Five things worth sharing from the last week or so, brought to you by a different member of the Browser Media team every Friday.
This week’s My Five is by Olivia.
1. Ivy Park + Adidas = Sainsburys
Earlier this month a long-awaited “activewear” love child was born into the world of fashion. A collaboration between Adidas and Beyoncé’s Ivy Park shook the internet, influencers raved as they filmed their “unboxing” and “haul” videos, but that wasn’t the end.
Live on https://t.co/SDScvRTZ6p 12 PM PST pic.twitter.com/ozhQd1chIx
— BEYONCÉ (@Beyonce) January 17, 2020
You may be sat there thinking, that colour combination of red and orange looks really familiar. Well, you may be being triggered by the well-known British brand, Sainsbury’s. The cogs began to churn deep in Sainsbury’s marketing department, who then went on to christen Twitter with this simple, but effective masterpiece:
Repping since 1869 ? #sainsburys pic.twitter.com/a5VwkKnu5A
— Sainsbury’s (@sainsburys) January 17, 2020
And thus, the memes began…
Repping since 1869 ? #sainsburys pic.twitter.com/a5VwkKnu5A
— Sainsbury’s (@sainsburys) January 17, 2020
And then yesterday, Gymshark joined the party.
.@sainsburys let’s try something new, wanna collab? pic.twitter.com/WkekRa7gfh
— Gymshark (@Gymshark) January 30, 2020
I, myself, am not particularly bothered by the Adidas x Ivy Park collab, but found the response from both Sainsbury’s and Gymshark to be most amusing and also a great example of some top-quality PR piggybacking.
Who knew Sainsbury’s was capable of such banter?
2. Facebook gives users control over third-party data
In recent years Facebook has wrestled with data privacy laws, and they have finally attempted to give users the opportunity to protect their own data. Yes, it has taken a direct hit to their profits to spur them to do something a little more drastic about data protection.
In a nutshell, they have introduced third-party tracking to the app’s settings. Off-Facebook Activity control will allow users will to:
- See who has acquired their data outside of Facebook
- Choose who retains their data
To see and manage who has your data go to your “Settings” within the app and scroll down to you “Off-Facebook activity”. The majority of business that currently have access to your data will have likely installed Facebook Pixel on their website for remarketing purposes.
Looking at my own “shared data”, it was pretty shocking to see that 1,500+ apps and websites had access to my personal data. Most of them I had only visited once and never again! If I use their website regularly, perhaps I wouldn’t mind them using my data…
I do think this is a step in the right direction for Facebook, and I hope that in future they implement Bulk Actions so you can select every website you want to get rid of, rather than having to turn them off individually. However, I guess Facebook doesn’t want to make it easy for you to gate your data.
3. Kellogg’s breakfast cafe: made by kids, run by kids
Move over avocado smash, there’s a new breakfast in town. Generation Alpha are beginning to have their say in what they want to see on the breakfast table. It’s not a far cry from avocados, if you consider carrots, apples and beetroot to be in the same category.
Kellogg’s have opened up a pop-up cereal café in London to launch their first children’s cereal for 20 years, W.K Kellogg by Kids. The reason behind the wacky flavours is because seemingly kids nowadays have a much more varied palette than their predecessors.
View this post on Instagram
The logic is that the funky colours and shapes appeal to the children. In the meantime, adults are mesmerised by the big “no added sugar” sign on the front of the box, as well as the array of peculiar vegetables. A nice example of differentiating between the consumer and the customer.
As an experienced child, I am very confident in saying I would still be reaching for the Coco Pops. However, as an adult, I am intrigued to try beetroot flavoured multigrain shapes. Pass me a spoon!
4. UK 2019 ad spend exceeds forecast
Overall, £24.8bn was estimated to be spent on advertising in the UK throughout 2019. This assessment means that expenditure grew by 5.2%, a whole 0.2% higher than what it was predicted to be by the October forecast.
And who led the marketing charge? It was our good friend Search, who made up £7.46bn of the total spend and is predicted to grow by 10.1% in 2020. Whoooo, go digital!
The surge in growth is being accredited to Britain being relieved of the economic uncertainty caused by Brexit and politics (although I do think the explosion of Black Friday sales promotions had something to do with it). Whilst the expansion of digital marketing expenditure comes from the SMEs that make up basically 99% of all UK businesses.
“As the Credos report on UK digital advertising showed, this is in part fuelled by the exceptional growth in SME spend in digital, as well as larger advertisers continuing to move budgets into digital formats in most media sectors.” – Stephen Woodford, chief executive at the Advertising Association
5. Cats II: a musical by Spotify
Personalisation remains as one of the biggest marketing trends of the decade and so Spotify has capitalised on a nation of pet-lovers to create personalised, stress-relieving playlists for your best pals.
“But how can you personalise streaming for a cat?” I hear you cry when they quite frankly don’t give a rat’s arse about anything. Well, it’s based on their personality type as well as your listening history. Owners can choose to what degree their pet is energetic, shy or curious.
According to Spotify pets generally prefer listening to classical and soft rock music, 55% of us think that our pets like the same music as us and 71% have played music for their pets. That’s some full-blown anthropomorphism right there.
As conscious as I am that this is just a marketing ploy, I have already gleefully shared our cat, Jynx’s, playlist with my entire family because I’m a sucker for this kind of thing. I’m sure by the end of next week, resident office dog Ruby will also have her own playlist.
It’s also Brexit Day, but let’s not talk about that…
