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This week's retail round up of news (May 17)

Steve Smith — Fri, 17 May 2013 12:02:05 +0000

In this week's retail news...

ASDA’s digital investment has led to a 16% increase in online sales during the first quarter of this year

ASDA has also reported a 1.3% increase in like-for-like sales in the first quarter to April 14.

Asda launched its Price Lock initiative in March, pledging to keep the price of staples low after a £100m investment. The scheme complements its Price Guarantee commitment to be 10% cheaper than Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and Morrisons.

Asda recently disclosed plans to invest £700m in digital initiatives and building new stores in 2013.

Source: http://www.retail-week.com/sectors/food/asda-boss-insists-low-prices-will-drive-loyalty-as-like-for-likes-rise-13/5049170.article

Boots prepares for online growth Starting in June, Boots will begin launching an online overseas expansion as part of plans to make it a global brand, following international trading profit falling 17.5% to £52m in the year to March 31.

The health and beauty brand will offer more than 23,000 products on yet-to-launch site International.Boots.com in Europe. This represents the first comprehensive online overseas drive by the retailer.

Source: http://www.retail-week.com/technology/online-retail/alliance-boots-prepares-for-overseas-etail-drive/5049167.article

Sainsbury’s launches competitor to Tesco’s Blinkbox Sainsbury’s has launched a new video on demand service. Offering access to over 300 film titles, the service will allow people to rent or buy movies and watch them immediately via any computer or Apple device.

Available at sainsburysentertainment.co.uk, rental prices begin at £1.99 per film for 30 days while purchasing new releases will cost £12.99, the retailer said.

The Sainsbury’s service will compete with Tesco’s Blinkbox, although Tesco Clubcard holders will still have the advantage of the free Clubcard TV, free to users.

Source: http://www.retailgazette.co.uk/articles/24301-sainsburys-offers-video-on-demand-amid-digital-push

UK consumers most concerned about rising utility bills Nearly a third of people surveyed by Nielsen say that utility bill hikes are their greatest or second greatest financial worry.

According to Nielsen’s Global Survey of Consumer Confidence and Spending Intentions, rising food prices were also named as a top concern, this time by 22 per cent of consumers, up 4% on 2011.

The research reflects our own analysis of mums’ concerns as the financial downturn continues

http://www.retailgazette.co.uk/articles/10434-rising-utility-bills-consumers-greatest-concern

Tesco developing alternative to NFC Tesco has decided to overlook NFC and start working on its own version of a mobile phone wallet that the retailer is likely to extend to marketing and loyalty schemes.

Tesco is the latest retail giant to look past NFC. Last year, Walmart head of payments Mike Cook said: “Investors don’t believe - nor does Walmart believe - that NFC will become a payment technology in a retail environment quickly enough.”

http://www.thegrocer.co.uk/topics/technology-and-supply-chain/tesco-dismisses-nfc-payments-as-past-sell-by-date/343175.article?

In other news, Morrisons will be launching an online grocery proposition, following its deal with Ocado, the last of the major supermarkets to do so.

Source: http://www.retail-week.com/sectors/food/morrisons-to-launch-online-grocery-this-year-after-inking-ocado-deal/5049203.article

SMG Search Week - May 20th - May 24th

Kevin Ting — Thu, 16 May 2013 15:58:48 +0000

The PPC and SEO teams have pulled together a week-long event celebrating all that is Search@SMG.

Join us next week across a variety of events, from talks presented by Google and Bing, to informational sessions with the Search team and fun activities. These sessions are aimed for anyone to attend, no matter where you work in the building, whether you want to hear about the latest developments in search, SMG's award winning search offering, or how search data can help with audience insights and planning, there's something for everyone.

Please see further details regarding the SMG search week agenda below:

Measuring mobile effectiveness with POEM

Michael Vitello — Thu, 16 May 2013 13:28:24 +0000

For retail clients with the objective of increasing sales, it can be a challenge for media agencies to prove the contribution of media to their overall sales, and therefore the ROI of their media investment. Unless there is a way to connect offers through media (for example, unique promotional codes) directly to the tills, econometric modelling of sales results can be as elusive as the Holy Grail.

However, it can also be a barrier to innovation — why take the risk with new media channels when we know that digital display is yielding a strong ROI? For our client Pizza Hut, we wanted to ensure that their mobile activity could be tied back to a return on investment measurement without falling back on standard econometric modelling which may not fully reflect the value of mobile.

But innovating to stand out from other casual dining restaurants is important in this category. So, in order to tap into the opportunities mobile advertising can provide, we needed to give Pizza Hut the confidence to try out mobile media at minimum risk to their bottom line.

Starcom’s bespoke modelling technique – Paid Owned Earned Modelling (POEM) – lets us build a holistic view of each element of a campaign, showing not just a direct measurement of each media channel, but how different elements work together with one another. This provided the means of testing Mobile’s overall contribution to sales, which secured Pizza Hut’s buy-in.

We knew that:

Our Pizza Hut audiences (Mums and Sociables) are increasingly connected through their use of mobile
These audiences actively seek out restaurants from their mobile
These audiences are also heavily influenced by offers, even when on-the-go. Therefore, providing these consumers with a relevant Pizza Hut Restaurant offer via their mobile is something they will not only react positively to but act on and go in-store!
This understanding of consumer behaviour identifies Mobile as a crucial communication and engagement device for Pizza Hut

Instead of letting customers search for restaurant offers and locations, we brought Pizza Hut Restaurant offers and locations to them via SMS. Our strategy was two-pronged:

Making sure our audiences are aware of Pizza Hut’s offers relevant to them on key dates for Pizza Hut.
Capitalising on the opportunity to convert low hanging fruit – O2 customers within 250m of a Pizza Hut restaurant. Messages were time-targeted to promote the most relevant offer

By building a partnership in the truest sense with O2, we were able to minimise risk to Pizza Hut and remove the barrier to Mobile.

The mobile element of the campaign proved to be was 142% more efficient in delivering incremental sales revenue than the campaign average, with the majority of mobiles impact in directly driving sales (90%).

Search Lately: Issue 88

Kevin Ting — Thu, 16 May 2013 12:58:27 +0000

Highlights brought to you by Search Lately @SMGSearchUK this week include:

Google I/O Keynote - Day 1: Highlights
New Adwords Features Launching Soon
Google Announced Launch of Penguin 2.0
Company Logos to Feature in Search Results
SMG UK SEARCH WEEK AGENDA

Browse last week’s Search Lately for more details and initial reaction from industry experts on recent hot topics.

SMG Meets Capital One’s Anthony Saxton

SMG Reporter — Wed, 15 May 2013 12:35:33 +0000

Capital One’s Anthony Saxton explains how he finds being able to target audiences with the right marketing campaign in the right place at the right time very exciting at the Google@SMG event.

Saxton, senior relationship manager at Capital One, explains how the company are looking at how they link their sponsorship assets with generating account bookings and build customer retention.

Capital One plan to start making YouTube a bigger focus in the future by broadcasting and summarising moments from the Capital One Cup on their YouTube channel. This would enable them to compare the success of adverts on TV and YouTube whilst gathering data in order to learn how to better market them as a credit card company Saxton explains.

SMG Talks to Matt Blackborn, President of Emerging Markets at SMG

SMG Reporter — Wed, 15 May 2013 10:33:21 +0000

Matt Blackborn discusses the benefits of the advancement in connectedness, its simplification for consumers and how this has had an impact on brands and advertisers in emerging markets at the Google@SMG event.

Backborn explains that connectedness has become increasingly important in emerging markets and that in an environment where connectedness through mobile is paramount, marketers need to make sure they understand and act quickly.

The Human Experience positioning can be instantly global, he explains, making the digital environment very exciting for brands wanting to thrive in emerging markets.

SMG Meets Mark Howe, MD, Agency Operations, Google

SMG Reporter — Wed, 15 May 2013 09:31:11 +0000

Howe discusses the need for collaboration in the industry and the future vision of content that works across all platforms, capturing all audiences.

Connected activity is a creation of experiences, data output and moments for consumer engagement with brands, says Howe at the Google@SMG event. For it to work, clients, agencies and media owners need to work together, with the right people in each team to understand everything - the data, the human experience and the consumer.

Talking of video content, Howe does not feel that TV is going away, but evidently the consumer experience and a brand’s video strategy is different. Going forward, the ambition is to capture all of the audiences on all screens, with content that works across all platforms. Ultimately, this would need an attribution model to track the entire consumer journey to see what part is having the greatest affect, a vision for Google.

Looking to the future, Howe explains that Google search is still only at the beginning, and without giving away any clues, he reveals that there are many exciting innovations coming round the corner for Google.

SMG Meets Dominic Allon, Google’s Director of Sales UK

SMG Reporter — Wed, 15 May 2013 09:26:21 +0000

Allon discusses how understanding technology and people are two key themes to come out of the Google@SMG event.

It’s clear that technology is developing quickly, says Allon, enabling marketers to connect, tell stories and engage with people. Keeping up to speed with technology is crucial, but it only works if you don’t lose sight of people as the most important thing.

Talking of how agencies and media partners should be working to deliver in this evolving world, Allon feels that to be successful trust, collaboration and openness between all parties is key.

Explaining ‘what’s next’ for Google, Allon says the number one rule is to focus on the consumer, so with the emergence of new technology, the first steps are to understand how it will help people make better decisions.

UK dives down economic well-being league

Steve Smith — Wed, 15 May 2013 08:26:41 +0000

The UK has crashed down an economic well-being league according to a new report by the ONS, that underscores the pressure on mums' household finances in the midst of growing unemployment.

Data from the OECD shows the UK has plunged from fifth place in 2005, to twelfth place in 2011 in terms of actual disposable income.

Household Actual Disposable Income Per Head in 2005 vs 2011.
OECD Countries, UK=100. Source: OECD

In terms of household spending, the UK compares fairly well with other OECD countries, but remains far below that of the United States, Germany and other large European economies.

Household Actual spending Per Head in 2011.
OECD Countries, UK=100. Source: OECD

Inflation is another key factor that can influence well-being, and impacts consumer expenditure. Since 2009 inflation has remained high compared to the US, France and Germany.

Annual Change in Consumer Prices.
Selected OECD Countries. Source: OECD

The UK has also fallen 2 places between 2005 and 2011 when looking at rankings based on unemployment. With the unemployment rate at 8% in 2011, the UK was more than halfway down the labour market league table. Norway was top of the league with unemployment at just 3% and Spain was bottom at 21.6%.

Unemployment rates
OECD countries. Source: OECD

SMG Talks to Jim Kite, Strategic Development Director at SMG

SMG Reporter — Tue, 14 May 2013 16:57:44 +0000

Kite discusses the effect of data on the media industry and how Starcom MediaVest Group’s positioning as The Human Experiences Company has come to life.

Kite feels the strongest emerging theme is that digital is no longer seen as a challenge and that it encompasses everything. Along with playing a leading role developing the use of digital, SMG’s positioning as The Human Experiences Company has come to life and results are being seen.

Discussing his role, Kite explains that the consumer is very much at the centre, but it’s essential that advertisers have the best insight and tools are being developed for this. To reach consumers the tool kit is changing, says Kite, data is allowing better real-time insight, bringing data and traditional research together that brings greater accountability.

Kite suggests the big ‘what’s next’ in the industry is increasing connectivity, as devices become seamless together and so emerges the opportunity for a single media buy across all channels, optimised in real-time.