Monthly Archives

December 2018

Iceland

Iceland’s Rang-tan Christmas

By | Featured

Frozen food is often seen as substandard, with people believing it to be packed with more artificial additives than fresh food. Other supermarket chains treat frozen produce as though they’re ashamed of it, hiding it towards the back of the store and cooking from frozen is perceived as lazy and unhealthy.

In fact, the complete opposite is true. Frozen is nature’s preservative. It means fresher, healthier products on your plate. For Iceland shoppers this penny has dropped. For them it’s the best kept secret on the High St – from Chateaubriand for a tenner to real Italian pizza. We have set out to bring these ‘penny drop’ moments to the nation. Driving business growth through improving quality and value perceptions.

In Christmas of 2018 Iceland’s stance on palm oil became one such penny drop moment for the nation. With our Rang-tan Christmas creative unable to run on TV we set out to use Facebook, YouTube and Twitter to take our young Orangutan’s story to the country. A route which, thanks to some positive PR, went on to deliver 70 million views for the creative, making it one of the most watched Christmas ads of all time. The campaign saw Iceland rise above Waitrose in consideration levels and sales of palm oil free mince pies surge by 11%.

The Deliveroo Timeout Partnership

By | Featured, News

December saw Deliveroo crown their final Food Battle champion in the breath-taking “Battle of the Broth”, after an epic three months of celebrating the ‘Joy of Food’ with partner Time Out. Across four foodie events (“Battle of the Burger”, “Pizza Prize Fight”, “Fried Chicken Fight Cub” and the aforementioned “Battle of the Broth”), 5,000 hungry Londoners had chewed, chomped and slurped their way through over 35,000 portions of food, voting for their favourite in each category.

Reaching over 5 million Londoners through Time Out’s platforms across editorial, experiential and social, we recorded a surge of brand love through UCG and online. Together Deliveroo and Time Out delivered the ultimate in mouth-watering experiences, supported by customer research and using data to identify the Capital’s food passions, proving that Deliveroo is a heavy-weight in the field of food delivery.

Lightbox Loves

Lightbox Loves: 12 Year Countdown

By | Featured, Lightbox Loves

We are reminded every day that we live in a time of political and economic uncertainty, so much so that some of us might have just become immune to it, ready to brew a cuppa and wait for it all to blow over. Another worrying headline has recently been added to this negative atmosphere: we’ve got as little as 12 years to limit our negative impact on the planet[1], or else!

As we wait for our government to take the lead in the fight against climate change and pass new laws on single-use plastic, recycling, green energy and everything in between, 15-year-old Swedish eco-warriors[2] are showing the world how change doesn’t always happen from the top down. Greta Thurnberg is the 15-year-old climate activist who skipped school and camped outside the Swedish Parliament demanding action against climate change. She also took part in the Katowice Climate Change Conference in Poland, alongside climate advocate David Attenborough.

One of the major contributors to climate change has been the fast-fashion industry, with Brits throwing away tons of clothes each year[3], sometimes after only wearing them once or twice. According to EcoWatch[4], the clothing industry is the second dirtiest industry in the world, next to Big Oil, making it a great contributor to our damaging carbon footprint.

Good news comes from the Waste & Resources Action Programme though, which has launched a Sustainable Clothing Action Plan[5], which has already helped reduce the carbon footprint per tonne of garments by 11.9%. 11 retailers have already signed up to this plan, including H&M. With more brands soon to follow it looks like sustainable fashion is becoming more and more… fashionable.

It hasn’t come as so much a surprise then that online retailer ASOS has had the worst ‘November in living history”[6], seeing its shares plunge and underwhelming growth, despite unprecedented discounts. As brilliantly put in our previous Lightbox Loves article, big brands need Pathos to keep their customer loyalty.

Moreover, studies have shown that “93% of the millennial generation want to buy from companies that have purpose, sustainability and environmental stewardship built into their ethos”[7]. This number may seem a little high for a generation famous for living their life on Instagram where they can’t be seen wearing the same thing twice, but reality trumps the occasional vanity photoshoot. The climate change threat is real and, unlike previous generations, millennials have knowledge at the touch of their fingertips 24/7, being able to fact check everything they hear, see or read in seconds.

Studies have shown that almost half of Brits don’t remember what they got last year as a Christmas gift[8]. The pressure to buy expensive gifts and the last-minute rush, results in piles and piles of unwanted gifts every year. What better time to start thinking about the impact your fashion habits have on the world around us!

 

1 https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/08/global-warming-must-not-exceed-15c-warns-landmark-un-report

2 https://ecowarriorprincess.net/2018/10/greta-thunberg-the-15-year-old-radical-climate-activist-demanding-systemic-change/

3 https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/apr/06/britons-expected-to-send-235m-items-of-clothing-to-landfill-this-spring

4 https://www.ecowatch.com/fast-fashion-is-the-second-dirtiest-industry-in-the-world-next-to-big–1882083445.html

5 https://www.energylivenews.com/2018/12/19/uk-clothing-goes-green-with-a-wardrobe-full-of-emissions-savings/

6 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-46590130?ocid=socialflow_twitter&ns_source=twitter&ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=bbcnews

7 https://www.edie.net/library/Is-CSR-dead–How-millennials-are-creating-demand-for-brand-purpose/6848

8 https://www.doncasterfreepress.co.uk/news/almost-half-of-brits-don-t-remember-what-they-got-for-christmas-last-year-1-9502941

Lightbox Loves

Lightbox Loves: Good Brand Hunting

By | Featured, Lightbox Loves

There has never been a greater call for a hero against the enemies of our damsel in distress – Planet Earth. To win against foe’s of sustainability and charity, we need people willing to fight The Good Fight; and those people need a leader. This is where your brand comes in.

So what is The Good Fight? Aristotle wrote about the “three proofs“ or the 3 appeals: Ethos, Pathos and Logos as a means to convert people to join your good fight. The three proofs were to be used by people to make good of their personal life, but what if brands applied these laws to themselves?

Ethos puts characteristic at the start of any journey: what do you want your brand to be? What do you want your brand to stand for? In Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics he mentions the idea of eudaimonia – the idea that you aren’t just good, but rather you become good/flourish into a good being. Objectives and actions are what results in a good, memorable brand. Whatever market you’re in, you must first figure out what that market and the brand contributes to the things that could damage our world physically and mentally.

Pathos – like any great ad that has spoken to you emotionally, they need to connect to your life whether by directly appealing to everyday things we all go through or (the game changer) by showing world problems we are distant from as they were happening on our exact streets e.g. the Save The Children “Most shocking second a day” video. By brands relating themselves to a cause, they take the mantle for the fights that others can’t fight. Another example is Iceland’s stance on palm oil. This is important because even though someone may not relate to that exact ad, everyone can relate to a time they needed the big guys to fight their corner – and that is the sweet spot brands need to hit.

Lastly, Logos is the appeal to logic, making it difficult for people to argue against your cause. For example, Immanuel Kant’s Contradiction in Will says; for a maxim such as ‘no one should help one another to exist’, it must violate itself as you would need help to bring said maxim into fruition.

When all three proofs are dialled in at the right frequency you get a brand beloved, credited with and the embodiment of The Good Fight.

Lightbox Loves

Lightbox Loves: The Growth of Disloyalty

By | Featured, Lightbox Loves

It might sound controversial, but the future of customer loyalty looks to reside in low commitment. Where once the long-term contract reigned supreme, there has been a rise of subscription or pay-as-you-go models, such as gyms, TV services and mobile phones. In July 18 subscription TV services overtook traditional pay TV models[1] . It’s time for other industries to pay attention.

This gap between the purchase and committing spend has proven to actually encourage an increase of overall purchases. In the fashion world, Swedish firm Klarna partnered with ASOS to allow shoppers the freedom to buy, but only pay once they’ve decided to keep the product, up to 30 days later. The benefits for the brand a consumers alike were clear, as order values increased by 30% and spend by 34% [2]. Similarly, Amazon’s Prime Wardrobe is also following a similar model, giving customers 7 days to try up to £750 worth of clothes before purchase.

New challenger brands in the mattress industry embrace the “try before you commit” culture, with many offering 100 night trials. The likes of Eve and Simba have already taken a 5% share of the market, with a predicted 20% still to come over the next 3 years. Sales of Eve mattresses specifically have grown 100% from 2017 to 2018, and, perhaps more surprisingly, return rates have fallen[3]. As our own QT shows [4], 70% of consumers like to touch and feel furniture before they buy, an extended trial period can only help with this.

The temptation and freedom of such trials encourages people to buy and keep products, they might not have picked them up in the first place if payment was upfront. A recent trends report[5] proposes that if companies can emphasise the ease of exit/entry to their services they can actually maintain long-term loyalty.

It’s difficult to see what this would look like for other industries, but that’s not stopping some, even from the least engaged-with industries. Energy and insurance providers have started enabling consumers to switch whenever they want, benefiting from and fuelling this rise in disloyal loyalty. Consider the services you use and the brands you encounter, and think if there could be a new way to engage with them.

[1] https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/latest/media/media-releases/2018/streaming-overtakes-pay-tv

[2] https://www.theguardian.com/money/2018/nov/17/klarna-buy-now-pay-later-system-that-is-seducing-millennials

[3] https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/mar/23/sleepy-world-of-retail-mattress-sales-gets-rude-awakening

[4] The QT – November 2018, the7stars propriety consumer tracking study

[5] https://www.foresightfactory.co/2018/01/11/this-is-what-brand-loyalty-looks-like-in-2018/

Lightbox Loves

Lightbox Loves: The Continual Rise of Quantified Self

By | Featured, Lightbox Loves

The ubiquity of data is no new phenomenon and major news stories relating to big data are as regular as ever. Historically, the handling of big data required significant IT infrastructure and investment, with specialized expertise and equipment. Such requirements kept it exclusively in the hands of major industries like banking and telecoms. However, personal data is becoming evermore accessible as individuals start to take ownership of their digital selves.

Wired magazine (1), coined the phrase ‘quantified self’ to refer to the increasing occurrence of self-monitoring and analysis, be it through apps, coding courses, open-source data or wearables. There’s seemingly no limit to how much we can analyze now, from our heart-rates, diet, sleeping patterns, spending habits, reading history and even happiness.

As of November 2018, there were “over 260,000 health and wellbeing apps in the Apple store” and according to Mintel, smartwatches hit an estimated four million in 2017, up 18% on the previous year, and an estimated 20% of Brits are “using wearable technology to measure their steps (2). Growth in the UK has been modest, worldwide, smartwatches grew 88% to 141 million in 2018 YOY (3).

Whilst benefits such as increased self-awareness may seem obvious, it’s not without two significant potential pitfalls. The first is nothing new. Professional data handling still requires major IT infrastructure, most easily tackled by large companies. Profit combined with personal data will always raise eye-brows, and the introduction of GDPR aims to give the public some level of peace of mind although how effective it is is yet to be seen. However, it’s not all nefarious and shadowy from brands. The Apple Heart Study is a collaboration between the tech-giant’s available data and Stanford Medicine, aiming to increase the accuracy of identifying irregular heart rhythms (4).

The second, is more focussed on individuals. With great data comes great accountability, and it’s down to each person to properly interpret and understand their data to avoid any erroneous self-diagnoses or false conclusions. The term ‘cyberchondria’, referring to people over-diagnosing their symptoms based on Google searches and alike, has been coined in recent years. For individuals, there looks to be a degree of recognition that a more fruitful relationship with their data can come as a result of upskilling, with online searches for things like ‘coding courses’ reaching an all-time high in July 2018 as people look to avoid this pitfall.

It seems ‘lifelogging’ is here to stay and some people are starting to see the benefits of being ‘data driven’, but remember the golden rule if you’re going to dive into your data yourself: correlation does not equal causation!

 

1.https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenrosenbaum/2015/05/17/the-quantified-self-measuring-to-curate-your-life/#22fc67055ab5

2.http://www.mintel.com/press-centre/technology-press-centre/sales-of-fitness-bands-and-smartwatches-approach-four-million-devices

3.https://www.statista.com/statistics/538237/global-smartwatch-unit-sales/

4.https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2017/11/apple-heart-study-launches-to-identify-irregular-heart-rhythms/

5.https://gadgets.ndtv.com/tv/news/apple-airpods-upgrade-trademark-filings-1943252