Craftsman Logos

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.

Social Media

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.

With a lot of retailers now moving into more ecommerce, it’s no surprise to hear that British highstreet stalwart Marks and Spencer are moving closer to launching their first independent ecommerce and multi-channel platform. The company will be able to collect and use customer data to shape its international and UK business with this new platform, much better than they have in the past.

The new platform will be built by SapientNitro as part of the new CEO, Marc Bolland’s strategy to transform the retailer from a UK to an international multi-channel retailer by 2015. The company already had plans last year to sever ties with Amazon who currently hosts their online platform. This was so they could create a more flexible bespoke platform to help accelerate international growth and better integrate its multi-channel operations as part of Marc Bolland’s vision for the company’s future.

The development of the new platform will be overseen by M&S’s first multi-channel chief, Laura Wade-Gery who was appointed to that position last year after previously heading up Tesco.com.

Wade-Gery, executive director of multi-channel ecommerce at M&S, says: “We have had a very successful relationship with Amazon but in order to fulfil our multi-channel ambitions we need to build and manage our own platform.”

Over the next three years M&S aims to more than double its online sales to reach £1bn, after completing their new platform. Ecommerce, content management, search and analytics platforms for the site will be built by SapientNitro.

Orange Thursdays is a new film download service from Orange, which has been launched in retaliation to O2’s new cinema offer, in a bid to retain its association as the movie mobile network. The new service called Film To Go allows Orange customers a free film download from iTunes worth up to £4.49 from Thursday 11 August.

This new deal for Orange customers comes as part of the companies new “more from Orange, for you” customer loyalty strategy which is aimed to complement the existing “Orange Wednesdays” offer, which enables customers to get two-for-one cinema tickets at a variety of venues. You can also enjoy 2 for one at Pizza Express too.

O2’s latest offering is Priority Moments, which includes a partnership with Odeon that allows its customers half price adult cinema tickets from Sunday to Thursday. They also offer numerous exclusive high street offers as well under Priority Moments.

The new Film To Go will be promoted with a £5million campaign which will highlight to customers that they will be able to watch their free downloaded films on a variety of devices such as tablets and smartphones.

Facebook has launched a new site called Facebook for Businesses, which is aimed at helping small businesses use social media effectively. It offers tips on how to create pages, ads and use the Facebook platform for social plug-ins or apps specifically designed around small businesses rather than big business.

Facebook for Businesses is Facebook’s latest site in a series of pages and websites launched by them to help companies understand how using Facebook can benefit them. A Facebook spokeswoman says: “Facebook allows small businesses to create rich social experiences, build lasting relationships and amplify the most powerful type of marketing – word of mouth. We created Facebook.com/business to make it even easier for people to reach these objectives and grow.”

The social network launched Facebook studio in March this year, which is an online resource to showcase creative campaigns that have used the social network for brand activity. They also have their own pages across categories such as music, media and marketing.

Facebook have launched their business site after recent success of Google+ who are also now trialling business accounts on their too. Brands have been asked by the search giant to apply to take part in their tests before a full Google+ business which will be launched later in the year.