In the past 3 years, eCommerce businesses have experienced the impact of a number of global crises.
Right now, we’re still living through the aftermath of a global pandemic, rising inflation, and the war in Ukraine. And these global events have shaken even the most successful eCommerce brands.
Over the past 6 months, retail brands have started losing some confidence in marketing spend amid worries of a bleak future. However, knee-jerk reactions can do more damage than you think.
There are opportunities for those brands willing to invest. And to help you through these turbulent times, we have released a new guide – Global Issues: The Threats Affecting eCommerce.
You can download it free here. Or scroll down to find out more about everything included in the guide before you make up your mind.
In our latest guide, we take a closer look at the global crises impacting eCommerce brands, how brands can react and excel in these uncertain times, as well as the top 5 trends defining the eCommerce landscape in 2022.
It covers…
Digital advertising revenue reached $189 billion in 2021, jumping 35% – the highest increase since 2006.
But as we’re sure you’re aware, the picture is not rosy for many retail brands. Inflation, war, pandemics, and supply chain shortages have all created a difficult terrain for brands to flourish.
Consumers have responded to these crises by cutting back on their spending. The less people are willing to spend, the less people will be actively clicking on your ads.
The future eCommerce landscape looks tough. But there are still opportunities out there if you focus on the marketing trends that are emerging. It’s these trends that will help you succeed in 2022 and beyond.
You can get a free copy of the guide here. And if you have any questions, feel free to drop us a message.
The founders of The Big Plastic Count – Greenpeace UK and Everyday Plastic – appointed purpose-driven creative agency, Enviral, to create its latest national campaign, which has lifted the lid on the country’s recycling rates and exposed that the government is talking trash about our plastic problem.
Through their launch video, The Big Plastic Count and Enviral encouraged 31 MPs and 97,948 households to take part in counting their plastic for a week in May, which equates to 1 in every 262 households in the UK. This was the biggest ever investigation into UK household plastics and the data uncovered will be crucial in convincing the government, big brands and supermarkets to take ambitious action on reducing plastic packaging.
Throughout the investigation, participants counted over 96 billion pieces of plastic and uncovered that only 12% of our plastic waste is actually recycled with 17% exported abroad, 25% sent to landfill and 46% incinerated.
Working in close partnership with the The Big Plastic Count team, Enviral developed the creative, the narrative and oversaw the shoot productions to create three hard-hitting films; a launch film, a how-to film and a shocking results film which puts pressure on the government to act.
Chris Thorne, Plastics Campaigner at Greenpeace UK said: “The plastic crisis is out of control but if the government acts we can get a grip on the problem. That’s why The Big Plastic Count is so important. Getting the narrative right on a campaign like this can be make or break. Through Envirals understanding of our needs and their collaborative approach they’ve helped us create assets we know the public will connect with and will lead to more and more people pushing the government to take ambitious action to end the plastic waste problem.
Joss Ford, Enviral Founder, comments: “We’ve been consistently beating the drum around the role of creatives in fighting the climate crisis and in connecting hearts and minds. So being able to partner with such an impactful organisation like Greenpeace UK really is a huge moment for our team and one which we hope brings real impact and holds those in power to account.”
This project embodies Greenpeace UK’s wider mission to defend the natural world from destruction, with a vision for a greener, healthier and more peaceful planet that can sustain life for future generations to come. The campaign evolved out of The Everyday Plastic Survey, pioneered by Everyday Plastic, a research-led non-profit focused on evidence-based education and campaigns. With the aim of mobilising and inspiring the UK population to help lift the lid on our recycling, it’s hoped this campaign will hold the government to account and bring real, positive change.
Enviral was awarded the contract after a competitive pitch process. With previous agency nominations including The Drum’s Best Use Of Video For Digital Advertising, Enviral is a full-service ethical brand communications agency based in Bristol that leverages the power of storytelling to effect real change for future generations.
Watch the launch video in full here.
Last week, AgencyUK attended MAD//fest, the UK’s boldest and most distinctive marketing event in the heart of London’s tech and culture scene. The space where top brands, agencies and publishers come to connect, form new relationships, fix industry issues, pitch visionary ideas and celebrate all things Marketing, Advertising and disruption!
We #gotourwings2022 and won two fantastic awards at The Independent Agency Awards 2022, including ‘Best Use of Social Media for Chewits’ and ‘Best FMCG / Retail Campaign for Chewits’!
Rebecca FitzHenry, AgencyUK Senior Account Manager says: “We’re so excited to have won two awards for our work with Chewits. It’s been so great working with Cloetta to reawaken the Chewits brand (and it’s cheeky dino friend Chewie!) This integrated campaign has been a real AgencyUK team effort, from strategy and creative through to continuous learning and optimisations with the social and digital teams. With some amazing results to date, we can’t wait to see what’s next for the brand.”
Huge congratulations to all members of the Social, Digital, Creative, Strategy and Client Services teams for all of your hard work- it has definitely paid off! And that’s not all… AgencyUK were also Highly Commended for the Agency Purpose Awards and shortlisted for Independent Agency of the year!
Sammy Mansourpour, Managing Director says: “In 2019 the AgencyUK management team embarked on an ambitious programme of self improvement for staff, community and environment. Recognition and a Commendation for our efforts by the Independent Agency Purpose Award judges is invaluable and motivating for our team and peers. We cannot wait to continue this journey and share our experiences with the judges again in next year’s entry”.
We are so proud of our achievements as an agency and look forward to creating more great content this year and beyond. See you next year MAD//fest!
We’re delighted to support premium cycle tyre brand Vittoria by launching Great Expectations. This series of mini-docs and social content reveals the inner thoughts of professional riders as they reflect on what cycling means to them.
We created the campaign to take a more personal approach, giving riders the freedom to express what cycling means to them as they prepared for the new season – and The Ride Ahead. It’s all part of The Ride Ahead positioning we developed with the brand’s leadership team that’s now being rolled out across Their global communications.
Filmed on location at the team training camps, Great Expectations launches with riders from XC team Santa Cruz FSA and road team DSM. The films open the door on the curiosity, optimism and courage of each rider in a series of intimate portraits as they share their hopes and ambitions.
“Visiting many places helps you to grow as a man – as a human – because you can see the world from different points of view,” says Maxime Marotte, Santa Cruz FSA, in one of the films.
“One of the nicest things in cycling is to go on a new road – that brings you to a beautiful place,” adds, Romain Bardet, Team DSM.
Firehaus worked with Italian production company Yanzi and director Marco Marcasolli along with the brand’s marketing team on the mini-docs and a range of short edits.
Vittoria CCO Ernesto Garcia Domingo said “ Great Expectations brings a new approach and fresh voices to our audience with pro riders sharing some of their personal insights and motivations. This has been a great collaboration so far under The Ride Ahead banner and we look forward to sharing more over the coming months”.
Ian Bates, Founder and Creative Partner at Firehaus said “This series of mini-docs has given us the space to produce content that is more personal and inspiring”
The Enterprise Sessions is a new content series led by Prof. Michele Barbour Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor: Enterprise and Innovation at the University of Bristol.
The series has been created to inspire entrepreneurs and help them to realise impact from their ideas. Michele interviews founders, researchers and academics from different disciplines and career stages who’ve been part of the University’s Enterprise ecosystem. Each episode is a treasure trove of information covering a range of topics from funding, licensing and IP, consultancy, contract research and business incubation.
Guests include Konstantina Psoma, Professor Wuge Briscoe, Professor Roberta Guerrina and Dr Tom Carter.
Bristol now tops the list of UK universities for the return on investment achieved by spinouts and is ranked in the top 3 for equity investment.
Prof. Michele Barbour said: “The University of Bristol has an impressive track record of enterprise and innovation and we’re keen to share that knowledge within our community as well as with a wider audience. The Enterprise Sessions is a new content series that brings to life the personal stories of spinout Founders and how our enterprise ecosystem has them.
Firehaus took our idea and created a branded content series, introducing the broadcast-style interview approach, as well as the name and look and feel. The approach has allowed me to develop rich conversations with our interviewees and showcase their experience of our ecosystem which will be of huge benefit for anyone involved in research, innovation and enterprise.”
Nick Barthram, Strategy Partner at Firehaus said: “Firehaus has worked with a range of organisations in the Research, Innovation and Enterprise space, including UKRI, Made Smarter Innovation and The University of Bristol. Consequently, we’ve developed a clear understanding and methodology to ignite opportunities at the intersection of academia and industry”.
Strategy, Concept and Art Direction: Firehaus
Film Production: JonesMillbank
The D word. It’s something we don’t talk about enough in our culture, and even when we do, we can’t seem to get the word out. Pushing up the daisies, kicking the bucket, biting the dust… There are so many metaphors to help us avoid directly talking about Death.
This poses a problem for marketing professionals in the charity sector, where gifts in Wills account for up to a third of annual income. When 30% of your revenue is at stake, encouraging your audience to face the inevitability of death becomes essential. Bristol-based CRM agency Flourish have identified this as a challenge and are helping charities to maximise their potential for legacy donations.
A legacy donation is made when someone leaves a gift for a charity in their Will.
For many people, including a charity donation in their Will is a way to ensure their beliefs are honoured when they’re no longer here. Some people choose to pledge a set amount, whereas others opt for a per centage of their estate. However, there are others who slip though the net, and don’t get round to updating their Will at all.
Fortunately, there are awareness days around gifts in Wills – and two of them are on the horizon over the next couple of months. To help charities make the most of these, Flourish is planning a series of articles, case studies and social media posts to help raise awareness of legacy marketing and the challenges that surround it.
Record numbers of people are leaving gifts in their Wills today, partly thanks to increased awareness, demonstrating that an appetite to do something meaningful is there. Charities who provide a sensitive, thoughtful legacy journey have the potential to capture many more legacy donations.
Kim Martin, Executive Creative Director, said, “Fundraising Managers should start planning now to capitalise on awareness days later in the year. It’s a golden opportunity to find hand-raisers who will become pledgers in the future.”
You can keep up to date with the campaign by following Flourish via LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter and by visiting the Flourish website blog.
Flourish have worked with a range of not-for-profit organisations over 15 years, providing creative and strategic planning to raise legacy funding from gifts in Wills. This has resulted in some increased revenue for charities including PDSA, Crisis, St Mungo’s, Diabetes UK, CLIC Sargent and many more.
If you need help communicating about legacy fundraising to your audience, get in touch with Flourish and we’ll be happy to offer a free customer journey review in time for the upcoming legacy fundraising awareness days.
Wednesday 29 June saw us attend the UK Digital Growth Awards in Marble Arch, London and return to the South West triumphant, with three trophies in hand!
Launch was awarded Best Use of Data for ISO consultancy client IMSM and B2B PPC Campaign of the Year for office property client Argyll, before going on to scoop PPC Agency of the Year as the evening drew to a close.
Judges’ feedback noted how ‘everything Launch brought forward as an agency was interesting’ and recognised how ‘impactful’ and ‘well planned and executed’ the campaigns were. They also highlighted our people-centric focus and positive employee experience, where we’ve placed an increasing emphasis on our staff’s wellbeing and happiness, having tripled in team size since the beginning of 2021.
These awards follow a string of other wins this year at the UK Paid Media Awards, European Search Awards, and The Drum Search Awards.
Jaye Cowle, Managing Director at Launch, says: “It’s absolutely brilliant to be able to add these Growth awards to our awards shelf – particularly following such a tricky time in the industry. We’re delighted that the judges have recognised our dedication to our staff and their happiness. It’s an ongoing mission of ours and this just proves we’re on the right path.”
See the full list of other winners on the UK Digital Growth Awards website or read the award-winning Argyll and IMSM case studies.
Video marketing is fundamentally the use of video content to promote and market products and services, increase social and digital engagements, and educate and reach target audiences. That’s a lot of potential uses, which is why video marketing is becoming ever prevalent with our clients and the brands of today. Audiences are also watching more online video content than ever before. This growing appetite in viewership and engagement has made it an ideal channel for performance marketing.
Something that has become crucial to the acceleration of video’s success within marketing is that now it is truly measurable like the other more established performance channels. Marketers and brands are now able to feel more assured by results like Return on Investment (ROI) and Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) offered by video, as we’re able to effectively see its influence on traffic, leads, sales and audience impact. Video is a tried and tested way of driving high performance ads and generating results across a variety of metrics.
Performance-driven creative and creative-driven performance.
What? Well, traditionally campaigns have either been led around an innovative creative idea, but this idea, whilst it may be unique, or eye-catching, lacks value if it doesn’t lead to tangible actions or results. At the other end of the spectrum we see campaigns heavily led by KPIs, but lacking creativity. We believe in finding a sweet spot; we’ve proven that great things happen when you find a balance and believe that brands of today will need to shift their focus from one or the other and merge the two.
Rethinking the way we approach creative to be optimised for performance is not about being less creative or restricting big ideas, it’s about bringing data to the forefront and using that to inform our decisions and learnings. By re-prioritising the way we approach creative, with data-led insights upfront helps ideas reach the audience effectively, resonate emotionally with their needs and drive the desired outcome. By no means should data mean ‘do the same as everyone else’, it should give you the ground to understand what resonates and how to differentiate yourself in your market. Ultimately, performance-driven creative is focused on the end result, the desired action, therefore for the concept to work, it needs to deliver results.
Bringing this back to video, with an ever-changing landscape of video trends and platform capabilities, even on a daily basis, our creative intuition of how to capture attention best can be subjective, emotionally led and provide a narrow view. This is where data helps to steer our vision towards what is proven to be most effective, ensuring that ideas are backed by something more than instinct. As well as steering the idea, it’s also important to be aware of the best practices for each platform with a generic view and specifically for your audience – for example, are the majority of your audience watching on a mobile device or desktop, do they perform better with or without sound, what length is most effective? Each of these data points can inform how to optimise your video content.
When it comes to optimising channel-specific content, take this example from Mercedes Benz. This YouTube pre-roll concept has really embraced the requirements of this format and engaged the audience in a creative way that directly links to their specs. The ad creative makes clever use of quick video cuts and great sound design of a roaring engine to engage its viewers’ senses. This way, its audience can actually see and hear the intensity of reaching 60 MPH in only 3.8 seconds.
However, from our experience this also works on a much smaller scale, with more agile budgets. Take one of our consumer brands, independent, family-run company Cotswold RAW. We’ve been working with them since they started up and video was a new consideration for them – something we were keen to grow to differentiate them in the pet market and demonstrate their expertise, unique offering and quality of product. Working within a limited budget from a one day shoot, we managed to create two master ads (one consumer focused and one for their retailers) social cuts (for Facebook & Instagram) and cut downs for YouTube pre-roll ads – that’s a lot of content! When it came to results, we managed to get tails wagging. On a limited ad spend over a highlighted month period, this led to an incredible conversion rate of up to 46.6%. Off the success of this campaign, we are now currently in the production process for a new video series.
On the other side of our client roster, Cytel, the largest provider of statistical software and advanced analytics for clinical trial design and execution, looked to us to develop and support their new brand messaging. For this we took a multi-channel approach to video, we utilised LinkedIn to ensure we could reach their defined target audience within the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. We also created additional uplift in awareness by integrating YouTube into our approach, which allowed us to target specific relevant video content to generate the most effective levels of engagement and retention. This gave us a multilayered approach and therefore greater depth to our brand awareness results.
Finally, test and learn, test and learn. A huge part of the success of our campaigns relies heavily on optimisations and an integrated approach to reporting. Feeding back learnings to evolve existing campaigns as well as using them to inform new development of visuals and messaging is a huge part of creative performance. Testing and analysing efficiently is the best way to be effective.
Historically video is (generally) approached by the industry as “part of a wider campaign” and often handed to a one-off production agency and director who haven’t been involved in the same brand journey and strategy as the creative agency.
Being fully integrated at AUK, our unique approach helps us to ensure video is ingrained at the heart of our brands journeys and considered as part of a wider marketing strategy, not just a singular campaign activation. We think beyond just making amazing content, we also consider how and where to use it for maximum impact and results.
AgencyUK is an agency that supports, nurtures and cares for everyone. From the bigger events such as charity walks and abseils to the smaller amenities like ensuring free breakfast and fruit are provided daily. AUK proves to its employees that they have their wellness at heart.
I’m Megan, Paid Media Manager at AUK and I started working here in October 2021 after leaving the busy London life to move closer to my family and friends. After COVID-19 and working at home at my kitchen table for the past two years, it was important for me to find a workplace where I can go back to working collaboratively, contribute to my development and most importantly feel valued. After my first interview, I knew that AUK puts people and its employees first.
I recently watched a film called ‘The Brand New Testament’ that spoke about the concept of working as ‘renting your time out’. Your employer essentially pays for your weekly time to work for them. You wouldn’t rent out something that isn’t worth your time or money, so ensure that the time you rent is worth it for you. I think wellness and wellbeing is key in this.
Since joining I have (but not limited to) – been offered the flexibility of hybrid working; taken full advantage of the free fruit, breakfast, tea and coffee; been on an incredible camping trip to Wales where we spent some well-earned time out in nature team building and canoeing; walked the London Moonwalk marathon for “Walk the Walk” charity; watched our AUK bees enjoy their new home in the AUK hives and joined the first cohort of AUK’s new initiative called “Agency for All”.
“Agency for All” is an amazing programme run by Systemic Team Coach Victoria Coxen and Psychotherapist Carolyn Bird. The aim is to guide AUK’s employees into exploring and understanding themselves as individuals, how we connect and build meaningful human relationships with our team and peers, and then how that affects the wider agency and business. It’s about being the best version of ourselves in order to strengthen the team from the inside.
This scheme has been a success, with everyone finding it insightful and appreciating the time to come away from work to sit and think about ourselves and our feelings. We look forward to everyone in the agency benefiting from this experience.
Working for AUK makes me feel confident, comfortable and valued and I’m excited to see what else AUK have in the pipeline to ensure we all have positive wellbeing… I’ve heard rumours of a summer BBQ and beekeeper training!
At AUK we not only make a meaningful difference through our work, but we have a strong focus on creating positive impacts on the health and wellbeing of our team. Our strong values surrounding health and wellbeing mean we get the best out of our day, both mentally and physically. Creating a working environment that supports good nutrition is key to AUK’s approach as it’s the backbone to how we function, especially as a creative agency. We need to get those creative juices flowing!
In 2021 we joined forces with Registered Dietitian & Nutrition Consultant Laura Clark to become our own AUK nutrition and diet advisor, guiding us on our learning and development. Laura has already helped the team take a look at the connection between mental health and nutrition, and this year we have a strong focus on maintaining our energy levels.
“How we choose to fuel our working day has the potential to have a profound impact on our productivity, energy levels and mental resilience. However, we seem to be fond of creating a structure in which we expect our brains to do it all simultaneously. Food should be tasted, savoured and enjoyed, if only for a few brief moments away from the keyboard. We tend to succeed more with all tasks that we decide to devote our attention to. Appetite regulation and energy management are no different.” Laura Clark, Registered Dietitian & Nutrition Consultant
Being an agency for all means we love to give back, so we wanted to share our ways of working to our AUK friends to give them a deeper understanding of our values surrounding nutrition and our approach to the work we create. Check out their thoughts:
“We spend a lot of our lives at work, so ensuring that we are fuelling ourselves with the best possible things to optimise energy feels really important to me, now more than ever after attending Laura’s talk. It also made me realise that it’s not just all about me. It’s about the impact I have on others too. If I’m running low on energy or having a slump, others will feel that impact too.” Kate Gray, Cookpad
“Good nutrition fuels our minds and bodies – our two biggest tools when it comes to doing impactful creative work. Feed your body, nourish your brain. It was great to see Laura take a realistic look at nutrition and wellness. She explained how to balance a diet that is realistic and sustainable for working professionals.” Alyssa Jaffer, Deliveroo
“Creating a flexible culture where breaks to eat at a time that is right for individuals, away from the desk and in a mindful way, is encouraged will foster empowerment to personalise wellbeing through food, which ultimately will benefit all.” Amanda Butterworth, Trust My Care
“Managing energy levels is key to productivity across a team, and nutrition plays such a huge role in this and affects everyone regardless of their exercise habits or sporting interests.” Simon Rollings, The Canned Wine Co.
“We all deserve the opportunity to fuel our brilliance. With small tweaks and an ethos that supports the foundational aspects of employee wellbeing, we can really set ourselves up for success,” says Laura Clark, Registered Dietitian & Nutrition Consultant.
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