http://youtu.be/ojo9M1cPSPI

SQUAT FARES


ROCKET MAN

The stuff of science fiction no longer… watch

manufacturer Breitling worked with Yves Rossy

(aka JetMan) to produce a human jetpack which

allowed him to fly individually around Mount Fuji.

http://youtu.be/fnnOxRK_gc4

2013 saw sponsors and rights holders exploit Google+ hangouts by bringing players closer to the fans.

Google+ Hangouts are a free video chat service from Google that enables both one-on-one chats and

group chats with up to ten people at a time. Manchester United’s logistics partner DHL drove fans via their

@DHL_ManUtd Twitter handle to find further details about the first ever Man Utd hangout. The Hangout

was part of DHL’s ‘The Journey From Good To Great’ campaign, launched on Google+ in conjunction with

the team’s new training kit. The event was subsequently promoted on Man Utd’s official website with a

press release that included more specific details and claimed the first-of-its-kind event was an innovative

platform to bring fans even closer to Manchester United and its first team players.

HANGOUT WITH MAN UTD STARS


Storebites is a regular in-house roundup of tangy titbits relating to shopper marketing and the goings-on in the retail environment. Here are some highlights from the latest issue…

Mobile internet has now firmly established itself as

a sales channel and has changed the commercial

landscape. With digital devices now more

affordable than ever before, the pool of digital

shoppers is growing daily. Tablet ownership has

more than doubled in the past year, rising from 11%

Q1 2012 to 24% Q1 2013, and with the number of

digital touchpoints opening up, there are a growing

number of ways to influence shoppers. They now

have access to so much more choice than ever

before, whether it’s an everyday essential or a big

ticket item; they can shop for anything, anytime,

anyplace, anywhere.

This rise in online shopping has consequently

transformed retail spaces into showrooms.

Retailers are now merchandising less stock in a bid

to improve the shopper experience, giving rise to

omni-channel strategies that link online and the real

world together seamlessly. Furthermore, the rapid

development of technology is allowing retailers to

create fresh experiences for their customers.

AN INCREASINGLY VIRTUAL WORLDFor example, one of Russia’s largest cosmetics

chains, Ulybka Radugi, has collaborated with

marketing technology firm Syngera to introduce

checkouts that read facial expressions and register

emotions of shoppers. Combining this with

historical purchase data, Ulybka Radugi is able

to launch customised campaigns and targeted

promotions.

Beyond the store, German retailer Upcload has

made it possible for clients to be measured via

their webcams, thus allowing them to try on

any garment virtually before committing to buy.

Topshop also used technology to engage with their

shoppers during fashion week. They gave models

front-facing cameras which enabled viewers to

watch the catwalk shows live on YouTube as well

as following the goings-on backstage in real time

via Instagram and Twitter.

After the show, viewers could use the “Be the

Buyer” app which allowed fans to create personal

outfits with the pieces from the runway collection

and get tips from the buyers on how to put their

perfect look together. Shoppers were not only able

to buy the clothes the models were wearing, but

also the nail polish they were wearing too!

In the grocery channel, digital mostly impacts the

‘pre-shop’ when shoppers are comparing prices,

trying to save time and money.


However, shoppers are increasingly using

smartphones to receive personalised push

notifications from apps, navigate the retail space

more efficiently as well as searching out offers

across their favourite products in a bid to achieve

greater value. Other reasons shoppers leverage

digital is to get a greater understanding on product

sourcing and guidance on how to achieve a healthy

lifestyle. By understanding shopper needs by

category, manufacturers can help make shopping

trips easier by focusing mobile messaging in the

right places.

Price transparency too has become increasingly

important with digital innovation.

Shoppers can compare pricing and promotions

from one retailer to another using sites such as

MySupermarket.com, enabling them to cherrypick

retailers for different categories. And what about

virtual shopping communities? They are the next

step in the pricing revolution, where people join

an online group to negotiate bulk discounts.

Examples include ‘Milk, Please!’ in Italy where local

folk collaborate to buy groceries and even Tesco

is trialling ‘Wine Co-buys’ where the price drops

when more shoppers commit to buying.

According to IDG, 8 out of 10 shoppers use a social

networking site; however, only a third connect

with food/grocery companies through Facebook,

YouTube or Twitter.

Despite this, networking sites provide a platform

for listening and interacting with potential

shoppers. Coca-Cola joined Facebook in 2008 and

has generated 75 million likes in 5 years, focusing

less on product and promotions but more on fans,

leveraging ‘shareworthy’ content.

IGD found the main reasons for using social

networks for food and grocery was to search for

recipes and learn what others are saying about a

product.

They also found that product endorsements via

Facebook encouraged over 60% of people to visit

a brand’s page. Brands need to consider creating

content that is engaging and interactive; they need

to inspire, educate, entertain and provide the ability

to personalise to deepen the shopper’s level of

activity. Examples include Lidl, who use Facebook

in Belgium to let customers design cupcakes on

their page, with the three most popular creations

going into development.

Aldi also uses Facebook in the USA to invite

shoppers to take a ‘switch & save’ pledge, then be

entered into a draw to win $20 gift certificates.

But with digital continuing to innovate at such a

pace, what does the future hold?


It seems there are two trends: ‘predictive analytics’

and ‘gamification’. Predictive analytics is when

retailers leverage cognitive computing to learn and

pre-empt individual’s shopping preferences and

provide personalised promotions according to their

future behaviour. This provides the opportunity

to increase sales, reduce shipping, inventory and

supply chain costs. Amazon is one retailer already

jumping on the innovation. Their model is based on

purchase history, cookies, surveys and generating

geo-targeted sales predictions.

This creates a constant flow of products being

pre-shipped towards their expected geographical

destination. The final address will then be confirmed

while in transit (from one hub to another). Whilst

this model is still in its infancy this could be the

future for pure play e-tailers.

Gamification in simple terms is leveraging game-

playing to encourage engagement. But why would

anyone do it? Well, because there are benefits

to be had, such as added incentives, plus it’s an

outstanding way to motivate consumers.

Ultimately it aims to spark a competitive drive

amongst consumers that makes content,

behaviours and tasks more creative and appealing

The social game Retail Therapy currently pursues

the furthest-reaching concept. Here players

design their own virtual store, stock it with virtual

products, and hire employees. .

Thanks to major brand partnerships, the virtual

products correspond to the products currently

available in real stores. Another example is GoldRun,

a free iPhone app launched to allow retailers to

deliver virtual goods and user rewards through

social media games, guides and loyalty programs.

Their partnership with H&M allows shoppers to try

on outfits virtually and post images to Facebook to

create personalised ‘look books’. The app enables

fans to collect virtual items, snap a picture of them

and receive a 10% discount off their next purchase.

In an ever-increasingly technology-fuelled

existence, companies need to understand how

their shoppers, brands and categories are affected

by technology and develop a digital marketing

strategy accordingly. Building both brand

differentiation and emotional engagement to

optimise the interaction will give the strategy that

will succeed in a virtual world.

Sarah LeccacorviBoard Account Director


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