-
4 weeks ago | 
marketingweek.com | Jasper Baumann |Grace Gollasch |Helen Edwards |Ian Murray
O2’s marketing boss on returning to its founding ethos to ‘reset’ the brand Having joined Virgin Media O2 six months ago, tasked with overhauling O2’s brand strategy, Rachel Swift says she wants to re-establish its reason for being but won’t “change things for change’s sake”. O2 has launched a new brand platform and positioning that reverts back to its founding message from 2002 of the telecoms brand being “essential” to living, just as oxygen is.
-
4 weeks ago | 
marketingweek.com | Grace Gollasch |Amrit Virdi |Helen Edwards |Ian Murray
Three claims its shift from targeting youth audiences to engaging the entire nation has delivered a return on investment (ROI) greater than its media spend. Speaking at the Digital Cinema Media (DCM) upfronts today (March 27), Chris Gough, Three’s head of marketing and communications, said that since broadening its brand strategy four years ago, the brand has effectively “not paid anything for media” due to the additional ROI.
-
4 weeks ago | 
marketingweek.com | Amrit Virdi |Helen Edwards |Ian Murray |Niamh Carroll
Next has identified the benefit of increasing spend in international marketing. It believes it can “profitably increase international digital marketing by at least 25%, investing in new media and pushing into new territories,” according to its full year financial results for the year ending January 2025. This comes as the retailer reported a 5.8% rise in Next sales and an 8.2% rise in Group sales, as the Group saw its profits before tax rise by 10.1% to exceed £1bn.
-
4 weeks ago | 
marketingweek.com | Helen Edwards |Ian Murray |Amrit Virdi |Niamh Carroll
“Brands,” explained Fernando Fernandez, CEO of Unilever, a corporation that owns over 400 brands worldwide, “are by default suspicious”. It wasn’t quite a Gerald Ratner moment, but it came perilously close – one of those instances where candour flirts with catastrophe, even if you haven’t actually used the word ‘crap’ about one of your own products.
-
4 weeks ago | 
marketingweek.com | Ian Murray |Andrew Tenzer |Grace Gollasch |Josh Stephenson
Back in January, we kicked off our first ‘Reality Check’ column with a quote from Les Binet reminding marketers that everything they do needs to be rooted in hard economics and business sense. You may be thinking that goes without saying? But the harsh reality is, it’s just the kind of back to basics advice that many marketers need to hear. The marketing discipline’s crisis of confidence about talking the language of the boardroom shows no signs of abating.
-
1 month ago | 
thescottishsun.co.uk | Conor Matchett |Ian Murray
Before I entered politics I was a businessman and entrepreneur. I ran pubs, hotels and events, and every month would be a balancing act between making enough to pay the staff or dipping into the red. One unexpected cost - like a big bill - could knock you for six. We’ve all seen our energy bills surge in the last few years.
-
2 months ago | 
marketingweek.com | Jasper Baumann |Molly Innes |Ian Murray |Helen James
Airbnb has said it will invest up to $250m (£199m) in launching, scaling and marketing new businesses in 2025, as the home rentals company looks to expand its product offering. While he didn’t give specific details about what these products might be, co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky said he wants Airbnb to be “similar to Amazon”, in that it will be “one place to go for all of your traveling and living needs”.
-
2 months ago | 
marketingweek.com | Molly Innes |Niamh Carroll |Ian Murray
Marketing has a burnout problem, but the solution to fixing it is not clear cut. What works for one individual or team won’t necessarily be the answer for others. However, some leaders are taking proactive steps to protect employee wellbeing and prevent burnout from happening. “Marketing leaders need to lead the way by example,” says Paul Davies, the BBC’s director of marketing and audiences.
-
2 months ago | 
marketingweek.com | Niamh Carroll |Ian Murray |Grace Gollasch
Nestlé has stressed the importance of “addressing [its] issues in the right order” as it pledges to increase marketing spend to support growth. The consumer goods business, which owns brands including Nescafé, KitKat and Purina, has pledged to step up the percentage of revenue it invests into advertising and promotion going forward to fuel growth. This is being done under the leadership of CEO Laurent Freixe, who took over at the helm of the business in August 2024.
-
2 months ago | 
marketingweek.com | Ian Murray |Andrew Tenzer |Niamh Carroll |Grace Gollasch
“A millennial is often as likely to behave like a Gen X-er as they are another millennial. These aren’t distinct or even meaningful methods for segmenting markets – just bullshit labels that become reality because we’ve stereotyped them that way.”Mark Ritson thinks demographics are horseshit. He’s part of a growing backlash against the often risible generational research that passes for ‘cultural insight’ in the marketing industry.
