Magnet #18

From Thomas Cook to Lucozade, magnet has it all this week.

Enjoy.

 

Campaigns: Letters to this New World

The Financial Times has launched a new brand campaign, titled 'Letters to this New World', developed with The Brooklyn Brothers. It calls for public reflection on life before and after the

 pandemic and hopes to give a voice to the lessons learned.

The fresh campaign is part of the evolution of the FT's 'New Agenda' brand platform- promoting the newspaper as the "leading destination for analysis and leadership on the most important global trends and themes".

Content-led, the ad features a series of hard-hitting open letters addressing serious themes like climate change, the world of work, digital finance and global inequality. All FT employees were invited to contribute to the campaign while members of the public will also be invited to submit their own letters, with the strongest contributions to be featured in future advertisements.

There is also a 30 second TV ad which will run in the UK, US and Germany, featuring a montage of political leaders and public figures.

 

 

 

Travel: Thomas Cook

 

Thomas Cook is investing a 6-figure sum in a new campaign to promote its online offering.

The online-only travel agent has reworked its famous “Don’t Just Book It’ line to “Love It, Book It, Thomas Cook It!” coinciding with  the release of a new video-sharing app. The app enables users to create, upload and browse inspirational holiday content and then immediately click to book. The company stated that it was the first app of its kind to link the trend for sharing and watching content to directly booking that same holiday.

It has partnered with dozens of tourist boards, hoteliers and content creators, to fill the app with hundreds of videos for users to follow and start planning their next holiday. 

Users can also chat directly to Thomas Cook agents via the app.

Thomas Cook launched as an online holiday company in September 2020, following the acquisition of the Thomas Cook brand and digital assets by Fosun Tourism Group.

Digital marketing: Primark hails ‘critical role’ of digital marketing as sales grow.

It’s been long awaited but Primark is progressing the design and development of a new digital platform, and stepping up the recruitment of talent to create a “digital capability within the business”, as the value retailer highlights the “critical role” digital will play in the marketing mix.

The brand plans to launch a “new and improved customer-facing website” in 2022, which will allow Primark to showcase a larger proportion of its range and provide customers with availability by store. There is also an intention to strengthen the digital marketing capability in order to deliver “more personalised content” to customers.

In a trading update, Primark says it expects sales in the second half of the financial year to reach £3.4bn. The retailer’s operating profit margin during the period benefitted from a significant reduction in store labour costs and lower store operating costs, and is expected to be over 10%. The profit forecast for the full year is now ahead of the profit delivered in 2020.

 

Campaigns for good: Lucozade

 

Sports drink brand Lucozade is partnering with youth development platform Apprentice Nation to engage with young people and build up their core skills for work and life.

Government figures show the rate of inactivity among young adults is almost at an all-time high and unemployment is significantly greater for young people (13.1%) compared to the rest of the population (4.7%). Furthermore, people from minority communities are twice as likely to be unemployed.

So Lucozade will use its brand recognition and scale to recruit participants and drive awareness of Apprentice Nation across the UK and Ireland.

The brand is aiming to boost confidence among 16-24-year olds through music and collaborating with Apprentice Nation on a series of webinars and on-demand content featuring artists from an upcoming concert.

It will also specifically set up and run a platform that provides free-to-access content called ‘Unlock Your Potential’.

The partnership also supports the company’s wider ‘Growing for Good’ vision, which aims to invest in communities as part of its ‘Giving Back to Society’ values.

Since 2018, the initiative has assisted young adults living in some of the UK’s most deprived communities in London, Manchester, Belfast, Hull and Newport.

More than 10,000 young adults participated in B Active across some of the most deprived areas in the UK, with almost 4,000 taking up opportunities to volunteer and over 700 gaining vocational qualifications.

Matt Riches, SBF GB&I strategic partnerships lead says: “Lucozade will be leveraging its scale and reach to drive awareness of Apprentice Nation and the Unlocking Your Potential curriculum with a high-profile multi-media campaign launching this autumn.”