An inside look at the Brand of the Year contest An inside look at the Brand of the Year contest

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An inside look at the Brand of the Year contest

Greggs won Marketing Week’s Brand of the Year award, powered by YouGov, but it was a close fight, with all five on the shortlist having a strong case based on data and impressive strategies.

The best brands understand their purpose, are constantly innovating and create fantastic customer experiences that consumers talk about. At the Festival of Marketing (FoM), members of the Marketing Week Masters judging panel revealed the merits of the brands shortlisted for Brand of the Year, powered by YouGov. The panel examined Greggs, Netflix, Ikea, Nationwide and Cadbury, which contested the award eventually won by Greggs at the Masters ceremony on 2 October.

Greggs got into the public’s consciousness

According to Oliver Lewis, managing director of influencer marketing agency The Fifth: “Influencer marketing is growing very quickly. Spend is increasing. In a recent study, 61% of marketers said they would increase their spend this year in influencer marketing, and we have seen that realised.” Olympic gold medal-winning snowboarder Amy Fuller pointed out that brands need to move away from thinking solely in terms of reach to “something more meaningful and outcome-driven”. While campaign objectives differ, from the influencer’s perspective real trust tends to lead to a more authentic, organic and creative partnership, she said. Fuller told the audience how, as brand ambassador for Tag Heuer, she has learned first-hand the importance of working alongside brands that are “a true representation” of herself. “Tag aligns with what I do both on and off the mountain,” she said, adding: “I’d call myself an athlete not an influencer.” Tag Heuer’s Barnes agreed, telling delegates: “We do a lot of due diligence and research into people. But the more important question is: what do you want from it? Do they represent you as a brand? Is it a good match? “It’s not an ad campaign. There is no script,” she added. “It’s very different from a brand campaign.”

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Pete Markey, TSB CMO and Masters judge

Despite being a 72-year-old heritage brand, Ikea – another of those shortlisted – is alert to changing consumer needs around the customer experience and sustainability. According to YouGov, it outperforms most brands around the buzz it creates and its record on sustainability aligns with many people’s concerns in 2019.

Masters judge Pete Markey praises the Brand of the Year, Greggs

Netflix’s content strategy impressed judge Sonia Sudhakar

Pete Markey, TSB’s chief marketing officer and one of the Masters judges, said the panel rewarded Greggs for being “clever and edgy”, understanding its audience, being innovative and having well-placed offers. “The brand got into the public’s consciousness because it was being talked about in the media as well as developing a good customer experience,” he said. “It is not afraid to push the boundaries of where the brand is going.” Head of data products at YouGov, Amelia Brophy, explained how the research company’s data was used as the basis for determining which brands should make the shortlist. YouGov tracks both short-term metrics, such as buzz and ad awareness, and long-term ones including recommendation and satisfaction, on a daily basis through its BrandIndex tool. She said there was a time last year when one in five consumers could remember seeing a Greggs advert in the past week. The company harnessed interest in its brand by launching a vegan sausage roll to tie in with the Veganuary campaign. Greggs saw a 9.6% rise in sales in the seven weeks to 16 February 2019 as the vegan sausage roll received extensive media coverage.

Toby Horry, brand and content director at travel firm TUI and another member of the Masters judging panel, said Ikea has a clarity of purpose, is stylish, affordable and not afraid to take risks. Like Greggs, it gets media attention for its marketing and advertising. For example, it created rooms from The Simpsons TV show featuring Ikea furniture.

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The panel also discussed the brand success of Netflix which Brophy said had successfully increased its number of customers and those thinking about signing up, particularly among the over-55s. It was exceeding customer expectations. Sonia Sudhakar, Masters judge and director of marketing for Guardian News and Media, said Netflix is thriving because it is content-driven. She cited its success in attracting the fans of TV series that had a cult following, such as Breaking Bad and Black Mirror. “Netflix has played a blinder in many ways by focusing on hero content,” she said. “This includes documentaries that appeal to older people who are not so used to watching media in a different way. It also uses data effectively to create the best customer experience.”

Greggs harnessed a trend when they came out with their vegan sausage roll

Amelia Brophy, YouGov

“The challenge it faces is how to serve online sales,” said Horry. “We are seeing micro-shops appearing in the high street where people can then get items delivered. Another example of Ikea’s great customer experience.” Nationwide’s ‘Voices’ campaign brought to life by spoken word poets living and working across the UK was also praised by the FoM panel. ‘Voices’ had a significant impact on Nationwide’s brand consideration, with one fifth of all bank account switches going to the building society. YouGov’s Brophy said customers agreed with the sentiments the brand was expressing and Nationwide benefited from strong customer loyalty. Markey said Nationwide had got its mojo back and understood its purpose and role in people’s lives. Also on the Brand of the Year shortlist was Cadbury, which at the beginning of 2018 replaced its ‘Free the Joy’ strapline with ‘There’s a glass and a half in everyone’ to connect more with consumers. This led to a six-point increase in brand consideration, according to YouGov’s data. “We were surprised to see it on the list but it is there because it is doing things better than its competitors,” said Brophy. “It has a successful dual strategy of serving its traditional customer base well while also being innovative to bring in new audiences.”■

Greggs' triumph as the Marketing Week Masters Brand of the Year was based not just on the opinions of the expert judging panel but also data collated by YouGov from its BrandIndex tool, which informed the judging process. The data combined metrics ranging from ad awareness and buzz to value and quality perceptions. According to YouGov's UK head of data products, Amelia Brophy, the brands that featured on the Brand of the Year shortlist performed well on both the short- term metrics and those related to long-term brand equity. Greggs stood out, however, and at one point last year, one in five Britons recalled seeing a Greggs ad in the previous two weeks. Greggs also "harnessed a trend" with the launch of its vegan sausage roll, she told the Festival of Marketing. "We have data that says four in 10 Brits are actively looking to reduce their meat consumption, so it really spoke to that group of people and made Greggs perform in a way that we really didn't expect them to." Greggs' win also pleased TSB CMO Pete Markey, one of the senior marketers on the Masters judging panel. "They know their audience really well...but they've innovated. The vegan sausage roll is just one aspect. If you go into a Greggs, the customer experience has been enhanced," he said. "They have also been quite clever and edgy with knowing where their brand can go and how to push that brand."

How Greggs became Brand of the Year

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