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Clear Digital Digest: ad spend, Black Friday, TikTok, Royal Mail and Woolworths

30/10/2020

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Today’s varied Clear Digital Digest round-up includes:
  • The launch of major Christmas campaigns is imminent, but it is predicted that advertising spend will be down 10% this year.
  • An update on the latest ecommerce sales figures, plus Black Friday getting earlier every year.
  • The latest in customer channel shift from brands as diverse as TikTok, Shopify, Royal Mail, AO, Sky and John Lewis.
  • And finally...the great Woolworths hoax.
HERE COMES CHRISTMAS: BUT AD SPEND FORECAST TO BE £724M LESS THAN LAST YEAR

With half term coming to a close this week and Christmas products all over the high street, November is typically when the large retail brand campaigns come to life, with large TV spend supported by a variety of other media.  Of course 2020 is not a typical year, so there will certainly be all kinds of challenges creatively this year, as well as with regards to available budgets.
  • The Advertising Association (AA) and Warc forecast final quarter spend will be £724m less than last year, a decline of 10.5% on last year to a total of £6.2bn.  This would be the biggest drop in the “golden quarter” since figures started to be compiled in 1982.
  • Marks & Spencer are a prime example of a retailer that will likely be drastically changing its advertising strategy this Christmas, with rumours that its TV advertising will be purely focused on food this year, with clothing only supported online.
  • TV is actually forecast to be fairly resilient this Christmas, with a decline of just 2.7% on last year.  Instead - and very understandably – it is external sectors such as cinema and outdoor/posters that will be seeing especially significant declines.
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  • Digital spend across search and online display is also forecast to fall in the fourth quarter, by almost £300m to £3.57bn in total.  However, this still equates to a dominant 57% share of the total ad spend of £6.2bn.
 
  • Of course, ad spend shifts this year vary greatly by product category, as is shown by some recent eMarketer research demonstrating that the travel and automative sectors have been hit particularly badly.
  • Looking at just digital advertising in the UK, it is forecast that travel spend will decline by 37% this year, as the table below shows.  Other sectors have been less adversely affected by the pandemic, led by technology products as we spend more time at home for both leisure and work reasons.
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  • After recording just 0.3% growth in digital ad spend this year, eMarketer is predicting growth of 15% in 2021, a similar rate to that experienced each year between 2017 to 2019.
  • These changes have obviously led to a shift in the share of digital ad spend by industry, with retail leading the way on 20% of total digital ad spend.
  • In monetary terms, this equates to 2020 spend of £3bn for retail, almost £1bn ahead of the second largest category (FMCG and related).
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ECOMMERCE: SALES UPDATE - AND BLACK FRIDAY IS GETTING EARLIER EVERY YEAR

Despite all this year’s uncertainty, one trend that can be confidently predicted for Christmas 2020 is that ecommerce sales will take a significant larger share of total retail sales, but how much larger exactly?
  • The ONS released their latest online sales tracker on Friday, showing that ecommerce accounted for 26.1% of all retail sales in September, up 8% on the 18.1% recorded in September 2019. 
  • This 26.1% was a slight decline of 0.6% on the previous month August’s 26.7%, but the pandemic driven medium term shift to increased online shopping remains.
  • Overall retail sales for September grew by 3.4% on September 2019 and edged forward by 1.5% month on month.
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Source: ONS
  • The final quarter typically sees the highest annual share for internet shopping, usually peaking in November, so it will be interesting to see how much higher this year’s figure will be than the 21.5% that was recorded in November 2019.

  • One of the boosters for November’s ecommerce sales is of course Black Friday, which (as is often said about Christmas, perhaps erroneously) seems to be getting earlier and earlier every year.
  • Having generally expanded from its one day/weekend event origins into typically running for a week or even a fortnight, Amazon have stretched the Black Friday concept again this year with the launch of their “Early Black Friday Deals” on Monday this week – scheduled to run until 19th November when the standard Black Friday offers will presumably kick in...​
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  • These early Black Friday Deals come fairly soon after Amazon’s Prime Day event that took place this year from Tuesday 13th to Wednesday 14th October, having been put back from its usual summer slot when Amazon was prioritising essential deliveries.  This additional Black Friday promotion could be due to speculation from Citi analysts that 2020’s Prime Day may have been the first in the event’s history not to record sales growth, perhaps due to its proximity to Christmas plus of course our drastically altered current shopping habits.
CHANNEL SHIFT: SHOPIFY, TIK TOK, ROYAL MAIL, AO, SKY, JOHN LEWIS

Here are a few recent stories that caught my eye regarding channel purchasing shifts, including developments from AO and Sky which demonstrate how digital first brands continue to consider the ways that a physical presence can help them engage further with customers…
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  • Intriguing news from two fast growing but diverse digital brands as ecommerce platform Shopify revealed a new global partnership with TikTok, which will allow retailers using Shopify to more efficiently target and sell to the Tik Tok audience – but perhaps more crucially will likely make it significantly easier for TikTok influencers to sell directly to their audience.  I took a more detailed look at Shopify in my recent deep dive article: “The growth of Direct To Consumer, Shopify – and developing multiple channels”.  
  • Royal Mail has this week announced that it is recruiting a record number of temp workers this Christmas to cope with the forecast additional demand driven by online shopping: a total of 33,000, which is two thirds more than usual.
  • As was fairly well publicised last week, Royal Mail has also this month started collecting parcels as returns from customer homes to see it start competing with the likes of Hermes and DPD in this area.
  • Showing that the shift from physical retail to online is not all one way, AO have this week opened their first ever store – within a Tesco Extra superstore in Middleton, Greater Manchester, the first of 5 such trials this year.
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  • Sky is also looking to expand its physical presence with the launch of a network of “social hubs for shoppers” across the UK.  With five due to open this year (the first in Liverpool) followed by more in 2021, Sky said the stores would differ from those of its rivals, going beyond simply operating as a sales point for its TV, mobile and broadband packages and aiming to bring “service, innovation and convenience all in one place, under one roof”.  Each location will boast an “access all areas” stage to host various interactive experiences for customers, clearly more suitable for future than immediate plans.
  • Repurposing excess retail space can happen in various ways – and this week saw a high profile example with John Lewis gaining planning permission to convert 45% of its flagship Oxford Street branch into office space, albeit this may be more of a medium/long term development bearing in mind the current low demand for new offices as a result of the Covid induced shift to home working.
AND FINALLY…

​One brand that won’t be returning to the high street – despite a flurry of excitement earlier this week – is the old childhood favourite Woolworths.  
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  • In yet another reminder to always tread cautiously online, on Tuesday (27th October) dozens of mainstream news outlets including the Daily Mirror and MailOnline ran stories that Woolworths was reopening stores based on nothing more than a new Twitter account with approx 1000 followers. 
  • This was later outed as actual “fake news” and then subsequently revealed to be the work of an enterprising 17 year old student, who was actually only 5 when Woolworths originally stopped trading.  Of course in these troubled times, it’s likely that many just wanted to believe the story, nostalgic for Woolies pick’n’mix in particular.
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Clear Digital Digest: bagel cities, online grocery, Instagram is 10 and a chocolate orange hotel

6/10/2020

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Today’s Clear Digital Digest is full of tasty morsels, as we look at:
  • “Bagel cities” – and how customer footfall continues to cluster at the edges.
  • The latest online grocery news, particularly from Ocado.
  • Notable digital dates: happy birthday Instagram and here comes Amazon Prime Day.
  • A different type of Hotel Chocolat.
LONDON: A BAGEL CITY, NOT JUST FOR BRICK LANE

​Javelin Group have recently published some insightful research regarding the impact of Covid19 on footfall within 5 key global cities: New York, Sydney, Tokyo, Berlin and London. 
  • The graph below looks at footfall within a variety of different London shopping destinations: e.g. central, suburban, transport etc. 
  • This shows how the suburban Wood Green shopping centre has nearly recovered in terms of customers visting since Covid struck but it is a very different story for the office workers starved Cheapside as well as the prestige shopping destination of Regent Street.  
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Source: Javelin Group
  • This shift has seen London sometimes described as a “bagel city”, with a lot of the activity moving away from the centre to the edges. 
  • This has been fairly well documented anecdotally but this data from Javelin helps to really demonstrate the scale of these changes.  I was also slightly surprised that Heathrow Airport has recovered to 75% of its pre-Covid average.
ONLINE GROCERY NEWS

  • Ocado hit the news last week as its share price rose to see the company valued at £21bn, significant in that this briefly took Ocado above grocery market leader Tesco’s £20.9bn valuation.
  • And whereas Tesco accounts for 27% of UK food and drink sales, Ocado’s share is less than 2%.  Instead, it is Ocado’s ability to sell its hi-tech grocery delivery operations overseas that has seen its share price rocket, as investors increasingly view Ocado as a tech stock rather than an online retailer.  Since its first deal with France’s Groupe Casino in November 2017, Ocado has sealed eight more such agreements ranging from Kroger in the US to Aeon in Japan.
  • Ocado has of course also benefitted from the shift towards online grocery shopping in the UK, which now accounts for 12.5% of all sales, up from 7% before the pandemic hit.  This has also helped Ocado to be named as the fastest growing UK brand in research published by Kantar Brandz last week, and rising to number 18 overall (Vodafone, HSBC and Shell occupy the top 3 slots).
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Source: Marketing Week/Kantar Brandz
  • However, in a busy week news wise for Ocado, it emerged over the weekend that Ocado is being sued for alleged patent infringement on its automated picking systems by Norwegian company AutoStore, which if proven would seriously jeopardise Ocado's plans to sell such technology as outlined above.
  • Some further context on Ocado’s valuation is also provided by Wal-Mart’s sale of Asda this week to the Blackburn based Issa brother and TDR Capital for £6.8bn (so approximately a third of Ocado’s value), a very similar sum to the £6.7bn Wal-Mart originally paid back in 1999.
A COUPLE OF NOTABLE DIGITAL DATES

  • Instagram turns 10 today (6th October); to mark its birthday, the Huffington Post have rounded up 10 key trends on the ubiquitous platform from selfies to avocados...
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  • Amazon have announced that this year’s Prime Day will now be taking place next week, starting on Tuesday 13th October, having been put back from its usual summer slot when Amazon was prioritising essential deliveries.
AND FINALLY…

After coming across this tweet, it appears that yes you can book a chocolate orange themed room in a ski hotel in the Alps.  The Christmas tree in the picture really is something.
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Clear Digital Digest:  Argos catalogue RIP, retail tie-ups, Q2 updates and soccer supervillains

3/8/2020

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Argos catalogue from 1983
Today’s Clear Digital Digest starts with a look back at the beloved Argos catalogue before looking forward to the growing impact of another Argos innovation in Click & Collect, as well as other retail partnerships.  Then we turn our attentions Stateside to review Q2 updates from Amazon, Facebook and Google plus the latest digital innovation in sports watching…
END OF AN ERA – GOODBYE ARGOS CATALOGUE
So RIP the Argos catalogue – as one wag noted, much easier to say than to actually do.  As was widely reported on Thursday, Argos have stopped producing their twice yearly catalogue, meaning that January’s Spring/Summer 2020 edition will be its final print version.  Argos now say that online shopping offers “greater convenience” than flicking through a catalogue, part of the continuing wider shift to ecommerce sales. 
Having previously spent 8 years in various roles within Argos’ ecommerce operation, during which time the catalogue’s ubiquity (estimated to have been in approx. 75% of British homes at one time) certainly helped to mutually drive web sales, there’s definitely a sense of nostalgic regret to see the “laminated book of dreams” bid farewell.  
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The Argos Spring/Summer 2020 catalogue
However, it appears that less and less were being printed, with 3.9m of the last edition down from a peak of over 10m a decade ago.  And with each catalogue costing roughly £3 to produce back when I was working there, changing shopping habits will have made ceasing production an increasingly attractive option for the huge potential cost savings; something that has been frequently reviewed over the years. 
Nostalgia for kids being able to choose their favoured Christmas presents will be partly assuaged by the news that Argos plans to continue to print its Christmas Gift Guide, still generally a sturdy 300 pages or so, albeit well down on the 1800 page behemoth that was the main catalogue.  
Before then, for anyone after a quick nostalgic fix, the Guardian pulled together a selection of vintage covers and catalogue pages, count me in for 1976’s Home Stereo Disco Unit (item 7 below…)
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Argos Catalogue, 1976
CLICK AND COLLECT/RETAIL PARTNERSHIPS
Of course, there are other retail channels that Argos pioneered which remain highly relevant and continue to grow in popularity, none more so than Click & Collect.  In line with all ecommerce sales, Click & Collect orders have been growing rapidly since the start of lockdown, with more and more brands partnering together for mutual benefit. 
​Argos have offered a collection service for selected eBay customers since 2014, while the introduction of Argos collection points into many Sainsburys stores since being bought by the grocer in 2016 meant that Argos was able to continue offering C&C services throughout lockdown.
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​Amazon entered into a similar partnership with Next last year with their Amazon Counter initiative, while John Lewis have recently announced plans to extend their C&C tie-up with the Co-op to over 500 stores. 
John Lewis have also just stated that they expect 60% of their sales to be online, up from 40% pre-Covid.  In an update to all John Lewis partners, chair Sharon White said “We have two of the best loved and trusted brands in the UK, rated highly for our personal service and expert, impartial advice. Customers are, however, shopping in very different ways – younger people especially – with the pandemic accelerating the importance of digital. We expect John Lewis to be a 60% online retailer, from 40% pre-Covid-19, and Waitrose to rise above 20%, from 5%.”
Such uncertain times do certainly seem to be leading to a much wider array of complementary brands working together, with another recent example seeing Sainsburys starting to provide a range of 3000 products to the garden centre retailer Dobbies.
Q2 UPDATES: AMAZON, FACEBOOK, GOOGLE
Three of the tech giants have provided their latest global Q2 updates in the last few days, with varying results.  Of course, Q2 2020 is the first quarter since the world has been in lockdown, so one would certainly not expect standard trends from these updates.

  • Amazon leads the way, with global sales growing by 40% to $88.9bn (£68.2bn) in what Jeff Bezos described as a “highly unusual quarter”.   Operating income increased to $5.8bn (£4.5bn) during the three months to 30 June, up from $3.1bn (£2.4bn) in 2019.  Interestingly, third-party sales grew faster during the quarter than Amazon’s first-party sales as Amazon Marketplace continues to stamps its dominance; something I explored in further depth recently in my “The UK marketplace sector” deeper dive.
 
  • Perhaps more surprisingly, Facebook ad revenue grew by 10% to $18.3bn (£14bn) in the second quarter of 2020, defying the impact of the global coronavirus pandemic.  During the three months to 30 June, the social media company grew its total revenue by 11% to $18.7bn (£14.4bn), increasing its daily active user base by 12% to 1.79 billion and monthly active users to 2.7 billion, also up 12%.
 
  • Facebook’s growth is even more notable when compared with Google’s Q2 update.  Revenues at the search giant fell by 2% during the second quarter of 2020 to $38.3bn (£29.4bn), the first year-on-year decline in quarterly revenue since Google became a publicly-listed company in 2004.  Revenue generated by Google Search fell to $21.3bn (£16.4bn) during the three months to 30 June, from $23.6bn (£18.1bn) in the same period last year.   Overall, Google ad revenue declined from £32.5bn (£24.9bn) in the second quarter of 2019, to $29.9bn (£23bn), although YouTube ad revenue rose to $3.8bn (£2.9bn) from $3.6bn (£2.8bn).
AND FINALLY…
In a week when it was announced at the last minute that planned pilot sporting events were not allowed to admit limited spectators as originally planned, technology continues to serve up increasingly sinister options instead.  After previously highlighting Japanese robotic baseball fans last month, MLS in the US have now seemingly opened applications for the world’s next supervillain…
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Clear Digital Digest: online habits, haircuts and robot fans

10/7/2020

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Today’s Clear Digital Digest looks at the early impact of the lockdown slightly easing last week, some updated ecommerce sales trends, Ofcom’s research regarding online usage habits and perceptions plus perhaps the scariest sports supporters seen for many a year.
 
HAIRCUTS BEFORE HEINEKEN
One of the biggest changes in the UK in the last week has obviously been the lockdown easing last Saturday (4th July) for both pubs and restaurants as well as for some other service retailers, most notably hairdressers.
  • Despite elements of overcrowding in some hotspots, Saturday’s weekly high street footfall increase of 20% was still well down on the prior year (-56% YOY) meaning that high streets were still less than as half as busy as in 2019.
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  • Amongst the sectors newly re-opened, hairdressers and barbers seemed to be the clear winners, with digital bank Revolut stating that they recorded a 23% increase in revenue compared to a pre-Covid 19 Saturday.
  • By contrast, restaurant tills were running at 47% of a normal Saturday, with pub takings also half of what would typically be expected.
  • Thus far, it looks like hairdressers and barbers are doing a better job of convincing consumers to return short-term – and admittedly, it does seem simpler for them to adapt to the new restrictions and offer a customer experience closer to before.  For pubs, the (understandable) need to sign in and often order drinks/food through an app seems like too much hassle for many in order to enjoy what should be a relaxing event not a sterile experience, in addition to the cautious approach many of us are still taking.  It will be interesting to see if the potentially tokenistic “eat out to help out” scheme and VAT cut to 5% announced this week makes much difference in the coming weeks.
  • One ecommerce area that has seen a recent spike is subscription services.  The Guardian has reported that one in ten Britons has signed up to such a service during lockdown, with popular items including gin, coffee and cheese.
ECOMMERCE SALES UPDATES
  • Looking across the Atlantic, eMarketer have forecast that US retail will decline by 10.5% overall this year, well below the 2.8% growth originally forecast in February, just before the pandemic hit.
  • Within this, ecommerce will grow by 18% YOY, with bricks and mortar sales falling back by 14%.
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  • With similar lockdown periods etc, the UK market will likely experience similar headwinds; albeit with online grocery taking a larger slice of the market over here, total UK ecommerce growth for 2020 could well exceed the US’s 18%.  Last Friday’s Digest featured more on recent UK grocery sales including the fact that ecommerce food sales have grown by 91% in the last 4 weeks.
  • Also this week, IMRG stated that overall UK ecommerce sales in June grew by 34% on last year, the highest rate for 12 years.  The electrical sector was leading the way, with sales growth of +100%, while alcohol sales of +80% YOY were helped by all pubs still being closed then, with subscription services also playing a part as mentioned above.
  • However, it wasn’t such good news for all categories as clothing sales declined, down by 6.5% on last year.
ONLINE NATION
Ofcom last week released their latest report “Online Nation” that looks at what people are doing online as well as their attitudes to and experiences of using the internet.
  • The main headline was that the trend for increasing online usage has (as may be expected) been accelerated by the enforced lockdown.
  • In April 2020, internet users in the UK spent an average of 4 hours 2 minutes online each day, a record figure and 37 minutes more each day per online adult compared with January 2020. On average, 18- to 24-year-olds spent over an hour more online each day than adults overall.
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  • Another useful insight is that although UK consumers use a range of services, major platforms continue to make up the majority of time spent online. 
  • On average, more than a third of measured time spent online is spent on Facebook or Google owned platforms, so including the likes of Instagram, WhatsApp and YouTube as well as the parent brands.
  • After these properties Spotify is the third most used service, ahead of even Netflix, helped by more than 100bn tracks being streamed in the UK for the first time in 2019; a trend I recently explored on my deep dive in to the UK music industry and the music marketplace Discogs.
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  • Google and Facebook’s huge usage share (which continues to grow) helps to demonstrate why they dominate the online advertising market.  However, what is equally insightful from the Ofcom report is that consumers’ understanding of how online services actually make money remains relatively low.
  • According to Ofcom’s research, 87% of internet users said they are generally confident in their online abilities, while almost three quarters of internet users (73%) said that they are confident that they can manage who has access to their personal data online.
  • However, when it comes to recognising ads online and understanding the role advertising plays in online business models, only about half (53%) of all adults identified advertising as the main source of funding for search engines, while 43% were aware that YouTube’s main source of funding is advertising.
  • These figures have remained stable since 2018 and are broadly in line with understanding among 12-15 year old users of these platforms (54%). 
  • Therefore, generally half of the UK population (across all age groups) still remains unaware that Facebook and Google operate as ad based models, a figure that I’m sure would be substantially higher if examining a more traditional media brand such as ITV.
​AND FINALLY…
In the week that cricket was the latest sport to return behind closed doors, its sporting cousin baseball showed off an imaginative replacement for supporters in the stadium.  Japanese baseball team Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks unleashed 2 different types of robotic fans for their match against Rakuten Eagles on Tuesday, who arguably look scarier than Millwall fans from the 1980s…
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Euro 2016 campaigns kick off: Carlsberg, Currys, Chris Kamara, cakes…

18/5/2016

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Euro 2016 France
It’s now just 3 weeks to go till Euro 2016 kicks off in France on Friday 10th June, and while the tournament itself will have some way to go in order to match the still incredible story of Leicester City’s domestic Premier League triumph, the extra home nation interest this year will undoubtedly see passion levels run high once Euro 2016 actually starts. 

Summer football events such as the Euros are now also an established part of the marketing and promotion calendar for many brands – for both official sponsors and other companies – so I’ve taken a look at how some of them have so far embraced this opportunity.   

It was estimated that the 2014 World Cup contributed £2.5bn to UK consumer spending and it is believed that Euro 2016 will generate a similar amount, with food, drink, retail and betting sectors seeing the greatest benefits.  Over 60% of pubs are predicting like for like sales increases of more than 10% through June, with the England v Wales group match on Thursday 16th June unsurprisingly highlighted as a particularly large opportunity.
Euro 2016 pub sales uplift
Pubs are expecting a significant sales uplift during Euro 2016. Source: Morning Advertiser/MatchPint

​The nature of big sporting tournaments like Euro 2016 lends itself to a variety of different objectives for brands, in particular:
  • Short-term sales drivers based on the watching experience, from food and drink options to purchasing new TVs and home entertainment systems.
  • Longer term brand sponsorship opportunities, typically from official sponsors making the most of their association. 
​
OFFICIAL SPONSORS: CARLSBERG EARLY PACE-SETTERS


​UEFA have 10 official sponsors for Euro 2016; ranging from the usual suspects such as Adidas, Coca-Cola and McDonalds to emerging brands which won’t be as familiar to European consumers.  These include the Chinese consumer electronics company Hisense and the seemingly aptly named Socar.  Socar is actually the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic, so in reality this organisation is perhaps not such a natural fit for football tie-ins as Carlsberg for example.
Euro 2016 sponsors

​Amongst official sponsors, Carlsberg have certainly been to the fore with their activation plans, with a range of initiatives all following the “if Carlsberg did…” strapline, seemingly both in domestic markets and pan European too.

This week, Carlsberg have been trailing online a new ad campaign starring Marcel Desailly, one of France’s World Cup 98 and Euro 2000 winning heroes.  “If Carlsberg Did La Revolution” will undoubtedly feature heavily in June during TV coverage, with many hidden references in there for football geeks as well.

​Amongst the standard ticket giveaway competitions, Carlsberg have also been using more creative methods ahead of the tournament in the UK, including Chris Kamara looking at what would happen “if Carlsberg did substitutions” and rewarding generous Tube travellers with tickets to the Euros.  Other UK focused campaigns include experiential activity, with Carlsberg rebranding 19 English pubs as the patriotic “The Three Lions”. 

Some other selected highlights from official sponsors include:
  • McDonalds are sponsoring the official Euro 2016 Fantasy League, always fun in offices around the country.
  • Coca-Cola are continuing to run an extensive on-pack promo ticket giveaway, and are likely keeping their powder dry for more aggressive activity until after next week’s Champions League final, when the Euros anticipation ramps up another level.
 
“UNOFFICIAL” CAMPAIGNS: PREDICT THE WINNER

3 weeks out and it may be a bit early to stock up on essentials like food and drink if planning a barbecue party, but it is the perfect time for more considered purchases to enhance your Euro 2016 viewing pleasure, such as a shiny new TV.  And full disclosure here: I did once buy a new TV in time for Euro 2004, so this does actually happen!

However, with governing bodies such as UEFA monitoring and protecting their trademark rights to enhance the aforementioned sponsorship deals, this tends to result in some creative descriptions by the vast majority of brands that are not filling UEFA’s coffers; leading to the use of many generic campaign titles such as the “summer of sport" rather than the trademarked "Euro 2016" or similar.

A couple of good examples here are provided by Currys and Argos, both of whom are offering TV promotions with a prediction element based around "this summer’s big football tournament" (aka Euro 2016).
Currys Euro 2016

To the fore on Currys’ homepage is their “Cash for Goals” promotion, backed up by a range of accompanying media both online and offline.  This is a deal that Currys have run in similar form during previous summer football tournaments, and means that should you spend over £699 on a TV, Currys are offering £10 cashback for each goal that either England, Wales, Northern Ireland or Republic of Ireland score during the tournament. 
Customers can pick their team and with more choice amongst British Isles teams than usual, it will certainly be interesting to see if customers patriotically pick their own home nation, or go for another team based on their perceived chances.
Argos Euro 2016

Argos are also focusing on upper end TVs by offering customers a chance to win up to £1000 by “picking this summer’s winning football team” when you buy a TV over £700 in their “Go Get Winning” promotion. 
Further investigation shows that for those heartened by the Leicester fairytale, you can win £1000 back if you plump for an outsider like Albania or Slovakia (or Northern Ireland/Wales), down to £100 for France, Germany or Spain.  An England win, unlikely as it may seem, would net you £250 cashback.

​AND FINALLY…

​As well as official Euro 2016 sponsors maximising their activity with glossy campaigns and giveaways, plus retailers looking to sell appropriate seasonal products, multi-national sporting events generally also see a few more esoteric tie-ins as well.  Expect to see some of these to the fore as the tournament approaches, but as a tasty example, the Amazon listing below provides some food for thought…
Euro 2016 cake toppers
What's the most popular British TV programme? And what other big event is on the horizon? These Euro 2016 cake toppers provide an ideal baking/football mash-up
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    Jim Clear

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