So where do the UK’s marketeers stand on the increasingly popular sport of banker-bashing?
Many politicians and business types are fervently hoping that our financial experts won’t be carrying out their threat to take their immense talents, and greed, to another country, and an equal number fervently hope they will, and screw up someone else’s economy.
Answers on a blank cheque please…
The delightful Olympic sport of ambush marketing is under threat again as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) seeks to protect those who give large sums of money to sponsor the 2012 sporting fixture from those who didn’t. (Marketing)
The IOC’s wishes are being implemented by the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, which leaves out the Paralympics in its LOCOG abbreviation, and which will be monitoring the marketing of non-sponsor companies to detect possible secret ambush plans, though quite how it will do this is not known. (going through corporate dustbins, phone-tapping, employing corporate moles, sending in prostitutes of both genders to pick up pillow-talk, paying corporate whistle-blowers, intercepting mail and emails?) Continue reading
TAINT OF GADDAFI
UK academia has become the first casualty of links to dictator Col Gaddafi, as he and his sons struggle to preserve their lucrative hold in Libya….
FIDDLING THE BOOKS
An investigation into possible price-fixing of ebooks has commenced following revelations that some cost double the price of the paperback versions. One….
LABELLING FIDDLES
Food producers, retailers and restaurants are taking advantage of the fact that there is no agreed definition of the word “local” – an aspect that is increasingly sought by….
TELEVISION CONTINUES DOWNWARD SLIDE
Regulator Ofcom is allowing TV channels to interrupt films and single dramas with up to 12 minutes of advertising every hour, the same as for soaps. This is against the….
EVERY FIDDLE HELPS?
Latest shot in Tesco’s gripping price war with Asda is a promise to refund twice any saving in price on a “comparable shop” that shoppers can prove they would….
NICE ONE JOHN
Meanwhile the John Lewis chain are coming across as equally slippery with their back-tracking on their 86-year-old “Never Knowingly Undersold” guarantee to refund….
WHAT PRICE BRAND LOYALTY?
Proving that shoppers who just fill up their trolley at one supermarket, as all the supermarkets love them to, are seriously paying over the odds, we recently did a….
GRUB UP
If marketing is all about filling a need then the latest publication from restaurant experts Hardens will hit the spot with many parents….
BANKERS TO BUGGER OFF?
So where do the UK’s marketeers stand on the increasingly popular sport of banker-bashing? ….
DO AS WE DO?
Impressed, we were, with the Daily Telegraph advertisement for Daily Telegraph columnist Simon Heffer’s book Strictly English, apparently “perfect for anyone….
THE FUTURE’S ORANGE?
The delightful Olympic sport of ambush marketing is under threat again as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) seeks to protect those who give large sums….
Land Rover have paid 40 celebrities to write about their Range Rovers on social networking site Twitter.
According to Marketing magazine the sad celebs received a free vehicle for their spontaneous and honest endorsement and included fashion designer Henry Holland, model Daisy Lowe, editor of GQ magazine Dylan Jones, and presenters George Lamb and Ben Shephard, all based in the UK. Outside the UK the paid brand ambassadors included models, actors, presenters, journalists, editors, and chefs, who will all be doing some well-paid twittering in 2011.
The ill-conceived arrangement has undermined the integrity of Land Rover, Twitter, and the celebrities involved and will reduce consumer confidence in the marketing sector, as well as positioning celebrity endorsement as completely valueless.
Advertisers are developing TV ads that can be understood if run at up to 12 times the normal speed.
The move is in response to the growth in digital video recorders (DVR’s) which allow viewers to fast forward through the ads between the recorded programmes. Also fuelled by the DVR boom is the charging of premium rates for the last ad before the start or re-start of a programme, which media experts say has the highest recall.
Meanwhile the rise of reality TV shows is one main reason why 70% of over-55s claim that TV today is not worth the licence fee (YouGov poll).
Many also feel that the product placement in programmes due this year can only further reduce the quality of output.
Savvy shoppers are learning that their perception of larger packs being cheaper is costing them money.
Asda, Tesco and Sainsburys have all been found to offer larger packs that cost more than buying several smaller ones, the latest being Tesco that were selling a multi-pack of three tins of tuna for £1 more than the cost of buying the three tins individually.
The supermarkets claim that the examples revealed are human error, rather than cynical pricing.
Southeastern Trains have been accused of cancelling hundreds of trains during the recent cold weather, to avoid paying the compensation to their customers that is due if trains are late.
The company now charges more than £5000 for an annual season ticket to London from Hastings, Rye or Tonbridge and contributes significantly to making train fares in the UK the highest in Europe.
Gillette have dumped disgraced golfer Tiger Woods and a multi-million dollar sponsorship deal with him.
A TV ad featuring Woods with the strapline “SHOW THE WORLD HOW PHENOMENAL YOU CAN BE” won the Campaign magazine’s “Top Turkey” award in December 2008.
Woods still receives $40 million a year from Nike, and payments from computer game company Electronic Arts.
Rumours that the next Nike campaign will use the strapline NIKE. YOUR SUPPORT WHEN YOU’RE PLAYING A ROUND should, in our view, be dismissed as jolly funny.
One way of saving on the marketing budget is to produce a product or service that demonstrably outclasses everything else around.
The Cornish Cheese Company of Upton Cross, Cornwall, will be finding this out, their Cornish Blue cheese having taken the top honours at the World Cheese Awards. It beat 2,000 other entries and is the first British winner in the last ten years.