December 2018 Blogs

Whether it’s to increase market presence, fight off competition or simply survive, buy-outs and acquisitions have become the norm over the last decade. Not only do some of the deals impact us as consumers, but it can also significantly affect both the UK and international jobs market. 2018 has been a particularly exciting year for brands, with buyouts, acquisitions and mergers accounting for £1.9tn in the first half of the year alone. Let’s take a look...  Supermarket sweep March saw the completion of Tesco’s £4bn takeover of wholesaler Booker, creating a true force to be reckoned with in Britain’s £200bn-a-year food market. A deal that hasn’t been quite as straightforward is the planned mega-merger of Sainsbury’s and Asda. The latest sees a court finding that the Competition and Market Authority’s (CMA) had treated Sainsbury’s and Asda unfairly in not allowing them more time to respond to evidence submitted as part of an investigation into the proposed £12bn merger. A final ruling is expected in March 2019. Sports Direct flashes the cash Sports Direct bought department store chain House of Fraser for £90m and Evans Cycles as part of a pre-pack administration. While the deals have unfortunately resulted in a large number of job losses and store closures, we’re interested to see what the future holds for both of these high street staples in 2019. Caffeine overload It was reported in August that Coca-Cola (a brand that’s recently graced our blog) would be purchasing Costa Coffee in a £4bn deal that will turn the soft drinks giant into the UK’s biggest coffee shop player, giving it a firm foothold in one of the world’s fastest-growing drinks categories. Getting busy with the fizzy August brought news of another major drinks deal, this time from Coca-Cola rival Pepsi which announced it would be buying Isreal-based SodaStream for £2.5bn. The deal is said to provide Pepsi with a new way of reaching customers in their homes and has been struck at a time when its signature sugary drinks are becoming less popular, especially since the introduction of sugar tax. Oodles of noodles October cemented a £559m deal that saw The Restaurant Group (TRG), who owns Frankie & Benny and Garfunkel’s, purchase Wagamama. Stating that the Asian-themed restaurant had “consistently and significantly outperformed its core UK market”, TRG announced plans to expand the chain in a bid to capitalise on the trend for healthier eating. DAN gets GEG Just this week, it was announced that Dentsu Aegis Network had bought Kansas-based digital agency Digital Evolution Group (DEG), which will join Isobar to form DEG, Linked by Isobar. This mega merger looks to leverage DEG’s existing relationships with Salesforce, Adobe and Microsoft cloud platforms to help the newly formed agency strengthen its marketing technology capabilities. As the UK edges closer to leaving the European Union, we’re expecting an interesting start to 2019 for some of our most recognised brands. So, stay tuned to the Henry Nicholas blog for the latest brand news, opinions and commentary.

Who doesn’t love a good end-of-year round-up? You may have seen our top picks for Christmas adverts in a recent blog post, and now we’ve put our heads together to pick our favourite campaigns that pushed the envelope this year. Has yours made the list? Lloyds Bank with‘#GetTheInsideOut’ This award-winning campaign created by adam&eveDDB, featured a mix of celebrities, members of the public and Lloyds staff taking part in a guessing game with sticky notes that depicted mental health conditions. The adverts aimed to remove the stigma of mental illness and encourage people to talk to one another about it. Nike featuring Colin Kaepernick We love it when brands take a risk, and Nike certainly did that this year. Created by Widen+Kennedy, the ad featured American footballer Colin Kaepernick who at the time was a controversial figure in the US due to his decision to kneel during the national anthem to protest racial injustice. His actions split opinions across the states, which made Nike’s decision a bold one, especially with the accompanying strapline of ‘Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything’. KFC says ‘FCK’ We had a sneaking suspicion this print ad might make our end-of-year list. An impeccable (pun?) demonstration of effective crisis comms, KFC released the cheeky ad after it was forced to shut hundreds of its restaurants in February following a chicken shortage. Instead of adopting a serious approach, KFC rearranged its letters to make FCK in a national print ad created by Mother London which apologised to the general public. Luckily, the UK saw the funny side and sales of buckets weren’t affected. SpaceX takes a Tesla into space It didn’t get more random than this. In a move that had ad execs exploring a new galaxy of opportunities, Elon Musk’s enterprises SpaceX and Tesla teamed up to send a Tesla Roadster to space. You have to see it to believe it, but the stunt was a resounding success, drawing millions of viewers and thousands of pieces of press coverage. CALM delivers Project 84 The campaign that had the most significant impact on us came from charity Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) and shaving brand Harry’s to increase awareness of male suicide in the UK. Project 84, saw the sculptures of 84 males placed on top of ITV’s This Morning studio and South Bank building, signifying the number of men who take their own this every week. The installation, created by adam&eveDDB and US street artist Mark Jenkins, formed part of a larger campaign by CALM, which is calling for real government action on suicide. It had an incredible response, with 34% more people reaching out to CALM for help and enough signatures on CALM’s #StandAgainstSuicide petition. It’s been another wonderful year for creative thinking, with the UK making its mark across the world with outstanding and impactful campaigns. Stay tuned to the Henry Nicholas blog for our top marketing picks throughout 2019. 

In a previous blog post, we discussed Iceland’s Christmas advert which never made it to our television screens due to it being too political on its stance on the use of palm oil in products. At the time of writing that post, we were still eagerly awaiting the John Lewis advert to drop, and other big retailers were remaining tight-lipped about their seasonal showcases. However, fast-forward to the first week of December and Christmas is in full-swing in ad-land! From human plugs to a near carrot catastrophe, we run down our top Christmas picks for 2018. The boy and the piano Let’s address the most hotly anticipated festive ad of the year: John Lewis’s big-budget Elton John extravaganza which takes a nostalgic look back, Benjamin Button-style, through the singer’s life. While Kantar Millward Brown’s annual survey of the year's biggest Christmas ads revealed that people found it lacked relevance and credibility, we enjoyed this outing from Adam & Eve/DDB and thought it lived up to the hype surrounding its premiere. Kevin the Carrot leaves us hanging The internet collectively lost its cool when Aldi released its Coca-Cola spoof featuring Kevin the Carrot and a (literal) cliffhanger, complete with the hashtag #savekevin. Were they really going to kill off arguably the most popular Christmas character from the last three years? McCann UK certainly knew how to ruffle some feathers, and there have since been some fairy tale follow-ups featuring the lovable vegetable and his family, but our favourite was the one that kicked them all off.  Two words: The plug Sainsbury’s was one of the first big brands to debut their Christmas advert this year, and they did it with a bang thanks to their all-singing, all-dancing school production theme. There’s a LOT of festivity in this creative offering from Wieden & Kennedy, from dancing turkeys to a boy dressed as a plug performing an epic jump into a socket. Despite recent controversy surrounding the plug scene and how it might prompt children to play with sockets, this ad performed highly on "enjoyment" and "brand love" in the Kantar survey. We certainly got that fuzzy festive feeling. Have you seen Santa? A surprise hit for us this year came from Specsavers, which was not only impressive due to the fact it was created in-house by Specsavers’ film-makers Lenny Lenfesty and Kristin Rathje, but also because it captured real heart. The series of adverts feature real primary school children describing their experiences of seeing Santa, with the accompanying line 'Never seen Santa? Should've gone to Specsavers'. It might not be the one everyone’s talking about, but we loved the simplicity and the fact that they got it done on a shoestring budget! Love is a Gift Our list wouldn’t be complete without mentioning a certain viral advert that wasn’t actually created for any brand at all. Yes, we’re talking about the emotional short film that was famously created for just £50 by filmmaker Phil Beastall. Shot back in 2014 but only released after John Lewis shared their Christmas outing, Love is a Gift tug at the heartstrings and serves as a reminder of what Christmas is all about. YouTube viewer rankings* John Lewis & Partners Christmas Ad 2018 - #EltonJohnLewis - 11,616,163 The Big Night | Sainsbury's Ad | Christmas 2018 - 4,271,007 views LOVE IS A GIFT - Christmas Short Film - 1,645,102 views Aldi Kevin the Carrot Christmas Cliff Hanger Advert - 1,529,075 views When I saw Santa, I saw him in real life | Specsavers - 3,656 views *Results taken 4th December from each brand’s official YouTube channel only. Stay tuned to the Henry Nicholas blog for the latest news and insights from our team about all things creative.