The Sauce – 03/09/2024

Welcome to ‘The Sauce’ – your weekly dollop of marketing news.

By Ashleigh Morris, our Content and Comms Lead.

Welcome to ‘The Sauce’ – your free-to-access weekly newsletter for all of the latest marketing and brand news that you need to know.

This week we look at Surreal’s latest smash, new AI features from Hubspot, the ‘bluntest ever’ marketing campaign, a drop in retail prices and Polly Pocket’s house on Airbnb.

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Definitely Maybe Our Campaign of the Week

They’ve done it again! Fresh off the back of their Gymshark collab, cereal brand Surreal has jumped onto one of the biggest announcements of the year (the Oasis reunion tour) with a reactive out-of-home campaign.

The band announced the tour at 8am on Tuesday 27th August… and by the very next day Surreal’s campaign was live. 

Remarkable in its creative simplicity, with ‘DEFINITELY Tasty’ and ‘MAYBE The best thing you’ve ever eaten’ on side-by-side billboards, this takes reactive marketing to the next level.

Just some more evidence that Surreal is smashing it with their marketing at the moment… but you never really had a doubt.

 

Hubspot Launches AI Tool to Support Customers

CRM platform Hubspot has launched an AI tool to support its customers, following research that the use of ChatGPT to answer questions is up 37%, while searches using traditional search engines are down 11%.

The new tool, AI Search Grader, will enable Hubspot users to understand how their brands are showing up in AI searches as well as on traditional channels.

AI Search Grader will give marketers an overview of how their brand is performing across AI search engines, a brand sentiment score and a share of voice score to provide a comparison against competitors. It will also help marketers analyse their marketing efforts and identify areas for improvement.

We love that Hubspot is developing the platform to incorporate new technologies and meet customer demand, and we’re enjoying seeing how businesses are using AI to support their marketing as the technology develops.

We love that Hubspot is developing the platform to incorporate new technologies and meet customer demand.

Snoop Dogg Fronts ‘Bluntest Ever’ Marketing Campaign…

Following stealing the show at this year’s Olympics, Snoop Dogg now features in the latest ad for Solo Stove. Capitalising on Snoop’s resurgence, the brand has featured him in the ‘bluntest ever’ marketing campaign.

Putting ‘bluntness’ at the heart of its strategy, the campaign revolves around a 30-second spot in which Snoop proudly states: “This is an ad for Solo Stove. You should buy a Solo Stove. I’m here because you’re more likely to buy this fire pit because I’m Snoop”.

Quite frankly – we think it’s genius! We’ve talked a lot about businesses taking the easy route to increase reach via partnerships with tenuous links. But this one is straight to the point – no pretending Snoop has a secret passion for stoves, just a straight up admission that actually people are more likely to buy the fire pit for the simple reason that it’s being promoted by Snoop.

Sometimes, honesty really is the best policy.

 

Discounting Results in Retail Prices Falling

Discounts on fashion and household goods have resulted in the first drop in retail prices for almost three years. Figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) show year-on-year deflation of 0.3% in August.

After years of inflation, is this a good sign? According to BRC chief exec Helen Dickinson, the drop was caused by “retailers discounting heavily to shift their summer stock.” Consumers continued to feel the crunch and retailers were also impacted by the poor summer weather (what summer?!) which caused poor trading. Dickinson claims businesses could see renewed inflationary pressures in the coming months. We’ve seen many businesses, particularly in the fast-food industry, focus on price-led offers to hit targets in recent months.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. Research shows consumer confidence in July was the highest it’s been since September 2021, and the recent ‘Retail at Christmas’ report (check it out in last week’s edition of The Sauce) shows that many UK consumers are willing to ‘trade up’ this Christmas’.

We’ve seen many businesses focus on price-led offers to hit targets in recent months.

Would You Stay in Polly Pocket’s House?

A life-sized Polly Pocket House is now available on Airbnb – and it’s an epic ’90s throwback… Sadly, for our UK audience at least, it’s a bit of a trek being based in Massachusetts. The house brings to life Polly’s iconic 90s ‘tiny but mighty’ compact to celebrate the brand’s 35th anniversary.

We’ve seen a lot of brands tap into the power of nostalgia recently, and perhaps Polly Pocket were inspired by the Barbie mania from 2023. It’s a clever way for brands to target a new generation of children through their parents who loved the brand several decades ago. And for Airbnb it underlines their values of connection, belonging and creativity which enables them to imagine new possibilities for people.

Now, has anyone else got the annoyingly catchy Polly Pocket ad jingle from the 90s going round and round in their head? You’re welcome!

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Contact us on hello@awesomesaucemarketing.co.uk to find out how we can support your business with a client-centred marketing approach.

You can check out previous editions of ‘The Sauce’ here. 

Brought to you by Awesomesauce Marketing – a full-service marketing agency serving UK and international clients.