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In the Loop: September (and a bit of October!) Marketing Round-Up

6th October 2020

#Marketing

Ooh, it's that time again where we share some of the recent marketing news we think you need to hear.

This month we’re starting to hear about Christmas (ah!). Who knows what it’ll be like this year, but we do know that, in lots of ways, brands are going to be trying to humanise elements of their marketing.

Ok enough rambling, here are five marketing stories from the last month to keep you in the loop.

John Lewis Christmas ad will reflect ‘modernised brand purpose’

We all remember last year’s ad starring that cute little dragon Edgar. Well, this year the company’s executive director Pippa Wicks has revealed that their ad will be very much ‘on purpose’.

As well as upping their plans to engage customers online with Christmas-themed tutorials, they’ve recognised that customers are paying more attention to the purpose and values of the companies they buy from.

All will be revealed in a couple of weeks. We look forward to seeing what they’ve come up with this year

Planet-saving comms

In a bid to help the community surrounding their headquarters to encourage people to recycle more of their household waste, Innocent shared the skills of their talented writers and designers with Kensington and Chelsea borough council.

Market research by Hubbub showed that people found recycling rules confusing, and 51% of people agreed that clearer information would encourage them to recycle more.

We bloomin’ love what the Innocent team produced! A most wanted line up of common items that often end up in the general waste bin.

It’s hoped that the campaign, that will be displayed around the borough on bins, lorries and social media will save the council money too. An estimated £63,000 for every 1% increase in recycling to be precise!

Facebook’s testing new email marketing tools

Facebook’s advertising and lead generation tools just seem to keep growing! Over the summer selected business pages got to trial a new feature that allowed them to send marketing emails directly from their pages.

The tool is still in the testing phase so we’ll see what happens. If they do it well, it could be a valuable tool for those with large followings on their business accounts. But there are so many other established (and free!) email marketing platforms out there that they’ll need to compete with.

You can read more about the new tool over on HubSpot’s blog.

Is experience more important than advertising?

The new CEO of Tesco thinks it does!

Speaking at the company’s interim results this week, Ken Murphy said that he thinks 80% of brand perception is driven from the store experience rather than marketing or comms.

He said, “Really, what we are about is making sure that the customer experience is the best possible experience it can be, and the lion’s share of our marketing effort goes towards either communicating that experience or improving that experience in the store itself.”

It’s something we can all think about, even if it’s services you’re selling. Yes, you need to advertise to get clients in the first place. But if you don’t give those clients a good experience they’ll eventually go elsewhere. And they won’t recommend you either, oh dear!

Instagram celebrates 10th birthday with a suite of new features

The main one that we’re interested in is the new Stories Map. It gives you a map of where you’ve posted Instagram stories from over the last three years. You had to have used a location sticker in the Story, oh, and you’ll be the only person who can see your own map.

Although this might serve as a reminder of nice memories, it’s also a reminder of the sheer amount of data that social media platforms hold about us so it might not be so well received by everyone.

The other one we think I pretty cool is the hidden custom app icon feature that lets you customise your Instagram app icon. To see this, all you have to do is:

  • Update your Instagram app to the latest version
  • Go to your profile and tap the ‘Settings’ cog icon
  • Drag the screen down in the main menu and you’ll see the hidden app icons listing

Twitter tells us about key trends during COVID-19

Last but not least, Twitter has released stats on the key topics people have been talking about during the pandemic.

As is to be expected, there have been lots of conversational shifts this year:

  • 42% increase in tweets about parenting
  • 54% of people agree that ‘my mental health’ has increased in importance since last year
  • In tweets about interests and hobbies, cartoons went up by 111% and arts and crafts by 91%
  • 24% increase in tweets about ‘trying new things’

Another one we found particularly interesting is the fact that 72% of people surveyed on Twitter feel that they are making a difference when they take part in something a brand is supporting.

So if your business supports a certain cause or is doing something for charity, it’s nice to shout about it because you may end up making others get involved (and feel good too!). All while raising awareness of a cause that your business cares about.

Let’s chat

If you’re looking to transform your own marketing we’re always happy to talk ideas! Get in touch: hello@vidacreative.co.uk.