Market trends/ Direct response

Royal Mail develops chocolate direct mail format
By Alex Donohue Brand Republic 15-Jan-08, 12:00

LONDON - Royal Mail has unveiled a new mailing package for business customers devised by Proximity London that allows brands to send messages to consumers made entirely from chocolate.

The pack contains a letter made from chocolate that companies can use to write personalized messages to customers, and has been developed by Proximity London after research from Royal Mail's partner Brand Sense, a sensory branding consultancyA study by Brand Sense found consumers made decisions to buy particular products based on their ability to engage "sensory signals". Royal Mail said the chocolate mailing would allow direct marketers to engage with more than three of their recipient's senses and improve campaign response rates for businesses.
The chocolate mailing, which contains a heat sensitive cover, has been sent to 1,000 people at marketing and creative agencies in the UK to show how it could improve response rates on direct campaigns.

Amanda Phillips, chief executive at Proximity London, said: "Royal Mail wanted to highlight the role that direct mail has to play in building brands. We came up with the concept of a chocolate letter because it is simple but powerful and illustrates direct mail's exceptional capability to engage all the senses."


Social network 'super advocates' to influence brand choice
by Jacquie Bowser Brand Republic 15-Jan-08, 08:45

LONDON - The progress of social networks will lead to the rise of ‘super advocates' who will have the power to make or break a brand's reputation in 2008.

Experian suggests that super advocates, its monicker for highly influential, outspoken figures, will create one of the biggest challenges to companies trying to tap into user-generated content for advertising and marketing purposes.

Such figures will supposedly have a huge online following of people keen to know their thoughts on a company, its products or problems that they have encountered.

The 'Impact of Social Networking in the UK' report recommends that companies quickly identify super advocates and use any means to keep these influential figures on side. Experian suggests companies will need to make a conscious effort to avoid commercialism "at all costs" and provide highly exclusive information to help win super advocates' respect.
The report also predicts that the use of social networks for viral and search marketing will increase during 2008 following the improvement of the search and navigation capabilities of social networking sites, which will make websites' content more accessible to marketers.
Experian suggests that site owners will drive these developments with the aim of opening up their platforms to third parties and increasing profits via permission-based advertising.

Behavioural Targeting

08 The Year Ahead - Online
20-Dec-07

Targeting gets serious

As behavioural targeting moves from niche to mainstream, advertisers must avoid consumer backlash. By Nathalie Kilby

Steve Davies, managing partner at Experian Integrated Marketing, says: “Even the biggest clients have viewed the online planning function from a different perspective, not applying the same principles as offline – online planning has evolved from Web development and analytics. They have been happy to co-exist but more clients and agencies are looking to marry the two and apply the same principles to both functions.

He says more marketers and their agencies are waking up to the fact that advertisers need to marry data from offline channels, such as customer relationship management and direct marketing, with online data.

One key development that can boost optimisation and achieve greater return on investment, and which observers say will gain momentum over the next year is behavioural targeting. A series of acquisitions took place in the area in 2007, with AOL buying Tacoda, Yahoo! snapping up Blue Lithium and Google taking over DoubleClick. More recent developments include social networks Bebo, Facebook and MySpace rolling out new strategies around behavioural targeting. And advertisers are keen to get on board – little wonder if they are able to advertise to consumers who really want to see specific ads and who will be influenced by them.

Sky’s Gallacher says it is important to be one step ahead: “What makes me successful this year, won’t do the same for me next year. Early adoption is not ‘a nice to have’. Technical advantage mean competitive advantage. If advertisers are not using behavioural targeting in two years they will be seen as an oddity.” He adds that advertisers can no longer buy ads across blind networks. Instead they must execute more effective planning strategies, and behavioural targeting can help.

There is, however, a fly in the ointment – privacy. Consumers are wary of the online data advertisers hold about them. They consider it “spooky” that faceless corporations gather data on them in order to advertise to them and sell more stuff. Users’ reaction to Facebook’s Beacon platform, built around behavioural targeting, is a clear sign of the negativity surrounding what advertisers know, even about those people who are willing to divulge so much online. Ethical issues are gathering momentum.

They say advertisers must prove the benefits of better targeting and allay concerns about invasion of privacy and “Big Brother” techniques. “The customer is not ready for individual targeting and nor are advertisers,” adds Katz. “But segmenting in the way we do offline around trends, groups and behaviours means more benefit for consumers. The purpose of advertising should be to enlighten people about what is available. The negativity must and can be countered if consumers understand the benefit.”

Insurance brand (competition)

Zurich to re-launch Home Solutions product
7th November 2007
By Staff Writer

Zurich is planning to re-launch its standard Home Solutions, Home Solutions Advantage, for mid net worth individuals and its Residential Lets product.

With Home Solutions the insurer is targeting first time buyers and flat owners with smaller properties who would prefer to opt for a lower level of home contents sum-insured limits whilst those with more possessions or in larger properties will automatically benefit from a standard cover increase from GBP40,000 to GBP50,000. Zurich is also addressing the complexities of buying the right protection by simplifying its buildings cover which will move from a sum insured to a bedroom rated product, with automatically increased cover at no extra charge to the customer.

Home Solutions Advantage is designed to serve mid net worth customers and has been revised to offer more flexibility to increase cover limits for personal valuables such as jewellery and watches up to GBP20,000, GBP500,000 buildings cover as standard and worldwide contents cover.

Residential Lets covers buildings and landlords' business contents with optional cover for legal expenses. By providing a standard buildings cover limit of GBP500,000 the majority of property owners will not need to go to the trouble of establishing the rebuilding cost of the property.
Richard Coleman, head of personal lines and broker division at Zurich, said: "The devastating impact of the recent flooding seems to have changed many homeowners' perceptions of home insurance. Whilst home cover has never quite been the commodity purchase that motor has become in some areas, customers are now beginning to think more carefully about what they require to protect their most valuable asset."


Moneyfacts.co.uk and BeatThatQuote.com to offer motor and home insurance
16th January 2008
By Staff Writer

BeatThatQuote.com, a price comparison site, has signed a deal to supply Moneyfacts.co.uk with a white label version of its motor and home insurance service.

The new insurance service will sit alongside existing personal finance products making it convenient for Moneyfacts.co.uk customers to buy online. Thompson, Experian, Switchwise and Energy Helpline have all recently signed up to offer the BeatThatQuote.com powered insurance panel on their web sites under their own brands.
John Paleomylites, BeatThatQuote's founder and MD, said: "We anticipate the Moneyfacts insurance offer will drive huge volume in the market for us. We share a consumer champion ethos which means that we strive to ensure that our panel of insurers consistently returns the best quotes in the market making us a logical partner for Moneyfacts."