Marks and Spencer always like to be the pack leaders and now they are the first UK retailer to launch their own TV app for Samsung’s internet-connected TV range.
The app will be on the Samsung Smart TV’s and M&S product ranges will be showcased as well as tips on high-street trends, lifestyle, food, fashion and technology. Speaking about the new app, a Samsung spokesman said the app was not transactional, but added that this was something that might feature in the future, “as Smart TVs continue to advance in technology and more people are becoming aware of it”.
Most Samsung Smart TV apps have predominantly involved partnerships with media companies; however this partnership shows where TV apps might head in the future. At the moment the only other apps available include BBC iPlayer, LoveFilm, Netflix, YouTube, Teletext Holidays, Rightmove, Thomson Local, Facebook and Twitter.
Director for new channels at M&S, Susan Aubrey-Cound, said: “This app enables customers to discover more about our products and innovations from the comfort of their living rooms, whilst supporting our broader marketing channels.”
According to Samsung, more than ten million apps have already been downloaded from the Smart TV app store across the world, which just shows this technology is really starting to be embraced by the public. For those that aren’t up on this type of technology, yet, Smart Hub interfaces on TVs allow viewers to open content from branded apps and the internet with the TV’s allowing allows people to connect wirelessly to other devices including smartphones, laptops and tablets. Smart huh?
Lynx which is a well know MALE grooming brand is looking to give girls the ‘Lynx effect’ after it launched a women’s body spray in the UK on Monday. It will be the first time the brand has entered the women’s market.
Lynx which is owned by Unilever, is launching their new female range in conjunction with their new Attract range which is aimed at men, Attract for her will be part of the range and will be marketed as limited edition. The mens range however will be permanent and includes a body spray, antiperspirant and a shower gel.
According to Selina Sykes, Lynx marketing manager at Unilever, the Lynx brand is established enough to have the permission to launch a women’s fragrance. She said: “As a brand, Lynx has got to constantly find new ways to entertain guys with a new variant that tops the previous years. Lynx is about surprising and entertaining consumers to generate conversation around the brand. Lynx will not be marketing the women’s Attract fragrance directly to women. Sykes said Lynx already has a high “spontaneous awareness” of the brand within the female deodorant market, which means the brand “doesn’t need to market to girls. The women’s fragrance is being marketed as a limited edition product to encourage consumers to engage with the Attract variant, she said, emphasising “when it’s gone, it’s gone”.
Lynx is looking at different marketing options for their range across the globe last October Marc Mathieu announced their “more magic, less logic” marketing strategy. Selina Sykes spoke about this strategy and said: “Everything we do has that implied magic.” Plus Lynx has always been based on strong insight and the “magic”.
It has also been announced that the Lynx brand will also be launching the female fragrance in other markets under their Axe name, it will be called Axe Anarchy and will of course use the same advertising format that we see with Lynx and the same strapline; “Unleash the chaos”.
You can find more information about the new female fragrance on Facebook and the TV ad will be screened on 1 February and will be supported by digital, outdoor and PR activity. The new ad features a female American “cop” and a male “robber” running through the streets of a city, where they are undressing while in pursuit of each other. At the end of the ad the pair are gazing at each other, about to kiss.
They may look like normal posts, however you will be surprised to know that some of the posts on your news feed will now be paid adverts, with the only difference being that they will say ‘featured content’. For now Facebook will insert one advert per day however they haven’t ruled out that there may be more per day in the future. In the past adverts has come under ‘sponsored content’ however Facebook thought that they blended in too easily.
It’s possible that if you have ‘liked’ anything in the past you could now start advertising to your friends through news feeds. According to critics, you could unwittingly click on them thinking they are just a news feed from friends without realising. Facebook have assured users though that it will only display adverts for goods and services that somebody has already ‘liked’. The adverts will only be seen on full versions of Facebook and not on mobile sites.
This isn’t the first time Facebook has run adverts in the news feed the company ran them between 2006 and 2009, before Facebook reached the popularity it now has. However it’s thought it could be very lucrative now for the company to do so, because of the number of people now signed up to the social networking site.
It’s not yet clear how the adverts will go down with Facebook users as many don’t seem to like change. The recent changes made to the interface including the constantly-updated ticker and the Timeline feature has not gone down well with users. According to a poll by 86 per cent of users hated the update and an even higher number of teenagers, 91 per cent hated it.
In the UK there are over a 140 different dating sites, the number of single people who are registered on dating sites in the UK stands at around 15 million, one in five people in the UK have dated someone they met online, whether it be a dating website or through social media sites such as Facebook and MySpace and 17% of UK couples who have recently married, met online.
As it stands the world dating market in worth more than $4billion annually, this does go to explain why there are so many different dating sites out there. One of those is Parship. Different to some dating websites out there Parship looks to offer their clients long term partnerships through their services. For some dating sites offer the chance to find people to ‘hook up’ with rather than form lasting relationships and this is what Parship looks to avoid.
The Parship dating site was founded in 2000 and went online on 14th February 2001 (Valentine’s Day) in Germany. The company since then has expanded from Germany and it is now active in another 13 countries: Belgium, Denmark, France, UK, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Austria, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, and Mexico.
Like some other dating sites, Parship uses a compatibility test and compatibility matching to help you find the right partner, these tests was developed by Parship co-founder Psychologist Professor Hugo Schmale. This has been developed after thirty years of scientific research into couples and their relationships.
As well as offering its services to heterosexual couples, Parship also offers dating services for homosexual couples, so everyone can find the person for them.
To help the company expand and engage more with customers L’Oreal has launched its first CRM programme which can offer consumers exclusive rewards. The scheme is called the L’Oreal Insider and it encourages consumers to open an online account for access to offers of free samples as well as expert advice, reviews and money-off vouchers for its products. L’Oreal have invested £20 million into this project and the company hope it will bring them closer to their existing customers but also bring them new ones. The rollout comes as the company marks the 40th anniversary of its ‘Because I’m worth it’ slogan.
To join the scheme you need to register your details on the L’Oreal Insider site, encouraged by the tag line; “The more you tell us, the more you’ll be rewarded”. Like a lot of other sites now you can also connect through Facebook and merge your account which means you can share promotions and content with your friends. The new site is aimed at women, however there is a similar scheme for men, which involves the companies Men Expert product range.
There has also been a major competition launched which will see three members of the public featuring alongside celebrity ambassador Cheryl Cole in a TV campaign for its Casting Creme Gloss range next year. This contest launched by L’Oreal which is tied to the Insider scheme is only available to those signed up.
Looking to make up for the negative press the company received over their three-day email and web browser blackout last month, RIM who owns BlackBerry have launched their BBM Music service. The service will be cloud based and is powered by Omnifone.
Users will be able to online playlists along with their BBM friend groups, these playlists will be able to be played either on the smartphone or on other devices. You will be able to choose from millions of tracks on offer as well as build a personal profile of up to 50 songs, which can be accessed both on- and offline. This new service also has the backing of the recording industry’s leading labels.
There will be access to music on your friend’s profiles plus you can also refresh your profile by up to 25 tracks per month. There are also options to leave comments or suggestions too. So the more friends you have the more options you have of accessing more music and the more you will be able to discover. The services costs £4.99 per month and will be available from 15 November in the UK.
Mike Lazaridis, RIM’s co-CEO, said the service was designed to be a “uniquely social and interactive music service.” According to RIM’s UK MD Stephen Bates; in the UK BlackBerry, has 8m subscribers.
Recently apple launched their cloud-based music service iTunes Match in the US, no date on the UK yet and Google have also reported planning something similar, so its no surprise that RIM want to get in early with their BlackBerry handsets.
There may be two Premier League clubs in Manchester but only one of them is a You Tube Premier League content partner. Man City has been looking to grow its reach at home and internationally and their new deal means that they can manage advertising around the content on its official YouTube channel. The club also has control over their rights-owned or club-created YouTube videos.
Man Cities head of marketing Julian Pate said ‘the deal is the first move in laying the foundations of the club’s syndication drive as it looks to partner with more brands online.’ He also stated: “The ability to extend our reach and to increase accessibility to audiences is great, but we’re also looking forward to exploring the differentiating factors of YouTube, like using annotations, making bespoke interactive video and, more than anything else, becoming part of the thriving YouTube community.”
Man City have recently given a push with digital marketing campaigns which include its first music app and a digital membership scheme for season ticket holders that has augmented reality content.
Some of the top selling alcohol brand owners in the UK have agreed to an alliance to pre-empt legislation on responsible marketing practices in social media. The likes of Bacardi, Diageo and Pernod Ricard agreed to come on board with the self-regulatory guidelines for advertising on social-media sites which were devised by a partnership with The European Forum for Responsible Drinking and the Distilled Spirits Council of the US.
The new guidelines that the alcohol brands will stick to include restricting Facebook users aged under eighteen from accessing official alcohol brand pages and also a commitment to remove inappropriate user-generated content from brand pages on Facebook with 48 hours. They have also agreed to place advertising on non-branded channels only where at least 70% of viewers are over 18 and to link ads to responsible-drinking messages.
This week a multimillion-pound ad deal was announced between Diageo and Facebook, plus it looks like Bacardi is going to shift 90% of its digital spend to Facebook initiatives. However with all the interest in Social media, lobbying groups in the UK have accused the drinks industry of targeting young consumers through social media which they worry could lead to more alcohol related problems.
Marks and Spencer’s sub brand Limited Collection is targeting fashion bloggers to drive up interest in the brand by using a Facebook campaign that will focus on “trend-led, street influenced credentials” that Limited Collection aims at. A number of influential bloggers will be challenged to make their own Limited Collection, so M&S can make their sub brand more distinctive.
The new campaign is the brain child of Marc Bolland, Marks & Spencer chief executive, who is looking to create more distinct identities for the company’s Limited Collection, Per Una and Autograph clothing who stated he wanted to make this possible last November.
For the campaign fashion bloggers will wear items from the Limited Collection for a week and create a new look every day, showcased on Facebook. Those taking part include; Kate Williams and Cait Harrington, they will be posting pictures of themselves in their outfit choices and will discuss what they like about the range. M&S Facebook fans and the fashion bloggers’ readers will then be able to vote on their favourite outfits and the blogger with the most votes will win a trip to Paris.
Cartoon Network which is run by Turner Broadcasting is teaming up with Microsoft’s Xbox as part of a new branded partnership which will feature across Xbox and Kinect networks so they can promote their new show The Amazing World of Gumball.
The new show launched in the US in May and it is the first cartoon show produced by Cartoon Network in the UK. For the partnership it will be the first time bespoke animation has been created for the Xbox, The Amazing World of Gumball will be found in Xbox Live homepage called Spotlight and will be accessible on Kinect, to create a branded environment.
The animated environment within the Xbox for The Amazing World of Gumball which is aimed at children aged 4 to 11 has been created by Turner Broadcasting’s UK marketing team, The Amazing World of Gumball production team and the Xbox senior design team in the UK and the US. Players will find themed player avatars and wallpapers that they can download as well as millions of Xbox credits to give away.
The partnership between both parties also includes cinema, TV and online activity. Director of consumer marketing at Turner Broadcasting Sally Bezant says: “This is a truly engaging partnership which takes our content out to where kids are, and allows them to experience and interact with it in a totally new way.”
Chris Breeze, solution sales executive for Xbox adds: “Xbox will help Cartoon Network reach the core audience of 4-11 year old kids, as well as the parents who are the ultimate decision makers. The experience for the users will be highly interactive and engaging encouraging dwell time and repeat visits.”
After research by Mediacom London found that that games consoles and in particular Xbox, are becoming a core media platform for younger kids in the UK, the Xbox partnership was then brokered by Mediacom because 4.1M of the 6.7M Xbox’s sold within UK in the last 12 months to households with children 3-15yrs.
