We’re all media moguls now - Peach Marketing & Consumer Insight Seminar

Those were among the key messages of Peach Network’s 2011 Marketing & Consumer Insight Seminar, which drew a packed crowd of 135 delegates in London yesterday (23 March).

Paul Madden, head of digital at Mitchells & Butlers, struck one of the keynotes of the event in emphasising the rising importance of marketing on mobile and location-enabled internet platforms. One in four minutes online is now spent on a mobile, and use of these devices will soon overtake computers, he said. “This [mobile internet use] is going to go through the roof.”

Madden reported on the success of iPhone-friendly web applications created for M&B’s Harvester and Vintage Inns brands, and he advised operators to research their market and shop around when developing apps. Like several other speakers, he emphasised the importance of localised marketing via app and web content.

Vikki O’Neill, head of marketing at Giraffe, singled out another of the increasingly essential platforms for marketing departments - Twitter. With around 9,500 followers, Giraffe’s Twitter feed is among the most popular in the sector, and O’Neill said it helped to create ambassadors for her company’s brand, citing informal research that found all but one of more than 100 of her followers visit Giraffe more often as a result of the link.

O’Neill advised operators to use Twitter to inform customers but also to engage with them. “You can’t just use it as a promotional vehicle—Twitter is a conversation. You’ve got to enjoy this stuff as it takes over your whole life—and it’ll be obvious if you’re faking it.”

Living Ventures commercial director Jeremy Roberts highlighted the value of an efficient and engaging online reservation service. Living Ventures has recently invested in reservation platform liveRES, and Roberts said it offered a good way of ending the ‘spray and pray’ approach to discount-based marketing. He cited the example of Living Ventures’ Grill on the Corner restaurant in Glasgow, which doubled its sales after using a liveRES-controlled 50% off food offer—but has since slashed the number of customers paying the reduced rate from 85% to 35%. “With a little help from technology, discounting can not just lead to bigger profits but result in more, not less, brand loyalty.”

For businesses seeking to reinvigorate their own websites in the era of social networking, Adjust Your Set chief executive Chris Gorell Barnes urged investment in video content. “Video is the key ingredient and one of the most powerful tools open to a marketer,” he said. “People don’t want to read any more—they want to watch.” He cited the example of Marks & Spencer’s website, on which shoppers who engage with video spend 23% more on average than those who do not. “Using video in your traditional marketing channels is like putting a rocket under them,” Barnes added. “If a picture tells a thousand words then a video tells a chapter.”

Carlson Marketing strategy director Robert Wadman meanwhile revealed how young people’s changing habits are giving operators new challenges, with the trend of constant connectedness particularly important. “We need to think of our assets as things that exist on the internet and in real life, and frankly the lines between the two are increasingly irrelevant.”

Businesses need to make consumers feel part of something special online and fuel their passions. “Organise and act like a media owner,” he advised. “Try to think around interactions as well as transactions.”

Wrapping up the Seminar, a panel of leading marketing directors echoed Madden’s emphasis on localism in marketing. Simon Wallis, marketing director at Domino’s Pizza, said that while big branding deals like sponsorship of TV shows The Simpsons and Britain’s Got Talent had proved valuable, local activity was crucial too. “The most effective way to drive sales is in the immediate vicinity.”

Clive Briscoe, marketing director at the Punch Pub Company, agreed. “The brand is national, but the experience is local.” He discussed the challenge of pulling its pubs together in coherent marketing messages. Punch is creating more distinctive umbrella brands for many of its pubs, and it seems to be paying off in sales terms, he said.

Darrell Wade, marketing director at TGI Friday’s, revealed that his chain was returning to its roots as a place to go to celebrate, as it marks the 25th anniversary of its arrival in the UK. “People had lost a sense of what Friday’s stood for… in the last few years we’ve tried to take it back to the essence of what it’s about.” He also echoed several speakers in pointing out that clever marketing means nothing if a restaurant doesn’t deliver a good customer experience. “Our business succeeds or fails at the table.”

Charing the Seminar, Peach’s Peter Martin said the popularity of the event demonstrated the value the restaurant and pub sectors now place on smart marketing. “We need to better understand and engage with our customers.” He spotlighted research from Peach’s recent Leaders’ Survey that proves the power of social networking and recommendations—“Brands are winning out generally… but loyalty is all to play for”—and echoed Wadman’s opinion that customers’ online and offline worlds have fused. “It’s not just about what you do with your customers when they’re in your restaurant, pub or bar—it’s about what you’re doing with them when they’re not.”

For full reports from the Marketing and Consumer Insight Seminar, see the next issue of Peach Report.