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Super Bowl Ads 2024: Celebrating Brand Love on Game Day

By | Featured, What's Hot

Get yourself a client that looks at you like Travis Kelce looks at Taylor Swift. 

Quarterback, star wide receiver and tight end meets global mega pop star. Oh, for a creative client with pockets deep enough to treat you to a Super Bowl spot. Relationships are everything in this game. No more so than on this very specific given Sunday. And, whilst it will never guarantee a lifelong relationship, a stonking Super Bowl spectacular will at least declare that you’re in the ‘rude health’ phase of love.

It wasn’t a vintage year by any means, but today is not a day for thoroughly reasonable critique and barely masked creative jealousy.

There were some serious PDAs on display this Super Bowl Sunday and here are three that caught our eye across a crowded room.

Let’s start with the very definition of a ‘love in’ using the obligatory Super Bowl superstar formula courtesy of this Boston mafia uber ‘throuple’ – Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Tom Brady. Ben and Matt have been infatuated with Tom for many years now and seeing their relationship brought to life (not to mention the star-studded entourage that accompanies them) means there was an awful lot of love in the room. Brash branding, lots of content and plenty of in-jokes, what’s not to love?

Reese’s and their agency are way past courting; this spot was love at its purest.  A refreshingly simple love letter in a sometimes needlessly complex forum. The news of a product change among lovesick diehards sparks fear, chaos and sweet visual gags. Repeat as necessary until the confusion is cleared up. Job done. The key is in the detail here and the love for the product is there for all the world to see. American agencies doing what American agencies have always done so well. Relax, tell it like it is and be funny.

Everybody’s favourite Allan took centre stage in the ad for skincare brand CeraVe. Michael Cera played Michael Cera with tongue firmly in Michael Cera’s cheek. A smart piece of social intrigue led to this love fest and, whilst it’s probably only a one-night stand, the relationship must be on a strong footing if the brand is confident enough to let that happen with the eyes of the world upon them.

Clearly, the true test of love will be how many brands continue their undying love for the other 364 days of the year but, at least for Sunday alone, Super Bowl agencies still love Super Bowl clients… IDT… INDT (If Destroyed, True… If Not Destroyed, True).

Reflections and Resolutions in Marketing Effectiveness

By | Featured, What's Hot

Effectiveness underpins all great media plans. The question that normally springs to mind, however, is what makes one plan more effective than another? There are many answers to that question although, ultimately, measurement lies at the root of them. To drive better effectiveness outcomes, we at the7stars think it’s also important to overlay the context of key priorities for brands, agencies and media providers.

This year we set out to understand how to create a roadmap for effectiveness for ourselves and for our clients at the7stars. We conducted research that surveyed 103 senior industry professionals – across brands, media agencies and media providers – who shared their feedback on marketing effectiveness ambitions and priorities for the year ahead. Our research shows that data siloes, a lack of holistic measurement frameworks and a disconnect between marketing investment and objectives top the list of marketers’ challenges for the year ahead. 8 in 10 agree that effectiveness has never been more important, nor higher up the CFO’s agenda.

With the measurement and evidence available to marketers, we believe this is an opportunity, not a threat. Guided by new year quantitative and qualitative research of the advertiser, agency and media owner effectiveness communities, we at the7stars have drawn up our effectiveness resolutions for 2024. We aim to improve client effectiveness outcomes by:

  • Providing strategic glue in a fragmenting measurement landscape.
  • Unlocking the power of existing evidence to de-risk investment.
  • Using experiments strategically to drive competitive advantage.

Looking Forward

The full report adds further colour around the outcomes, but what’s been evident from our research is that there is a clear opportunity for intentional effectiveness programmes with our clients. As a part of this journey, we have codified our point of view on the most important effectiveness topics and will use this knowledge to continue to partner with clients to drive stronger business outcomes.

Our full report breaks down these three resolutions and offers solutions in more detail.

Please email effectiveness@the7stars.co.uk for a copy of the report.

Unique Opportunities As OOH Surpasses Pre-Pandemic Levels

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It is expected that this positive momentum of the out-of-home market will continue into 2024 with forecast annual growth levels of around 6% across the market. Revenues are forecast to hit £1.3m, surpassing 2019 levels (i.e., pre-pandemic). Amid continued investment into new inventory, creative and data opportunities by media owners, 2024 is set to be an exciting year for outdoor.

Showstopping opportunities

Digital outdoor is forecast to be 67% of total OOH revenue in 2024, compared to 50% in 2018. Media owner investment in digital sites continues to grow (at the expense of classic) with a +16% increase in Roadside D6s, and a +17% increase in roadside 48s. It’s within digital where the most interesting OOH trends lie.

3D Digital OOH is set to continue to grow, and media owners are investing in inventory that allows for this technology. JCDecaux has just launched 2 national OOH productions that will allow advertisers to use 3D at scale. Anamorphic 3D on the Waterloo Motion gives the illusion of 3D when viewed from a particular vantage point, while their 3DOOH At Scale product allows for 3D to be on 6s and not just big impact sites.

The rise of Faux OOH is another trend that is likely to continue into 2024, as even established brands like M&S are starting to use this technology. Although it may drive talkability, as this technology gets used more often, consumers may become less impressed with the newness, and talkability may fade. Nevertheless, there is still a place for that joint physical and digital presence and these elements can work together for a stronger campaign. Ocean’s ‘Digital Out of Home: The Vital Ingredient Study’ found that individuals are drawn more towards the brand on social media having seen a physical DOOH activation first.

Precise targeting

Innovation is not confined to the creative domain alone; data-driven opportunities are increasing and this year represents a key shift in audience tracking. The death of the cookie in 2024 means highly specific targeting with ads will become more difficult. In 2024 we’ll see brands start to use their own first-party data to generate audience-first OOH campaigns. This data opportunity combined with the dynamic opportunities that OOH offers will mean this channel has the potential for exceptional targeting and relevancy. Programmatic OOH formed 3% of all OOH campaigns, and that figure is set to double in 2024.

Another area of increased media owner investment is retail media. ClearChannel will begin their rollout of Sainsbury’s Live In-store screens from H2 this year. These screens will be located in-store and bring incredible opportunities for brands to be close to purchase.

New opportunities and advancements in technology and data make OOH an extremely versatile channel which should be considered across every part of the funnel, from impact brand building to smart targeting and even point of purchase.

New Opportunities as TV Streaming Becomes More Shoppable

By | Featured, What's Hot

Last month, Disney became the latest streaming service provider to introduce new products and tech partnerships aimed at increasing the shoppability of its ad offering.

Gateway Shop is an evolution of their commerce-focused opportunity that enables advertisers to send QR prompts, mobile push notifications and emails to users without disrupting the viewing experience.

The endeavour to make streaming more shoppable is gathering pace and is taking precedence over live shopping experiences, which have struggled to gain traction. By integrating shoppability into the content viewers want to watch, in non-disruptive ways, shoppable streaming taps into existing behaviours rather than trying to alter them.

In October last year, a survey of over 1,000 smart TV owners by Samsung Ads and Kerv Interactive showed that over 25% of TV viewers actively shop online or via mobile while watching TV. 28% of those respondents claimed that they browsed for an item after seeing it on TV.

It’s almost as if advertising and product placement are interest and intent drivers! Who knew!?

Of course, now, streaming is providing the opportunity to shortcut that user journey from awareness and inspiration to purchase. With that, the connection of commerce to streaming and TV provides advertisers with all the benefits of programmatic ad buying, including new ways to deliver relevance, efficiency and short-term effectiveness.

These benefits include:

  1. Increased ad relevancy with the ability to reach advertisers in contextually relevant moments, matching product ad prompts to onscreen content. So rather than a user going to search for those new Nike trainers displayed on the screen, a relevant prompt or QR code will be available to shortcut that journey to the advertiser’s shop.
  2. Closed-loop measurement and the ability to attribute sales directly to ad exposure.
  3. Subsequently, the ability to optimise ad spend and delivery to these measures in real-time.

It’s like bringing the opportunities and benefits of paid social advertising to the big(ger) screen and high-impact formats. But with new opportunities come the same potential pitfalls and the industry must be aware of them.

Firstly, a poorer user experience. Of course, the focus of Disney’s developments is to be non-disruptive. No one intends to disrupt the user experience, but only time will tell. In general, it’s easy to see how streaming and smart TVs are seeing the proliferation of interfaces and complexity that make it harder for the user to get to the content they wish to watch without jumping through hoops and navigating past sponsored content. Will this only get worse as vendors seek to increase ad load?

Secondly, the opportunity for closed-loop measurement inevitably encourages advertisers to overinvest in short-term outcomes. We’ve seen how detrimental this can be for brands as the digital media landscape has developed. As always, the key is to understand the long and the short and retain the perspective that not everything we do must, or should, prompt an immediate action from the user.

Man watching TV, lying on sofa, legs on table. Person holding remote control in living room.

The Resurgence of Free TV

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Q1 2024 has started with a bumper month for free TV, with ITV’s Mr Bates vs. the Post Office clocking up more than 16 million streams on ITVX, while the second series of The Traitors more than doubled viewing figures on BBC iPlayer compared with the previous year. In addition, the UK’s four major broadcasters recently unveiled Freely, a free-to-air streaming service set to launch later this year.

Through analysis of industry data and continued tracking of consumer sentiment, the7stars’ AV team have identified four key trends which are driving the recent success of Free TV and the growth in ad-supported streaming services.

Financial Reassessment

The cost-of-living crisis has prompted individuals to limit their budget and limit their spends on services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Disney+.  Instead, people are turning to free streaming services to keep themselves entertained without eating into their budget.

While linear television remains central to modern households, there’s been a noticeable shift in viewers’ behaviour to free streaming platforms such as Freevee, Samsung TV Plus, Roku and Pluto. In the last 12 months, Roku TV has reported a 14% YOY growth and Samsung TV Plus has similarly seen a massive 60% growth in viewership.

Slimming Down Services

Previously, consumers required multiple subscriptions to access diverse content, however recent data indicates a change in behaviour. Increasingly, consumers are being more selective in choosing which subscriptions are worth their while. According to recent data from BARB, there has been a reduction in those with two or more SVOD services from 46.4% of the population in Q3, down to 44.7% in the following quarter. As Maria Rua Aguete, Senior Research Director at Omdia, reveals, ‘This is partly driven by the increasing popularity of Free Ad-supported Television (FAST) channels, which are becoming a preferred choice for supplementary viewing’.

Shifting Perceptions

As users are diversifying their time across various platforms, public perception of free streaming services has improved, as users become accustomed to the benefits of easy accessibility.  This attitude shift across free streaming services has been driven by several factors, in particular improvements in ad targeting and a more seamless user experience.

Better Quality Content

Viewers have long been platform agnostic when it comes to content, with most willing to hop between TV and streaming services in search of quality content. Accordingly, FAST services such as Samsung TV Plus have invested greatly in their output, with popular shows such as Schitts Creek and Masterchef UK helping to boost viewership figures. Such a change has not gone unnoticed: some 64% of viewers believe that content quality on FAST channels is improving.

As the FAST channel market continues to grow, this gives advertisers new opportunities and challenges to align with the correct service providers, whilst adapting to the changing landscape to keep up with evolving viewer demands.

The “WHS” Rebrand: Test-and-Learn in Action

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There are few brands more ubiquitous on the Great British high street than WHSmith. Whether Brits view it as a national treasure or a point of contention, a shop more Marmite than Marmite, there is one thing every consumer knows: you are never far from your nearest WHSmith.

The company’s recovery in recent years has been spectacular. Like many high street retailers, WHSmith suffered immensely from the impact of successive Covid lockdowns, losing two-thirds of its stock market value in 2020. But through a focus on new product areas, the store almost doubled its profits last year.

Seemingly a good time for the brand to experiment, WHSmith decided to roll out a trial logo rebrand across 10 of its stores shortly before Christmas. At less than 1% of the chain’s retail portfolio, this apparent rebranding attempt was unlikely to disrupt the brand’s recent success.

However, the reaction, at least from marketing circles, was far from soft. Many drew unfavourable comparisons between the ‘WHS’ logo and that used by the NHS since the 1990s. For days, social media was awash with posts from users claiming, in contrast to the company’s growth, that the new logo was evidence that the brand had lost its way.

The response from WHSmith was swift, noting that the trial was merely an attempt to localise their offering and signpost the products sold in-store, with no plans to roll out the rebrand further. Was it perhaps a thinly veiled PR stunt? This seems unlikely. While annual Google search volume for the brand peaked in the week of December 17th, it was seasonally affected and, indeed, was lower than at the same point in 2022.

Similarly, social trends showed few signs of public discourse around the rebranding outside of marketing circles. According to data from Brandwatch, content related to WHSmith was over three times less common than during its peak two months prior.

Takeaways

While the WHSmith logo rebranding sparked debate among strategy experts, it was an example of a test-and-learn framework in action. The brand experimented with something new at a select few stores, measured the public response, and promptly announced the end of the experiment. MarketingWeek’s Mark Ritson was strongly critical of the onslaught, arguing that ‘most people on LinkedIn are completely bonkers’ and reiterating the importance of a test-and-learn approach in many brands’ growth stories.

However, while a trial-and-error approach to rebranding could prove fruitful for some, brands should tread carefully when playing with longstanding logos, especially those with longstanding recognition among British consumers. In recent years, logo changes have often sparked a temporary outcry from certain corners of the internet – such as the simplification of many fashion house typefaces or the suggestion that Mozilla was dropping the eponymous fox from its Firefox emblem, which even prompted the brand to tell fans to ‘remain calm’.

Testing and learning is a necessary, and often rewarding, process for most brands. But, as noted in Creative Review, if brands do decide to trial new identities, they should be prepared to explain clearly and concisely the purpose of the rebranding. After all, as Ritson alludes, social media reactions are often ‘completely bonkers’.

Prime Video with Ads: Delivering Mass Scale from Launch

By | Featured, What's Hot

Prime Video has officially entered the ad-funded market, and if Amazon delivers on the platform’s high potential, then we could be about to witness a significant shift in the VOD landscape.

Following in the footsteps of Netflix and Disney, Amazon is set to launch Prime Video with ads from 5th February. However, unlike competitors who have come to market with a reduced subscription fee for the inclusion of ads, Prime Video will convert all of its estimated 13 million accounts to ad-funded in one fell swoop. As a result, agencies and advertisers might have another mass-reach premium platform to further enrich AV plans. Amazon could, in theory, instantly rub shoulders with the more established broadcasters (ITV, Sky and Channel 4) offering scalable reach, as well as a wide range of targeting capabilities and premium content. This will likely, once again, push the traditional broadcasters to invest further into targeting capabilities and content production and acquisition.

Of course, this isn’t Amazon’s first foray into AVOD. Their current Freevee platform has proved to be a shrewd testing ground for Amazon. Arguably allowing Amazon to make the necessary learnings required to successfully launch Prime Video with ads, at scale, from launch.

Naturally, a move like this still comes with an element of risk. Amazon, like many of its competitors, are reluctant to share subscriber counts and deeper audience insights. This can make advertisers and agencies nervous about spending. Whilst some viewers will resent being served ads, despite paying a monthly subscription. After all, an ad-free viewing experience was the USP of SVOD. To counter this, Amazon will offer the option for consumers to pay a higher fee to remove ads entirely, much like the major broadcasters and SVOD suppliers do, though uptake is expected to be low.

Whilst advertisers undoubtedly see the appeal of investing in Prime Video ads due to promises to link ad viewership with sales on Amazon’s retail platform, many are holding off on major investments for now to see how the new offering develops and matches up with its competitors. This makes it essential for Amazon to prove that its access to large amounts of first-party and zero-party data from its retail arm (as well as properties such as Twitch and Fire TV) can be used to measure and drive ad performance on Prime Video.

Further to that, Amazon is banking on the suggestion that most people subscribe to Prime for a multitude of reasons such as free delivery, shopping benefits and live sport, the latter of which will remain separate from a Prime Video buy. So, the thinking is that many viewers will not mind being served ads, as Prime Video is not the chief motivation for subscriptions.

Ultimately Amazon’s offering will be unique due to scale at launch and greater targeting capabilities than their competitors. Should their lofty projections come to fruition, then Prime Video could very well become a prominent pillar of many client’s AV plans moving forward.

Google Begins Chrome 1% Third-party Cookie Deprecation Testing

By | Featured, What's Hot

As of January 4th, 2024, Google has begun to disable third-party cookies for 1% of a randomly selected group of its Chrome user base. This follows in the footsteps of Firefox and Safari who have similar blockers in place, but with Chrome having the largest market share, the change will have a wide-reaching impact across the media landscape.

Google have been planning to phase out third-party cookies from Chrome for a while now and on 4th January they began rolling out their testing of Tracking Protection across 1% of users. Tracking Protection limits cross-site tracking by restricting third-party cookies by default, rather than users having to opt out manually. Whilst 1% of users have been added to this testing pool, the goal for Google is to phase out third-party cookies for everyone in the second half of 2024, subject to any competition concerns from the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) who will be monitoring the test closely. The CMA will be taking into consideration the implications of Google’s solution on the wider industry to make sure it doesn’t solely benefit Google’s own ad business.

Brands’ Impact and Opportunity

For brands, this does mean that where third-party cookies have underpinned online tracking and some website functionality tools these will no longer work unless they have migrated to using newer alternative methodologies. Whilst, initially, 1% will be a small fraction of an advertiser’s site visitors, this will ramp up towards the end of the year.  Therefore, clients need to prepare now to avoid potential drop-offs to measurement, frequency capping, targeting and retargeting the functionality that third-party cookies have been supporting.

Brands that proactively make the switch to newer solutions will benefit from improved measurability and performance, purely from preventing further ‘cookie loss’ but also recovering users previously lost from view due to similar Safari and Firefox initiatives, and across non-cookie environments like in-app and CTV. By utilising new methods to engage users, brands can re-position themselves as privacy-first. In this way, they can highlight their aims to respect users’ choices when it comes to their data, providing transparency and confidence around which data is being collected, and how it is being used and shared.

Prepped and Ready

Whilst we can’t say with certainty what will change and when (dates could be subject to delay once again) we are working with clients to onboard appropriate cookieless and first-party data solutions to future-proof client ad tech stacks and mitigate against any potential data loss. We’ve been informing clients of changes and new announcements as part of our agency comms to keep them aware of changes. More practically, we’ve been helping clients to integrate these new solutions directly or in collaboration with their tech and data teams.

In the background, we have been involved with leading industry discussions on the topic, including with Google, IAB UK, and other agencies to understand the impact and actions clients should be taking. IAB UK themselves have released a checklist that agencies and clients can use as a guide to assess risk around campaign analytics and ask vendors about their cookieless solutions to discover how fit for purpose they are.

Right now, clients should follow Google’s guidelines and make sure they are prepared for the upcoming changes by working with their agency and tech vendors to audit third-party cookie usage, test for site breakage if these are removed, and migrating to cookieless solutions as they become available. The industry will be keenly monitoring its rollout to ensure advertisers are still able to deliver measurable campaigns through the new cookieless tools and APIs that are available.

How the Subscription Model Opens up New Competitor Sets

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In the digital age, convenience is king, so it is perhaps no surprise that the subscription model has seen rapid growth across industries. In just its first day, the Pret coffee subscription service gained 16,500 members, leading the way in a line of coffee retailers ready to attempt the same market shift.

Consumers place value on ease and personalisation, with the average Brit having 2.4 subscription services, according to RIFT. There are big players in the market, from Netflix to Gousto, and the UK market is set to keep growing, being expected to hit £1.8bn in market value by 2025, according to Whistl.

These models increased in popularity massively during the pandemic, but current cost-of-living pressures have led many consumers to make cuts to their budgets, with 41% agreeing that subscription services are the first area to go (the7stars QT, November 2023). Research from Lloyds Bank found that 1.2 million subscription payments were cancelled between 2021 and 2022, as consumers re-examined their expenses in what the bank termed a ‘subscription audit’. Barclaycard, meanwhile, reported a 5.7% reduction YoY in subscription spending. As consumers re-evaluate their priorities, there is greater onus on subscription-based brands to demonstrate the value in their propositions.

In a tough economic climate, businesses from vastly different industries now find themselves in competition with one another. Access to growth audiences is being limited not just by competitors within your industry, but by competitors within your business model. For the first time, pasta is pitted against Paramount Plus, and not everyone will come out on top. Consumers are reaching their own conclusions about which brands offer the greatest value to their lives. According to research from YouGov, we might be reaching a saturation point when it comes to the subscription model, and brands will have to work hard to stand out. Amidst cross-category competition, that will involve homing in on unique selling points and identifying your specific customer benefit. Individuality is increasingly important to consumers, with the7stars ‘Cultural Codes’ whitepaper identifying a growing trend of micro-communities and a focus on identity. Finding your brand’s niche within a cluttered market can be an excellent way to stand out from the crowd and keep your place in the subscription roster.

Amidst persistently high inflation and squeezed margins, price rises are often a necessary evil for subscription brands. But while two-thirds of consumers are inclined to think negatively of subscription services that raise prices, according to the7stars QT, the effects of this can be negated through clear communication and strong customer relations. When increasing the price of a subscription, offering additional benefits as well as hassle-free cancellation and more flexibility, such as the option to temporarily pause a subscription, will help consumers to justify maintaining their subscription while cutting back elsewhere.

As recent trends have shown, subscription models will be no less important to Brits as 2024 progresses. But amidst a saturated market and tightened household budgets, brands should consider new ways to demonstrate value and convenience to their audience.