Interviews, insight & analysis on digital media & marketing

NDA Agency News: Havas Media Group, Organic, isobel and many more

Retailer Matalan has appointed Havas Media Group as its media planning and buying agency of record, following a competitive pitch. Havas Media Group will now partner with Matalan on its omnichannel journey, leveraging the expertise of its core proposition Havas Media as well as the retail excellence of its ecommerce offering Havas Market. The partnership will see Havas Media Group develop media experiences across all channels to build on Matalan’s positioning as the ‘Real Life Ready’ retailer for UK families, drive new customer acquisition and support the continued growth of its Ecommerce business. Activity will aim to engage with the brand’s four core persona groups, identified through its 14m+ customer platform.

Digital agency Organic has announced its appointment as the retained SEO agency for Decathlon UK – the leading sporting goods retailer – to help reinvigorate its SEO performance. Starting with a full technical and content SEO audit of both the main site and the play.decathlon subdomain, Organic will be supporting Decathlon’s drive for improved SEO performance across key products. This also includes undergoing a SOSTAC process and market opportunity analysis to fully understand the needs of the business. Making these changes are important steps for the retailer as it strives towards ambitious e-commerce growth in 2022. The agency will achieve this by taking a holistic approach to content, on-page and technical optimisations that will allow Organic to take into account the multitude of factors that go into creating a successful website. This will help Decathlon better target its audience of sports and outdoors enthusiasts and ensure that appropriate content is hosted on the site to improve Decathlon’s online performance and rankings across a highly competitive sector.

UK online greeting card marketplace thortful have launched a Mother’s Day campaign that illustrates the competitive nature between siblings at Mother’s Day. The ‘Win Mother’s Day’ campaign is centred around a new film, which follows on from thortful’s Valentine’s Day ‘Dolphin Sounds’ ad, which was the brand’s first after hiring independent creative agency isobel. It uses the same ‘that’s really really really really really really thortful endline’. ‘Win Mother’s Day’ features three siblings, each giving their Mum a Mother’s Day card in turn. The thortful card wins the day, with the thrilled Mum clearing her mantlepiece of all her prized positions to make way for it. The campaign was written by isobel’s Tom Dyson and Lance Boreham, and directed by Mike Maguire, through Outsider. It will run across social and digital channels.

World Wildlife Fund is marking National Panda Day by announcing a collection of customized jigsaw puzzles designed to raise awareness about biodiversity loss and support its critical conservation work. The four puzzles, produced under the title Endangered Pieces, contain only as many pieces as animals left in the wild. The giant panda puzzle, thanks to successful conservation actions taken over the last three decades, is the largest one, containing 1,864 pieces. The Sumatran tiger puzzle is 400 pieces, the pygmy three-toed sloth is 79 pieces, and the Southern Resident killer whale, an icon of the Pacific coast, is the smallest offering with just 73 pieces. These family-friendly puzzles, produced by leading design and innovation company AKQA, can also spark important conversations across generations about the state of wildlife and our planet, and offer a tangible way to grasp just how few of these species are left in the wild. WWF collaborated with leading agency AKQA to produce the concept and design for the puzzle, along with Kühl & Han on visuals and films, and Jocelin Carmes on the artwork illustrations.

Student marketing agency, Raptor, has become a member of isla, an event industry sustainability body that is focused on furthering the sustainability agenda within the experiential marketing industry for a more eco-friendly future. Raptor, which works with the likes of Nandos, Deliveroo and Depop to deliver engaging experiential student marketing events, will take part in sustainability training and a review of the current business to ensure that all of their campaigns moving forward will have sustainability at the forefront. isla’s event carbon measurement tool, TRACE trace will also allow Raptor to assess the carbon footprint of each of their live activations.

White Claw® Hard Seltzer is bringing something entirely new and different to the hard seltzer category with the launch of White Claw® Surf. White Claw® Surf is the first full flavour offering from the brand, meticulously crafted, with a collision of flavours for sensational refreshment. To celebrate the launch of White Claw® Surf, the brand launched an integrated campaign called “Surf Like No Other” in partnership with professional surfers Ivy Miller, Hunter Jones and Blair Conklin to experience surf like never before. The surfers proved that it is possible to surf anywhere, from snowy hills and sand dunes to fountains, canals, rivers and lakes around the U.S. The Surf Tour series will be shared via the surfer’s social channels as well as the brand’s social channels starting on March 15th. This campaign is the first work that VCCP has devised since winning the global account in 2021.

Global IoT connectivity provider OV has teamed up with integrated B2B tech marketing specialist Fox Agency to develop and launch its global eSIM solution, BreatheSIM. Designed to disrupt the travel data market, BreatheSIM is being launched by OV to provide users with cost-effective, hassle-free data in over 70 countries worldwide with travellers benefitting from the strongest possible signal and connectivity. Fox Agency’s remit for the BreatheSIM launch spanned global market research, concept development, brand and proposition development, creating a go-to-market strategy and overseeing the launch. To further drive awareness and downloads of the BreatheSIM app, Fox Agency is implementing a digital-led, content marketing strategy with ongoing organic and paid activity across search, social, programmatic and influencer channels.

Aberfield Communications has been appointed by supplier of foundry and dental products, John Winter, to grow its customer base following the launch of two new websites. The Leeds-based PR, social media and brand communications agency will provide ongoing digital strategy, social media support, and SEO driven blog content creation to help direct customers to its new website, grow sales channels and expand John Winter’s engagement with decision-makers in the foundry and dental industries.

Grifco PR has been appointed to represent the public relations for Waldorf Astoria Edinburgh – The Caledonian. The five-star hotel first opened its doors in 1903 and today stands at the pinnacle of Scottish hospitality. Known locally as the “Caley”, Waldorf Astoria Edinburgh – The Caledonian was voted Scotland’s favourite city centre hotel in the 2021 Conde Nast Traveler Readers’ Choice Awards, as well as being awarded Scotland’s Leading Hotel 2021 in the 28th Annual Travel Awards.