October 2018 Blogs

The Henry Nicholas team are fresh off the back of this year’s Bath Digital Festival and can’t wait to share some of our favourite learnings and insights from the event. One of the sessions we enjoyed was New Frontiers in Digital Creativity featuring designers from leading creative studios who were offering advice on how to craft killer digital experiences. One of the speakers, Nick Ellis from Halo, talked about how Coca-Cola changing their name and recipe in the 1980s negatively impacted their brand, stating: “A brand is what you and your consumers agree it is.” This got us thinking more about the Coca-Cola debacle and some other branding disasters that have stood out in recent decades… ‘New Coke’: When market research goes wrong In April 1985, Coca-Cola announced it would discontinue its original Coke in favour of a new product that many coined as ‘New Coke’. The company had lost market share in the late 1970s and early 1980s and had evidence that taste was a key factor in this. As a result, a massive piece of market research was conducted in the US with almost 200,000 blind product tests conducted.  The results revealed that over half preferred New Coke over the original and huge rival Pepsi. Trusting the research, original Coke was withdrawn and replaced with New Coke, which proved to be a colossal mistake. Why? The market research was deeply flawed due to the assumption that taste was the sole factor when consumers purchased Coca-Cola. The taste-testers weren’t informed that it was an either/or scenario and were never asked whether they would be happy to forego the original formula for the new recipe. Perhaps most importantly, Coca-Cola didn’t realise the emotional investment people had made with the original Coke brand and how angry they would be when it was taken away. Had Coca-Cola trusted their gut instinct, rather than insisting on using insights to inform their creative direction, the New Coke misstep would have been avoided, and the company would have saved millions. Gap’s $100 million logo disaster In 2010, Gap decided the time had come to replace its 20-year-old logo consisting of iconic lettering encased in a dark blue square with something more ‘modern’. What Gap failed to do was announce the rebrand, instead introducing the new logo seemingly overnight. The new look featured the word Gap in a bold Helvetica font with the iconic blue square now fading from light to dark in the top corner. The company was mocked for the change and was forced to reveal the new look was a result of a first-stage crowdsourcing design process. Just six days later, the old logo was reinstated with the rebrand flop said to have cost the company $100 million. Yorkie Bars ‘Not for Girls’ Sometimes brands make decisions that don’t ruffle too many feathers at the time, but unfortunately see them rearing their ugly head again many years later. When Yorkie launched its £3 million  ‘Not for Girls’ advertising campaign back in 2002, it was considered controversial to some but Nestle’s marketing director at the time Andrew Harrison stated: “Yorkie feels that this is an important element of men's happiness and is starting the reclaiming process of making a particular chocolate just for men." While there were petitions to boycott the bar, the campaign continued for a further decade before the slogan was dropped in 2011. However, so successful was the campaign that it remains etched into our memories, causing Yorkie’s name to still get dragged into the conversation whenever a brand is highlighted for sexism. An example occurred earlier this month when Kleenex announced their tissues would be renamed ‘Extra Large’ instead of ‘Mansize’ in fear of causing offence. Users on social media were quick to name-check Yorkie as the epitome of sexist branding, proving that, in the internet age, nothing is ever forgotten. Cardiff City Bluebirds become Red Dragons Some new football club owners don’t wish to rock the boat in fear of upsetting loyal fans. However, this didn’t seem to be an issue for Vincent Tan. When he took over Cardiff City in 2010, Tan implemented a dramatic change to the club’s identity, changing its logo from blue to red and replacing its famous mascot.   Cardiff City was synonymous for blue kits and a blue logo, before the club’s beloved Bluebird was replaced a Welsh Red Dragon. To make things even more confusing for fans, Tan allowed the team to keep their original Bluebirds nickname and even kept a small bird at the bottom of the new red logo. Former skipper Mark Hudson, the first Bluebird to score in Cardiff City’s controversial red kit stated that the change “pulled the heart and soul out of the club”. Indeed, the rebrand proved fractious for supporters and, following a relegation, Tan relented, and the club’s logo and kit returned to its original blue. Stay tuned to the Henry Nicholas blog over the coming weeks to find out more about what got us talking and debating from the Bath Digital Festival. We’re already looking forward to next year’s event!   

You don’t need us to tell you that there are now more ways than ever to find, consume and share content, whether that’s via social media channels, smart TVs, podcasts, or voice platforms like Alexa and Siri. Such an abundance of choice means there’s increasing pressure on brands to effectively communicate with their customers across all possible touch points while still keeping an ear to the ground to anticipate emerging platforms that could provide fresh opportunities. Using insights from industry insiders, we look at the most significant trends that creative and digital leaders need to think about as we edge closer to 2019.   Surprise! The young folks are online Research into the UK’s content consumption habits by Adobe, revealed that millennials spend an average of 8.5 hours a day reading, watching, creating and engaging with content on their smart devices. To put this into perspective, the UK average is currently 6.9 hours. However, millennials have got nothing on their younger counterparts, with Generation Z spending 10.6 hours engaging with online content every day. Despite considerable choice when it comes to devices, most content is still consumed mostly via smartphones, with Millennials spending an average of 5.2 hours a day consuming content on their phones, compared to 5.9 hours for Gen Z. Influencers are here to stay (for now) Today’s content consumers are more cautious and sceptical, thanks to the rise of fake news prompting questions around authenticity and the quality of any content that comes from people outside of trusted networks. Adobe’s research revealed that 58% of those surveyed would share content from friends and family, compared to only 29% for a famous YouTuber or the 26% for a well-known brand. It’s this trust that makes influencers so valuable, with users (particularly Millennials and Gen Z) trusting their content, compared to what a brand would put out. Additionally, according to Google Trends, the search term “influencer marketing” has risen by 400% over the last two years, further signalling that brands are likely to continue collaborating with influencers and micro-influencers into 2019.   Digestible content Research conducted by Microsoft revealed that our attention span has fallen to just 8-seconds, (12-seconds in 2000), which is actually one second less than a goldfish. It’s for this reason that presenting your content as digestible snippets that are easy to share, rather than long-form articles, white papers, eBooks etc., will drive the future of content sharing.   Brad Harrison, VP of marketing at global manufacturing organisation ECOS said in an article for Inc: "As consumers continue to be more forensic in their efforts to discern the best products for them, readily available and easily digestible content will continue to be an important part of the marketing mix. For marketers, this means more short-form content and better search and mobile strategies.”   Quality is king Adobe research also revealed that consumers pointed to poorly written (49%), irrelevant (44%) and poorly designed (35%) content are their biggest bugbears, with 71% stating they wouldn’t buy from a brand that put out this kind of content. President of digital marketing agency Waypost Marketing, Doug Fowler, commented to Inc: “Your content should be all about quality, not quantity. And as search engines continue to display content based on a searcher's intent rather than a string of keywords, creating content clusters centred around targeted topics is going to be the best way to spend your time." John Watton, senior marketing director for Adobe EMEA, adds: “Whether it’s across social, online, blogs, or email communications, branded content has to be well-designed, optimised for the device, and offer a genuine experience that goes beyond selling products. Brands that succeed will drive customer acquisition and loyalty; those that don’t will see customers swipe their screen in search for content that offers them a better experience.”   Video content is a must AI-powered video creation platform, Wibbitz, released findings from its latest study, which analysed how and where consumers are motivated to consume video. Out of the 1,000 respondents, 65% engaged with videos by sharing, commenting, or liking, with 10% engaging with nearly every video they watch. Over 40% of Millennial and Gen X respondents stated Facebook was their preferred platform for video content, with Snapchat coming in second for Millennials, and Instagram the runner-up for Gen X. In addition, 38% preferred short-form video under one minute in length, further emphasising the importance for businesses to create shorter and more engaging videos. Head of industry for US-based digital marketing agency Add3 Brian Rauschenbach said to Inc: “Video is here to stay, and you won’t be able to compete without it. Facebook and other ad platforms are showing preferences on organic and paid placements because the engagement rates are higher with video content. Hire a video agency, tell your story, and let consumers fall in love with your brand.” Stay tuned to the Henry Nicholas blog for the latest news and insights into our specialist sectors. If you want to connect with the very best talent in marketing & PR, data & insight, digital, technology and creative, get in touch with our expert team today to discuss your requirements. ​