Just like Tesco's, Sainsbury's has departed from its traditional price/ product focused executions. But unlike Tesco's "Food Love Stories", which clearly has life after the initial execution, questions remain over the longevity of Sainsbury's #fooddancing campaign?

The ad is the first execution by newly appointed W&K London and shows food lovers dancing in their kitchen as they prepare dishes. It is set to a specially-created background track Food Dancing (Yum Yum Yum) by UK artist MysDiggi that will be released on Spotify.

Now, there are some things that I really like about the campaign. It's different for one. It's nice to see another retailer moving away from a traditional approach to advertising. Watching people dance around to a catchy number, certainly brings a smile to my face especially as I can relate! I have been known to shake what my mother gave me while cooking up a storm in the kitchen. W&K have clearly looked at our behaviours when we prepare a meal and picked out a very fun and engaging one to champion. I also like the fact that given the fun and shareability of such content their pleas for people to use the hashtag on social media probably won't fall on death ears.

That being said, their are a few things that I do take issue with. Firstly, who is MysDiggi? Now, I know the hope with the song is that ‘Yum Yum Yum" will be a viral hit. But the year's of "gangnam style" and "crazy frog" are behind us (thank god) and it takes a lot more than a catchy tune to go viral. You need the right influencers, distribution and often an artist that's known!

And what's with the "fake" authenticity? The film is deliberately shot in a low-fi, hand-held style, to give an authentic perspective, as though captured by the individual featured. But I can't help but think, why didn't you just get them to film themselves in the first place. The quality is already low so that issue with UGC is irrelevant in this case. For me, if you want to be authentic, you should be authentic. You try to fake it it defeats the point. 

But my biggest question is how will this live for the next 6 months? The Sainsbury’s director of brand communications Mark Given says: “ #fooddancing...is a big part of living well" and at the end of the spot it even says "#FoodDancing is living well". So maybe this part of an overarching strategy to provide insight into what the strapline actually means. If that is the case, I can't what to see further articulations of the "Living Well" strapline.

Rating: TBD

Special offers, price points, premium ranges - traditionally, these are the areas in which supermarkets compete. Indeed in recent years the price-focused ads of Morrisons and those of Lidl and Aldi have been very effective in enticing customers away from the established powerhouses that are Tesco, 

Sainsbury and Waitrose. But, this me-too form of advertising is fast becoming tiresome and it is all about short-term, key "trade moment" gains. They are not brand building or perception changing. The only one in this category to do that was Lidl with #lidlsurprises. However, after x amount of iterations of the same campaign, their messaging no longer has the same potency. Well, last month we saw Tesco take a lap of faith and talk about something else and boy was it refreshing!

Revising the way it talks about food in its advertising, Tesco has moved away from heroing particular products or promoting individual items to instead highlighting its quality credentials and the passion and care that goes into the meals its customers prepare. It is no longer about championing their food and their brand, instead it's all about championing the customer's story.

Merely setting the parameters and context ("Food Love Stories"), Tesco's is allowing the customers to tell their own brand story in an authentic and emotive way. Using real-life stories makes it more relatable and allows you to emphasis and connect more with the campaign and, in turn, the brand. 

The power of UGC has been recognised for many years now but seldom do brands use it well or imaginatively. Asking consumers to use your hashtag and post a picture with them using your product isn't going to win fans or awards anytime soon. But setting up a platform for consumers to get peer to peer tips, advice and inspiration is a great way to engineer brand love. To this effect, Tesco has launched a content hub with ingredients and recipe cards for the featured meals, which will also be available in its large stores to ensure that customers can engage and be involved with this campaign beyond the OOH. 

While I do enjoy the refreshing nature of this campaign, in order to achieve the objective of highlighting the quality of Tesco's products, some work may need to be done to the next iterations. At present the focus is very much on the story behind the meal and not on the quality of the ingredients going into it. But I am sure this will be addressed in the future. For now, I am just going to enjoy the great recipes that are being featured!

Rating: 9/10

You would have had to have had no access to the internet for the past 6 months to have avoided seeing at least one attempt at the mannequin challenge. But for those who are ignorant to this cultural phenomenon (and basically the world around them), here's a little explanation I found on wiki:

 "The Mannequin Challenge is a viral Internet video trend where people remain frozen in action like mannequins while a moving camera films them, usually with the song "Black Beatles" by Rae Sremmurd playing in the background."

Now everyone is up to speed,  let's examine Unicef's version of the challenge. Unicef claims it's "the most powerful #MannequinChallenge yet" and they are not wrong.  The video was created to highlight the issue of female genital mutilation and ends with the evil act about to be performed on an innocent young girl.

Unicef's attempt to raise awareness about the female genital mutilation, was well received on social media. Many shared the video and said that it had a powerful message. While I think that this praise is more than justified, my only criticism is its distribution strategy.

Instead of relying on "owned" social channels, Unicef needed to involve the influencers that made this challenge infamous. They also needed to identify the platform that would be used as their main distribution vehicle. Instagram is where this challenge rose to fame and where most people engaged with it, therefore this should have been their main vehicle to push the video.  I am sure someone like "King Bach" would have no has problem with sharing the video - I mean, it would only benefit his public image.

But, that being said all in all this campaign is brilliant. It serves as an excellent example of a brand using culture in an authentic, organic way to share a poignant message. 

I think other brands would do well to take a leaf out of Unicef's book!

With Amazon expected to surpass Macy's to become the biggest apparel seller in the US next year, many people are wondering what this means for the world of fashion?

In recent years, the consumer's increasing desire to shop online has certainly forced brands to invest in their digital ecosystems. However, brick and mortar has managed to co-exist, if not tentatively, with online platforms. But is this indicative of a future without shopping malls? 

Indeed, the shift would represent a huge shake-up for the apparel industry, which has long been dominated by department stores like Macy's, JCPenney, and Walmart. 

There are also signs that Amazon want to enter the world of high fashion. The company has started to shift its fashion strategy toward offering more high-end designer names such as Zac Posen and Stuart Weitzman. To help with this new strategy, they have even hired executives from luxury fashion companies such as the Vogue editor Caroline Palmer.

Given the close ties and similarities between the UK and US, there is some speculation over whether we could see this happen in the UK. But I don't think it is all doom and gloom for the highstreet - well, in the UK at least!

Brands in the UK simply need to play to their strengths, instead of trying to compete in the digital space where Amazon is a founding father.

This is not to say they should abandon their digital stores - a good online UX experience can be just as effective as a good marketing campaign  - but they should focus on offering what online retail can not - the human touch.

Simple enough idea - but there are not enough brands doing it.

Validation of one’s fashion choses is still important. More than 65% of 16-34s “don’t make a fashion decision until they have discussed it with people they trust,” and 70% are “more excited about a decision they’ve made when their friends agree with them.” (Forbes, 2015)

Their desire for affirmation is so great that we have even seen the rise of "chelifies."  Shoppers are now asking friends from the changing room for their opinions on new outfits via social media. A survey of 2,000 young people found they can wait up to 2 hours to acquire 'likes' before buying an outfit. (Daily Mail, 2015)

But there’s a tension - they’d prefer it if their mates were really there. Females aged between 16-34 want shopping to be a group activity and shop twice as often with their spouses, friends or family members compared with non-millennial women. Indeed, 59% of 16-34s say they prefer shopping in-store for clothing, fashion, and accessories. (YouGov Reports, 2016, Innovations in Retailing)

"Whilst online shopping is becoming ever-more convenient with the advent of within the hour and same day deliveries, it is clear that the desire to touch, feel, try on, compare, and above all see and judge, clothes/accessories when worn remains strong.”
(YouGov Reports, 2016, Innovations in Retailing).

These young women also want a better "experience". When shopping, they prefer an ‘experiential’ retail environment, where shopping is more than a transaction and the pleasure of being in the store isn’t limited to the goods that customers take home.” (Forbes, 2015)

Based on these insights, brands on the high street need to recognise their customers desire for great in-store retail experiences. They need to transform retail spaces into social spaces. The ultimate goal is to give their consumers such a brilliant in-store experience, that they will feel they are not getting the full product if they just shop online.

This new advert from Beats by Dre is fun. Imbued with a healthy dosage of nostalgia in the form of a classic disney song, and filled with all our favourite celebs dancing and miming the lyrics perfectly, it certainly leaves you with a big smile on your face. But I can't help but feel there is missing something.

Now, not every advert needs a call to action or wants to "sell" you something. Living in an age when an ad-blocker comes as standard on every iPhone, and consumers are becoming increasingly immune to traditional forms of advertising, an old school "let me sell you something" ad just doesn't work. Content is king and the impetus is now on brands to provide us with interesting, innovative, shareable pieces of content or contribute meaningfully in the passion areas of lives.

However, ultimately brands need to sell their products or get us to do something and all the above is basically a new way to do just that . Therefore, every advert or piece of content needs to contribute to the customer journey. 

So what does this advert do? Well, it introduces the consumer to the audio brand's new range of wireless headphones and induces positive feelings towards the brand i.e. brand love. That I suppose is enough, but I think there is room for more.

This is big shift for the brand. They are no longer selling the headphones with wires. They should be celebrating this, right? In my opinion they need to communicate the product benefits e.g. "Why should I buy beats wireless headphones over sony ones? or as an aspiring lifestyle brand tell the consumers what purchasing these headphones say about them. Heck, even just explaining why wireless headphones are better than wired ones would be nice. Indeed, the products are implicitly conveyed via the lyrics "I got no strings". These words imply that you are not impeded or constrained by the wireless from traditional headphones, something that is amplified with the celebs dancing freely throughout the spot. But I still think there is room for improvement.

The clever use of celebrities and brilliant art direction overshadows the significance of this product's innovation. Hopefully the next iteration will let us know a little bit more about the product itself. 

I am not ashamed to say it, I am probably one of TWBA Media Arts biggest fans when it comes to their Apple adverts. They just have a knack of making all Apple products feel such a natural and essential part of our lives. The way they convey technology and product updates makes you feel that if you don't have that gadget that you are not truly living - okay, maybe thats just me but you have to admit they are emotive.

But I think I may have my have misplaced my rose tinted glasses when I caught my first glimpse of the Apple Watch Series 2 advert. If case you are unaware the main improvements between the first apple watch and this latest iteration are the GPS and that it is fully waterproof. Nothing to write home about. And surprisingly this is so clearly evident in the advert - nothing has really changed.

As to be expected the art direction is brilliant and the various of sports is interesting but i don't feel compelled to run down to my nearest apple. I don't know, maybe as an"experience hunter" - well, that's what they call us millennials anyway - I have lost my desire to have the latest "thing" valuing experiences over products. But I still like my gadgets so maybe it is just this one advert didn't strike a cord with me.

Match.com early this year launch of the second phase of its #LoveYourImperfections campaign, following the success of its roll out in 2015. Continuing in its mission to give singles the confidence to express their true selves, the brand has built upon last year’s campaign by strengthening elements of authenticity and intimacy. The new adverts bravely reveal imperfections and quirks Brits normally hide, including messiness, wearing your socks in bed, being obsessively organised, glued to your phone and clumsy. All these are based on the insight that people truly connect with others when they are being themselves.

I know this advert has been out for over 10 months now but with recent outburst against their use of a lesbian couple in their new adverts, they must be praised for standing up to the bigots and reflecting the open-minded and free world in which we live today!