Jonathon Bright

Marketing bodies welcome delay of Google’s third-party cookie ban.

Organizations representing the marketing sector applaud Google for delaying the blocking of third-party cookies until at least the second half of 2024 and urge advertisers to “use this time wisely.”

Since the ban was first announced in 2020, Google has postponed it twice. It was first postponed to late 2023 in June of last year from when it was originally scheduled to go into force in January of this year.

Read the article in Marketing Week.

HP leans into the hybrid working debate

One of the more unexpected results of the Covid-19 pandemic is the change in office working for many, and the debates that have accompanied this change.

A tongue-in-cheek campaign shows the joys of flexible life compared to office based working.

Read the article in Creative Review.

V&A has announced its programme for the London Design Festival

The V&A has unveiled its schedule for the 20th London Design Festival (LDF), which includes a live glassblowing workshop and a 3D-printed sculpture constructed from marine plastic trash.

The V&A will serve as the festival’s official hub for the 13th consecutive year and house eleven exhibits and installations made by designers around the globe. Each piece will reflect the concept of “transformation” and was specially commissioned for LDF.

Read the article in Design Week.

William Hill preps for winter World Cup

With a new campaign aimed at generating enthusiasm before the World Cup in November, the bookmaker hopes to build upon its “solid roots.”

With a new corporate logo and a 360-degree campaign that celebrated sports fans’ “coming together” post-Covid, last year was William Hill’s “largest” year yet for marketing.

Read the article in Marketing Week.

Tabasco unveils a spicy new visual identity

The history of Tabasco sauce by McIlhenny Company is illustrious. Edmund McIlhenny established the company in 1868 on Avery Island in Louisiana, where he also created the original red hot pepper sauce recipe.

The business is still run and owned by a family on Avery Island. The crew aboard NASA’s space shuttles and Queen Elizabeth are just two of its many admirers.

Read the article in Creative Review.

British Gas’s brand health worsens as profits swell

Although British Gas’ parent firm Centrica announced a five-fold increase in operating earnings last month, new data shows that the brand’s health is actually declining over time as customers struggle with the escalating energy crisis.

British Gas’s index score among its own customers, which is a gauge of overall brand health, fell 16 points between January 1 and August 1 of this year, from a score of 17.9 to 1.9, according to YouGov’s BrandIndex tool.

Read the article in Marketing Week.

‘Path of least resistance’: How consumer spending behaviour is adapting to inflation

According to research that Kantar provided exclusively with Marketing Week, while 47% of consumers have reduced or anticipate to reduce their overall spending as a result of inflation this year, shoppers are also determined to prevent any significant changes to their present lifestyles.

According to Kantar, consumers will really accept 75% of price hikes for groceries or clothing rather than forego the item completely.

Read the article in Marketing Week.

V&A East seeks consultancy to design its brand identity

The design of The V&A East’s brand identity is the subject of a tender that will cost between £50,000 and £100,000 to complete.

The chosen design firm will be tasked with creating tangible and digital brand touchpoints for both V&A East locations, the V&A East Museum and the V&A East Storehouse, which will open at Here East in 2024. (opening on the Stratford Waterfront in 2025). The brand rules for both visual and non-visual media are included.

Read the article in Design Week.

Deliveroo pulls back on marketing spend as inflation softens demand

Deliveroo pulled back on marketing spend over the second quarter of 2022, as the impact the cost of living crisis is having on consumer spending became more apparent.

According to the online food delivery company, growth slowed sequentially in the second quarter compared to the first, with gross transaction value (GTV) growth in constant currency terms down from 12% in Q1 to 2% in Q2. GTV reached £3.6bn for the first half.

Read the article in Marketing Week.

Is it time for “a revolution” in packaging symbols?

It is quite evident that when it comes to recycling, we are experiencing a communication crisis. Customers are left in the dark by current systems, trying to make sense of confusing word, picture, and colour combinations. People simply aren’t aware of what can be recycled or how to properly dispose of packaging.

The laws differ in every county and every region. There are variously coloured trash cans, and while some recyclers accept mixed rubbish, others only accept specific items. Additionally, if you are one of the fortunate ones to have access to this facility in your community, you might need to travel to particular supermarkets or stores to recycle a particular sort of packaging.

Read the article in Design Week.

To Have & To Hold collects the best paper bag designs of the last century

This rare collection of paper bags, gathered by Tim Sumner and released as a zine, is exquisitely straightforward and simply stunning. It provides a glimpse into design fads from bygone times.

Designer Tim Sumner was introduced to the UCLan Ephemeral Archive by his professor Andy Bainbridge about ten years ago when he was wrapping up his studies at the University of Central Lancashire. The archive rescues and preserves often transient items including posters, pamphlets, and packaging.

Read the article in Design Week.

Advertising breaks on UK television could become longer

The length and frequency of commercial breaks on UK television may increase as Ofcom evaluates the broadcasting regulations.

The regulator is looking at the “complex” regulations that establish limits for public service broadcasters that are “stricter than the norms set for commercial broadcasters” and that determine the frequency and duration of broadcast TV advertising.

According to current regulations, ITV1 and Channel 5 are only allowed to air an average of seven minutes of commercials every hour of programming on any given day. Other networks, however, are permitted up to nine minutes during primetime.

Read the article in Marketing Week.

Penguin announces 2022 Cover Design Award winners

Penguin is well known for its book covers and there is strong rivalry for its honours. Adult Fiction, Adult Non-Fiction, and Children’s are the three categories for this year, and competitors are asked to reimagine the covers for books by Bernardine Evaristo, Dara McAnulty, and Robin Stevens.

This year, the publisher accepted everyone interested in becoming a designer, regardless of their level of higher education, and got over 1,500 entries (previously those entering were required to be studying on a further education or higher education course).

Read the article in Creative Review.

IPO releases design protection review findings

In response to a request for feedback on the UK designs framework, the government’s comments have been made public by the Intellectual Property Office (IPO).

The UK’s present system for protecting designs is known as the Design Framework, or “designs systems,” as the IPO also refers to it. In the aftermath of the UK’s decision to leave the European Union, this has been under review (EU).

The conclusions come after a two-month informal consultation that took place from January to March and during which the government requested evidence-based solutions to queries regarding the present system. The poll examined issues including the system’s complexity, the effectiveness of the user experience, and the importance of intellectual property rights.

Read the article in Design Week.

Uber’s brand takes hit following damning leak

Since the release of the Uber files, a global investigation of the aggressive expansion strategies used by the taxi-hailing industry between 2013 and 2017, the reputation of Uber has suffered.

Uber broke the law, secretly lobbied governments, and offered shares to media moguls in order to sway favourable coverage as it pursued the disruption of the world taxi market, according to the more than 124,000 confidential documents that were leaked to the Guardian by the company’s former chief lobbyist in Europe, Mark MacGann.

Read the article in Marketing Week.

Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games Royal Mail stamps

A set of eight stamps from the Royal Mail have been released to support the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.

Find out more in Design Week.

Why typography still packs a punch when it comes to protest

San Francisco exhibition Strikethrough: Typographic Messages of Protest aims to “chart a typographic chant of resistance” through mixing the histories of dissent and graphic design.

Read the article in Creative Review.

The cost of living crisis and consumer confidence

As the price of food and fuel rises and interest rates skyrocket, the “financial tone of the country” is “darken[ed], and consumer confidence continues to deteriorate, stagnating at a historically low level.”

According to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), inflation reached a fresh 40-year high last month, rising to 9.4%, while data from Kantar showed food price inflation at 9.9% in June.

Read the article in Marketing Week.

Gérard DuBois takes V&A Illustration Awards 22 top prize

The V&A Illustration Awards, now in their 50th year, showcase some of the best work being produced in the publishing industry, focusing on both journalism and illustrations for books and book covers. The award’s student division selects some of the most talented young people.

For his acrylic paintings done for the Folio Society’s special edition of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, French illustrator Gérard DuBois won the Moira Gemmill Illustrator of the Year Prize and the Book Illustration Award for 2022. Numerous children’s books as well as magazines, including the New York Times, have included DuBois’ illustrations.

Read the article in Creative Review.

B2B marketers in the UK are ‘cautiously optimistic’ about the future of creativity.

While data shows that B2B marketers still lack creative confidence and are concerned about hiring talent, a “paradigm shift” is motivating the business to improve its narrative skills.

When it comes to their firms’ capacity to generate innovative advertising, B2B marketers in the UK have the lowest confidence.

According to recent data from LinkedIn, 59 percent of B2B marketing leaders in the UK feel that creative confidence is rising, the lowest percentage among the 13 nations studied. The percentage is 82 percent on average over the world.

Read the article in Marketing Week.

Tropic Skincare’s new typeface is designed for dyslexic readers

Tropic Skincare has updated its logo to include a new dyslexic-reader-friendly typeface after learning that customers were having trouble reading its website and messaging.

Lewis Moberly, who has worked with the company for a long time, was entrusted with creating a new typeface without dramatically altering the brand’s identity. “We were given the challenge of giving Tropic their own custom typeface that would be far more accessible to dyslexic readers,” explains the studio’s creative director Emily Fox.

Read the article in Design Week.

What role should photographers play at protests?

Jeremy Jeffs has spent years photographing a wide range of protests and feels that photographers are essential in recording the changing status of democracy and keeping authority accountable.

You pick the movement, and photographer Jeremy Jeffs has probably shot one of its protests. Pro-Brexit, anti-Brexit, Black Lives Matter (BLM), climate change, anti-vax — you name it, and Jeremy Jeffs has probably photographed one of its rallies. “I’d started during Brexit, and shot a piece centred solely in Parliament Square simply looking at the identity of a large diversity of various demonstrations happening.”

Read the article in Creative Review.

North England and Wales have the fastest-growing design economies

According to a recent analysis, Wales and the north east and north west of England were among the UK’s fastest expanding economic areas for the design sector over the previous decade.

The findings were published by the Design Economy, a study initiative run by the Design Council that looks into the value of design in the UK.

Read the article in Design Week.

Exploring the work of ‘secret photographer’ Vivian

A new exhibition in Milton Keynes looks at the legacy of a pioneering 20th century street photographer from New York and Chicago, whose large collection of photos went unnoticed for the most of her life.

Read the article in Creative Review.

Royal Mail to commemorate 50 years of UK Pride

The eight colourful stamps, which go on sale on July 1, will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the UK’s first Pride rally, which is well known for taking place in 1972 from London’s Trafalgar Square to Hyde Park. For the occasion, Royal Mail hired NB Studio, who then art-directed gay British artist Sofie Birkin to use her vivid drawings to capture the theme of “A March Through Time.” Then, London-based animation studio Animade brought the series to life.

The purpose of the project was to honour each decade of Pride, from the protest meetings that took place fifty years ago to the current day when it is viewed as a significant event.

Read the article in Creative Boom.

Robinsons and Wimbledon end 86 year partnership

One of the longest-running sports sponsorship agreements has come to an end with Robinsons and Wimbledon calling it quits after over 90 years of working together.

The 86-year-old association between the tennis competition and the brand owned by Britvic was officially ended today. Since the 1930s, the squash has been almost exclusively associated with Wimbledon.

Read the article in Marketing Week.

Norwich City’s rebrand pays homage to the region’s history of weaving

According to the studio’s chief creative director Rich Rhodes, the redesign was motivated by the plot of The Strangers. The Strangers, a group of Dutch immigrants, came in Norwich in the sixteenth century. The arrival also brought the equipment and know-how necessary to solidify the city’s position as a leader in the textile sector.

Canaries that the Strangers brought would sing to them while they worked, creating an enduring bond between the birds and the city. Breeding canaries became a well-liked hobby, and Norwich City FC finally adopted the moniker “The Canaries” in the early 1900s.

Read the article in Design Week.

‘It’s about long-term value’: How brands are tackling effectiveness measurement

According to marketing executives at WW (formerly Weight Watchers) and Salesforce, all marketing performance measures must “ladder up to long-term value” and include the “whole picture.”

Their remarks come after the Data and Marketing Association (DMA) released research indicating a drop in marketing performance since 2020, as well as a “perplexing” over-reliance on campaign delivery metrics rather than actual brand and reaction indicators.

“[Every measure] has to ladder up to the long-term value of those customers you’re bringing in, how much you’re spending, the effectiveness of that channel, and ultimately, what it actually means,” said Tony Miller, WW’s vice-president of growth and performance marketing and chair of the DMA awards committee.

Read the article in Marketing Week.

Methane-capturing cow collar and chemical-free textile scoop Terra Carta top prize

The winners of the inaugural Terra Carta Design Lab include a methane-capturing collar for cows and a chemical-free outdoor performance cloth.

The design lab is a partnership between the Royal College of Art (RCA), Jony Ive, and Prince Charles’ Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI), which seeks low-cost, high-impact solutions to environmental issues.

Read the article in Design Week.

Channel 4: Advertisers are ‘right to be worried’ about privatisation

Advertisers and agencies are “right to be worried” about the impact of Channel 4’s unique content, viewership, and competition for advertising dollars, according to the broadcaster.

Last month, top marketers from Boots, Zoopla, Phoenix Group, and Little Moons agreed that the government’s contentious move to privatise Channel 4 was “worrying,” with some fearful that its “bold and adventurous” schedule would be lost.

ISBA’s director general, Phil Smith, expressed unhappiness with the decision, citing a lack of competition among TV sales companies in the UK. He believes that any merger of Channel 4, ITV, and Sky’s three advertising sales houses might result in “undue control” in the industry.

Read the article in Marketing Week.

Biodegradable Covid testing kit seeks to address plastic waste problem

Morrama, an industrial design company, has unveiled a prototype for a biodegradable and recyclable COVID-19 testing kit that aims to reduce the environmental effect of current tests.

The Eco-Flo kit was created using sustainable materials and with the goal of making it more accessible to individuals with impairments.

“Face masks, lateral flow tests, and sanitizer bottles have all been made of plastic,” explains Morrama creator and design director Jo Barnard. “Active testing has been and will continue to be an important component of living with COVID-19 as new COVID-19 variations emerge.”

Read the article in Design Week.

Dr. Martens: Brands need the confidence to constantly ‘reframe’ themselves

Dr. Martens’ global brand marketing manager Janine Hearn-Odell recently stated that brands should have enough faith in their mission to continually “reframe” themselves based on how their customers interact with it.

She said today (17 May) on a panel at Advertising Week Europe that this is critical to driving brand relevance in society, and that marketers should regard their connections with customers as a “partnership.” Trends in how customers utilise a product, for example, should evolve naturally rather than being generated by the brand.

Read the article in Marketing Week.

Consumer confidence collapses

Consumer confidence has dropped once again, with more “bad news” on the way as inflation soars and unemployment in the UK reaches a 50-year low.

In May, the GfK Consumer Confidence Barometer reported a headline score of -40, the lowest since records started in 1974 and a 2% drop from the previous month.

This suggests that consumer confidence is worse now than it was during the global financial crisis’ “darkest days.” Previously, the lowest score was -39, which was recorded in July 2008.

Read the article in Marketing Week.

Pret’s former marketing boss on the secrets of a growth mindset

Brands pursuing growth may want to start by examining several paths to success, such as distribution, innovation, and a shift in posture.

Former Green & Black’s and Pret marketing boss Mark Palmer – who is now cofounder of drinks brands Cawston Press and LA Brewery Kombucha – shared lessons from his nearly three decades in marketing, from opting for premiumization to allowing innovation to breathe, at the Festival of Marketing Leadership Summit yesterday.

Read the article in Marketing Week.

Will design studios embrace the four-day work week?

The long-awaited four-day work week appears to be gaining traction. A reduced working week will be trialled by 3,000 workers throughout the UK next month. Employees from various businesses were chosen for the six-month study, which was organised by a UK think tank and researchers from Cambridge University, Oxford University, and Boston College.

Read the article in Design Week.

Design Council asks the public to take part in designing future train stations

The Design Council and Network Rail are launching the next phase of their initiative to reimagine the country’s railway stations by allowing the public to try out potential designs in virtual reality.

In the United Kingdom, there are around 2,000 small and medium train stations. Network Rail is now making an appeal to the British public, urging them to participate actively in a comprehensive programme that will result in the redesign of the majority of them.

Read the article in Design Week.

Beer company’s ‘misleading’ April Fools promotion sparks 40 complaints within hours

Bier Company’s April Fool’s Day campaign has backfired, with the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) receiving at least 40 complaints within hours of the joke being disclosed.

Customers of the Bier Company were duped into believing they had won a long-running monthly competition to obtain a ‘black card,’ which grants them a free lifelong membership to the ‘Bier Club.’

Read the article in Marketing Week.

This folding charger concept is designed to reduce electronic waste

Blond, a London-based design company, has unveiled a folding charger prototype that tries to alleviate the tech industry’s rising problem of electrical waste.

Instead of discarding the Fold multi-purpose charger when it became obsolete, people could repair and improve it. The disposal of chargers is a major issue. According to the European Commission, obsolete and underused chargers generate 11,000 tonnes of electrical trash each year.

Read the article in Design Week.

‘Don’t stalk, inspire’: why brands are failing to build long-term relationships

Sir John Hegarty argues that the growth of digital technology has led to firms’ fixation with “stalking” rather than “inspiring” consumers, which is affecting their capacity to form long-term partnerships.

He remarked today (7 April) at the World Federation of Advertisers’ Global Marketer Week that businesses have gotten “overawed” by technology and are unsure what to do with it. “Am I a brand that stalks or am I a brand that inspires?” he told marketers, emphasising that the greatest way to inspire is to be innovative.

Read the article in Marketing Week.

Morphy Richards rebrands to honour “the tension of form and function”

Morphy Richards’ branding has been updated by London consultancy Otherway in an attempt to break through the “sea of sameness” in the household electrics industry.

In 1936, product engineer Donal Morphy and his company partner Charles Richards co-founded Morphy Richards. Since then, the firm has expanded its product line to include anything from kettles to toasters and coffee makers.

Read the article in Design Week.

Four in ten marketers expect recruitment ‘boost’ over next three months

Over half of marketers (54.1%) anticipate their firms’ employment numbers will stay the same in the coming quarter, while just 7.1 percent expect job losses.

Despite the effects of inflation and the Ukraine crisis on businesses, marketers predict a “strong” recruiting outlook over the next three months.

According to IPA Bellwether research obtained specifically for Marketing Week, nearly four out of ten (38.8%) marketers have “strong plans” to increase employment inside their company.

Read the article in Marketing Week.

Jodrell Bank’s new visual identity hopes to inspire a “sense of awe”

Johnson Banks, a London-based design firm, has created a new corporate identity for Jodrell Bank, the research centre and observatory that houses the Lovell Telescope.

The University of Manchester presently owns and manages the Cheshire-based observatory, which was founded nearly 75 years ago. The Lovell Telescope, created by Bernard Lovell in the 1950s and previously the world’s biggest steerable radio telescope, is the centrepiece.

Read the article in Design Week.

Jason Chuang taps into buried emotions in his dreamlike illustrations

He used to go to a weekly painting class as a kid and soak up the stories his teacher told the students. Drawing in class made him uncomfortable, and he frequently left with “untouched blank paper” but a mind full of ideas. He moved on to study illustration in further education after producing drawings based on Naruto or Twilight in high school, and just graduated with an MA at the Royal College of Art in London.

Now that he is a working artist and illustrator, he refuses to compromise his style and consciously avoids using a formula in his work. “I prefer to think of each work as a fresh challenge, a new frontier for me.” It’s terrifying, thrilling, and sometimes painful, and I have to hold off on doing what I know would work when things don’t work out, but the payout is far more precious to me this way, so I’d rather trust the unknown and avoid following a pattern.

Read the article in Creative Review.

M&S, P&O, Morrisons: Everything that matters this morning

Marks and Spencer’s “Fresh Market Update” customer campaign has been revived, with the goal of highlighting the importance of British Select farmers in the company’s quality, value, and freshness.

Between April and September this year, 62 distinct commercials will be shown on television, as well as direct mail, emails, social media, and local Facebook groups.

Read the article in Marketing Week.

Meta and Google block ads from Russian state media

Meta, the owner of Facebook, is banning advertisements from Russian state media globally in an effort to “demonetize” their accounts.

According to Reuters, Google has also barred Russia Today and other Russian state-owned media outlets from earning money for advertisements on their websites, apps, and YouTube videos. YouTube has announced that it is “pausing” the ability of a number of channels to monetize the platform, as well as prohibiting Russian state-funded media outlets from using its ad technology to generate income on their own websites and applications.

Read the article in Marketing Week.

The Design Innovation Network hopes to put design at the forefront of innovation

A new UK-based network has launched to bring designers, innovators and business leaders closer together.

The Design Innovation Network (DIN) was developed by government agency Innovate UK KTN to guarantee that design is integrated into innovation processes rather than treated as an afterthought.

According to DIN leader and KTN director of design Abigail Hird, the new project would encourage “innovators,” such as established firms and start-ups, to embrace design as part of the development process.

Read the article in Design Week.

Just Eat on ‘clear path to profitability’ after 85% rise in marketing spend

Just Eat believes it will achieve greater profitability this year and beyond by driving “solid growth” throughout the epidemic and significantly increasing brand spending.

From €369 million (£224 million) in 2020 to €684 million (£570 million) in 2021, the meal delivery service boosted its worldwide marketing spend by 85 percent. This is the second year in a row that the company has significantly boosted its marketing spending, with a 158 percent rise between 2019 and 2020.

In addition to marketing, the corporation spent heavily in “historically underinvested heritage areas” in order to “reposition” the company for online share increases, as well as growing its delivery and restaurant network.

Read the article in Marketing Week.

“You can’t be silent”: how designers are rallying in Ukraine

Ukraine is going through an extremely difficult time. There’s a war in my beloved country. But all Ukrainians unite and help each other.

The creative industry is no exception. Just as graphic artists created posters during the Second World War, Ukrainian designers and creatives are fighting Russian misinformation and conveying our messages to the West. Many of us are doing this while sitting in shelters and basements. Including me.

Read the article in Design Week.

War in Ukraine: How brands are responding

The list of businesses that refuse to do business with Russia is expanding by the day. Following mounting customer backlash, a number of companies, including McDonald’s and Coca-Cola, have ceased business in Ukraine and publicly denounced the attack on Ukraine.

Advertisers in the region are likewise reducing their ad spending. Three out of four global brand owners have shifted, decreased, or cut advertising spending in Russia since the invasion began, according to a study by the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) of 31 global brand owners totalling $43 billion (£32.7 billion) in global ad spend.

Read the article in Marketing Week.

The emotional power of typography

For the past decade or so, Sarah Hyndman has been investigating how typography affects us, conducting tests and research on its impact on our moods and senses, and proving how letterforms have capabilities far beyond intelligibility.

Hyndman, a designer and creator of the Type Tasting company, wrote The Type Taster: How Fonts Influence You in 2015, and her enthusiasm for the topic hasn’t dimmed since then. She’s now devised an imaginative new ‘show’ of sorts, with the support of an Arts Council funding, but one that arrives to you in a little box.

Read the article in Creative Review.

Ace & Tate has created a sunglasses campaign… that doesn’t include any shades.

It’s a risky move for an eyeglasses company to develop an ad campaign with no specs or sunglasses, but the result is surprisingly evocative. It shows pleasingly unretouched images of people with their eyes screwed up when they’re caught in a beam of sunshine, along with the simple tagline: Bring on the sun.

Read the article in Creative Review.

Counter-Print delves into the process of creating logos.

Process: Visual Journeys in Graphic Design (Second Edition) is a new book from British art and design publisher Counter-Print that explores “the seldom exhibited sketching and process underlying the production of marks and logotypes.”

Process, based on the work of BankerWessel, a Swedish graphic design firm, investigates fourteen of the studio’s projects, including over 1,500 sketches and notes that provide a unique glimpse into the creative process.

Read the article in Design Week.

McDonald’s new loyalty scheme has ‘exceeded expectations’ as digital sales jump

According to McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempcziski, the fast food chain’s global loyalty scheme has been the “single biggest driver of digital adoption” and is on its way to becoming the world’s largest loyalty programme.

Investment in marketing and the growth of the delivery sector have seen continued UK growth for McDonald’s, which plans to further boost sales in 2022 with the expansion of “the world’s largest loyalty programme”.

Read the article in Marketing Week.

These electric motorbikes are designed to fight poaching in Africa

Swedish electric bike company Cake has found an unexpected niche for its quieter, renewable energy-powered rides.
Rangers had been using combustion engine motorbikes to patrol parks and track down poachers. The main challenges was the reliance on gasoline, which needed to be flown in by helicopter, and the noise of combustion engines. “They’re so loud that the poachers hear them 45 minutes away,” Ytterborn says. “They just pack up their stuff and leave.”

Read the article in Design Week.

Volvo eyes DTC promise as electric sales grow

Volvo saw direct-to-consumer (DTC) sales rise by 9% in 2021, as consumers responded to the “convenience” of online car buying.

Ecommerce sales in markets where the service is available ramped up in the fourth quarter driven by growing customer demand, explained outgoing chief executive Håkan Samuelsson at the brand’s full year results today (11 February).

Read the article in Marketing Week

Live, love but don’t laugh: making the case for inspirational quotes

A simple yet oddly touching phrase was circulating on Twitter a few months ago. It was three simple words: lemurs, toilets, exit, a delightful contrast to the platform’s normal menu of bad news.

‘Lemurs, toilets, exit,’ captioned with ‘New Live Laugh Love just dropped,’ checked a lot of boxes when it came to image-based observational humour. It’s goofy and bizarre, yet it has a profound, existential air to it—thanks to the word order, maybe. It also subverts the easily criticised, syrupy cliches of the internet, reminding us that “today is a terrific day to be amazing.”

Read the article in Creative Review.

Airbnb CFO: We were right to shift spend from performance to brand-building

Airbnb will continue to invest the majority of its marketing budget in brand-building in 2022, citing PR as its “most critical channel” as it seeks to recruit new hosts and encourage innovation.

Airbnb’s fourth-quarter earnings were the “strongest ever,” thanks to more revenue and improved marketing efficiency.

In the three months to December 31, net profit was $55m (£40.6m), compared to a net loss of $3.9 bn (£2.9 bn) in the same time in 2020. The quarter’s total revenue was $1.5 bn (£1.1 billion), up 38% from the previous year.

Read the article in Marketing Week.

Birmingham Royal Ballet rebrands with “emphatic wordmark”

In order to “turn up the volume on their talent,” NB Studio has produced a new visual identity for the organisation.

The branding comes after Carlos Acosta’s appointment as director in 2020, and it represents his desire to gain new followers, stage new work, and have a social effect.

For the 75-year-old ballet, NB Studio has devised a new typographic approach, replacing the serif wordmark with a more Brutalist-style sans serif. As the studio defines it, this “distinctive type architecture” is utilised to bookend images as well as business cards.

Read the article in Creative Review.

Royal Mail honours legendary stamp designer David Gentleman in new collection

The Royal Mail has released a set of stamps honouring David Gentleman, a designer who “transformed British stamp design” in the second part of the twentieth century, according to the company.

Six stamps are included in the set, each with a different design from Gentleman’s 103-stamp back catalogue.

This is the first time Royal Mail has devoted a whole issue to one of its own commemorative stamp designers.

Read the article in Design Week.

Trends of the year 2021

The second year of the pandemic brought about yet more uncertainty, but there was also plenty of innovation, humour and hope. Here we look back at the creative trends over the past 12 months.

Read the article in Creative Review.

Design in 2022 – what will graphic design look like?

As part of our series of design in 2022, Frank William Miller Jr., design director at Matter Unlimited, offers his take on what might happen in graphics over the next year.

Read the article in Design Week.

Saga rebrands to focus on “experience rather than age”

Design studio SomeOne has crafted a new identity for the brand, which aims to “embrace a positive view of life over 50”.

London-based studio SomeOne has rebranded over 50s company Saga, hoping to showcase a “more positive side of getting older”.

Saga was founded in 1951 and provides insurance, travel and financial services for those aged 50 and over.

Read the article in Design Week.

Next’s digital focus pays off as online sales surge

Online sales surged over the Christmas period following Next’s decision last year to ramp up its digital marketing spend, with full price sales continuing to grow.

Capitalising on its decision to double down on digital marketing, Next saw full price sales rise 20% in the eight weeks to Christmas, a full £70m ahead of previous guidance.

Read the report in Marketing Week.

What the Beatles can teach us about creative process

The epic Disney+ series The Beatles: Get Back shows the sprawling, messy process of creativity.

What does creativity look like? Not the art, the creative product, the noun, but the verb, the making of, the process. How do you capture it? Describe the mysterious magic of it? Have you ever wondered? Look no further than the eight-hour Disney+ miniseries The Beatles: Get Back.

Read the article in Creative Review.

Design in 2022 – what will packaging design look like?

As part of our series looking at design in 2022, Studio Minerva managing and creative directors Coral Briggs and Daniela Nunzi Mihranian look at what will happen in packaging design in the next 12 months.

It goes without saying that sustainability will continue to be a key focus for the packaging industry in 2022 – it is a constant area of education that will continue to drive innovation.

Read the article in Design Week.

Starling Bank: Facebook boycott has caused ‘no noticeable decline’ in marketing performance

Starling Bank stopped advertising on Facebook and Instagram in December to “protect” its customers, and said last week it would not reverse the decision until Meta cracks down on financial fraudsters using its platforms.

Pulling paid advertising spend from Facebook and Instagram has had no significant impact on Starling Bank’s traffic, engagement or awareness levels, according to the digital bank’s brand director.

Read the article in Marketing Week.

Visa unveils new brand identity system following logo reveal

International design studio Mucho is behind the work, which aims to ready the company for a cashless future.

Global payments company Visa has revealed a new brand identity system, following the unveiling of a new wordmark last year.

Read the article in Design Week.

How Iceland’s creative approach boosted tourism

While other countries lean into their beautiful landscapes, Iceland’s unconventional approach to promoting tourism taps into the national wit and character. We uncover how and why it works.

In July 2020, as the world dealt with the seemingly unending frustration of Covid, Business Iceland invited people everywhere to scream it out.

Read the article in Creative Review.

Marketing’s ROI returns to 2005 levels, study shows

A new report by econometrics firm Magic Numbers suggests the evolution in online advertising is a driving factor behind the increase in marketing’s average return on investment.

Marketing effectiveness has been on the rise over the past five years and has now exceeded its last recorded peak in 2005, new research shows.

Read the article in Marketing Week.

Confidence takes a knock as consumers brace for cost of living squeeze

Rising inflation and energy price increases have dampened consumers’ confidence in January, but marketers are warned to “hold firm”.

While the easing of Covid restrictions has come as a welcome relief, consumers are still not feeling confident about money as fears over surging inflation, rocketing fuel bills and the prospect of interest rate rises take hold.

Read the article in Marketing Week.

M&M’s unveils identity redesign for an “inclusive” future

The updated identity for M&M’s, centring on the logo’s ampersand, also features the brand’s first custom typeface.

M&M’s has revealed a global redesign in an attempt to create a “world where everyone feels they belong”.

Read the article in Design Week.

The best marketing campaigns of 2021

Marketing Week choose 8 of their top campaigns of 2021.

Read part 1 of the article here.

Read part 2 of the article here.

John Lewis launches £1m fund for projects that “rethink waste”

John Lewis Partnership has established a £1 million fund in the hope of supporting projects that could speed the shift to a circular economy.

In partnership with environmental charity Hubbub, the Circular Future Fund seeks to support a variety of projects which “rethink waste”.

“We’re hoping to unearth some of the world’s leading innovators, who have built their business models, products and services around the concept of circularity,” John Lewis Partnership director of ethics and sustainability Marija Rompani says.

Read the article in Design Week.

Visit Sweden campaign reveals the tourism gems behind Ikea product names

Ikea has gifted the simplicity of Swedish design to the world, yet, as a witty new ad campaign points out, the choice of names for its products may be doing its home country something of a disservice.

Created by ad agency Forsman & Bodenfors, the Discover the Originals campaign reveals that the names of many Ikea products – which the world has long struggled to pronounce – are named after real places in Sweden. It then encourages tourists to visit these tourism spots.

Read the article in Creative Review.

Digital artist Claudia Rafael on painting with code

“I’m always into using these tools in an emancipist way, and not abusing them,” says Claudia Rafael, whose visual practice nowadays is built around technologies like AI and AR. The Berlin-based digital artist and art director cites how AI can be employed to anticipate health conditions, but recognises how the fields she is interested in have more harmful or even malicious applications.

“When we talk about medical stuff, [AI] knows two weeks before that a person might get a stroke – so artificial intelligence can save lives. This would be an emancipist way [of using the technology]. And of course, you can abuse artificial intelligence and do deepfakes and fake news and stuff like this, so this is why it’s very important to be always critical with these new tools,” she says. “But it’s also very beautiful what new possibilities are coming up in terms of filters.”

Read the article in Creative Review.

Aldi crowned this year’s most effective Christmas ad

Aldi’s Christmas campaign has been rated as the most effective festive ad of the year, pipping Coca-Cola, Lidl, and M&S to the post.

According to research by Kantar, the discount supermarket’s reimagining of Charles Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’, featuring Kevin the Carrot and new character Ebanana Scrooge, is the Christmas ad most likely to deliver on long and short term measures this year.

Combining 3,600 consumer survey responses with facial recognition AI technology, the research saw Aldi rank top of 24 tested ads on four of five key measures, named the most ‘festive’, the most ‘enjoyable’, the most ‘distinctive’, and the most ‘meaningful’. The latter is a measure of how likely the ad is to build affinity or brand love.

Read the article in Marketing Week.

Tesco’s Christmas ad cleared of causing ‘widespread offence’

With more than 5,000 complaints, Tesco’s Christmas ad is the most complained about of the year, but the Advertising Standards Authority has ruled it is not “irresponsible” so will not be taking further action.

Tesco’s Christmas ad featuring Santa flashing his Covid passport at border control has been cleared of breaking any rules by the advertising watchdog, despite receiving more than 5,000 complaints.

The majority of complainants took issue with the scene in which Father Christmas proves he is vaccinated, as they believed it could be viewed as “coercive” and encourage “medical discrimination”.

Read the article in Marketing Week.

Facebook rebrands to Meta as virtual worlds become ‘new North Star’

Admitting the previous brand name was too “tightly linked” to one product, CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants his business to become “metaverse first, not Facebook first” in a bid to graduate from social media to virtual worlds.

Facebook is rebranding its corporate identity to Meta in a bid to become a “social technology company” focused on developing virtual worlds, otherwise known as the metaverse.

While the holding company name will change to Meta, effective immediately, the Facebook platform, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger will retain their brand names. CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained that the business will report on two different segments – one for its family of apps and one for its work on future platforms – and to aid this shift a new corporate brand was needed.

Read the article in Marketing Week.

Government launches consultation on copyright and AI legislation

The consultation is seeking evidence and views on the extent to which patents and copyright should protect inventions and creative works made by AI.

The government has today launched a consultation on how the copyright and patent system should deal with Artificial Intelligence (AI).

AI as a technology is already well-entrenched in everyday life. It is a powerful tool for scientists, entrepreneurs and artists alike, and allows for new inventions and creative work.

Read the article in Design Week.

Lidl takes Christmas into the future to prove it will always be ‘Lidl on Price’

The festive campaign sits within the supermarket’s ‘Big On’ creative framework, which aims to make Lidl as famous for quality as it is for price.

Lidl is doubling down on its promise to provide quality food at low prices this Christmas, as its 2021 campaign imagines what a Christmas of the future might look like.

Promising to be ‘Big on quality and always little on price’, the ad restarts with the same group at the Christmas table, but this time set in a future time when turkeys are carved by lasers and some family members have moved to the Moon.

Read the article in Marketing Week.

Tesco won’t let anything stop its customers from enjoying Christmas this year

The supermarket’s festive ad is inspired by research revealing the British public’s determination to have a good time this Christmas “no matter what”, following last year’s cancellation.

Launching today (13 November), the TV ad is backed by the Queen track ‘Don’t stop me now’ and follows a woman determined to celebrate Christmas with her family – no matter what obstructions hinder her progress. She is offered ‘a little help’ by a Tesco worker and overcomes all the hurdles on her route.

Read the article in Marketing Week.

Design for Planet: using storytelling to reframe the climate crisis

By shifting the focus towards storytelling, designers can reposition their own work and thereby effect change in consumers.

On day one of the Design Council’s Design for Planet festival the message was clear: humans need to resoundingly change their behaviour patterns if we want to save the fortunes of the planet – and ourselves.

Designers, several of the speakers explained, can and should be at the forefront of that behavioural change: as the developers, curators and tastemakers for huge portions of society they are uniquely positioned to do so. But to effect change in others, Finn Harries says designers need to consider their own thinking too.

Read the article in Design Week.

How brands can stand out on the digital shelf

The boom in ecommerce brought about by the pandemic means standing out on the digital shelf is a priority for brands large and small, but does the battle start offline?

The rapid growth in ecommerce over the last two years has opened up new vistas for brands as they have refocused to cater to consumer realities.

According to NielsenIQ figures from earlier this year, FMCG ecommerce sales in the UK had increased tenfold since the beginning of the pandemic. Online sales were growing 11 times faster than offline sales, a trend accelerating in virtually all European markets.

Read the article in Marketing Week.