Happy's marketing news - 04.08.17
It’s been a busy week in the marketing world, here’s what has caught our eye!
Emailing has held on to the top spot as the most common internet activity in Britain, despite the continued rise of social media, a survey has found. Some 82% of adults say they most often use the web for email, the Office for National Statistics reported – a rise of three percentage points since 2016. Finding information on goods and services came second, at 71%, followed by social networking at 66%. Internet use on mobile devices also continues to rise, the ONS said. The findings are part of an annual survey of internet habits, covering more than 2,500 respondents across Great Britain, which found people were using the internet more for a range of everyday activities. It suggested the proportion reading online news or magazines this year was up four percentage points at 64%, and had tripled since 2007.
Morrisons is relaunching the supermarket brand Safeway as part of a deal with convenience retailer McColl’s in a move that positions it even further into wholesale. Under the deal, Morrisons will supply the high-street chain’s 1,300 shops and 350 newsagents with Safeway branded own-label food and drink products. McColl’s will have one year of exclusivity for the brand with Morrisons then potentially looking to distribute Safeway branded products to other convenience retailers. McColl’s will be hoping the Safeway brand will give its business a boost after pre-tax profits fell from £8.2m to £4.5m in the first half of the year after its bottom line was hit by a deal to acquire 300 Co-op stores.
Ryanair customers will soon be able to use their voices to search for and book flights and hotels as the budget airline introduces Alexa voice recognition. Speaking at a press conference today (2 August) the airline’s CMO Kenny Jacobs said the changes form part of its ‘Always Getting Better’ customer experience programme as it looks to become the “Amazon of travel”. At first, the functionality will only be available on Ryanair.com, but Jacobs told Marketing Week that it plans to introduce voice recognition to its MyRyanair app as well. Some 24 million people have downloaded the app since it was first launched in 2014. It is also planning to add a chatbot to provide customer service.
BBC Sport is undergoing a rebrand ahead of the Premier League season, including a new logo and graphics. The BBC Sport website has an updated yellow colour and the new “Reith” font, which has been developed for the entire BBC operation. The first television programme to showcase the rebrand will be Football Focus on August 12th, following by Final Score and Match of the Day. The BBC said the intention was to create a “more uniform approach” across television and digital platforms.
KFC’s ‘The Whole Chicken’ ad featuring a confident chicken strutting her stuff to ‘X Gon’ Give It To Ya’ by DMX is facing the possibility of an investigation by the ad regulator after it received more than 250 complaints about the TV and poster campaign. The Advertising Standards Authority says the complaints have focused on a number of aspects of the campaign. These include that the depiction of chickens is “offensive and distressing” for vegetarians, vegans and children and that is is “misleading” because it features a healthy, older looking chickens that complainants believe misrepresent the age, quality and living conditions of KFC chickens.
