Read what Bryan Gildenberg, SVP of Commerce at OCG, sees as the most important commerce technologies to emerge from this year’s CES show and the implications it has on future trends.

Well, CES 2022 (Consumer Electronic Show), was certainly interesting – having never been before I have nothing to benchmark it against but was great to connect with old friends and new! Earlier this month we posted a three-part series of thoughts on what I saw there through a decidedly retail and commerce lens. These thoughts ranged from the future of data, analytics the “practical metaverse”, data twinning and simple AR applications to name a few – and of course, it wouldn’t be 2022 without some thoughts on the Metaverse! An internal acronym here for Omnicom is OMC, which I’ve begun to joke it should stand for “Obligatory Metaverse Conversation”. Enjoy reading these “Through A Commerce Lens” observations, as all these trends should be interesting to watch in 2022 and beyond. 

Data science in the 2020s will be less about data and more about science – true science. You will be able to know anything, and EVERYTHING will be easy to measure. The amount of money being put into systems that monitor, record, recognize and process people, things, environments, and body functions is, truly, astonishing. Leaders will have to pick and construct meaningful KPIs out of this ocean of observed phenomena.

Commerce Implications: combining granular metrics into meaningful metrics is the real work of commerce data science in the 2020s.

The gap between omni-present granular data and how resources and capital are allocated in most of the companies that represent most of the GDP in the world is gargantuan. VCs are investing in millions of companies that act as aggregational middleware between this ocean of data and scalable opportunities. Watching players that can be more commercially nimble and less constrained by the old regulatory restricted model outmaneuver entrenched players will be a multi-trillion-dollar re-allocation of market value during the 2020s as improved data gets linked to better health outcomes and lower healthcare costs.

Commerce Implications: retail-centric healthcare will use this new ecosystem of alternative health management models, combined with commercial data, to help shoppers manage their healthy lives better.

Parallel ecosystems are evolving in the B2B metaverse which is “twinning”, or the practical metaverse. The idea is to build an exact replica of something and then observe how it responds to complex stimuli – it’s the metaverse with a purpose. Whether it’s the COVID-19 virus, the human heart, traffic patterns or the composition of the atmosphere, it is now possible to build an accurate model of complex systems, and then test/validate shocks and changes to that system.

Commerce Implications: Using the practical metaverse to predict the impact of anything that happens in a physical/digital retail space, and then modelling those spaces based on how it drives the most important KPIs, will gain traction across retailers.

The other critical part of the practical metaverse is the development of low-cost unobtrusive AR enabled eyewear, allowing a machinist to see exactly how to assemble a hydraulic pump, or closer to home for us, a store associate to see exactly how to planogram a shelf.

Commerce Implications: Planogram compliance will become more like “pick to the light” DC fulfilment – a remarkably accurate and old technology that allows simple visual cues to govern repetitive and highly detailed work.

The metaverse appears to have some much better near-in applications when compared to the world of NFTs/blockchain/Web3.0. A lot of the use cases discussed at CES were around NFTs, particularly NFTs of visual images.

Commerce Implications: The way the visual art world has been able to create an entire ecosystem out of NFT’s, is a harbinger of things to come as it tries to address some key issues that are endemic to creativity in the digital space. Expect the entire world of entertainment & commercial commerce to begin to develop attributes of this. Of particular interest is the ability to enforce commercial terms around resale of an item, which could have massive implications for industries like recorded music and event ticketing.

The underrated critical part of the metaverse is a decidedly un-metaversey comms platform Discord, a community management platform that enables large group-text style chats between friends or people who share an interest. Originally a platform used by gamers interested in the likes of Minecraft and Roblox it is today, according to some NFT experts The Headquarters of the Metaverse.

Commerce Implications: Discord does not support advertising so will require real endemic understanding to participate in the ongoing conversations that surround the metaverse. Parallel ecosystems are evolving as “twinning”, or the Practical metaverse.

The NFT world can create scarcity, uniqueness, and authenticity in a digital world of easy replication, zero marginal cost production and a high propensity to fakery. The art market needs all these things to function, hence where you would see this ecosystem take root.

Commerce Implications: NFTs will be a huge part of the economics of fame, style, and status – in the same way Amazon took root as a bookstore because the economics and user experience of bookselling lent itself to a different solution, the economics and experience of fandom and fame seem ripe for NFTs to take root here.

It seems impossible to care about the future and not have a significant, strategic presence in the Korean market. It became a running joke to ask the companies where they had gone live with whatever technology they were selling – the answer was inevitably, “We have x number of these up and running in Seoul”.

Commerce Implications: Companies should use Korea for what they’re using China for today – a Dr. Strange like portal to see the future through. China’s future is so distinctive to China, and in many ways markedly less certain than Korea’s.

Adaptivity will be critical. Coresight Research [quotes] 24% of Americans identify as having a disability – and this number will only increase exponentially, globally, as huge parts of the world’s population pyramid become more top heavy. Simple tools to assist visual and auditory impairment, mobility or even lamps that are designed to improve reading for dyslexics will be enormous growth areas.

The economics and necessity of labour force management will accelerate robotic development and adoption – one of the simplest and best things I saw was a simple model from Bear Robotics that basically handles the scut work of waiting tables (it delivers food and picks up dirty dishes). Brilliant in that it helps the restaurant manage predictability, improves job satisfaction for the human and improves service levels/tips (slow basic service is a tip-killer). Robotics that doesn’t need hand-like function are WAY cheaper to develop than robots that have to grab things (the human hand is one of the most complex machines on earth). 2022 should permit the narrative around robotic technology.

Gaming remains a strangely isolated ecosystem. Much of the excitement about the metaverse is from people enamoured with Blockchain, but its basic premise is most easily imagined in the gaming world. Think of popculture 30 years ago existing entirely contained within subculture, instead of being its foundation. Add to that the fact that most people’s first experience with the metaverse will be through some sort of gaming experience, yet it remains a mysteriously under-invested platform by marketers.

Written by Bryan Gildenberg, SVP of Commerce for the Omnicom Commerce Group (OCG).

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The key motivation for running a consumer promotion is always business growth.  This might be stimulation of short-term sales but also an increase of brand equity leading to longer-term sales too.  

However, one of the additional benefits of running activations is the opportunity to capture incredibly valuable information about your shoppers and build your database of customers.  

Data is the heartbeat of every business and all need to know more about their customer.  Even if you think you know them now you want to stay in touch with them to help define your future plans and that customer contact will always need to evolve and grow.  The reliance on third party data providers is expensive and facing more challenges especially online with the deprecation of cookies (even if that has been delayed).

There are brands that do not naturally lend themselves to engagement online where almost all customer data capture now happens.  For low interest categories, more functional products and impulse purchases the traffic volume to a brand website might be incredibly low as a proportion of shoppers.  Some brands really do need an incentive or value exchange to get the traction.   

Consumer promotions present an opportunity to drive visits to a brand environment and acquire fresh customer data.  It is important to point out that the relevant data privacy rules must be respected and opt-in / opt-out checks in place.  However, the potential for customer connection and data generation through promotions is often overlooked and undervalued.

5 reasons to collect customer data

Better understand your customer

Learn more about your customers with the potential to even segment your target audiences for future growth.  Even a few simple questions (on an entry form for a promotion for example) can help drive future product development, influence communications or determine the next promotional plan.

Build and evolve your CRM

Gain permission to re-contact customers and achieve greater understanding of them.  Upsell, cross-sell or get early feedback for NPD and offers.

Open up to customer feedback

Make connections, build trust and enable customers to share their challenges and contribute to future success. 

Drive advocacy

Word-of-mouth and peer recommendations are incredibly powerful and enabling a friend-get-friend approach (respecting data privacy) to sharing news and offers including promotions (such as Mars’ Win2Gether) increases the opportunity to learn even more about even more of your customers.

Enable measurement

With customer data you have the ability to track, measure and evaluate marketing activity as well as brand equity.  A more robust customer database can help with control & test experiments too and benchmark performance over time.

Chris Arnold is Business Development Director at VCG PromoRisk.

Contact: chris@vcgpromorisk.com

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The UK, October 5, 2020: Experian has today launched Experian Match, a new first-to-market solution, underpinned by InfoSum technology, that removes the need for third party-cookies or registration data. It helps publishers of all sizes to protect their advertising revenue regardless of which web browser people use and without the need for publishers to continually share information about their website visitors with advertisers.

The role of third-party cookies to power targeted online advertising has become increasingly marginalised. Many mainstream browsers, including Safari and Firefox, have already moved to disable the use of third-party cookies, amid privacy concerns and a lack of consumer understanding about their use.

The move, however, has had a substantial impact on publishers’ revenue. Publishers have seen a reduction in revenue of 52% on average*, and Google Chrome is set to block cookies altogether by the end of 2021, adding further pressure to the industry.

By using first-party cookies, Experian Match delivers meaningful insights about the likely characteristics of online audiences and helps move the industry away from its reliance on third-party cookies. It reduces the need for unnecessary sharing of personal information, and people can easily indicate their preferences around the sharing of their data with Experian. They will have the opportunity to opt-out at any time. The solution will help people understand online advertising and promote transparency, choice and control.

Colin Grieves, Managing Director of Marketing Services, Experian, said: “Online publishers are already facing increasing pressure on advertising revenue due to existing browsers’ limitations and the challenges associated with scaling user registration.

“This will increase further with the end of third-party cookies, Experian Match is a genuinely new direction for the industry, meeting demands for improvements in consumer transparency, data minimisation and privacy and the way information is collected online. It will also transform the digital marketing space and move it away from deterministic 1-to-1 advertising while maintaining relevant and meaningful audience insights.

“It will provide publishers with a controlled, privacy-by-design solution to understand audiences and maximise revenue, while for advertisers, it offers a scalable solution to engage the right audiences for their products and services. People will have greater confidence in how their data is used, knowing that it will not be continually shared between publishers and advertisers but will be used in a more controlled and secure way.”

Richard Foster, Chief Revenue Officer, InfoSum, said: “The entire advertising industry is on a journey to move from unknown to known audiences in order to future-proof businesses against cookie deprecation and remain relevant for marketers.

“The challenges facing publishers in trying to build authenticated first-party addressable audiences at scale, are extensive. This is why we’re thrilled to be working with Experian to provide publishers with an addressability solution that delivers a scaled solution.

“Powered by InfoSum’s decentralised identity data infrastructure, Experian Match can be a game-changer for digital advertising, enabling publishers to offer advertisers access to their entire audience for the first time, without relying on third-party cookies or requiring a logged-in audience and without physically sharing any data with the advertiser at all. We’re excited to see how this new trusted ecosystem grows in the coming weeks and months.”

One of the first publishers to use Experian Match will be VICE Media Group. Founded in 1994, with 35 offices around the world, it produces 1,700 pieces of content each day though its digital content, news and broadcasting channels.

Paul Davison, VP, Agency Development – International, VICE Media Group, said: “Across the VICE Media Group, we have a global audience of 350 million individuals. However, not all these individuals are logged-in.

“The Match solution from Experian and InfoSum will enable us to offer a greater scale of audience, ensuring we’re future-proofing our ad revenue in a post-cookie world, and help us to engage with brands to deliver tailored audience solutions.

“An important consideration for VICE Media Group was the privacy of our audience and the security of our data. By powering this new solution with InfoSum’s identity infrastructure, those concerns are solved instantly as no data has to be moved between companies.”

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Jo Curtis, Director ad Co-Founder of Jackanory, shares how brands can emotionally engage with consumers in this data driven age.

There’s no doubt that more and more of our lives are becoming automated. From smart phones to smart cars, from music streaming to mobile banking, whether we like it or not, the rise of Automated Intelligence, or AI, is affecting our lifestyles every day.

AI has revolutionized the technology landscape, bringing about huge societal benefits by driving innovation in healthcare, transportation and farming; by creating smart cities and smart homes, undeniably enhancing our day-to-day lives. Rather than stripping people of their jobs, many argue that AI could in fact deliver a boost to the economy by enabling humans to still work but in a more efficient way. It’s no surprise that there’s a continued interest in AI, with budgets being diverted to automated marketing. But those holding the budgets should remember that AI has its limitations. While it works to mimic human intelligence, it’s only one-dimensional; it’s driven by data and algorithms, completely lacking the human feelings that guide our everyday thoughts.

So what does this mean for brands looking to embrace the ever-changing technological landscape while still connecting to their consumers’ hearts as well as minds?

Clearly brands need to balance the increased use of AI with marketing activity that will truly connect with their consumers’ thoughts and feelings, tapping in to emotions that AI simply can’t.

Machines, for all their automated intelligence, data and algorithms, do not and cannot have the complex emotions or moral values that we have as humans. As human beings we’re highly sensitive and emotional intellectuals; we see, hear, think and feel. Surely in this increasingly data-driven, automated world, brands need to work harder to really connect with their consumers on an emotional level? This means working to engage hearts first, then minds, which can be tricky with automated intelligence alone. It requires something more, a means of connecting emotionally through shared experiences, stories, pictures, metaphors. Whether we’re conscious of it or not, we all make decisions emotionally and then justify them rationally. We may not like to think of ourselves operating in this way, but if we want to persuade someone to buy or try something, then we have to first connect with them emotionally, get into their world and find out what makes them tick. When people make purchases, they are motivated by emotion and once they’ve decided emotionally to buy or try something, they’ll grab at any proffered reason to justify it. It’s only once we’ve won them emotionally that we should provide reasons why buying or trying a product or service is a good thing.

So how can brands connect emotionally with consumers in this data-driven age?

We’d argue that experiential marketing – face-to-face interactions, harnessing the power of emotions – is more important than ever. Done well, experiential marketing really can connect with people emotionally and make them think or feel differently, ultimately persuading them to try or buy. The best brand experiences are thought-provoking and engaging, appealing to people’s senses, curiosity and feelings. What’s more, they allow us to tell stories – and it’s these stories that help create emotional connections with consumers – it’s not data, facts or figures. And while we believe that every brand has a story, as individuals we too are constantly collecting stories of our own, seeking out events and experiences that will build memories, create stories and make us feel different in some way.

As Maya Angelou said “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” In a brand marketing context this is backed up in a report by Forrester which states that emotion and the way an experience makes people feel is the number one factor driving brand loyalty, over and above ease and effectiveness. All of which demonstrates that the power of emotion cannot and should not be overlooked.

While AI is undoubtedly making our lives easier in many ways, the power of human emotions shouldn’t be forgotten, particularly for brands who are looking to stay ahead of the curve, build real consumer relationships and long-lasting brand loyalty.  It’s only by connecting with consumers’ emotions, engaging with their hearts first then their minds, that we can truly balance the one-dimensional aspect of AI. Experiential marketing – with its human, face-to-face interactions that engage all the senses, connect on an emotional level and make people really feel something – is surely more important than ever? After all, without feelings, without real human contact and emotional connections, where are we? Who are we?

To paraphrase the famous beer slogan: experiential marketing – reaches the parts AI can’t.

Let’s keep the human connection going.

For more information on how Jackanory can help you, contact Jo Curtis at jo@wearejackanory.com or call 020 7470 8847.

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Nigel Clifton, Head of Creative at N2O, shares his opinion on how to make the most of customer data.

Last year we predicted that a major marketing trend for 2019 would be the increasing sophistication of data collection and use.

Now 2019 is well under way, we thought we’d dig a little deeper. How can data help brands, retailers and agencies deliver a first-class experience for consumers?

First of all, it’s not just about data collection. The analysis and use of collected customer data are just as important.

So let’s look at what’s happening at each point of the data ‘supply chain’:

Get it.

It can be tricky to get consumers to hand over their personal data, but new technologies and techniques are helping marketers collect the detailed and diverse data they need. For instance…

Gamification: We’ve found huge value in the gamification of data collection. We’ve recently begun using new technology to engage shoppers through playful ‘gamified interactions’, where they play on fun, interactive tablets in return for their invaluable data.

Footfall tracking: Smartphone tracking technology can now gather the anonymous smartphone data of shoppers to measure specific audience metrics. For an experiential marketing agency like us, this is ideal for confirming unique footfall, demographics and dwell time at brand events.

Analyse it.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly getting the most out of raw data by analysing it quickly and cleverly.

US grocery chain Earth Fare used AI to improve how it did its promotion planning by helping the retailer ‘analyze the cause-and-effect around promoting any item, during the weeks before and after’. The end result was more effective promotions, leading to a 3% increase in total topline sales.

Use it.

With better data collection and analysis comes a customer experience tailored and targeted to be more relevant, more personal, and therefore more enjoyable – and more profitable.

Imagine a car park that greets you by name, sends you a coupon for your regular coffee shop, and tells you about a sale at your favourite clothes store. The ‘intelligent parking management solution’ of Danish firm Simplyture can do just that.

And so on…

It’s a beautiful circle – show customers you value their data enough to improve their experience, and they’re more likely to share it in the first place. According to a recent study by IGD, half of pre-family shoppers say they’re prepared to share data with supermarkets, in exchange for tailored food and grocery shopping. In a world that’s keen on privacy and wary of big data, that’s a pretty inspiring statistic for marketers.

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Three UK has revealed it could save its customers £187 million* worth of mobile roaming charges if the law changes after Brexit. The announcement is part of the mobile network’s commitment to continue offering roaming benefits following new draft legislation announced this year. The claim “Deal or no deal, our customers will save £187 million in roaming charges. Vote Three” was seen displayed across a bus roaming the streets of London, ahead of the UK due to leave the European Union on 29th March.

In uncertain times, Three pledges to give certainty to its customers. This commitment comes due to the effect Brexit will have on British travellers to Europe, while roaming charges currently governed by EU rules and regulations, continues to be unclear. Prior to the EU Roaming Legislation announced in June 2017, mobile operators could apply excessive roaming charges for those using their phones whilst travelling within the EU. Three was the first network to allow its customers to roam at no extra change, back in 2013. Three’s Go Roam offering now allows its customers to use their phone in over 70 worldwide destinations at no extra cost. 

Dave Dyson, CEO at Three, said: “Three is the global leader in international roaming and now offers roaming at no extra cost for its customers in over 70 destinations including Brazil, Singapore, the US and Australia. We’re committed to eradicating excessive roaming charges and will retain this great customer benefit regardless of Brexit negotiations allowing our customers to continue using their usual allowances when they travel within the EU.”

Alice Beer at Consumer Champion, said: “The ambiguity of Brexit is currently part of everyday life and conversation, and at the moment we simply don’t know the exact impact it will have on the UK. Millions could be charged more to use their mobile phone so Three’s commitment to keep roaming free is a reassuring stance for consumers.”

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Leonie Walker, General Manager at Mando, explains how promotions can be great for learning about your audience and are a tool for your long-term marketing strategies and value propositions.   

Retail distribution is a powerful tool to sell any product whether it is through bricks and mortar or via ever-growing ecommerce sites such as Amazon. Retailers churn out sales and accessibility to customers worldwide but naturally take a margin for doing so. Another major disadvantage is getting to know who your buyers actually are; this integral information typically stops with the retailers.  With personalisation and data the cornerstone to any successful brand strategy, it is imperative we learn as much as can about who is truly buying our products.

We don’t know our buyers in retailers

Whilst there is an abundance of excellent and insightful means to find out more about your potential audience, there is no real means to ascertain who the buyer actually is.  Promotions enable you to learn about your customer on a first name basis in an entirely GDPR compliant fashion.

Capture audiences and take names.

Promotions capture attention, stand out in a crowded environment and boost sales, but what’s often overlooked is their ability to harvest valuable buyer data.

What kind of data can you learn?

Promotions open a gateway to communicate and start a conversation with your buyer. We have seen an increasing number of challenger brands who have been selling great volume of products but are still left in the dark when it comes to knowing their buyer.

• Names
• Email/home address
• Opinions of your product

The possibilities are endless the power lies in your route to entry and the attractiveness of your reward.  Ultimately, it’s what do you want your customer to tell you before completing the specifics and what are you willing to give them for it.

What are the perfect mechanics for learning more?

No size fits all with promotions with varying budgets, brand personalities and consumer wants your mechanic should always be created with that in mind. However, overall every mechanic can act as a means to help you learn more.

From cashbacks and try me frees to general prize giveaways it paves the way for consumer temptation and inclination to tell you more.

Aren’t promotions solely short-term strategies?

Stop thinking promotions are solely short-term strategies. Although they spike sales over the promotional period but they are also immensely helpful to the bigger picture. Through learning more about your audience, you create brand trust and identity all whilst opening up a whole portal of possibility. You create brand to buyer conversations, which facilitate real time thinking.

Your strategy should obsess over your customers and driving value. How can you further benefit your customers, if you haven’t made an effort to know them? Promotions are a gateway to a whole tundra of information and should never be viewed as tactic to deploy in isolation.

Through promotions, it enables you to overcome the barriers of retail distribution, learn more, and lay a foundation for you to propel future marketing strategies.

Mando are continuously adding to their data bank and learning about what customers really want. Their methodology is simple; they start with understanding your customer and then work back to your brand, ensuring they create the right solution for your audience.

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The Mars Agency explores the top trends in shopper marketing for 2019. The recently published report details what we can expect to see this year, including conscious shoppers, intimate innovation, v-comm, online-going offline, tech driving humanisation, a way-point for retailers and reliability tonic.

Click here to read the report.

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bbp explains how brands can create a straightforward tech experience in a few simple steps.

Feeling confused these days? You’re not alone.

Because our senses are under constant assault from data – much more than we’re built to process. It’s the kind of overload that leaves us longing for a breather from the noise, a clear way through the clutter.   

And what do we want? We crave something simple to grab our attention.

A straightforward experience. Genuine, sincere, communication.

Things that take real creative effort for brands.

Because what brands can do is simple. Literally. By becoming more simplified, brands can eliminate the gap between themselves and their customers – and the rewards as considerable.

But don’t take our word for it: New York branding experts, Siegel+Gale have done the number-crunching; their annual World’s Simplest Brands Index analyses the ‘simplest’ publicly traded brands. (The index has grown by 433% since 2009, far outperforming the other major economic indices.)

And it found that simplicity makes sense:

• 61% of consumers are more likely to recommend a brand when it provides simpler experiences and communications
• 62% of employees who can be considered ‘brand champions’ were in companies perceived to be simple
• 64% of consumers were willing to pay more for simpler experiences

And if those figures aren’t enough to stir you into action, the report estimates companies could be missing out on US$86 bn (£69.5 bn) when they don’t simplify.

That’s something that every brand should be aware of, but particularly technology brands, who deal in products that may well be able to transform the world, but often aren’t that easy to explain to lay people. The fact remains: most people don’t need to know the inner workings of a technology product; they just need to know what it does for them.

Which means it makes sense that the more complex the service or industry, the more willing consumers are to pay more for it to be simplified. In fact, according to Siegel+Gale they’re willing to pay up to 40% more for a simpler experience in the tech sector:

“Brands that deliver clear, human and useful experiences—win.”

A more human approach

But it’s about more than just being ‘simple. It’s about introducing a human element that’s all too often missing from B2B technology, but one that’s vitally important.

Because it’s not always easy to articulate complex technology in human speak.

And if you’re a company in an emerging tech sector, you might find the lack of comprehension consumers have of your product means it difficult to market yourself.

Take complicated technology like AI – something that’s hard to explain and can seem a bit scary. But that hasn’t stopped Google – who use AI technology across the majority of their products – becoming the world’s most popular search engine.

Why do they succeed? Because they present their brand in a simple, easy to understand way, cutting out all the forensic details. They don’t need people to understand the inner workings; what’s important is a simple customer experience and brand perception (just look at how clean its home page is). It’s no surprise to find it among the top five simplest brands year on year.

Speaking their language

It’s tempting to think that sometimes a level of complication is justified in that the main users of these products are often developers and engineers.

While that’s undoubtedly true in some cases, it’s worth remembering that the decision-makers who actually buy the products are typically non-tech people, who will only be brought on board with simple, benefit-led language; they’re interested in the bottom line.

So, let’s take another major brand: Salesforce. Over the years, the cloud computing giant have evolved to offer a wide range of services, from CRM software to cloud computing, each packed with hundreds of features.

In that time, its value proposition has changed as well. How do they sum it up?

“We help small and medium business to sell, reach customers, and improve service.”

“Blaze a trail to success, whatever your business size.”

Technically, there’s a lot of complex stuff happening under the hood, but all any company thinking of buying it needs to know is that can help them be more successful – whatever their size.

HubSpot is another great example. Their software helps with a variety of complicated parts of marketing and sales initiatives including SEO, A/B testing, keywords, email tracking and more, but all that detail comes later. Instead they offer:

• “Stop interrupting. Start connecting.”
• “Close more deals with less work.”
• “Stop cold calling. Start closing.”

By simplifying, they’ve found a way to cut through the noise to be noticed by consumers – and make their lives easier.

So, our advice: Familiarise your audience with a strong brand identity that demystifies your sector and recognises a human factor, and you’ll create a great base for success. Simple.

The world of technology is fascinating, but it’s rarely straightforward. As a tech-specialist creative agency, bpp understand this and are specialists at explaining the hard-to-explain. They find your truth. Then they bring it to life in unforgettable ways, engaging your audience and promoting the ways it enhances their world. Technology clients are their real passion. Whether they’re talking FinTech or consumer innovation, to bbp it’s about communicating benefits in a relatable, inventive way.

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Partnerships based on advanced sports analytics can lower costs and open up creative sales promotions opportunities around major sporting events, says Martin Bailey of Opia

Data analytics now dominate the coverage of sport, as broadcasters and journalists gain access to detailed performance statistics used by coaches and bookmakers.

The ever-growing sophistication of sports analytics conducted by powerful algorithms and machine-learning provides instantaneous breakdowns of almost every useful match or career detail, from passes completed, to their direction, length and recipients. Goal-scoring opportunities, yardage covered, cautions incurred on a wet Tuesday – all the data is there along with its analysis.

There are massive benefits for marketers, too: tapping into this data offers brands and agencies the opportunity to run bespoke sports-based promotional campaigns around specific events.

The biggest opportunity in the world

With the FIFA World Cup, the world’s biggest single-sport tournament, looming, retailers and manufacturers will use the unmatched pulling-power of football to boost sales promotions for everything from consumer electronics to cars, fuel and furniture, with cash-for-goals or cashback campaigns relating to wins by the UK home nations.

Sports marketing has been around for decades; but developments in technology and social media have revolutionised opportunities for creativity.

One example is the English Sports Council’s 2015 #ThisGirlCan campaign, which addressed health issues such as obesity after research showed that two million more men than women participated in sports in the UK. In this case, the use of sports analytics was backed up by showing positive, normal women as role models. The resulting video content was viewed and shared over eight million times. Two years later the hashtag is still going strong and women across the country have been inspired to be more active.

Real Madrid recently cemented its position as one of the biggest international football brands by launching its own Snapchat account. In just three months, the club gained almost half a million subscribers.

These sporting organisations used insights derived from data analysis to enable them to engage with fans effectively. They used analytics to segment their fans, estimate customer lifetime values (CLV), generate leads, predict retention of existing fans, and measure performance of marketing activities. All to great effect.

Big sports data is the difference

Until now, the approach used to calculate insurance rates involved in a sports cashback promotion has been based largely on assumptions, loss ratios and subjective form, with bookmaker odds often acting as a base point. This means rates have been historically impacted by cognitive bias (for example the expectation that England will do better than they are actually likely to do in the World Cup) and influenced by a herd mentality on how the rest of the market acts.

As more bets are placed on the home nations the cost to place the bet increases, simply because more bets have been placed. In reality, the underlying conditions have not changed.

Accurate sports data can remove this bias and ensure the most accurate promotional pricing.

Disrupting sport risk promotion market

More recently, we have seen new partnerships disrupt the status quo, for example between consultancies designing customer-grabbing, bold, creative sales promotions and incentives, and the companies supplying the data to the sport and betting industries. Sales promotion strategies are now crafted from these advanced data-sets, reflecting the reality on the pitch and not the sudden enthusiasms or group-think of the betting market.

Now, insurance underwriters can see that the consultancy has designed a sports risk promotion based on hard, detailed and thoroughly-analysed data from sports risk companies.

The significant advantage to retailers and manufacturers in all this is that premiums become lower. It means that far more companies can undertake the kind of creative promotions they have hitherto only considered as fantasy football items on a wish-list marketing plan.

Creativity and expertise in promotion-design

Promotions can be quirky and distinctive, but they need to be easily understood so that the ordinary consumer feels included. It would be too easy to use the wealth of big data analysis to come up with a promotion that appeals to a relatively narrow band of devoted fans.

A cashback offer that rewards a consumer buying a high-value washing machine for every goal scored by a high-profile team or player is more likely to hit the right demographic than one related to the number of bookings achieved by players with poor disciplinary records. This is an obvious example, but it is all too easy to get it wrong and end up with a costly flop or a promotion that over-achieves and leads to higher-than-expected levels of redemption and very high costs. This is where access to consultancies with the creativity and long experience of running such campaigns, is a pre-requisite.

Retailers and OEMs must launch their promotions now

In fact, the science of promotions has been operational for a decade, using predictive analytics and specialist underwriting guarantees to ensure that the promotion hits the back of the net without the retailer or manufacturer ending up out-of-pocket. Ordinarily, the downside of not being able to predict how many customers will take up the offer would be the risk of the promotion lingering on a firm’s balance sheet, as well as the potential financial risks if the promotion was more popular than anticipated.

Now, however, end-to-end management of risk-managed promotions with a sports hook has been taken to the next level of performance through the application of big data sports analytics. This heightened level of big data insight, combined with the creative expertise and flair of a risk-backed sales promotion consultancy is an unbeatable pairing. It will enable any retailer or manufacturer to stand out from the crowd and achieve far greater revenues than competitors when the World Cup comes round. The tournament is however, approaching fast and organisations need to grasp the opportunity now. It should be a great summer.

Martin Bailey is an Account Director with creative sales promotion consultancy Opia. Opia has recently partnered exclusively with sports risk experts Siepe Sports, who specialise in the provision of sports analytics data to the insurance industry, to enhance the assessment of risk levels in sports-related promotions.

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