The German car marque is using the “Play the Road’ app, developed by Tribal Worldwide London, to increase its recently launched Golf GTi Mark VII’s ties to music and technology.

It combines data from the car’s engine management system with the iPhone’s accelerometer to detect several parameters from the motive force consisting of speed, turns, gear changes and driving style. The app then creates a dynamic version of a track, produced exclusively by electronic group Underworld, in real-time using the knowledge.

The tool, so one can not be made publically available, is being promoted through a digital campaign where fans can win a big gamble to check the app on a racetrack. It centers on a two-minute filmed “performance of the car” to the track alongside social media and a behind-the-scene video pushing people to go into the draw. Seeded PR content from famous testers of the app comparable to Tottenham Hotspur footballer Sandro and Boardwalk Empire actor Stephen Graham can even support the campaign.

Mike Bennett, product manager for GTi at VW, says it’s hoping the experiment attracts younger potential owners by connecting “two classic elements of automotive advertising” in an experiential way.

He adds: “There’s a robust connection between driving and music but both are quite isolated from each other. Drivers aren’t connected to a track apart from the truth that it’s popping out in their radio. We’ve created something that responds to the way in which the auto is being driven in a singular way.

“We can’t make this available to the general public for obvious reasons. There are, however, learnings and spin-offs we are able to check out because we have got the campaign template now. There are definite opportunities to expand into other forms of music, different tracks and different drives.”

Leahy joined Tesco in 1979 as a marketer and was the 1st marketing director to sit down at the supermarket’s board in 1992, before taking up the CEO role in 1997.

Speaking to Marketing Week on the Marketing Society’s Creative For Commerce conference in London today (21 November), Leahy said that the upward push of digital technology and the following changing needs of customers signifies that marketers are actually better positioned than ever to tackle senior leadership roles. However, he cautions that they need to be willing to take risks, even in a recession, and convey new and innovative marketing techniques.

“If marketing people position themselves on the nexus between digital technology and consumers and spot the opportunities that arise from that during terms of latest services, they’re the folk who can change the trajectory of a business and become the CEO.

“But they must find their as far back as true marketing, beginning with customer and their fast-changing lives, and get away of the strait jacket of just peddling their existing services and products using fairly narrow, fairly old marketing techniques and tricks,” he added.

While at Tesco, Leahy introduced the Clubcard, which he said on stage is more famous around the globe than the Tesco brand. It was the primary time example of the usage of big data by a retailer to administer its relationship with customers.

He admitted that he “stole” the concept from Co-op, where he worked previously and which had a paper membership scheme.  He added that after he first took the theory to his bosses at Tesco, they rejected it, but he kept engaged on it and when he went back with a neater plan they green lighted the project.

He advised marketers now to think creatively and check out to look the area otherwise that allows you to find the following innovation and never be afraid to make mistakes and fail as long it’s leading along the correct track. In particular, Leahy believes using mobile and real-time marketing are areas ripe for innovation.

 “The availability of digital marketing incentives is de facto exciting because businesses for a while has been ready to identify real customers and know something about what they’re drawn to . But we haven’t had an analogous digital ability to reply. You can now.

“Through mobile you are able to bring them right into a loyalty programme, offer them an incentive and provides them new information it is tailored to what they’re inquisitive about. And it usually is dropped at them on their mobile instantly on the right time and inside the right location and that they can redeem there after which, making them rather more engaged,” he told Marketing Week.

With the united kingdom popping out of recession, Leahy believes now could be the time to come back to the “first principle” of selling and reward loyal customers using new technology. Plus he warned against the selling industry becoming too inward and failing to target the client and what they need.

“The development in Christmas marketing this year is a pleasant one because they’re creative and they’re in regards to the brand attributes of the business. But they should be a chunk careful since it is the industry copying one another instead of actually searching on the customer and taking the client because the lead,” he added.

Speaking to Marketing Week on the Marketing Society’s Creativity For Commerce conference in London today (21 November), chief digital officer Josh Bottomley said innovation is prime to finding the goods and services that buyers didn’t even know they would like. He said the firm uses digital to experiment with new services, determining that are useful and which don’t fit into consumers’ daily lives.

“Digital can play a huge part in building our brand by showing that we understand customers by providing the services that they wish and introducing things they didn’t even realise they needed.

“We ought to test lots of those areas and spot which of them follow learn how customers fit us into their daily lives. That reengages our customers in what we do well and the way we’re helping people,” he added.

He believes that knowing what consumers need from their banks can seem relatively easy, with people desperate to have the capacity to do their basic banking functions easily, once they want them and where they need them. Innovations come from giving access but additionally maintaining security.

“One of the massive challenges is how we reconcile security and access. Nearly all of our customers are multichannel, but there are still certain things that, for security reasons, we can’t do in digital.

“We need to be sure that is a straightforward experience, to move from digital to the contact centre to the branch. For this reason we now have started, in certain places, to provide staff tablets that they are able to work with and ensure the customer experience is often an identical.”

Bottomley suggested this can also help to enhance loyalty. He believes word of mouth and direct marketing are still highly important to banks and the firm must sing about its services across its properties, from the mobile app, website and in- branch to social media.

“I have an extremely strong view that seeing is believing. In case you get the experience right, the beauty of the net is that folks tell one another and that spreads in no time. We’re also aware if customers are unhappy they could use it to vent and we wish to be capable to respond.”

Bottomley joined HSBC from Google earlier this year where he was global head of display. He said on stage that the most difference between the 2 is that while HSBC has lots of technology capability and marketing teams good at showcasing that technology, the firm was missing product managers.

Separately on the conference Saul Klein, partner at venture capital firm Index Ventures, said that businesses are still forgetting that technology and deploying new products is now the job of everybody, including marketers.

“Technology is ubiquitous. The dearth of data is shameful,” he said.  

Yesterday (20 November) the Advertising Standards Authority banned an internet video For Goodness Shakes that contained multiple visual references to masturbation.

News of the ban prompted several readers to go away comments on Marketing Week.co.uk and on Twitter with most disagreeing with the call to prohibit the ad.  One, Matthew, wrote: “Very funny and brilliant. It made me laugh surely. Possibly risqué, but offensive? No way.”

Alex Brooks, marketing director of For Goodness Shakes, told Marketing Week he was “disappointed” with the ruling, stating that only 1 person complained from 1 million those who had viewed the ad.

He argued the ad, which featured multiple shots of guys shaking objects throughout the region in their groins, was “comedic and light-weight hearted” in content and tone and was entirely appropriate for the objective market of young males.

“Humorous? Yes. Cheeky? Yes. But we predict it was mild in tone,” he adds.

The brand would be careful to not cause offence someday, Brooks adds, but is just not deterred by the ruling.

“The thing is, we get cut through [by developing “cheeky” content]. We can’t do anything too similar [due to the ban] but we’ll continue to push boundaries to make certain our ads are exciting and get audience cut through.”

Asked whether the ad ban is helpful due to the publicity it has attracted, Brooks concedes that during this situation it had done the logo no harm.

“If we had received plenty of complaints then i’d be troubled,” he adds.  

In second spot is a commercial by insurance firm GEICO which celebrates the center of the working week – ‘Hump Day’, which registered 4 million views.

Meanwhile, ads featuring the Evian babies, Pepsi Max’s shocking ‘Test Drive’ and Volvo’s use of action celeb Jean Claude Van Damme also proved popular because the start of 2013,

Unruly EMEA MD Phil Townend says: “Marketers are increasingly challenging the worth of a view and instead are beginning to specialise in creating content and distribution strategies which drive deeper levels of engagement, resembling sharing, data capture, brand uplift or online purchases.

Unruly Media ranks the videos in accordance with the variety of shares they’ve received across Facebook, Twitter and blogs. The full list is below.

1. Dove: ‘Real Beauty Sketches’ – 4.24 million shares 

Agency: Ogilvy Mather 

2. GEICO: ‘Hump Day’ – 4.03 million shares

Agency: The Martin Agency

3. Evian: ‘Baby & Me’ – 3.34 million shares

Agency: BETC

4. Kmart: ‘Ship My Pants’ – 3.05 million shares

Agency: Draftfcb

5. Cornetto: ‘Yalın – Keyfi Yolunda, Aşkı Sonunda’ – 2.91 million shares

Agency: MoFilm/RSA

6. Budweiser: ‘Brotherhood’ – 2.72 million shares

Agency: Anomaly

7. Pepsi Max: ‘Test Drive’ – 2.69 million shares

Agency: TBWA\Chiat\Day 

8. MGM/Carrie: ‘Telekinetic Coffee Shop Surprise’ – 2.17 million shares 

Agency: Thinkmodo

9. Ram Trucks (Chrysler) ‘Farmer’ – 1.88 million shares

Agency: The Richards Group

10. Volvo Trucks: The Epic Split feat. Van Damme – 1.82 million shares

Agency: Forsman & Bodenfors

11. Neft Vodka: Biting Elbows – 1.35 million shares

12. TrueMove (Thai telecomms company): ‘Giving’- 1.26 million shares

13. PooPourri: ‘Girls Don’t Poop’ – 1.24 million shares

14. GoPro: ‘Fireman Saves Kitten’ – 1.23 million shares

15. Phonebloks: ‘Phonebloks’ – 1.08 million shares

16. Three: The horse #DancePonyDance – 1.06 million shares

17. H&M: Short film directed by Guy Ritchie starring David Beckham 928,272 shares

18. Rockstar: Grand Theft Auto V: Official Gameplay Video 841,528 shares

19. Sony: Official Playstation Used Game Instructional Video – 764,857 shares

20. Code.org: What Most colleges Don’t Teach – 754, 119 shares

The items’ retail prices range from $7.99 for a mug, through to $25.99 for a ‘Don’t get Scroogled’ hoodie. All the items borrows heavily from the leading search engine’s official corporate images, including using its Chrome web browser logo.

Microsoft’s ‘Scroogled’ push kicked off last year and attempts to color Google in a in a nasty light using negative tactics, resembling highlighting how Google improves its online ad targeting by ‘going through’ Gmail account holders’ correspondences. a tradition Microsoft claims is an “invasion of privacy”.

It also claims that Google doesn’t clearly warn users of its practices. 

By contrast, Microsoft hopes to draw web users uncomfortable with such practices by highlighting how its suite of services comparable to Outlook and Bing don’t seem to be as intrusive as Google’s.

A statement justifying the negative marketing tactics – not a methodology normally employed by the desktop software giant – reads: “We believe that it’s important to teach the general public about practices which are misleading and should harm consumers.

“This ‘Don’t Get Scroogled’ effort is targeted on educating consumers about Google’s deceptive privacy practices.” 

Speaking with Marketing Week earlier this year, Microsoft VP of Europe, advertising and online Andy Hart explained Microsoft’s “invitational marketing” drive, adding “the industry might eat itself” with too many ads.

He said the corporation had shifted towards limiting the number and sort of ads served through restrictions on its web browser. It has also changed its email service to extend the impact of the ads it does serve to users.