Here is our round up of the news stories and industry articles that caught our eye during October.


How to time your marketing effectively in the run-up to Christmas

This Christmas is set to be very different from the last, so to execute effective advertising campaigns brands must plan to peak at the right times, when consumers are most engaged with relevant content.

After a Christmas like no other in 2020, when much of the country was under lockdown, marketers need to be alert to consumer trends when planning their festive online advertising this year.

Most advertisers would once have planned their Christmas campaigns in a similar way each year. But times have changed. Consumer behaviour is still being strongly influenced by the pandemic, as well as nationwide supply shortages in numerous sectors, and advertisers must take all this into account.

Read the article in Marketing Week.

We mean green campaign

Last week a revamp, albeit a temporary one, of the British Rail double arrow logo caused a stir in the design press and on social media. CR speaks to Studio Blackburn, the team behind the update, to get an insight into the project and how they felt about the reaction

The objective was simple: grow awareness that rail is the greenest form of public transport and “demonstrate how rail is supporting the government to achieve its net-zero carbon goal, making the case for investment in decarbonising the railway”.

Read the article in Creative Review

Innovate UK is offering £14.4 million in funding for “healthy ageing” designs

UK businesses can apply for a share of up to £2 million of the fund, to support initiatives that have been co-designed with older people.

Innovate UK has launched a fund worth £14.4 million to support initiatives that encourage healthy ageing through service design.

The Designed for Ageing funding competition is part of a wider push by Innovate UK parent organisation UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), called the Healthy Ageing Challenge. The challenge has been developed to help businesses and social enterprises to create “products and services to help people as they age”, according to UKRI.

Read the article in Design Week

October 2021 news roundup

‘We’re creating a category’: Why Sky is investing in its biggest ever marketing campaign for Sky Glass

As it becomes an aggregator of competitor content, Sky’s new streaming TV is creating a whole new product category, marketing director Sunny Bhurji says.

Identified as a “game changer” for the brand, Sky has unveiled its biggest ever marketing campaign to promote its latest product innovation, Sky Glass.

Sky Glass is the brand’s first television and is being touted as the world’s first “streaming TV”. The device will stream content entirely over the internet, with no satellite dish or box, and is the first to be certified as a carbon neutral product.

Read the article in Marketing Week.

October 2021 news roundup

New show at the Design Museum celebrates the life and work of Terence Conran

The exhibition opens on what would have been the 90th birthday of the influential designer and Habitat founder, accompanied by a book written by Deyan Sudjic.

One of the most influential designer-entrepreneurs of his generation, Sir Terence Conran, who died last year, was a champion of design education and the creative industries in the UK throughout his life.

Opening to mark what would have been Conran’s 90th birthday, the Design Museum in London is celebrating the memory of its founder by looking back at his accomplishments, from early furniture designs, to influential restaurants and the establishment of Habitat.

Read the article in Creative Review.

Diageo warns ‘quality of reach’ is becoming ‘incredibly challenging’

The fact consumers are no longer “wrapped around the monoculture of television” presents a real problem for advertisers, according to Diageo’s global marketing effectiveness director Kiel Peterson, who believes personalisation backed by data will be key.

Speaking at the IPA’s Effworks Global 2021 event this morning (12 October), Diageo’s global marketing effectiveness director Kiel Peterson said the pandemic has created a conundrum for brands, as “quality of reach” is now going to be “incredibly challenging” as consumer behaviour has shifted dramatically.

Read the article in Marketing Week.

October 2021 news roundup

ROI on media spend highest when ’40-50% spent online’

Online is not “the enemy” of marketing effectiveness, says econometrician Dr Grace Kite, as analysis reveals the optimum budget split for UK brands is 55% offline, 45% online.

Advertisers outside of the awards circuit are seeing the success of their campaigns increase when media investment is divided between online and offline media, with revenue per £1 spent highest when 40-50% of the budget is spent online.

Read the article in Marketing Week.

How UEFA’s Euro 2024 identity represents the “real-life variety” of football fans

The VMLY&R design team talks us through the tournament identity and its “typeface without borders”, which was crafted with inclusivity in mind.

The identity for UEFA Euro 2024 was revealed last week at Berlin’s Olympiastadion – marking a “new era” for the tournament, according to VMLY&R creative director Hélder Pombinho.

Read the article in Design Week.

October 2021 news roundup

Mel D Cole’s powerful photos of American protest

The photographer switched his focus from the hip-hop scene to the Black Lives Matter movement last year in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. Now, he’s turned his series into a book.

Mel D Cole started shooting music on a disposable camera back in 2001. The New York-based, self-taught photographer has since established himself as one of hip-hop’s most accomplished and celebrated photographers.

Read the article in Creative Review.

Almost half of marketers plan to recruit staff over the next three months

Plans to expand staffing levels have now been recorded for three successive quarters, signalling progressively stronger conviction in employment growth expectations.

After making substantial cuts to their marketing departments over the course of the pandemic, the number of marketers planning to make new hires over the next three months has once again grown, according to data gathered exclusively for Marketing Week.

In fact, almost half (47%) of respondents to the IPA Bellwether report say they plan to recruit additional staff over the next three months, compared with just under 8% anticipating job losses at their firms.

Read the article in Marketing Week.