Happy's marketing news - 14.07.17
It’s been a busy week in the marketing world, here’s what has caught our eye!
New research suggests that entrepreneurs under the age of 25 could contribute an additional £23.3bn to the UK economy by 2025. The study for Barclays Business Banking also found that a third of North West school children (8-16) wanted to set up their own business, with a fifth of these looking at digital. At the same time though, only six per cent of the UK’s start-ups are run by entrepreneurs aged 25 and under. Barclays believes direct investment needs to be made in education, to help and nurture young people’s skills and to encourage entrepreneurialism. When it came specifically to digital, many said they wanted to work in this sector, citing vlogging, app building or video game design as examples. More than half (57%) of 8-16 year olds can blog; 36% can code; 38% can build apps and 23% say they can build websites.
George Osborne has warned the ad industry that it must not be afraid to make its voice heard in Government during the Brexit negotiations or risk losing out as the issues of more vocal industries rise to the top of the agenda. The former Chancellor, who is now editor of the Evening Standard, said there is “no shame” in speaking out because other industries such as finance, farming and car manufacturing will be “at the table making sure their concerns are properly understood and taken into consideration”. The Ad Association has done some big research in recent years into the impact the industry has on the UK economy. This includes that for every £1 spent on advertising, £6 is generated for the economy and that it generates £4bn in exports annually.
A British-based company that made smartphones costing thousands of pounds will be liquidated after a plan to save it failed. Vertu was known for its high-end, jewel-encrusted handsets, but recently faced financial difficulties. One technology analyst said Vertu would have faced competition from companies offering to customise other smartphones with precious materials. Vertu phones carry hefty price tags – its Signature range starts at £11,100, and one model featuring 18-carat red gold costs £39,100.
Facebook is rolling out ads in its Messenger app globally as it looks to offer advertisers more ways to reach consumers beyond its core social network. The move comes after what Facebook says have been “promising tests” in Australia and Thailand. The rollout means any advertisers, large or small, will be able to buy ads that appear in the app, which has 1.2 billion users globally. “We’ll now offer businesses around the world a way to use Facebook targeting to extend their reach to people in Messenger,” says Facebook in a blog post.
Winter has come. In the weeks leading up to the new season premiere of popular HBO TV series Game of Thrones (GoT), brands are putting their creative hats on by leveraging on the show to engage consumers through the launch of out-of-home (OOH) activations and online advertisements. Some even went as far as to plan a bakery launch and a class for “High Valyrian”, a language specially created for the TV show! Read the full story here.
