Speaking to the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee yesterday (29 October) concerning the recent wave of bill hikes which have swept around the country’s energy industry, three of the largest suppliers said strategic moves to diversify their retail businesses beyond traditional tariffs would give them an edge in winning new customers.

William Morris, managing director of retail for SSE, said the goods currently on offer within the sector are limited, adding a paradigm shift into areas together with home services and telephony would give it a neater service to market to consumers. The business has recently launched an O2 Priority-style rewards scheme to capture more shopper data, while E.ON is asking to broaden its energy efficiency services next year.  

Morris adds: “We should inject more diversity of goods into our offers in order that there’s a perception from customers that they’re getting a neater service from us. We must always be observing bringing home services and telephony to the market to make it more diverse. “

E.ON’s UK chief executive Tony Cocker echoed the decision for expansion into new areas, urging MPs to launch a contest inquiry into the entire utilities market. The business, which has yet to announce price rises, said a review will be vital to restoring customer trust inside the industry. It echoes an identical plea by rival provider EDF Energy earlier this month.

Cocker adds: “I fundamentally believe that this market is competitive but we’re not trusted and therefore i suspect we have to have an exceptionally thorough competition commission investigation.”

Ofgem, which has drawn criticisms from Labour leader Ed Miliband and campaign groups for not being harder at the UK’s biggest suppliers, told MPs on the same hearing that competition will be examined as portion of a much broader review of the field due out in Spring 2014.

The Big Six energy firms were accused of behaving like a “chorus line acting in concert” by MPs on the same hearing following widespread price increases of as much as 10 per cent. The provider blamed the pointy increases on rising wholesale prices, green taxes and transport costs, but admitted they had to be better at “articulating” theses reasons to customers.  

The announcements come just days after Prime Minister David Cameron revealed he was “frustrated” with the dominance of the enormous Six firms and desired to make a “big 60” market, with greater choice for consumers and  “healthy” competition keeping prices down. Details of the contest review is about to be outlined later this week in Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey’s annual statement.

The IAB’s Mobile Travel Audit, published today (October 30), also reveals lower than half (48 per cent) of the UK’s top travel brands have a mobile app, with only 56 per cent (14) of those offering fully transactional services. 

The study also finds only 20 per cent of the audited brands offer a “seamless user journey”, where logged-in customers can see items of their purchase basket across desktop, tablet and mobile.

Alex Kozloff, IAB head of mobile, says the findings are “surprising” for brands on this sector, particularly as UK internet users spend an ordinary of 43 hours per thirty days with a connected device, and increasingly these are with mobiles.

She adds: “Mobile now accounts for 14 per cent of total digital spend, it’s a medium that can’t be ignored.”

Meanwhile, the study also found that lower than half (42 per cent) of the audited brands optimised their search marketing campaigns for mobile devices.

Furthermore, it found four of the audited brands were investing in mobile search campaigns that directed users towards non-mobile optimised sites.

The research, conducted in September and October, gauged the uptake of the mobile channel by the tip 50 spending advertisers within the travel category by auditing their presence for mobile websites, apps, responsive design sites and tablet devices.

It found that just 4 per cent of those sites have websites designed specifically for tablets, despite the generally acknowledged importance on optimising services for such devices.

Speaking at this month’s Abta conference, TUI Travel group chief information officer Mittu Sridhara urged attendees to deal with for mobile devices or risk falling behind competitors.

He said: “Mobile is moving quickly and if you’re not in it you won’t learn along with your customers or evolve along with your customers. There’ll be no time to play catch up later.”

Splitting marketing budgets remains an immense challenge for shops over Christmas. The festive season is all concerning the big brand campaign battle, with retailers inclusive of Argos, Marks & Spencer, Next and John Lewis all pumping millions of pounds into high-profile television commercials this year.

Yet there’s also a lower level battle going as retailers put money into mobile and digital as their importance within the purchasing journey increases. Per figures from Yahoo, the net is probably the most used media two hours before consumers buy groceries and so they are inclined to return to the web in the event that they don’t buy anything in store.

Patrick Hourihan, Yahoo’s head of study in Northern Europe and author of its Time To shop for research, says: “The role of devices and the net in supporting physical store visits is increasingly more important. Retailers cannot just market on one platform, it isn’t the way in which people engage or shop.”

Yahoo’s comments are backed up by figures at the growing ubiquity of cell phones, with almost three-quarters of UK consumers now owning a smartphone, with penetration at 90 per cent among 25-34 year olds, in accordance with Deloitte. Separately, a study by Weve found that 28 per cent of individuals cite mobile as their first screen, with this number rising to 46 per cent among 18-34 year olds.

At Christmas, digital is much more important, with Yahoo claiming they see a large spike in searches for gifts and online shopping.

“Around Christmas there’s further and further engagement with digital. Online shopping is gigantic at the moment of year because individuals are buying stuff for people and that they like to do it quickly!” says Hourihan.

This opens up a chance to interact with consumers digitally by offering a content-rich experience that supports the only they find in stores. Where previously a mobile website that allow customers research products online could have been enough, now individuals are expecting next-generation mobile services which might be image heavy, fast and whole of content.

Retailers are taking heed. Very has announced a transformation in business plan within the run-as much as Christmas to highlight content marketing and social media, while John Lewis is forecasting that mobile traffic will overtake desktop traffic to its website at 5pm on Christmas Day and is launching an iPad app which will bring content from the retailer’s magazines and catalogues to the tablet.

Marks & Spencer has updated its iPhone app with My Offers, as a way to offer customers exclusive content and deals relevant to their shopping preferences. Plus it’s
planning to debut its new Christmas ad campaign online first and is offering teasers on Instagram just before its first play on Monday (4 November).

It can be using social media to interact with customers, asking them to choose a reputation for the dog that looks inside the ad, with the winner out of a decision of Magic and Sparkle revealed in a version of the ad with a view to run during Downton Abbey on Sunday 10 November.

Patrick Bousquet-Chavanne, the retailer’s executive director of promoting and business development, says: “Brands are all about interaction and conversation and the role of digital at large is to create conversations. Social media gives us a voice to our consumers, letting us engage with them throughout the journey.”

Argos is additionally desirous about content and social media as a way of bringing its catalogue and products to life and to take advantage of growth that has seen mobile traffic increase by 124 per cent during the last year to make up 16 per cent of its total. It has expanded a small test it ran with augmented reality app Blippar early this year to its Christmas catalogue, offering users access to content along with videos and games.

The technology converts static images into interactive content, using a smartphone camera to recognise “blippable” images and respond with anything from videos to competitions to weblinks.

Betrand Bodson, digital director at Argos, says: “Content is vital since it is compelling for purchasers and an entry point to engagement with the logo. We need to be social to bring people to our platform, get them clicking on our products and get them buying.”

Argos is likewise using social media to amplify the consequences of Blippar. Among the many blippable images gives users the choice to take an image with the family of aliens from its campaign and post that to Facebook or Twitter, while it’s also asking people to call the hot baby alien.

After only a week, Bodson claims customers are highly engaged with the content, with all people using the app an ordinary of 10 times.

“This is greater than only a gimmick, it is a fantastic conduit into digital. We had a challenge in that the catalogue is celebrated but has limitations since it is static. This can be a way of bringing paper to life and offering customers an experience in accordance with content round the Argos brand. Mobile is absolutely the connector between the web site that folk are using at home and the stores.”

Bodson believes it’s much more important within the run-as much as Christmas, when competition among retailers is at its fiercest and each brand is making an attempt to be seen as innovative.

“Christmas is a key time to focus on [digital marketing innovations]. Retailers are less comfortable in content and social. There’s a possibility here because most still aren’t using it,” he concludes.

The launch of the Lifetime brand, which dates back to the 1980s inside the US, involves a serious 12-month push, including the “full brand integration” between the manufacturer and broadcaster across all of Lifetime’s media space.

Lifetime represents the primary time A&E Networks UK, a three way partnership between A+E Networks and BSkyB and in general related to its Bio and History Channels here, has concentrated its efforts on female audiences, in keeping with Anna Priest, A&E Networks’ VP of marcomms,

She also notes the tie-up with Citizen Watch marks the manufacturer’s first try to position itself as a brand of choice one of the same female demographic.

This tie-up came after the broadcaster identified five young female audiences: Sharing, Multi-tasking, Aspiring, Responsible, Technophiles – or ‘S.M.A.R.T.’ – as a major target demographic it had yet to tap into.

Priest adds: “Our brand is female-centric [and targeted towards this age bracket] but we don’t desire to exclude anyone. We all know that these women like to watch TV with their partners.”

Promotional activity within the run-as much as the campaign will include a double-page spread (DPS) promotional piece during this week’s edition of Grazia magazine, plus inserts within the Mail On Sunday’s Event supplement.

This can be followed up by multiple homepage takeovers on MailOnline, specifically its FeMail section, beginning Monday (4 November) – the date the channel officially switches on with its flagship British TV show ’The Conversation with Amanda de Cadenet’.

Wrap advertising on Monday’s issue of commuter-focused freesheet Metro will even follow on from broadcast ad “hero spots” in this weekend’s episode of Homeland.

Additional on-air ad slots will run across free-to-air TV channels, plus paid-for TV channels on Sky.

“The aim is to get 85 per cent of ladies aged 25-44 years old to work out them [ads and PR material] before the launch,” explains Priest.

Promotional is decided to run for four weeks within the initial phase of the campaign, with creative content showcasing much of Lifetime’s US content, including drama specials featuring Lindsay Lohan as Elizabeth Taylor, The shopper List starring Jennifer Love-Hewitt and Steel Magnolias starring Queen Latifah.

However, Priest also hints at follow-up activity to come back within the New Year, once TV viewing habits return to normal after the Christmas Holiday season.

 She says: “Christmas is a funny time… Coming back strong within the New Year can be important.” 

Visitors to the positioning will be unable to shop goods they’d find in store. That’s understood that HMV has accepted that it cannot compete with rivals resembling Play.com, Apple and Spotify inside the digital entertainment business.

Instead, HMV is offering a spot for users find information on new releases and older products, in addition to at the company itself, aiming to accumulate a faithful community round the brand and drive them into its stores.

The site was created by Code Computerlove and replaces a holding site that have been live since Hilco bought HMV out of administration back in April. It has a sturdy discuss content curated by a brand new editorial team, with staff across its chain of stores also contributing.

It is dominated by music content for the time being, however it will broaden far from this to spotlight the variability of entertainment products, including games and flicks, that HMV stores sell. It also integrates with HMV’s recently launched digital music store, providing 30-second track previews and allowing users to buy digital downloads via 7digital.

Personalisation will even play an enormous role, with HMV hoping to be told what users are buying in store and searching at on its website with the intention to offer a tailored experience, equivalent to news on local stores, favourite artists or upcoming movies. Users shall be ready to check in through 7digital or HMV’s loyalty programme, pureHMV, that is set to relaunch later this week.

Further improvements to the positioning also are planned. A search function is within the works, as is a whole product catalogue, while there’ll be more integration with downloads. However, there aren’t any plans in place right now to begin selling any physical products, equivalent to CDs or DVDs.

The IAB’s US entity has install a local Advertising Task Force including 80 companies representing advertisers, media owners and technology providers, to agree upon best practice around ‘blending’ commercial messaging with editorial content – ‘native advertising’ or ‘sponsored content’. 

The Native Advertising Task Force, whose leadership includes representatives from the IAB itself, Sharethrough and Yahoo, is preparing to publish a “prospectus” proposing how best to attain a consistent mixture of both different pieces of content, in this coming quarter. 

This move towards self-regulation includes debating the content-type, context and format of the ad units. It also comes because the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) prepares to host a workshop to “examine” the practice of those ads more closely resembling editorial content. 

In particular, the workshop, scheduled to appear on 4 December, will deal with which entity controls how native ads are presented to consumers, how they are often differentiated from regular content and consumers’ ability to delineate between the 2.

IAB UK is taking a detailed lead from its US counterpart on developments there, with a up to date poll of IAB UK members showing over half (52 per cent) of respondents saying they ‘know what native advertising is, but needed more information’ on it. 

Meanwhile, the survey also revealed that 20 per cent of respondents described themselves as ‘experts’ on native advertising, while a different 12 per cent conceded they had ‘never heard of it’. 

Lee Baker, chief marketing strategist at online ad firm Respond and ex-AOP managing director, says that while it’s still be a little “premature” to “standardise” native advertising, or branded content, more consensus a few of the different stakeholders inside the web advertising industry needed. 

He says: “I don’t think native advertising is being bought by an analogous team from agency to agency. 

“We don’t need standards without delay but what we do need is to be speaking an identical language.” 

Web giant AOL, whose Huffington Post Media Group owns editorial brands including Engadget, Huffington Post and Techcrunch, forecasts that 40 per cent of its online revenues will come from native ads next year, and additional predicts such ad formats will surpass ‘traditional online ad formats’ by 2025.

An in-depth study the state of native advertising may be read here.