Press Coverage

UDEN AND PUTNAM TO JOIN THE MARKETING STORE

admin — Wed, 14 May 2008

The Marketing Store has appointed Tim Uden, the award winning Creative Director from Chemistry as the agency’s Deputy Creative Director. Jamie Putnam, Creative Partner at KLP will also be joining the creative team as Head of Copy.

Uden and Putnam will be teaming up to work on the agency’s growing FMCG business and will report into Mike Cavers, The Marketing Store’s Executive Creative Director.

Prior to Chemistry, Uden was at Dynamo Marketing Communications, where he worked across FMCG and alcohol brands such as Kerry Foods, Coke, Danone and Budweiser. Across his career Uden has gained recognition for this creative talent winning a host of awards including the DMA, ISP, MCCA, FMBE and FAB awards.

Jamie Putnam joins The Marketing Store in May bringing with him 15 years of experience of through-the-line marketing. Previously, Creative Partner at Euro RSCG KLP, Putnam was responsible for the Britvic, Budweiser and Nike Golf accounts. Putnam’s work has appeared in the D&AD Annual and has been recognised at the DMA's, Campaign Direct Awards, ISP Awards, SPCA's, Cream and Fresh Awards. He currently has two nominations for the 2010 ISP awards for his work on Pepsi Max and Tango.

Taking a break from the industry in 2005, Putnam spent two years touring the world as lead guitarist in the band Fields, sharing stages with Bloc Party, Snow Patrol, Editors, Elbow and The Raconteurs.

The appointments follow a successful quarter for The Marketing Store with an influx of new business wins across a number of existing clients. Mike Cavers, Executive Creative Director - Europe, The Marketing Store said: “To attract such top award winning creative talent to The Marketing Store is fantastic news as it really adds firepower to our creative product going forward and builds on the strong team we already have in place.”

THE MARKETING STORE: A CAMPAIGN MAGAZINE TOP 15 AGENCY

admin — Wed, 14 May 2008

The Marketing Store gained the number 11 spot in Campaign magazines top direct marketing/sales promotion agencies league table, for 2010.

New business wins with existing and new clients, as well as improvements in operating profit and gross margin have contributed to us gaining this coveted position.

THE TOP TEN SUPPLIERS YOU NEED TO KNOW

admin — Wed, 14 May 2008

Marketing Week Magazine have chosen The Marketing Store as one of the suppliers you need to know for 2010 in their article 'Social media gives sick man the kiss of life.'

The article focuses on the success of DM through recent times and picks The Marketing Store as one of the leading strategic marketing services agencies you need to know.

GET TO THE POINT

admin — Wed, 14 May 2008

Asda is going back to its roots with its in-store experience according to The Marketing Store planning and strategy director Wendy Lanchin.

The Marketing Store works on promotional campaigns for many major brands, and Lanchin highlights Asda particularly as a retailer demanding that point-of-sale promotions are innovative. She says that this harks back to the Asda of old, whose stores were famous for their egg displays with chickens that clucked and milk displays with cows that mooed.

Read the full article on Retail Week

GATORADES BIGGEST ON PACK PROMOTION

admin — Wed, 14 May 2008

Gatorade, is rolling out its biggest UK on-pack promotion called 'Gatorade Gives Back'. Created by The Marketing Store, the year-long promotion will launch across the UK later this month and will give consumers the chance to collect points and redeem them against sports related rewards.

The rewards, supplied by the promotion partners including Power Music, New Balance, Neilson Holidays and Polar, range from sports downloads and equipment to sport experience days and sporting holidays. Consumers are prompted to collect codes from bottles of Gatorade which can be banked online at www.gatorade.co.uk or via text. There will also be a weekly prize draw for participants of the scheme.

The Marketing Store will be responsible for the POS, pack design for the entire promotion which will run across retail, food, convenience, leisure and cash and carry outlets.

Adam Draper, brand manager at Gatorade, said: "We are delighted to have the opportunity to put something back into sport and reward athletes at all levels with the 'Gatorade Gives Back' programme. "We hope to get as many people involved as possible and I hope that schools, clubs and athletes will take advantage of the range of rewards that are available."

The activity follows soon after Coca-Cola launched a promotion for its sports drink, Powerade. Its on-pack promotion, which runs until the end of February, gives consumers the chance to win a training experience at a football camp in South Africa or at elite rugby camps at Twickenham and Cardiff's Millennium Stadium.

ON COURSE TO CLIMB UP THE CAREER LADDER

admin — Wed, 14 May 2008

Our European people and practices manager, Clare Myseron tells Marketing Week that employees at The Marketing Store can expect to go on structured and rewarding personal development journeys so they can build thier own personal brand within the agency.

Read the full article on Marketing Week

THE MARKETING STORE: A-LISTED

admin — Wed, 14 May 2008

The Marketing Store's recently appointed executive creative director, Mike Cavers has gain a place in Campaign magazine's A-List.

Read the full article on Campaign HERE

INNOVATION IS THE TICKET

admin — Wed, 14 May 2008

Mike Cavers, executive creative director at The Marketing Store, warns that the digital innovations now possible as part of integrated campaigns may make it harder for brands to stand out, especially those not fully up to speed with how consumers are acting these days.

Read Mike Caver's comments in Marketing week HERE

THE MARKETING STORE LANDS CHEESTRINGS ACCOUNT

admin — Wed, 14 May 2008

Kerry Foods has appointed The Marketing Store to its direct marketing account for Cheestrings after a pitch against undisclosed agencies. There was no incumbent.

The Marketing Store has been briefed to create a below-the-line strategy to supp ort the brand's advertising activity, using on-pack, in store and experiential channels.

Cheestrings has focused on its above-the-line activity in recent years. It moved its £5 million ad account into Fallon in May last year from Quiet Storm after a pitch through the AAR. Fallon's most recent work for the brand featured a mysterious man called Mr Strings, who hung around playgrounds and beaches leaving notes containing the message: "A glass of milk in every one." It also created a digital campaign to support the activity.

In September, Kerry Foods consolidated its £13 million UK media planning and buying account into Vizeum.

INDUSTRY NEEDS TO GET IN TOUCH WITH EMOTIONS

admin — Wed, 14 May 2008

Simon Marshall commentary on Rory Sutherland's call for better consumer insight was featured in this weeks edition of Campaign (15/5/09).

"Rory Sutherland is spot on in his argument that we need broader insights into consumer psychology to create advertising that works (Campaign, 1st April).

Consumer behaviours and attitudes towards brands are changing faster than ever. In the past we have often assumed certain ‘truths’ about human behaviour that have in turn influenced our marketing and advertising strategies for decades such as the idea that we are all individuals, when in fact we are typical ‘herd’ animals and eager to follow the masses. Yes, certain assumptions we make have the benefit of being consistent, convenient and susceptible to conventional market research, but the growing body of psychological and behavioural research into consumers shows them to be flawed.

Now more than ever, we need to investigate broader insights into consumer psychology and remind ourselves of the emotional truths at the heart of consumer and shopper behaviour, and the origins of marketing in empirical, behavioural sciences. In today's climate consumers may be more susceptible to targeted messaging and be more responsive to emotive messaging than ever before, particularly if the tone of the message resonates with the audiences current mindset. This presents brands with a golden opportunity to create more powerful connections with consumers."

CONNECT WITH THE CONSUMER

admin — Wed, 14 May 2008

The Marketing Store's managing director, Simon Marshall writes in to Marketing week in response to the article "Create element of excitement."

"I agree with your conclusions that in focusing on price we may be missing more fundamental motivations for purchasing (Create element of excitement, MW 28th May). Consumers may be more susceptible to emotional messaging than ever before. So, far from discounting to grab short-term attention, brands that investigate deeper insights into how their consumers"tick" will flourish and create more powerful connections with their consumers."

THE MARKETING STORE HIRES CAVERS

admin — Wed, 14 May 2008

The Marketing Store has hired Mike Cavers, the executive creative director of Chemistry, as its executive director of Europe. Cavers will team up with his former Publicis Dialog colleague, Simon Marshall, the managing director of The Marketing Store with whom he worked for six years.

TMS European creative director Shelford Chandler will remain as creative director for the London agency.

Marshall said: "The Marketing Store has made significant progress in the past two years, attracting new talent and clients including Sony and Britvic. We needed a big talent with the ability to work passionately across digital and traditional channels and Mike fits this description perfectly."

Cavers' appointment follows that of the Design Council's marketing director Wendy Lanchin as planning and strategy director in April.

McDONALD'S BEEFS UP MONOPOLY PROMOTION

admin — Wed, 14 May 2008

Strategic marketing agency The Marketing Store has devised McDonald’s largest ever UK promotional campaign.

The 18th March sees the launch of McDonald’s BEST CHANCE Monopoly campaign, giving consumers fantastic prizes, exciting ways to play and delivering an unprecedented restaurant experience across all of McDonald’s UK restaurants.

McDonald’s Monopoly has evolved for 2009, giving consumers an improved 1 in 3 chance of winning and providing over 34 million prizes worth £280million.

The Marketing Store has worked with McDonald’s UK to deliver and evolve the highly successful McDonald’s Monopoly promotion over the past 3 years, being responsible for the development of the campaign concept, the game mechanics, prize pool, game piece production, logistics, in-restaurant delivery and promotion communications.

For 2009 The Marketing Store has introduced a number of new and exciting prize partners including Kodak, EA, N-Gage by Nokia, HQhair.com and WHSmith alongside long-term partners, hmv, Visa and Buyagift.com. The Marketing Store has also enlisted the support of brand partnership specialist Parallel Promotions to focus on three leading brands within property, energy and travel; involving for the first time key partners FindaProperty.com, npower and Virgin Holidays.

McDonald’s will launch Best Chance Monopoly with the support of a through-the-line advertising campaign including TV, Press and online communication.

Matt Boden, Account Director at The Marketing Store said: “We’ve really enjoyed working with McDonald’s UK on their biggest ever UK promotion. It’s a huge and complex project, mixing an inspired creative approach and innovative prize partnerships with our logistical expertise to effectively deliver the campaign in every McDonald’s restaurant across the UK.”

Read the full article on Promotions and Incentives

THE HIDDEN SHOPPER: FIVE INCONVENIENT TRUTHS

admin — Wed, 14 May 2008

Strategic marketing agency The Marketing Store has analysed the ‘perceived wisdoms’ that shape the majority of retail marketing strategies. Drawing on emerging and established scientific research, the study challenges the traditional thinking behind the retail marketing campaigns that we see in stores, on the high street and in other major retail environments.

The study is a precursor to the launch of a major research project that will profile consumer groups by their emotions and chart heuristic* patterns amongst shoppers, in order to create a series of retail and brand marketing tools informed by consumer psychology.

The Marketing Store in collaboration with Anthony Tasgal of strategic consultancy POV, have identified five established assumptions about human behaviour that have influenced marketing for decades. These assumptions carry the benefit of being consistent, convenient and susceptible to conventional market research. Unfortunately, the growing body of psychological and behavioural research shows them to be flawed.

It’s true that much work has been done to combine psychology with effective retail marketing. However, very few organisations or individuals have attempted to apply the depth of knowledge built up in the field of cognitive psychology over the last twenty years or so, to the field of marketing in a comprehensive way.

Simon Marshall, Managing Director of The Marketing Store London comments; “In terms of the retail environment there are certainly pioneers that have made inroads into parts of this territory; we can all name retailers we admire who are breaking new ground. But many of the insights psychology has to offer remain largely unexplored. The Marketing Store’s Hidden Shopper research is a first step towards opening up that territory and translating the insights offered by psychological research into useable tools and practical steps that can enhance shopping experiences and boost business performance.”

So what are the five inconvenient truths of modern retail marketing?

Assumption 1: We are primarily rational and decisive, and know why we do what we do.

We like to think of ourselves (whether as shoppers or otherwise), as primarily rational and decisive agents with deep self-insight, liable to the odd emotion, but able to keep them in check via the power of reason.

The awkward scientific truth: We underestimate the role of emotions and the unconscious at our peril. The human unconscious mind is more complex than the conscious mind. Think of your unconscious as an instinctual elephant and your conscious mind as an elephant driver sitting on top. Your conscious mind tries to drive the elephant and has the impression it is. The truth is it is not; the unconscious mind is making key decisions for you.

Why? The reason is that the unconscious human mind evolved to respond effectively to life -threatening situations; to survive, reproduce and to improve its status. The result is we think we know what we want but in reality we don’t.

The human unconscious is framed by the six universal human emotions that are hard-wired into our brains: happiness, sadness, fear, surprise, anger and finally disgust. The interesting thing is that these emotions are very contagious. These contagious emotions are used by the brain to navigate our environment, to fit into it effectively. This means that very often emotion leads to action, where as plain old reason only leads to conclusions.

It’s also very easy to ignore the power of emotions such as surprise and disgust, but they play a fundamental role in shaping our behaviour. In fact it is true to say that whenever emotions compete with reason, emotion wins.

So what does this mean for retailers?

Retailers must shift their marketing focus from the conscious towards the unconscious mind because the unconscious or the elephant is the main source of desire and drive. The information directed at this dominant decision making force should be less about messaging and more about massaging.

Assumption 2: We think of ourselves as acting in a consistent manner. The awkward scientific truth: This is an illusion.

The decisions we make are often largely determined from outside influences; things that are going on around us. There are in fact many different parts to our personalities acting as one. You could say there are “many mes”.

Our brains are able to switch off and on different “me’s” to create different emotional states which mean we are able to see things from different points of view. And we can compartmentalise different parts of our personality and views through the same on/off compartmentalisation. But the switches between emotional states are not controlled by us. Very often they are controlled by external forces. Think about the latest blockbuster film you saw – perhaps it was Slumdog Millionaire. Did you see it because you thought the storyline and product would appeal to your tastes, or because it had become a very popular movie?

Psychologists believe that content is only part of the reason we listen to certain sorts of music or watch particular films. It can be as much about the social context within which we’re watching it.

"It's difficult for people to accept," says psychologist John Bargh of Yale University, "but most of a person's everyday life is determined not by their conscious intentions and deliberate choices, but by mental processes put into motion by the environment.”

So what does this mean for retailers?

Seek to own one of the universal human emotions and design brands, stores and communications that are rooted in this.

Worry less about values and attitudes; positioning that appeals to the conscious rational part of the mind and focus instead on creating the right kind of context, surroundings or moods for positive decision-making.

Assumption 3: It suits us to think that most of our decisions occur at the time they are made and on the basis of mature reflection.

The awkward scientific truth: Many of the decisions we believe are current, are actually influenced by decisions, views or impressions formed years before. Some of these anchor decisions may have been formed through experience, others by word of mouth, advertising or assumptions.

If the influence of these decisions is repeated enough they become rather like a path across a field. These old decisions are actually very useful because they act rather like short-cuts. They speed up decision making and are known as “heuristics”.

This area of research has thrown up some unsettling findings. Psychology has shown that sometimes even the most trivial matters matter. For example it may seem unlikely, but research in the US found that dentists were 82 percent more likely to be called Dennis than any other name, and that people move to states that have names similar to their own names. For example, people called Florence are disproportionately likely to move to Florida, and people named Louise are disproportionately likely to move to Louisiana. Weird and creepy, but it is evidence that our decisions can be based on the most trivial and unconscious details.

So what does this mean for retailers?

Remember that many decisions are automatic or heuristic in nature, so beginning the process of understanding how heuristics can be used to segment shoppers and how communications can be designed with heuristics in mind, will be an important step.

Small amounts of personalised meaning can influence big decisions. People will hunt for things that connect with them on a personal level and these snippets of information are far more powerful than large scale “lowest- common-denominator” communications.

Assumption 4: We conveniently assume that the huge amount of decision-making power we wield in modern life makes us happier people.

The awkward scientific truth: We may have more and more to choose from, but psychologists think that all this choice could be making us unhappy. This certainly appears to be true for some of us. Broadly speaking society breaks down into two basic decision-making types, Maximisers and Satisficers. Maximisers tend to obsess about the detail of decisions, and are happy to make lots of them. Satisficers, on the other hand, are happy enough to make a quick “reasonable” decision and move on.

In his book “The Paradox of Choice”, Barry Schwartz suggests unlimited choice produces genuine suffering. As we’ve seen from some of the earlier assumptions we don’t always know what we want, so choices can be mentally demanding and lead to a decrease in well-being.

Not only do we experience “buyers’ remorse” when shopping goes wrong, but we may also have started to “anticipate regret” in our purchases. So are we creating hordes of unhappy Satisficers? Are we addressing these groups with distinct offerings?

So what does this mean for retailers?

We could be making half our audience miserable by overloading them with choice. Should shoppers be segmented and targeted according to whether they are Maximisers or Satisficers?

Assumption 5: We see ourselves as fiercely individualistic and unimpressionable; free in our choices and from any hint of influence, control or manipulation by others.

The awkward scientific truth: We may love to think of ourselves as individuals with free choice, but in fact we are highly social animals with ingrained tribal or herd instincts. Psychologists now believe this is down to “mirror neurons”. These are neurons that fire both when an animal acts and when the animal observes the same action performed by another (especially conspicuous) animal.

This mirroring behaviour has been revealed in famous experiments such as the one conducted by Stanley Milgram of Yale University who demonstrated that many people will go to almost any length (in the case of the experiment, administering painful electric shocks) to conform to the wishes of authority figures.

It is true that we often surround ourselves with people we believe are similar to us. We derive psychological support from them by listening to the words and attitudes we have ourselves seeded with them. This can lead to what’s known as “Groupthink”, where a group of individuals will tend to seek consensus on an issue or question without critically testing it. They’ll prefer not to challenge views of others in the group possibly through a desire not to look foolish or to avoid angering or embarrassing other members of the group.

So what does this mean for retailers?

Think about how the retail environment can be used to facilitate our herd or tribal instincts, to create a context that will make people feel they belong because they are with people like them. Remodel the shopping experience so as to allow people to interact more with people like them in the way that online brands have done (“people like you also bought…”).

Don’t rely on asking people to predict what they want, where they will shop, what they think of a new idea, because the brain isn’t very good at predicting, but it is far better at extrapolating from what it knows.

THE MARKETING STORE HIRES NEW PLANNING CHIEF

admin — Wed, 14 May 2008

Strategic marketing agency The Marketing Store is expanding its senior management team with the appointments of Wendy Lanchin as Director of Planning and Strategy and James Hoxley as Senior Group Head of Creative.

Lanchin will lead strategic thinking at The Marketing Store and enhance its strategic contribution to clients, further developing the agency’s intellectual property, research, insight and planning processes. She will oversee the agency’s planning and strategy unit, which works together with the Business Development and Creative units to win new business and grow the company’s existing accounts.

During eight years as Director of Planning and Strategy at Publicis, Lanchin was responsible for planning, positioning and development across a range of leading brands including Cadbury, Trebor, Asda, and MFI.

This is in addition to eight years as Channel 4’s first ever Head of Marketing, during which she was responsible for all consumer, trade and corporate communications, managing projects such as the launch of The Big Breakfast.

Hoxley is former Head of Creative at integrated creative agency Live and Breathe. With experience working on major brands such as BP, Sainsbury’s and Haagen Dazs, he will lead a conceptual and executional creative team at The Marketing Store in addition to acting as a Brand Guardian for key clients.

Simon Marshall, Managing Director, The Marketing Store said:

“Both Wendy and James bring an unrivalled range and quality of experience across the retail and service sectors, both agency and client side. They will have a crucial role to play in developing our strategic, planning and creative capabilities.”

Wendy Lanchin, Planning and Strategy Director, The Marketing Store added:

“I am looking forward to enhancing the planning – led ethos within The Marketing Store and further strengthening its strategic thinking that will lead to tangible and practical brand expressions and experiences.”

MARKETING MAGAZINE'S TOP DIRECT MARKETING AGENCIES

admin — Wed, 14 May 2008

In the year when we mark the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth, phrases used by the great scientist, such as 'natural selection', have never been more apt as a description of the state of the direct marketing (DM) and sales promotion (SP) industry.

There is a land-grab for digital business and intense pressure to cut costs and reassure anxious clients amid the economic turmoil - welcome to the world of below-the-line agencies in 2009. However, as the downturn bites hard, forcing many firms to make redundancies, a savvier breed of agency is emerging from the fray.

Read the full article on marketingmagazine.co.uk

JUDGING AND BLOGGING IN CANNES: AUG 2008

admin — Wed, 14 May 2008

Cannes Lions; the place where the great and the good of the international ad world get to hang out, network and party, and maybe even get to see some work or catch a seminar. But of course it's really about networking and partying, and if you're lucky enough to pick up a Lion, the celebrating.

A couple of years ago, the organiser came to their senses and added "promo" to the awards categories, and this year they kindly asked me to be a Promo jury member. Here are the excerpts from my Cannes judging diary.

Read the full article on salespromo.co.uk

IN THE HOT SEAT: MAR 2008

admin — Wed, 14 May 2008

Recently arrived Managing Director Simon Marshall tells Julia Buchanan why TMS is the ideal challenge.

The first thing Simon Marshall, managing director of The Marketing Store (TMS), does is apologise for the cheerfully chaotic Covent Garden offices. Marshall, who joined in September, jokingly describes it as the "black hole of Calcutta", but the former army man clearly feels at home now that he has his feet under the table.

It has been a busy time for TMS since Marshall joined from Publicis Dialog, following it winning the pitch for Vodafone's high-street retail and point-of-sale work last August and receiving industry accolades for its high-profile "Believe" campaign for Mars. As Marshall makes clear, "Bringing me here was not about sorting enormous issues, it was about making the business more successful." But he feels the agency needs to raise its profile. "My criticism is that we haven't been clear enough about the agency's strengths," he adds.

The whiteboard in his office suggests he's working on this. A potential slogan "Inspiration: applied" is written on it, but whatever the final motto, Marshall says it will be succinct but from the heart. He is also cautious of the word "integrated", which he thinks has been bandied around too readily. While he says TMS believes in integration, he also says: "You can't be outstanding at everything, so we're choosing a few things to be outstanding at."

For Marshall, TMS's stand-out qualities are its imagination and how it executes those ideas. He admires what he calls the business' "operational flair", and says that in the promotional space both client and agency have to be confident about how plans are applied. Once the promotion begins, it's difficult to undo and mistakes mean both sides can be exposed.

When Marshall was first called by headhunters to join TMS, he wasn't initially convinced he was the right man for the role. But the relationships the agency had with its "stunning array of big, heavyweight clients", including McDonald's, Shell and Mars, were exciting enough to lead him to take the job.

Marshall says it was sad to leave Dialog after seven years, during which time as chief executive he'd been part of the agency's growth. "It has been ... no, it is a good agency and I'm very proud of it," he says, correcting himself. But he says he needed new challenges and feels his decision to move has been vindicated by his first few months at TMS, which he describes as incredibly stimulating.

The risks of the promotional world are very different from those he encountered as an infantry captain in the 1980s. He smiles and says, "I was mistakenly under the impression I'd be of great service to my country." He served for four years, including a tour of duty in Northern Ireland, but decided it wasn't the career for him. Instead, he fell into marketing, calling on his marketing degree.

Outside work, Marshall says his three children have taken up most of his spare time in the past 20 years. He loves exercising, the great outdoors and the leafy surroundings of his home in Surrey. When he was in employment limbo between Publicis and TMS, he says, "The garden was clipped to within an inch of its life."

But new challenges lie ahead. He's tight-lipped about upcoming promotions, but admits that Mars has something significant planned for Euro 2008. As P&I revealed in January, several large brands have had to rethink or downscale their plans for this summer. But Marshall says the upcoming campaign is "as big as 'Believe', if not bigger". He cautiously adds that it will be "a humorous, wry, English take" on England's failure to qualify, but similar in approach to "Believe". Rather than galvanising the nation, it may instead be "galvanising us for next time".

He'll say no more on that, but is optimistic about TMS's future. He predicts it won't be difficult to build on what's already there and aims to make the company the most successful brand activation agency around. "We're known, but I want us to be admired and respected."

THE MARKETING STORE HIRES CHRISTIANO DE ABREU

admin — Wed, 14 May 2008

The Marketing Store has appointed Christiano De Abreu, formerly experience director at Razorfish, as digital creative director, just months after hiring the award-winning Mike Cavers as executive creative director. De Abreu will report into Cavers, who joined The Marketing Store from Chemistry Communications in June, and will have a specific focus on interactive engagement and social networking.

Cavers said The Marketing Store was "bolstering our creative and planning capabilities in response to the shift in consumer purchasing trends".

The Marketing Store has also promoted Lisa Bonney to deputy managing director. Previously client services director, Bonney will continue to oversee client relationships.

The agency recently moved from their Covent Garden address to a new building in Waterloo.

At The Marketing Store, Cavers is working once more with his former Publicis Dialog colleague, Simon Marshall, The Marketing Store's managing director. He won several awards in his career, including a Cannes gold Lion and D&AD yellow Pencil for the HP "hype" campaign.