Tuesday 25 November 2014
Iceland Foods: Jungle Bells
Discount food retailer Iceland has continued to use celebrity Peter Andre to front its TV advertising. The Christmas 2014 campaign features a range of desserts and is notable for having background music recorded by Andre himself. He has recorded a whole album which is available exclusively in Iceland - and via iTunes. There does not appear to be any charity tie-in with this album - something that Asda and John Lewis have set up with their Christmas music.
The ad was premiered on November 5, but to date its 16,000 viewings must be disappointing for a high profile campaign. Andre's White Christmas album has yet to appear in the UK charts. The campaign has perhaps been overshadowed by controversy on November 17 after the singer was reported to have poked fun at his sponsor on another TV show. In what was described as an audience backlash, there were calls on social media for Andre to be sacked by Iceland.
Iceland actually is relatively insignificant on Twitter with just 18,000 followers (compared to Sainsbury's 300,000) and we have been hard put to find the resignation calls. Iceland's social media pages are dedicated largely to their promotion of the reality TV show I'm a Celebrity. In addition to the visuals on Facebook and Twitter, the company produces Celebrity themed merchandise in store, including a board game. Almost the entire social media commentary is based around the TV show, although Iceland does incentivize its fans with prizes from time to time.
Imaginatively, it has themed displays instore where shoppers can photograph themselves in a Celebrity photomontage and share the resulting images online. On Twitter the most commonly used hashtag is #ImACeleb. For the moment, at least, Christmas has yet to arrive at Iceland. No wonder the TV commercial is doing so badly on YouTube.
Peter Andre works reasonably hard for his sponsors. On Twitter his 3.2 million fans dwarf Iceland's small following, and he is regularly linking his supporters to the supermarket's social media campaigns.
In summary: a lot of things waiting to happen. Including Christmas. In the meantime, business as usual.
Primark, TK Maxx and Matalan
TK Maxx, Primark and Matalan are all large retailers, competing for the same sorts of business as Marks & Spencer, Debenhams, John Lewis, Littlewoods and the House of Fraser. For all of these stores, the Christmas season is the busiest time of year, so how have they set out their stalls on television this year?
The TK Maxx advertisement was released on November 5. It has a punchy backing track from Solomon Burke, 'Everybody needs somebody to love'. However, there is no download tie-in to iTunes. The ad has been seen just short of 12,000 times on YouTube. There are 6 companion pieces showing the 'ordinary' couples who feature in the original ad. Viewings for these are numbered in the hundreds.
TK Maxx has a fairly small Twitter following of 25,000, who are treated to offers and promotions, with a few competitions thrown in. The Twitter feed promotes the videos extensively. However there is no recognisable TK Maxx hashtag being used. It is very much the same story on Facebook, where TKM has nearly 430,000 fans.
Primark's TV advertisement, launched on 20 October, has had a mere 5,600 viewings. We know absolutely nothing about this ad. However, the company has more Facebook fans than any other UK retailer (nearly 3.5 million) and is consistently growing its business. Primark uses Facebook extensively and embeds movies on the FB pages. Most postings are heavily 'liked' and commented on, and Primark seem not to have the problem with complaining customers using Facebook to sound off about poor service or faulty products.
Primark's Twitter pages have nowhere near the same audience, although they repeat much of the same material. Their use of hashtags is generic: for example #Christmas, #Primark, #menswear.
Finally, Matalan's Christmas to Remember may be the one they want to forget, with just 900 views since its launch on November 13. The explanation for these dismal figures may be the earlier release launch of another Matalan commercial, tied in with a fund-raising campaign based around Pixie Lott's music. This is downloadable from iTunes, as happens with music from John Lewis's TV campaign and Asda's. The charity advert, Alphabet Scarves, has a much more impressive 115,000 viewings.
Unsurprisingly, the charitable campaign features on Matalan's social media platforms. The company has 183,000 'likes' on Facebook, a comparatively small figure for a national retailer. Similarly, Matalan have kept the Alphabet Scarves campaign prominent on Twitter. Here the hashtags #AlphabetScarf and #scarfie are working well for Matalan.
PC World and Halfords
As a retailer of electrical hardware, a firm like Currys PC World depends on the boost to demand that Christmas provides. Similarly, the UK's largest bicycle retailer, Halfords, relies on Christmas sales - Halfords, in fact, launched their Christmas TV advertisement on 1 October this year.
Currys PC World brought out their advertisement on 21 October, still early even by retailer standards. They also launched a companion, the-making-of-the-ad video on YoutTube at the same time, something tried by several other retailers this year. The main advertisement features some slick graphics where consumer electronics and white goods in a warehouse appear to waltz to a catchy soundtrack. Viewing figures, at just over 15,000 to date, must be disappointing.
On Twitter the company promoted the ad's theme as the hashtag #WeStartWithYou. Indeed, this began promisingly around the lanch date, but didn't make it into November even. Curry's PC World are one of the smaller retail presences on Twitter with just 54,000 followers. They are far more comfortable on Facebook where they have nearly half a million fans. Unfortunately, though, customers are invariably using these pages to complain about poor service and unreliable products.
Consumer electronics are all very well, but Halfords asks "does anything beat a bike?". Their TV ad has gained over 185,000 views on YouTube The Daily Telegraph was ambivalent about the ad but grudgingly admitted "It works". The catchy soundtrack is by Cairobi: called Zoraide it is available to download, although Halfords has none of the charity tie-ins favoured by John Lewis or Asda for their Christmas music.
Halfords' presence on social media is far less obvious than for most similarly-sized retailers. Their 27,000 Twitter fans are given a regular diet of competitions and offers. Here Halfords uses the predictable hashtags #Christmas and #Xmas. They have had more success with #nothingbeatsabike, and have been able to link this back to the TV advertisement on YouTube. Halfords are the least active of any of our sample of major retailers on Facebook, with just 52,000 likes to show. Their Facebook pages mostly reflect what they do on Twitter: competitions, offers and promotions.
Our verdict: two very well made advertisements, effectively using music but not getting the engagement of other retailers. Maybe they peaked too early. Christmas? October?
House of Fraser & Harrods: a Tale of Two Retailers
Arguably the world's most famous department store, Harrods was at one time part of the House of Fraser group. Now the two trade separately and compete for the same customers.
House of Fraser operates over 60 stores across the UK and Ireland, and has recently opened a store in Abu Dhabi. They launched their TV advertisement on 14 November. A second version was launched on 19 November, with the same theme. This was reported to be their first brand advertising on TV for over a decade, and part of a £4 million investment in branding. At the time of writing it had received a meager 17,000 viewings compared to the 17 million achieved by direct rival John Lewis. The second installment from HoF is currently scoring just over 4,000 hits. One journalist wondered HoF had produced "the most boring Christmas advert of 2014". However, digital measurement analyics reported that there had been a 610% jump in interest in House of Fraser as a result of the advertisement.
Curiously, House of Fraser does not appear even to have mentioned this major new piece of branding to its 300,000 Facebook fans. It is highly proactive in providing quizzes, competitions and special offers, but no links through to YouTube apart from on the page's sidebar. They have even put on a promotion that seems to borrow from Marks & Spencer's #TheTwoFairies idea of making gifts to random good causes. The Facebook intiatives are largely replicated on Twitter, although the moderators there have attempted (repeatedly) to publicise the ads on YouTube. There is no dedicated hashtag in use.
Harrods, by contrast, have produced a TV and cinema advertisement that is getting viewed and talked about. Its animated film is striking and was described by the Daily Telegraph as "charming in a very understated way". Harrods has far more followers on Twitter (432,000 of them) than any other UK retailer. It has not followed John Lewis (Monty the Penguin) and Homebase (Harriet) in making its central character into a social media sensation, although it does frequently name tag its Peter Pumpernickel character. Harrods's preferred hashtag is the predictable #HarrodsChristmas.
Harrods has announced a selfie-based competition in store featuring the mouse character. No PP merchandise, though - a wasted opportunity perhaps, given that Monty the Penguin replicas sold out in John Lewis on day one, despite their £95 price tag. Harrods are using Facebook and Instagram to publicise its Christmas campaign. Once again, Harrods is immensely popular on these sites, with over 600,000 likes on Facebook. They are constant communicators here, with most of the postings engaging effectively with Harrods fans, who 'like' the posts in their hundreds and comment frequently. But despite their social media skills and the eye-catching quality of the advertisement, 37,000 viewings on YouTube is a disappointing return. Particularly when contrasted with John Lewis's 17 million hits.
Do-it-yourself @Christmas
The two major home improvement (DIY) retailers have positioned themselves to get a slice of the festive spending. B&Q launched their Christmas advertisement on 7 November, and Homebase followed on 19 November.
B&Q's movie seems there to show that the firm not only sells trees, lights and decorations, but a range of toys also. The ad itself is pretty unremarkable: what is more interesting is their campaign to get digital engagement via something called The Big Switch On. The company is encouraging customers to decorate their trees and to film the moment when the lights are lit.
These bits of film are then uploaded to Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, using the hashtag #ChrismasUnleashed. B&Q have a long running campaign using the term unleashed.
B&Q then add the location of these uploads to a UK map. This mirrors the Waitrose campaign to get customers singing; in both cases the companies promise that the best results will appear in later TV advertising.
At the time of writing (25 November) this imaginative idea hasn't exactly gone viral. The map shows a few dots around London and one in the Bournemouth area. But it is early days and the plan seems to be to make December 6 be the big switch on day. B&Q's 46,000 Twitter followers seem muted. In fact the #ChrismasUnleashed hashtag seems to be being used by other retailers and as a generic term by the Twitterati. Both here and on Facebook (B&Q has over 125,000 likes) the moderators are dilligently promoting the Big Switch On: however, on Facebook at least these posts are often being hijacked by disgruntled customers complaining about poor service or faulty products. The Christmas TV ad has to date performed miserably on YouTube with just 12,000 viewings.
Homebase launched their TV ad less than a week ago (19 November) but are already showing viewing figures ten times those recorded by their competitor. Homebase have created their own cute canine character, Homebase Harriet, with a dedicated social media presence on Twitter. In doing this they are following John Lewis's lead creating a virtual identity for Monty the Penguin. Harriet has her own TV commercial which has gained an impressive 140,000 viewings in less than a week. To date Harriet has failed to get anything like the social media traction shown by Monty, with just 71 followers to Monty's 33,000.
In summary, two similar brands, both promising to transform fairly mundane TV advertising campaigns with promising sounding social media strategies.
Sainsbury's: a Fading Christmas Star?
It all started so well. Sainsbury's launched their 2014 Christmas TV advertisement online on 12 November, and then premiered it on ITV the following day. As we were first commenting on it, the ad was getting 150,000 hits an hour on YouTube. At the time of writing (23 November) it has been seen 11.6 million times, an average of a million views per day. Not as impressive as John Lewis's 17 million viewings, but streets ahead of all other supermarkets. Even the companion film, the making of our Christmas ad has been seen over 300,000 times.
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| The Sainsbury's advertisement: image from the Metro |
Sainsbury's announced the ad on their Facebook page on 12 November. The reaction was immediate, with the post clocking up nearly 8,400 'likes' to date, 888 'shares' and 631 comments from fans. Once again, though, comparisons with John Lewis put these figures into perspective: Monty the Penguin had nearly 150,000 'likes' on Facebook, 156,000 'shares' and nearly 13,000 comments.
So, what is the problem with this campaign? As we noted at the launch, choosing the subject of war for an advertisement was always going to be risky. In the initial few days the critical reaction, in the mainstream press at least, was favourable, but there was little of the viral link sharing that we had seen around the John Lewis campaign.
Part of the problem may have been popular confusion: people just did not know how to react. Most agreed that it was an emotional film with an uplifting theme. But Monty the Penguin was a compelling, emotional narrative with a happy ending.
Within a few days a muted counter-reaction started becoming evident in the press. The Guardian's Ally Fogg denounced it as "a dangerous and disrespectful masterpiece". Ellen Stweart in the Metro called it "distasteful at best and exploitative at worst". Sainsbury's were accused of hypocrisy by the Independent, the Daily Mail and the Metro.
The Guardian's tweet about Fogg's piece was retweeted 114 times and favourited 69 times. Stewart's article scored just 15 retweets and 12 favourites. So although the original Sainsbury's campaign was muted by comparison to John Lewis, the counter-reaction was fairly slow coming also.
More worrying, perhaps, was the fact that by November 16, just 3 days since the ad was first broadcast, the Advertising Standards Authority had received 240 complaints from viewers, "most citing the cynical use of 'World War One themes/imagery to promote a supermarket' as 'upsetting' and 'disrespectful'" according to Adland.
Sainsbury's itself seemed to lose interest in the possibility of the campaign going viral. Although it reminded its Facebook fans of the campaign on 18 November, there was comparatively little re-engagement, with a mere 136 likes, 3 shares and 18 comments. However, their piece on the same platform on that day about the campaign-themed chocolate bars drew 4049 likes and 513 shares. Another reference to the ad on 19 November, the last to date, scored a dismal 56 shares and 280 likes on Facebook.
Since the launch the official Facebook postings have used the hashtag #ChristmasIsForSharing just once. By contrast, a 21 November posting about range of turkeys in store had 93 shares and 3245 likes, 59 comments. Almost all postings from Sainsbury's on Facebook since 18 November have been food related.
The Sainsbury's campaign appears to have engaged on an emotional level with audiences, but that engagement has not translated itself into any of the sustained interactions with the brand that John Lewis has demonstrated. Most of us like the advertisement, we think it is worthwhile, but we don't know what to do with it. By contrast Monty the Penguin makes millions of us laugh and cry: we identify with him, and by extension with John Lewis. Most importantly we want to tell our friends and family.
Monday 24 November 2014
The Upstarts: Lidl, Aldi and #LittleSurprises
For supermarkets the Christmas season represents a chance to boost sales and profits at a time when normal rules are suspended. According to market researchers Kantar, all of the top 5 UK supermarkets (with the exception of Asda) are losing market share. While gains have been made by Waitrose and small multiple stores, the biggest gainers are Lidl (up 18% in the latest quarter) and Aldi (27% higher in the same period).
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| Jools Holland in the 2014 Aldi advertisement Picture from MarketingMagazine |
Lidl's campaign for the end of 2014 is part of a much larger one, based around the theme of 'Lidl surprises'. The overall campaign (not just the Christmas part) is costing the company £20 million (according to The Grocer) - this looks impressive except when set against Tesco's spend last year of £25 million. Lidl, like other supermarkets this year, intend to get more value out of their advertising by linking it to social media and other channels.
The 'surprises' theme in the Lidl advertisement comes over in the reaction of the 'ordinary people' from Hertfordshire who are seen tucking into a Christmas meal prepared from Lidl groceries. There is surprise at being served lobster at the start, and stollen for dessert. Most of all, the diners are surprised to discover the provenance of the food: they had believed that it was from Waitrose or Marks & Spencer (both named in the film). This should come as no surprise as Lidl had named these as targets in the pre-publicity.
On social media Lidl has been promoting the campaign, and has succeeded in getting the advertisement seen nearly 300,000 times to date. Of course this is a small figure alongside the 12 million views that Sainsbury's has achieved. Lidl is far less active on Twitter than all its competitors with a mere 16,500 followers. Here there seems to be a great deal of confusion, with the official Twitter feed using numerous hashtags including #LidlChristmas, #Lidler and #LidlSurprises. The social media channels are very effective at getting over the 'surprising' new Christmas goodies in store.
Lidl has 750,000 Facebook fans, where is uses the same range of hashtags. The campaign launch was somewhat overshadowed by Lidl introducing what was popularly believed to be a "ban" on the use of any language but English by staff in Lidl stores.
Aldi, unlike most retailers in 2014, has opted to feature a celebrity: Jules Holland and his band appear at the end of commercial. The theme of the advertisement, "everyone's coming to us" is a witty poke at the way Aldi is growing at the expense of established competitors. The TV advertisement itself, launched on Novemer 5, is nowhere near as popular as Lidl's, gaining just 50,000 views to date, despite the celebrity endorsement. However the company outscores its German rival on Facebook with over 800,000 fans. It also has a far larger Twitter following. Both high scores are probably attributable to the company's successful ways at 'incentivizing' its fans with competitions and offers. There is just one mention of the TV campaign, though.
The success of Aldi and Lidl should not be overstated: much of it is attributable to locational effects - both firms are opening new stores steadily across the UK. Their campaigns in broadcast media and online stress product quality over low prices. But the market share figures speak for themselves: everyone is going to them.
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