LONDON: Almost half of European smartphone users frequently play games on the devices, figures from comScore suggest.
A new report from the digital research firm suggests that 41.7% of the smartphone audience in the “EU5” bloc – including France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK – played a mobile game of some kind during February 2012.
This is a 55% increase in penetration from when the same survey was taken 12 months before, and includes a hard core of 11.5% who accessed the games almost every day.
By nation, the heaviest users were in the UK, which was the only market measured where the mobile gaming population formed the majority (52.4%) of the smartphone audience. In all, 16.4% of Britons were daily players.
But mobile games have gained least traction in France, where just 27.2% of respondents had played during the month, and 7.4% were daily users. Each of the other three nations had a usage rate of above 40%.
Hesham Al-Jehani, comScore Europe product manager for mobile, said that the burgeoning popularity of mobile gaming is partly due to the fact they tend to be accessed via downloadable apps – and can therefore be played in “idle time” when the user cannot get on to the mobile web.
“As mobile games evolve from simple pre-loaded games to highly challenging and visually appealing games, their entertainment value has increased substantially.”
Games accessed via social media platforms were earmarked by comScore for future growth. Unlike the general gaming market, Italy scored the highest penetration rate for social gaming (15.5% of the total audience), with the UK beaten into second place on 14.2%.
The number of users accessing this type of game hit 6.1m in February, up 42% from when the last survey was taken six months before.
Data sourced from comScore; additional content by Warc staff, 30 April 2012
LONDON: Britons are spending more and more time communicating online and multi-screening, figures from new IPA research indicate.
The trade body has released its fourth TouchPoints Hub Survey, which is produced with Ipsos MediaCT and based on the poll responses and electronic media diaries of 5,567 people aged 15 years old or above.
It reported that the typical British consumer now watches TV for three hours 30 minutes per day, compared with one hour 54 minutes spent listening to the radio and one hour 33 minutes using the web.
Moreover, some 79% of respondents regularly utilise two or more media channels simultaneously in the same 30 minutes, an increase from 76% in 2010.
When discussing how people communicate, 66% of this activity takes place face-to-face at present, down by four percentage points on 2010. Landline and mobile phones logged 14% here, up from 10%.
Email was responsible for another 6% of interaction, ahead of social networking on 5%, matching the score for text and picture messaging. Instant messaging posted 1%, as did writing a letter.
More broadly, 44% of consumers accessed social networks at least once a week, measured against 37% in 2010. This audience dedicated six hours 39 minutes to these platforms across a normal seven days in the latest study.
Email penetration stood at 67% on this metric, bettering 60% for talking on a mobile phone and 47% for sending text or picture messages.
TV retained a weekly reach of 98%, but linear broadcast content has seen volume viewing levels fall by 4% since 2010. Radio listenership has also dropped by 2% and print readership by 10%.
Some 29% of individuals watched TV shows and video online each week, doing so for 18 minutes a day. A further 9% streamed material through a mobile phone, declining to 2% for tablets.
Elsewhere, 80% of adults used the net once a week, with 77% going online via a PC or laptop. Another 39% engaged in this pastime on a mobile phone, as do 5% using a tablet.
Lynne Robinson, the IPA’s research director, said: “The ways in which people live and consume media are changing due to the recession and the development of new technologies giving consumers more media channel choices and the ability to control when and how they consume media.”
Data sourced from IPA; additional content by Warc staff, 26 April 2012
LONDON: Effective social media measurement is practiced by only a small minority of UK firms, a study from software firm EPiServer has suggested.
The report, Tackling the Social Challenge, based on a poll of UK marketers, indicates that just 10% of companies are monitoring the overall payback on their social media activities.
This is despite the fact that 65% of these firms have an official Facebook presence, and 60% are on Twitter.
The channel is accounting for more and more time and budget, with 52% of firms increasing the number of employee hours spent on managing their official profiles in the past year, and a similar proportion increasing their overall social media investment.
Currently, marketing teams spend an average of around one hour per working day on updating the profiles, with just 22% of companies employing a dedicated social media manager for this purpose.
Maria Wasing, a vice president at EPiServer, said: “Many companies are overwhelmed with having multiple social media channels to maintain simultaneously, and just keeping them operational can be time-consuming.”
Despite the lack of effective ROI measurement indicated elsewhere in the survey, many of the firms polled by EPiServer have reported positive business effects stemming from their social media activity.
In all, 31% said that customers were engaging more with their brands, while 30% said loyalty had increased.
Looking to the future, around 20% of marketers polled said their employer planned a further increase in social media investment for the year ahead.
Data sourced from EPiServer; additional content by Warc staff, 26 April 2012
Innovative design from UK stalwarts such as Dyson, Mini and Burberry is giving them an edge. Moreover, as London 2012 and the Diamond Jubilee draw close, it’s a prime time for brands to celebrate British design.
The UK has been a world leader in design for decades. From the Mini Roadster to Vivienne Westwood and Apple’s Jonathan Ive, British products and designers are noted for their innovation, creativity and a certain subversiveness.
‘British design is in good health,’ says Silas Amos, creative director at design agency JKR. ‘There’s a distinctly British sensibility. We have charm and wit and a craftsmanship which finds an international audience.’
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Dan Rowe, co-founder and creative director of brand consultancy Calling Brands, argues that the recent regeneration of King’s Cross station in London sums up this approach to design as it represents ‘traditional heritage mixed with creativity and a little bit of eccentricity’.
It is also a great example of design effectiveness, he adds. ‘Not only is it showcasing British design and architecture, but it has had a massive impact on changing the urban landscape.’
As UK businesses navigate economically choppy waters, design is proving its worth as a discipline that offers value for money and can effect positive change. A 2008 report from Cambridge University’s Institute for Manufacturing calculated UK design expenditure at about £50bn annually. Meanwhile, the Design Council’s Design in Britain 2008 survey of 1500 UK firms found that the value placed on design had increased over the previous three years. The proportion of companies that regarded design as integral to their business doubled to 30% in that period.
Many successful businesses, such as Burberry, Paul Smith and Dyson, are driven by good design. Mini UK is owned by BMW, but nonetheless regarded as a British brand. It is manufactured in the UK, and, according to Adam Sykes, its general manager of brand communication marketing, ‘the brand is inextricably linked to the product - design is an immense part of what Mini is’.
Indeed, the discipline is becoming integral to brands beyond a product design capacity. Tim Little, chief executive at heritage shoe brand Grenson, says that product and branding design are equally important. ‘Design is the way we communicate the brand,’ he says. ‘Whether somebody picks up a box, sees the website, picks up an email, or looks at shoes on the shelf, design shapes how customers make up their mind about what kind of a brand we are. It’s crucial.’
Clients are becoming more aware of the central importance of design to brand building, says Jonathan Ford, founding creative partner at branding consultancy Pearlfisher. Meanwhile, Morgan Holt, senior strategist at Wolff Olins, contends that thoughtful design keeps a company stable and helps it adapt to changing environments.
The role of the design agency has also changed, says Ian Noble, managing director at communications agency Lionhouse Creative. ‘It used to be about the visual side of communication,’ he adds. ‘Design agencies have evolved into brand communications agencies, and have to be far more strategic.’
This integrated approach is reflected in the make-up of the marketing team at Virgin Media. Jeff Dodds, executive director of brand marketing and communications, works closely with creative director Adrian Spooner, who, in turn, oversees the work of branding agency Start JudgeGill and ad agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty.
‘Design is critical, but all too often, it’s not considered as early in the process (as other factors),’ says Dodds. ‘Start JudgeGill has been working on the design and look of our corporate identity ever since we began the process, so they know us well.’
The growing relevance of design is underlined by an increased focus on effectiveness. Over the past four years, the Design Council has been running a Designing Demand programme, which places design mentors with SMEs.
Last year, an independent evaluation of the programme showed that the average return on investment for every £1 spent on design was more than £25. In other Design Council surveys, 80% of UK businesses said that design would help them stay competitive in the testing economic climate.
Design effectiveness can be demonstrated in a wide range of sectors. Haulage company White Logistics, for example, teamed up with The Allotment design consultancy through Designing Demand.
The agency rebranded and redesigned the company’s services with the aim of making it stand out. The fresh identity helped to increase turnover, from £5.5m in 2008 to a projected £6.4m for 2011/2012.
Similarly, Moving Brands was briefed to revamp wholesale tea distributor All About Tea’s identity, to help it cut through in a ‘sea of sameness’. The consultancy focused on the company’s ‘metronomic’ delivery and the quality and rigour of its service and products. The makeover helped the average order value increase by 105% (see case study overleaf).
According to Nick Jones, creative director at Moving Brands, the brands that use design well are those ‘that value it and think about it over the long term. When you do that, you can start to add value’.
However, he adds that clients, and the design industry itself, need to focus even more on effectiveness. ‘People are making judgements on design largely without any insight to client, brief, deadline, the audience, and effectiveness,’ he explains. ‘They are judging creativity on a pretty superficial level.’
The importance of heritage and provenance, key consumer trends in the recession, still holds sway. Waitrose recently added a ‘great British summer’ food range, beauty brand Space NK launched a Beautannia line to celebrate Britain, and Liberty of London rolled out a refreshed brand identity, designed by Calling Brands, that reinstated its crest, to celebrate its heritage. Elsewhere, the recently launched company Hiut is reviving the Welsh town of Cardigan’s denim industry, and using this story to drive the business.
New Balance, too, is capitalising on its ‘Made in the UK’ credentials. Even though it is a US company, the sports shoe brand has a factory in Flimby, Cumbria, a fact it is highlighting in its current ad campaign, which represents its biggest UK adspend to date.
Graham Dicken, EMEA marketing manager at New Balance, says: ‘Our lead story is that we’re a running brand that makes the best-performing and fitting running shoes. The ad shows that story, but with a domestic manufacturing twist to tap into the domestic pride in Britain in 2012 - it came at the right time and was a big opportunity.’
Meanwhile, John Lewis is rolling out a ‘Made in UK’ mark for home-grown products. According to Hilary Lovie, innovation manager for brand development at John Lewis, it has noticed customers’ growing interest in products’ provenance.
‘To us it made a lot of sense to tap into that interest,’ says Lovie. John Lewis also collaborated with British designer Nick Munro on a range of official Olympics products, but Lovie is quick to stress that this focus on provenance, UK manufacturing and design collaborations has been at the heart of the retailer’s ethos for decades.
In this respect, designers warn brands banking on Britishness that the approach needs to be authentic. ‘Many of the messages are either playing to cliches or else saying nothing at all,’ says Holt. ‘Just saying, “we’re British, be proud of us” doesn’t move the conversation forward.’
Lionhouse Creative works with several quintessentially British brands, including Grenson. Its policy is to focus on a few attributes that it has identified as defining strong British brands in the run-up to 2012. ‘These are the sense of authenticity, of place, and heritage, which is about values, traditions and beliefs that are passed down,’ says Noble.
Jonathan Ford, creative partner at design agency Pearlfisher, says that Virgin Atlantic’s London campaign, which recreates the Union Flag but reinterprets it with images of the city, is a great example of using a brand’s ‘Britishness’ in a considered way.
‘It works so well because it retains Virgin’s core equities and emphasises them,’ he adds. ‘For example, the Virgin stewardesses, dressed in red, which the brand is synonymous with, remain central to the “London” design. Brands that are focusing on “Britishness” to drive their business need to do it in a way that draws on and becomes part of their existing brand truth and visual equities.’
Virgin Media has also appropriated the flag in a more integrated way, incorporating it in its redesigned logo.
Dodds says: ‘Some brands have a right to claim that space, and we are one of them.
If you have the right to unlock your British credentials, the consumers do care. If you don’t and you’re an international trading company trying to suddenly dial up your Britishness, then that’s cynical, and consumers would view it that way.’
For brands to build success and Brand Britain to remain centre stage, such authenticity and integrity, and the design ideas that convey them, are key.
THE OLYMPIC EFFECT
With Britain hosting the Olympics and celebrating the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee this year, a focus on heritage and provenance has become a key marketing tool.
However, when it comes to ‘Brand Britain’, the picture of success is complex. According to the 2011 Country Brand Index report by consultancy Futurebrand, the UK slipped from the top 10 country brands for the first time since the survey’s inception, the culmination of a two-year downward trend.
The study stated that the UK would ‘surely be hoping that the “Olympic effect” starts to improve low scores’ and ‘hopefully, the country can start to tell a new story about its future, counterbalancing an increasing dependence on pageantry and nostalgia, to maintain its position’.
Telling a new story to boost business is something a growing number of brands has been looking to do. According to Jonathan Ford of Pearlfisher, many are using their ‘Britishness’ as currency around the world while looking in greater measure to the Far East and other markets for sales.
‘While Europeans have a tendency to be more interested in their own brands, further afield, Brand Britain is thriving,’ adds Dan Rowe, co-founder of Calling Brands.
‘British luxury fashion-labels, such as Burberry and Mulberry in particular, are having success with Chinese consumers.’
GREENALL’S LONDON DRY GIN
With a 250-year heritage, Greenall’s is now Britain’s second-biggest distiller of super premium gin. However, according to its design consultancy Dragon Rouge, which was briefed to refresh the brand’s identity, the brand’s presentation did not match its past.
The company wanted to seize the opportunity presented by its 250th anniversary and the global resurgence in gin’s popularity to reclaim its moniker of ‘The great British spirit’.
Dragon Rouge decided to focus on the quintessential Britishness of gin and looked to Vivienne Westwood, Mini Cooper and Paul Smith for inspiration to make the brand more relevant.
‘We rooted the brand confidently in its British spirit with a green Union Jack that plays to category codes but subverts the static landscape on shelf,’ explains Barbra Wright, director of consumer brand identity and packaging at Dragon Rouge.
A year after the relaunch in April 2011, Greenall’s has reported a 10% volume increase in sales. Previously the brand was sold only in some Waitrose stores and low-profile hotels; now it is stocked in five supermarket chains.
Christina Brown, former marketing director of G&J Greenall, who commissioned the rebrand, says: ‘We are pioneers in the industry but we never rest on our laurels and always want to move with the times. The new packaging speaks to a fresh generation of gin drinkers, while respecting our strong heritage.’
ALL ABOUT TEA
Wholesale tea distributor All About Tea wanted to hone its offer, further its reach, retain its warehouse feel and establish a loyal consumer group.
The company briefed Moving Brands to create an identity that would stand out.
It needed to work across its existing wholesale market and enable the brand to grow into retail channels. It also needed to communicate the founder’s passion for the art and intricacies of tea.
An assessment of the company by Moving Brands highlighted its ‘inherently metronomic’ delivery, the quality and rigour of its product and service and its passion for tea.
The final All About Tea identity system, currently being rolled out, incorporates a brand identity, brand architecture, website, packaging, stationery, photography style, sales templates, mood film and tone of voice.
‘Since implementing the identity we have not been able to keep up with the increased interest from new customers,’ says Andrew Gadsden, chief executive of All About Tea. ‘The site and packaging seem to have caught the imagination of a market tired of the same old design cliches in the tea sector.’
The process leading up to the actual design work was ‘nothing short of a total redefinition of what the company is and what we do’, adds Gadsden. ‘The skill of the Moving Brands designers was in encapsulating this redefinition accurately in visual form. That explains why the branding feels so solid and correct.’
The revamped identity has resulted in a growth in average order value of 105%, with average order frequency down from 70 to 55 days.
In addition, the average size of All About Tea’s customer by annual turnover is up from £200,000 to £900,000, with ‘many more sales in the pipeline’, according to Gadsden.
PENHALIGON
For the past two years, heritage fragrance label Penhaligon has commissioned branding consultancy JKR to design its Christmas gift collection.
For 2011, the brief stipulated a box that would charm the customer with its British eccentricity while ensuring it felt like a tailored gift.
JKR came up with the theme of ‘hidden London’ and the range depicts a Victorian household with three box sizes that stack to create a six-storey house.
Emily Maben, head of marketing at Penhaligon, says that design can be particularly effective.
‘It’s not as simple as slapping a Union Jack on a box, but it’s a case of trying to convey the personality of our brand, which is British, but far from traditional,’ she explains.
‘We work hand-in-hand with our design agency, and it’s vital that they understand what makes us and our consumers tick. They often pre-empt our ideas, exactly as it should be.’ Maben cannot share sales figures from the latest Christmas packaging. However, the previous year’s design, for its 2010 Christmas gift collection, also created by JKR to build on the brand’s eccentric English roots, recently won a Marketing Design Award, having powered a 38% increase in sales.
‘We’ve had a significant uplift in sales since we started working with JKR and really focused on conveying our brand essence via the packaging,’ adds Maben.
LONDON: Most major companies in the UK are unprepared for new legal stipulations governing the collection of online user data, a study has revealed.
KPMG, the business services firm, assessed 55 corporations and private sector bodies, and found that 95% were not yet in compliance with forthcoming European Union legislation on internet cookies.
As of 26 May, 2012, website owners must receive formal permission from visitors before installing these cookies, which gather information on user browsing habits.
“Organisations now need to focus their efforts on establishing an inventory of their web sites and the cookies currently in use, before evaluating their purpose and establish a pragmatic plan to ensure compliance,” said Stephen Bonner, a KPMG partner.
The average website utilises between five and ten cookies, which are especially popular as a means of gleaning insights for targeted advertising or conducting analytics of digital behaviour.
In addition to one site already requesting that consumers opt in, only two further platforms stated they were implementing the necessary changes in their terms and conditions.
Robert Bond, a partner at Speechly Bircham, the law firm, told the Financial Timesthat big brand owners were among the entities leaving it “to the last minute” to meet the new rules.
“They are either blissfully unaware or waiting to see who will be the first mover,” he added. “If they started working tomorrow, many of them would not be compliant in time.”
Organisations failing to reach the EU standard could face a fine of £500,000. However, some companies, like ecommerce sites, fear the new rules may limit their access to vital user data.
“If you follow the letter of the law you will go bust very quickly,” Michael Ross, CEO of ECommera, the online retail services provider, told the Financial Times. “It is like asking a retailer to operate with a blindfold on.”
DataGuidance, which provides resources helping companies fulfil their duties in this area, discovered that just 7% of financial services firms were prepared for the change in procedures.
Lindsey Greig, managing editor of DataGuidance, suggested that while the UK authorities were often flexible on certain legal matters, regulators in Europe “might not take the same approach.”
Data sourced from KPMG/Financial Times; additional content by Warc staff, 11 April 2012
LONDON: Retailers in the UK face further challenges in adapting to changing consumer needs and industry trends, as the sector undergoes an increasingly rapid transformation.
According to estimates from Deloitte, the business services firm, 69 retailers in the country fell into administration during the first three months of 2012.
This marked an increase from the total of 60 recorded across the same period in 2011, and could also be measured against the figure of 42 registered during the closing three months of last year.
“Whilst the quarterly rent day often sets the timing for the insolvency, a significant trigger in a number of recent administrations is that many retailers have too many marginal stores,” said Lee Manning, restructuring services partner at Deloitte.
Some of the companies included in the company’s most recent quarterly list were Peacocks, the apparel specialist, Game, the computer games network and La Senza, the lingerie chain.
Blacks, the outdoor retailer, and Past Times, which sold a range of gifts and novelties, featured among the operators suffering the same fate.
Almost 10,000 of the 22,000 employees from the 69 retailers entering administration in Q1 2012 lost their jobs, while the 15 largest insolvencies saw 1,350 out of a collective 2,800 stores close.
More broadly, Deloitte suggested that declining consumer spending, the emergence of new habits, the rise of ecommerce, combined with, fixed costs, have worked to present substantial obstacles.
It also predicted that some chains would have to reduce the size of their store portfolios by up to 40% in the coming five years as trading conditions continued to develop.
Manning said: “In order to remain competitive, some retailers will need to rethink their business models to be nimble and adaptable to changing consumer trends.”
As the number of firms entering administration excluding retailers declined from 497 during the first quarter of 2011 to 447 in the same period in 2012, it seems the sector remains especially troubled.
“Whilst conditions undoubtedly remain tough, the year-on-year decline is a positive indicator and gives a glimmer of hope that some industries are potentially over the worst,” said Manning.
Data sourced from Deloitte; additional content by Warc staff, 10 April 2012
The amount of money spent on internet advertising per UK adult user is set to rise above £100 this year, according to the latest forecast from GroupM.
The WPP media powerhouse is predicting that £104 per user will be spent on internet advertising this year, up from £98 last year and £70 five years ago.
A total of £4.85bn is expected to be spent on targeting 46.8 million adult users this year, up from a forecast £4.44bn and 45.5 million users last year.
The UK’s average spend per user (161 in US dollar terms) is the fourth-highest in the world, behind the US ($174) and Australia ($181), but Norway is by some distance the country with the highest figure ($213).
The figures are published in GroupM’s ‘This Year Next Year: Interaction’ report, covering internet-related spend around the world.
GroupM predicts paid search will, as usual, dominate the category in the UK this year, rising 8.1% from 2011 to £2.79bn, and display will grow at double that pace, to £1.2bn.
The introduction by Rob Norman, CEO of GroupM Interaction Worldwide, adds Amazon to the “big three” of Google, Apple and Facebook.
Norman said: “In previous reports, we have made little reference to Amazon as a media company. It is increasingly clear that this is an omission.
“AOL’s exit from the ISP market and its large wager on content is taking time to pay off and Yahoo seems to be living with the uncomfortable paradox of a growing audience and eroding revenues particularly at the hands of Facebook, ad networks and exchange-traded media.
“New leadership at both these companies has a hard road ahead. Their massive display advertising sales alliance in the USA may yet be exported.”
LONDON: Many companies in Europe are struggling to implement an integrated approach to marketing and customer communications across different media channels, a study has found.
Pitney Bowes Software surveyed 250 marketers in France, Germany and the UK, and found 90% of respondents agreed it was becoming essential to integrate communications across different mediums.
The organisation also stated that the overwhelming majority of companies which were not placing an emphasis on this matter – some 23 out of the 25 laggards – were based in the UK.
“Barriers to achieving channel integration include the recent explosion in channel growth, a lack of strategy, concern over channel security, inability to be consistent across channels and fear of confusing customers,” the study said.
More specifically, 32% of featured companies had experienced problems due to the diverse nature of their customer base, making unified messaging a challenge. Scores here reached 38% for France, versus 26% in Germany.
For another 38% of French corporations, one of their biggest shortcomings was related to a considerably more basic issue, in that they failed to adequately follow up communications with customers.
Elsewhere, 31% of their British counterparts had issues with precise targeting, exemplified by failings such as sending out offers and promotions that did not meet the needs of recipients.
Moreover, adequately implementing mass targeting campaigns was an obstacle for 33% of French firms, falling to 27% in the UK and 19% in Germany.
Overall, 94% of respondents thought multichannel marketing was a strategy with considerable potential, especially in terms of saving them time and money.
However, 74% of French companies still utilised just one channel in at least some of their campaigns, measured against 60% of their German rivals and 49% of British operators.
“In this information age, customers expect to be understood by their suppliers,” said Gary Roberts, EVP, EMEA at Pitney Bowes Software.
“Unless companies develop consistent cross-channel communications, their ability to develop profitable, long-term relationships will be seriously impacted.”
Data sourced from Pitney Bowes Software; additional content by Warc staff, 16 March 2012
Email is still the most common way people receive digital messages from companies, but messaging through Twitter and Facebook is more likely to cause people to press the “buy” button, according to new research.
A survey of British consumers conducted by ExactTarget, a digital marketing firm, found that 95 percent of respondents engaged with brands online in 2011. Of those people, 93 percent have given at least one company permission to send them emails, while 45 percent of consumers have “liked” a brand on Facebook and 7 percent have “followed” a business on Twitter.
But while email is used by more consumers to receive messages from companies, Twitter and Facebook are more effective at inciting a purchase, the study found — with Twitter emerging as the big winner.
Thirty-two percent of respondents said that they were more likely to buy something from a company after “following” the company on Twitter and 24 percent of respondents said they were more likely to make a purchase after “liking” a brand on Facebook. In comparison, only 21 percent of respondents reported that a subscription to a company’s e-mail list makes them more inclined to buy from that company.
To be sure, the study didn’t actually track consumers’ behavior online and instead relied on consumers’ perceptions of which digital channels are more likely to prompt them to make a purchase. “While [consumers] may not think of email as something that makes them more likely to buy from your brand,” the report noted, “[consumers] may forget to go back to your site without an email that reminds them to do so.”
ExactTarget’s findings come amid a recent push by Twitter and Facebook to revamp the way brands use their services to communicate with potential customers. Twitter in February unveiled a self-service system that enables small businesses to manage their marketing campaigns and budgets without having to deal with sales reps. Facebook, for its part, recently opened its new profile design, Timeline, to business, brand and organization pages, through which fans can now, among other functions, send private messages to brands.
