Lightbox Loves

The UK has just enjoyed a sunny four day bank holiday weekend which will undoubtably have people excited about the prospect of the three bank holiday weekends coming up in May (a 2019 YouGov survey suggested that 41% of the UK say that the prospect of a bank holiday puts them in a better mood!). Despite nearly 1 in 3 Brits saying that they will not be prioritising leisure products, activities or services in 2023 (the7stars QT, May 2023), it appears that bank holidays may be exempt from this cautiousness.

With Brits choosing when these one-off occasions happen to ignore the cost-of-living crisis and instead choosing to take advantage of the opportunity to go out, celebrate and spend money. For example, it is projected that Brits will have spent £960million during the Easter period (which is £60million more than last year). Furthermore, MCA has already reported that pubs and hospitality benefitted from a 3% increase in the total number of sales over this Easter weekend.

This trend we have seen at Easter isn’t an isolated occasion as the extra post-Christmas bank holiday on the 27th December 2022 saw a 40% increase in shopping activity and footfall compared to Boxing Day. Likewise, the British Retail Consortium reported a 5.1% year-on-year increase in retail spending in March 2023 around Mother’s Day (well ahead of the 12-month average of 2.6%) and Valentine’s Day helped boost British retail sales by 5.2%.

Whilst spending grew across the board, there are a number of sectors that are fairing particularly well during these calendar events. Most notably retail, hospitality and entertainment as they lend themselves to these moments of coming together and celebrating.

Overall, the bank holidays may just be the perfect opportunity to maximise marketing and drive increased spending around these sectors to give your leisure brands the boost they need this year. Consider marketing tactics such as promoting special offers and using email marketing to capitalise on these periods of increased consumer spending.

the7stars’ QT finds that people’s confidence in brands have diminished steadily throughout the whole of 2022, declining by 13% pts between November ‘21-’22. Last year was plagued by brands facing rounds of scandals and public distaste, with Balenciaga and Ticketmaster being only a couple of many. In a similar vein, celebrities such as Ellen DeGeneres (arguably brands in their own right) have also fallen prey to online cancel culture. Perhaps what makes the sting of such scandals even more bitter, is that many of these names once held huge public adoration, but now Brits are fighting back against inauthenticity.

People are now seeking information from peers in their communities instead. Most people in the UK spend an average of 2 hours per day on social media, with platforms chock full of user generated content on consumer experiences, product recommendations, hauls and reviews. This has led users (who are already natives to the platform) to start using social channels as search engines in their own right, and consequently evolving their sources of influence from a top down approach (e.g. search engines), to a more peer-led means of information sharing. In fact, according to studies led by Google, almost 40% of younger audiences are turning more towards Instagram and TikTok for information, whether this be finding places to go for lunch or getting recommendations on what to buy for Mother’s Day. Not only does this signal a breakdown of information hierarchy, but it also symbolises people’s desires to decentralise influence and hear from a variety of voices within online communities in the search for authenticity.

The popularity of #BookTok is only testament to this, with brands such as Snapchat even starting to innovate with the movement and releasing features within their map tool, allowing users to recommend restaurants to each other. However, people’s growing bias towards their peers can also have negative repercussions. For instance, low barriers to entry when it comes to important topics such as medical advice, psychological wellbeing and finance can proliferate misinformation and have huge detrimental effects to people who take advice from strangers without caution.

Overall, peer prominence means that for brands, lateral communication is now more central to media habits more than ever. Whether this be through providing customer service on more personal platforms such as WhatsApp or engaging with trusted online communities, what lies true is that brands need to operate as more than just faceless businesses but rather cultivate personal human to human relationships founded on trust and candour.

Source: the7stars QT, Cybercrew 2023, Canvas8

Oil and water, toothpaste and orange juice, humanity and technology, empathy and business growth. Easy right? Things that don’t mix. Okay maybe the first two… but the second two? Many market researchers would beg to differ.

The qualitative research industry was historically built on in-person, face-to-face methods of data collection, a long and arduous process. But in recent years qualitative research has been able to add a great deal of technological solutions to its arsenal. The speed of development and increased accessibility of technology has facilitated this with. As such the rise of tools such as mobile ethnography, VR and AI, have been gleefully taken into the stride of researchers across the industry.

However, some believe that the empathy in face-to-face interaction (which remains the most powerful way to gain meaningful insights key to unlocking business growth), is lost through the intervention of technology. AI poses a particular challenge to this, due its infamous inability to understand context and subtext as well as the nuance in language and the way humans formulate responses. Whilst much of what people say is explicit, still, large parts of our communication is expressed implicitly, particularly when we consider communication around difficult subjects like private personal problems or more complex societal issues like issues of race and class.

Joyshree Reinelt of Innate Motion describes it like this, “We need to open up the soul, and embrace vulnerability. Empathy is something that’s needed more than ever in the current stressful environment many consumers find themselves living in – something AI isn’t about to deliver.”

Market research at its core is people focussed, and that rings true more now than ever before. Technology that merely enhances the empathetic interaction between researcher and participant, and by extension, brands and their consumers, will be key as we navigate these turbulent times.

Because when technology is the method of communication instead of the medium, empathy and its ability to drive growth is lost. That being said, the benefit that technological advancements have made to be able to access a broader and higher volume of people can’t be underestimated. This has meant greater understanding of people, which is the ultimate goal. So the role of technology in qualitative research at this moment in time is perhaps not in understanding the complexity of human feelings but in being an enabler to allow researchers to better understand people.

Source: www.warc.com/newsandopinion/opinion/from-ai-to-empathy-whats-happening-in-qual/6078

Technology has transformed the audio landscape with the increased penetration of new devices making audio consumption easier than it’s ever been for listeners. ​

Since 2014 smart speaker penetration has gone from 0% to 39% of households while smartphones have rocketed from 63% of adults having one up to 93%. As a result, audio listenership is booming and digital audio channels annual adult listening in mediums such as podcasts (+11% to 33%) and music streaming (+8% to 52%) continue to go from strength to strength.​

Similarly, the motivation behind consumers listening is evolving. In 2014, research showed there to be 6 need states fulfilled by audio across core pillars of context and content. These being Broaden My Horizons, Keep Me in the Loop and Provide Social Currency (content-led) and Help Me Escape, Lift My Mood and Amplify the Moment (context-led).​

New research from 2022 discovered the existence of a 7th need state existing in the context-led pillar; Keep Me Company, driven by the need for companionship in the post-COVID world and a rise in economic hardship.​

From a media perspective it’s key to understand the mindset a consumer is in when listening and plan accordingly however for an advertisers campaign to fulfil their true potential then audio branding plays a key role in 2 ways: consistency & contextual relevance.​

Having a clear and consistent audio logo/sonic identity will enable brands to have recognition across all AV touchpoints. In a study of over 300 radio campaigns, it has been proven that use of consistent audio assets over time is more effective. While from the perspective of context, adverts that have been creatively tailored to relevant contextual moments achieved a 70% increase in engagement and 40% increase in memory encoding.​

As seen with video, a one-size fits all approach is rarely the optimal strategy. Commercial radio may account for 78% of all commercial audio listening but adapting linear audio creative to fit with consumers need states and contexts across the widening array of audio environments could be the key for advertisers to build deeper connections with their audience and reap untold rewards as a result.​

Sources: Generation Audio, Radiocentre (Nov 2022) ; The Growing UK Audio Landscape, Mediatel (2022) ; Hear and now – How Situational Relevance Can Bolster Radio Ad Effectiveness, WARC (2019) ; What We Know About Radio and Audio Effectiveness, WARC (2022)​

Before Covid hijacked headlines, the likes of the heightening climate crisis, cost of living crisis, social inequality and political uncertainty would have all been classed as era-defining in their own right. However, as people face an onslaught of one crisis after another, people are being forced to cope with the next news headline long before they can process previous events that have affected the nation.

This constant state of poly-crisis has meant that people are rejecting the tumultuousness of their external experiences and instead are turning inwards to safeguard their sanity and preserve their sense of mind. In fact, the7stars’ QT finds that happiness levels are at an all-time low since pandemic restrictions were lifted in the summer of 2021. In June 2021 alone, referrals to psychiatrists increased by 24% as people became more in tune to their personal internal state.

Doing so has granted people at least one of two things – control and comfort.

A retreat to a more personal world has allowed people to compensate for a lack of control on the outside, looking inwards to personal measures of value, success and progress. This has given rise to the likes of the anti-ambition movement as well as a surging uptake in AI (e.g. AI face filters has 14.9B views on TikTok), where users can gain more control in creating their own world, not only as a form of escapism from the uncertainty but also to grant themselves self-authority.

As people experience a loss of control, their trust towards establishments and brands has also diminished, with the7stars’ QT revealing that Brits’ confidence in almost every UK institutions from the NHS to the government, have all declined. Additionally, a 2021 survey by Havas has revealed that more than 7 in 10 of people don’t believe promises that brands make. In turn, trust has transferred towards de-centralised forms of influence such as smaller scale influencers. Brands can strive to dissipate feelings of distrust by demonstrating honesty and openness, dropping pretence and instead allowing brand loyalists to become a part of their brand story. This can be achieved through non-hierarchical ways of communication and the employment of authentic messaging.

The ongoing sense of uncertainty in society has also shaped people to become creatures of hedonism and comfort. One way this has materialised is through the resurgence of nostalgia inducing products and services (e.g. the return of typewriters and vinyls), with 69% of Gen Z’s saying they find comfort in the familiar.

As a coping mechanism, people are leaning towards their internal instincts to navigate decisions as opposed to adopting practical mindsets. This has meant that consumers have a greater tendency to buy impulsively, giving in to indulgences such as junk food, cigarettes, and alcohol. In fact, just under 7 in 10 of ‘buy now, pay later’ Gen Z users have now racked up debts across multiple platforms in a bid to use retail therapy to self-soothe. As comfort becomes more significant, brands will do well to think beyond the sphere of what they offer consumers on a materialistic level. Instead expressing genuine intent to help people as an establishment and aggregating wider brand values will go a long way in supporting consumers through tough times.

Source: the7stars QT, Canvas8

YOLO, JOMO, FOMO…. Which acronym do you identify with most?

Before you choose, there’s now more to add to the list.  Might you have FOBO (Fear of Better Options: a feeling that you’re missing out on potentially better alternatives)?  Or what about FOJI (Fear of Joining In: the fear of sharing things on social media that don’t garner a response)?

A Psychiatry Journal article highlighted that FOMO, and associated similar feelings, have been on the increase since the FOMO term was originally identified back in 1996.  Correlated with the proliferation of communication platforms and smartphone ownership, news and content has become ever more accessible.

Officially entering the dictionary in 2004, the FOMO term has become commonplace in conversation ever since.  However, while many scholarly articles focus on the negative or behavioural economic effects of FOMO, there’s also a positive upside to FOMO that’s often overlooked.

The science behind FOMO is pretty simple.  Losses loom larger than gains.  In fact, the pain of losing is psychologically considered to be twice as powerful as the pleasure of gaining.  But let’s not forget, it’s a perception, not a measured response.  And that’s where there can be a helpful benefit.

A perceived feeling of not wanting to miss out on something has the power to encourage action. Driving people to participate, to join in with others, or just to be a part of something bigger.

In times of social and economic uncertainty the role of community and experiences – both offline and online – that celebrate togetherness are incredibly powerful for making people feel happier and enjoy a sense of belonging.

There’s an opportunity for brands to fuel the FOMO in 2023 to celebrate communities big and small across the nation.  Dialling up the joy that comes from sociability and the positive impact of involvement and engagement.

Sources: Kahneman & Tversky, 1979, the7stars Lightbox Lowdown

Whatever your app of choice, using social media comes with a few inevitabilities. There’s the inescapable, year-round stream of holiday photos to make your mind wander from your workplace. There’s the bi-annual bickering about whether it’s football or soccer. And then, every December, most timelines receive an influx of neatly designed lists.

At its core, Spotify Wrapped is a simple concept: users receive a personalised look back at their most played songs and artists from the past year (in reality, January to October, bad news for Slade and Wizzard) alongside a playlist of their top music in that period. Throw in a sprinkling of podcast insights and a generated ‘listener personality’, and it’s a wrap.

Since launching in 2016, Spotify Wrapped has captivated millions of users and revolutionised how companies utilise data. Search interest in the event has grown in all but one of the past five years (Google Trends), leading competitors to launch their own offerings, with Apple’s Replay and YouTube’s Recap looking strikingly similar to Wrapped this year.

This popularity was driven by under-34s, who make up more than half of Spotify customers. the7stars’ AtoGenZ panel found that one-third of 16-34s have posted about their Wrapped (or an alternative) on social media this month. Since 2019, when Spotify first delivered Wrapped in a story-like format, its shareability has grown, with UK social mentions up 20% year-on-year (Brandwatch). And other formats, including the recently launched InstaFest, have offered users the chance to share their listening habits in creative and engaging formats, all of which effectively translates into thousands of hours of free ad time for Spotify, delivered directly by the people with the most impactful voice: its audience.

Spotify Wrapped’s consistent growth is part of a wider trend towards gamifying user experiences. From Duolingo to Caffè Nero, brands have added app elements that go beyond functionality. Such features tap into users’ emotional needs and drive them to return to view their progress. While each of these examples rely heavily on the harvesting of customer data, there is a fine line between what users will view as fun and what may be seen as intrusive. Sainsbury’s Year in Review – which invited Nectar shoppers to look back on their purchase habits – was broadly well received, but some criticised it as “creepy” and highlighted possible distress. Before any investment in immersive app experiences, brands must consider the sensitivity of their products and be explicit about the choices users have with their data.

Despite these drawbacks, gamified user experiences are here to stay, and the days of single-use apps appear few. For at least another few days, Spotify Wrapped will remain king of the Instagram story – but with opportunities for innovation across all categories, it may not be long before another brand takes the reigns.

Despite the many delays to Google’s deprecation of third-party cookies, there is no denying that a cookie-less future is on the horizon. With this shift in the digital marketing sphere, advertisers look to adapt their targeting strategies and adopt new methods for gathering data. This is where retail media networks could become vital to the future advertising landscape.

Retail media is by no means a new proposition. Traditional point-of-sale advertising in physical stores has long played a part in brands’ marketing strategies, from trolley panels to in-store radio to shelf talkers. However, like much of modern advertising, it has been transformed by advances in digital technology, now offering advertisers the ability to reach consumers across a retailer’s online e-commerce property. With Amazon having launched the first online retail media network in 2012, it has since skyrocketed, reaching a reported $31.2 billion in revenue last year. A host of other big retailers have since followed in Amazon’s footsteps: Sainsburys, Tesco, ASDA, Ocado and Boots, with Morrisons and Deliveroo being some of the latest brands to announce the launch of their retail media propositions.

Online retail media, which comes in various forms from search ads to standard display to sponsored products, has benefits for consumers, retailers and advertisers alike. For retailers, it offers a new and (if Amazon’s success is anything to go by) lucrative revenue stream, particularly for supermarket brands, where profit margins tend to be low. For consumers, it can make for an enhanced shopping experience in the form of highly relevant, personalised ads that feel native to the retailer website. And for advertisers, not only does it give access to valuable first-party purchase data making for smarter targeting opportunities, but it enables them to effectively reach consumers at the bottom of the funnel, when conversion is just a few clicks away. It also allows for the direct attribution of sales to advertising spend, which is crucial at a time when marketing budgets and advertising effectiveness are increasingly scrutinised.

According to McKinsey, retail media networks are growing by more than 10% YOY in the UK and this expansion is only expected to continue. So, with the phasing out of third-party cookies, combined with the current UK recession which will likely mean that brands will need to be savvier with their advertising spend, now is certainly the time to test and learn new retail media strategies and ground marketing plans in robust first-party data, to help future-proof and optimise digital advertising spend.

Sources: WARC, The Drum, McKinsey

Even as football fever begins to set in ahead of the Qatar 2022 World Cup, a large proportion of the public (both at home as well as across the globe) remain uneasy about the alleged human rights abuses & violations that have taken place in the host country in order to get this tournament underway.

Whilst Qatar did somewhat update and modernise it’s labour system back in 2017, Amnesty International research has found that “thousands of workers across all projects are still facing issues such as delayed or unpaid wages, denial of rest days, unsafe working conditions, barriers to changing jobs, and limited access to justice, while the deaths of thousands of workers remain uninvestigated.” This is clearly unacceptable, and given these issues have been ongoing for a number of years, there has been a lot of coverage of these controversies – across well-reputed publications such as The Guardian, The Independent & The Times.

It is clear that all this negative press around the tournament has had an impact of people’s sentiments. A survey conducted in October 2022 by adtech company LoopMe found that only around 30% of UK respondents planned to watch the World Cup. This is a stark comparison to the last men’s European Championship tournament – where more than half of the UK population tuned in to watch the final. Additionally, a UK poll (Amnesty International & YouGov) found almost three-quarters of respondents would support a FIFA remediation programme,  while 70% said they thought the FA should speak out about the human rights issues in Qatar. Especially pertinent for brands & media owners is that sponsors appear to also be affected by these negative connotations, particularly amongst younger age groups. For example, amongst Brits aged between 18-24, over 20% of those surveyed agreed with the statement: “I will avoid any brands who sponsor the World Cup due to the humanitarian issues in Qatar” (TGI).

And these views aren’t just limited to England or the UK; a global survey (Amnesty & YouGov) found that 73% of people “polled across 15 countries support (a) proposal that FIFA use World Cup revenues to compensate workers who suffered in the preparation of the tournament.” A very similar amount (67%) also want their national football governing bodies / associations to publicly address their concern over the humanitarian issues surrounding the tournament.

The key takeaway for brands is that they must remember to be sensitive to the prevailing sentiment surrounding the World Cup, and ensure all communications show some sensitivity to this issue. This is particularly relevant & important to remember given often World Cup-themed campaigns are overwhelmingly positive and often fairly easy to roll out. Furthermore, given the depth of feeling felt by younger audiences (such as Gen Zers) any brands that predominantly target these age groups must be particularly diligent in the near future. It is also vitally important that brands are authentic and show a continuous commitment to upholding these values in the long run.

Sources: Amnesty International, Amnesty International & YouGov, LoopMe, Forbes, TGI

The recent success of own label brands in retail groceries is resultant of the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis pushing people to choose convenience and affordability over brands. In order to combat this trend, brands need to drive trust. According to Higham (2022), brands need to adopt localisation and personalisation to earn more consumer trust.

The pandemic saw a shift in footfall at retail grocery stores in the city centre to those that are located more locally near residential areas, driven by the work from home trend. But localisation isn’t just about where the shop is but also covers everything from reduced transport costs and carbon footprint (although sustainability has a whole has fallen down consumers’ agenda with the cost-of-living crisis), increased chances of providing fresher produce with less use of preservatives and stabilisers and supporting local producers; an increasing consumer demand in recent times (The Grocer, 2022). A great example of this is Nike’s ‘Nothing beats a Londoner,’ which celebrates local environments, real streets, and everyday life.

As this trend for localisation grows, market predictions expect companies to pivot towards local high streets as a response to this consumer behaviour. This can already be seen in the UK, with companies like Iceland launching community focused stores under the ‘Swift’ brand name that aims to specialise in ‘fast, fresh and local.’

Whilst, personalisation can help consumers seek out deals that are customised to their interests, which can have tremendous impact when done right, especially during times where consumers are being more mindful about their consumption. Online is a perfect channel for personalisation. The pandemic led many to overcome the initial barriers of shopping online like setting up an account and adding payment details. But also highlighted the benefits of researching products. Over half of consumers prefer to conduct online research for their food shopping as it helps them compare prices, see product reviews and find coupons and discount codes. Companies like Tesco are focusing on personalisation by monitoring Clubcard activity to provide relevant offers to their customers (The Grocer, 2022).

Aiming for localisation and personalisation together can help companies positively influence consumers across all channels. Localisation brings brands closer to consumers’ every day and provide both personal and wider societal benefits. Personalisation can enhance the consumer experience through online channels by tracking activity and providing customer specific deals and discounts.