Yesterday, the shock news came that luxury fashion brand Luella is to cease trading. The label, set up by designer and former journalist Luella Bartley, has lost its main financial backer, Club 21, which announced it could not afford to “invest in the relationship” any longer.

Some of my colleagues were less interested…..”Luella who?” they asked.

Well, Luella may not be a company the size of last year’s pre-Christmas collapse – Woolworths – but it has a brand that reaches beyond its relatively small corporate size. This is why the failure of her company comes as such a surprise to anyone acquainted with the world of fashion or even popular culture.

Bartley takes her place in history for helping to revive English luxury brand Mulberry. When she designed an accessories collection for Mulberry in 2002, her bags were credited for turning around Mulberry’s fortunes. Suddenly, handbags like the “Gisele” were hanging off the arms of women all over the world.

Remember the sudden wave of florals sweeping the high street over the past couple of years? That was also down to Luella. She mixed florals with black taffetta and lace, making the outfits a little more punk. Luella has been one of the core proponents of the trend in mixing the ultra-feminine with the butch over the past few years. Celebrities from Lily Allen to Gwyneth Paltrow have worn her clothes.

Bartley even won “Designer of the Year” at last year’s British Fashion Awards because of her influenc, which came after multiple nominations.

The collapse of Luella may still not raise too much interest outside fashion circles (or at least with my male colleagues), but it’s a valuable reminder that even brands seen as setting a cultural agenda are at risk in this climate.

The Observer has announced that it is ditching three of its monthly magazines – Observer Sport Monthly, Observer Music Monthly and Observer Woman. It will be retaining its Observer Food Monthly magazine and redesigning the paper to incorporate business and finance coverage into three main sections of the paper (news, sport and review);  travel will be moved into an expanded version of the weekly Observer Magazine.

To me, this is a crazy business and marketing decision. It is taking away all the elements of the paper that make it different from its rivals and instead making it a much blander, more disposable version of itself. In September, the paper was revealed to be under threat from closure, but instead its parent, GNM, has clearly decided that it would be best just to neuter it by removing all its truly exclusive content.

In this day and age, news has almost no exclusive value. I can’t remember the last time I looked at The Observer’s front page and thought “wow, that’s a story I’ve never seen before…”. The truth is that I read almost all of my news online, so when I come to Sunday, I am looking for a different reading experience – one with more indepth analysis and specialist information.

The Observer Monthly magazines were something that no other Sunday paper had to offer. Sure, most of them have some kind of magazine and The Sunday Times has its Style fashion supplement. But no other Sunday paper went as indepth into music, sport or really lengthy pieces about women’s issues, such as what makes a 21st century parent or infertility.

To me, this is a perfect example of when cost-cutting happens to the wrong part of a brand. I wonder now how many people will continue to buy The Observer without its value-adding supplements to look forward to…..

Do you agree with my views? Or am I wrong? Let me know your thoughts.

What are likely to be top trends in digital marketing for 2010?

Drew Neisser from Renegade Marketing has set out his ideas in an Olympic-themed form, which you can read below. Do you agree?

1. Social Media: A Marathon, Not a Sprint

Neisser says that a lot of brands – hoping to become fast friends with their targets – rushed into Facebook and Twitter in the last 24 months without investing sufficient time or resources. In 2010, savvy marketers will increase their commitment to social media by first listening and then offering up a steady stream of engaging content that their fans actually want.

This will be particularly true for B2B brands, only 38% of whom included social media in their 2008 marketing plans (vs. 71% for B2C brands). With one comScore study indicating that branded
social media activities can have a multiplier effect on search results, there is a quantifiable rationale for brands to up the social media ante in 2010.

2. Mash-Ups: Taking Inspiration from Biathlons

Neisser predicts that more innovative mash-ups will become standard in 2010. He recalls 2009’s campaign by E.P. Carrillo, a new cigar manufacturer, which created a  Twitter and Google Maps mash-up for its “coming soon” site that tracked cigar tweets (http://www.epcarrillo.com/) from around the world. Neisser expects to see more campaigns that glide seamlessly between personal and business, online and offline, mobile and desktop, just like consumers do all the time. Farsighted marketers will bring together formerly disparate elements into a cohesive and self-perpetuating social media experience.

3. App Happy: On Your Mark, Get Set, Go Crazy

Given the success a handful of marketers enjoyed with their “apps” in 2009, Neisser expects a blaze of new entries in 2010.  iPhone apps that provide demonstrable utility like Kraft’s iFood Assistant recipe finder, Benjamin Moore’s color matcher and Zipcar’s GPS-based car finder will continue to gain traction. Expect more apps that integrate with other social media like the Gap StyleMixer that allows you to mix and match clothes and share them with friends on Facebook.  And don’t forget the non-iPhone universe. The steakhouse Maloney and Porcelli cooked up a humorous and somewhat deviant web-based app at Expense A Steak that extrudes faux expense reports.

4. Measure Up: Track Every Second

With more dollars earmarked for social media, marketers will undoubtedly use new tools to monitor the conversations that are happening with or without them.  Neisser claims that Radian6 and Scout Labs emerged in 2009 as two of the leading social media monitoring tools.  And while Neisser says these tools are great, each requires a sizeable commitment by the marketer in time of staff.  Just ask JetBlue who manages to enhance customer loyalty daily by responding to any and every customer Tweet within minutes, following 117,000 on Twitter, and in the process generating over 1.3 million followers.

5. POV Power: Don’t Just Talk the Talk

Neisser says that while lots of brands raced into social media in 2009, few established true connections with their targets.  The reality is that consumers engage with brands that they like on a visceral level and that provide a distinct perspective on the world.  Aflac’s Duck quacks up a gaggle of quirky content, including charitable requests that appeal to over 161,000 fans on Facebook and 3,000+ followers on
Twitter.  Meanwhile, Geico’s Gecko has been left in the social media dust due to its surprisingly dry and unresponsive online voice.  Ironically, a brand by definition is a point-of-view that once clearly defined
should guide all communications, social or otherwise.

6. Expose Yourself: Win the Crowd With Honesty

Neisser argues that the emergence of several “tell all” consumer-created sites signals the arrival of a new era of honesty and transparency – especially for brands targeting those under 35.  Sites like fmylife.com,
textsfromlastnight.com and MyParentsJoinedFacebook.com reflect a generation willing to bare and share all without the least trepidation. Even the emergence of “Untag Mondays” speaks to the socially acceptable norm of posting embarrassing content that one might not want a parent or employer to see. Marketers that share this sense of honesty, that admit mistakes and address shortcomings in real-time will
find a youthful army of comrades willing to do their bidding. As Comcast discovered, this kind of honesty can even transform a PR nightmare into an industry-leading customer service.

7. Hold the Presses: Major Comebacks are Possible

Though a 50% decline in ad pages certifies 2009 as the worst year in its history, don’t write off print as a viable media channel just yet. Neisser claims that more than 80% of US consumers still subscribe to at least one magazine and 83% believe newspapers are still relevant. Experimenting with video in print publications = like Entertainment Weekly is but one of the ways certain magazine segments
will hold onto their targets and satisfy their advertisers. And while P&G shut down its 72-year-old TV soap opera Guiding Light in 2009, they are cranking up the presses with the custom published glossy, Rouge, which expects to reach a whopping 11 million North American households in 2010.

8. Go to the Video: Separate from the Pack

The emergence of viral video rankings in 2009 reflected the mainstreaming of this approach to audience engagement, claims Neisser. While everyone and their branded brother aspired to cut through with a
viral hit, surprisingly few found an audience.  In 2010, marketers will undoubtedly crank out more of the same while a savvy few will worry less about mass reach and focus more on grass roots appeal, providing content that their core target really wants.  B2B marketers in particular will find that using informative videos that transform the complicated into the comprehensible, like Commoncraft’s Plain English videos, will generate quality leads from grateful prospects.

9. Mobile Media: Catching Up at Last

Despite all the hype by this author and others, less than a third of marketers had a budget for mobile in 2009. In 2010, smart phone penetration should rise to at least 25% (from 17% in Q2 ‘09) making it a
lot easier to deliver a rich mobile experience worthy of consumer attention. Neisser says that the blending of mobile and social apps like Facebook, Loop’d and Twitter has also created a new openness towards this medium. Given the desirable demographics (18-34, good income) of smartphone owners, at minimum, marketers should give strong consideration to creating a mobile friendly website, thus allowing prospects to engage whenever and wherever they happen to be.

10. Be Positive: Attitude is Everything

Neisser says that while honesty is a worthy friend to marketers, don’t forget that almost no one wants to date a Debbie Downer. A recent poll by Adweek/Harris found “relative little enthusiasm and lots of indifference for ads that refer to the downturn.” Even if the economy is slow to recover in 2010, find the silver lining for your customers and prospects with both words and actions. Like the athletes whose positive outlooks and superior skills propel them to victory, so, too, can marketers find success with an upbeat message and an unimpeachable value proposition.

Thank you to Drew for these comprehensive themes; you can contact him at Renegade Marketing.

Analyst Verdict Consulting (on behalf of Webloyalty) has come up with ten trends for 2010 in the online retailing area.

‘Internet Retail Trends 2010: Ten Actions For Your Business’, suggests that despite growing by 13.3% in 2009, internet retail has suffered in the recession, with an estimated £1.6bn in lost revenues.

The trends (in short) are:

1. Growth will be more difficult – the channel is slowly maturing and with many of the easy wins now maximised, further progress will be much slower. Retailers now need to think more strategically about maximising revenue online.

2. The recession has impacted- a critical lesson for the online channel will be to add value and persuade customers to trade up in what they buy.

3 Acquiring new customers will be tougher – as acquiring new customers becomes more of a challenge, retailers should switch more marketing budget to maintaining existing customers and drive repeat business.

4. There will be more mouths to feed – deep knowledge of your competitors’ online offerings coupled with sophisticated testing of different customer acquisition strategies will be crucial to stay ahead of the market.

5 Expectations will rise – retailers must focus on adding more value than they have done in the past.  They must clearly communicate why customers should shop with them, and what extra benefits can be gained from doing so.

6. Loyalty can be increased – those retailers that offer a combination of one-off tactical deals to excite the customer, combined with long-term strategic programmes with extra value benefits to lock in customers, will have a winning strategy.

7. Conversion will be key – website personalisation is a key way in which conversion can be grown.  If ‘cherry-picked’ products are pushed through to relevant customers when they visit a website they are far more likely to see a product which appeals to them, and therefore make a purchase.

8. Basket abandonment is here to stay – providing clear, accurate and detailed information on products, prices and additional charges is a key way to reduce basket abandonment

9. Customers will be channel blind – those retailers that offer multiple consumer touch points will see benefits; though branding must be consistent across all channels.

10. It’s more than about selling – to boost revenue, retailers should consider monetising their web pages by linking with third parties that offer products and services that suit their target market.

Thanks to Net Imperative for the tip-off.

I was lucky enough to attend the MTV European Music Awards last night. There was plenty of brand and marketing activity going on (alongside the parties….) and so here is a quick roundup of the sponsor strategies in Berlin.

Sony Ericsson ran its annual “fanwalk”, which saw 100 music fans, whittled down from 7000 applicants, walk from Hamburg to Berlin to win tickets to the MTV EMAs. As an extra bonus for completing the 300 km walk but one lucky fanwalker got to get on stage and present an award. (See pic of Gillian Deegan presenting below.)

Meanwhile, Dell ran a competition called Amplichoir, a digital community aiming at creating the world’s largest online choir contest drew close to 900 singers from 152 countries around the world – from as far away as mountainous Nepal to the sunny Fijian Islands. Close to 900 people performed 1950s pop track “Lollipop” via webcam together. The winners of the choir contest got to appear along with Joss Stone on the red carpet.

Other sponsors included The Beatles Rock Band game, which is created by Harmonix, which is part of MTV. The award winners Tokio Hotel and Foo Fighters appear on some versions of the game.

AND A FEW QUICK FACTS ABOUT THE MTV AWARDS AND ITS SPONSORS….

The MTV Europe Music Awards claim to be broadcast to a global audience of 532 million homes around the world via the MTV global TV network.

MTV commissioned more than 120 Limousines/MPVs to move artists around the city of Berlin, 70 buses to transport VIP guests to and from the O2 World and the surrounding events and parties/hotels. Sixty cars were hired for VIP and crew transportation and 2 boats on River Spree were used for sponsor hospitality.

The Dell contest saw lollipops, bunny ears and more strangely, puppies, as the favourite props of singers participating in the Dell Amplichoir. The oldest Amplichoir singer was an 87 New Zealand man, while the youngest was 2 year old Freya from the UK. The biggest number of people singing “Lollipop” in one recording was the 4,500 young people gathered together in Argentina.

The FanWalkers began their trek in Hamburg on October 27 and arrived in Berlin on November 5. Each FanWalker walked an average of 8 hours a day to get to the Awards, burning 3,120 kcal a day and sleeping 5 hours per night. Each of the 100 FanWalkers  blogged about their experience, uploading thousands of blog entries and images to the FanWalk website.

AND JUST FOR SOME FUN, HERE ARE SOME PICS OF THE STARS AT THE EVENT LAST NIGHT….

Beyonce – one of the night’s best performers as well as a big winner of multiple awards – glams it up on the red carpet:

AND HERE ARE LOCAL GERMAN FAVOURITES TOKIO HOTEL…..

SHAKIRA…..

AND FINALLY, LEONA LEWIS….

Anything Sir Martin Sorrell says tends to make headlines. Today, Sorrell said that he thought the recession would take an “LUV” form. This was a phrase coined by Thomson Reuters correspondent Stella Dawson. But what does “LUV” mean?

Dawson suggested there would be an L-shaped recovery for some countries, a U-shaped for others and a few would achieve a V-shaped recovery. Sorrell added that he too thought Western Europe would have an L-shaped recovery; North America a U-shaped recovery; and a V-shaped one for the BRIC and Next 11 developing nations.

L-shaped means: after a long drop, there is a very slow, protracted recovery that takes a while to really take hold.

U-shaped means: a feeble recovery that takes longer than a V-shaped one, but rises quicker than a L-shaped one.

V-shaped means: a short recession with a quick rebound up again.

Want a nice pictorial version of this explanation? Visit here. In other news, Sorrell also said that those who have been commenting on the economy and being cheered by any less disasterous results have adopted a “flat is up” mentality.

“There are those who think that flat is the new up,” he said. “I don’t want to get into that mentality where you accept that declines in negatives is good. We don’t accept that. I’m surprised at people who see sequential declines in negatives [of revenue loss] and say the downturn is over.”

It’s great being a celebrity. Alright, you might have to fend off a few paparazzi and put up with regular tabloid kiss and tells but you also get treated like brand royalty.

Yesterday, musician and DJ Calvin Harris posted on his Twitter account about the lovely gift that he was just sent by Kellogg’s. After tweeting quite regularly about his breakfast preferences, the cornflake manufacturer sent him this box with some nice touches including the strapline ‘50% cornflakes, 50% branflakes – the perfect mix’. (Nice touch for a DJ.)

I am still waiting for Ruthflakes.

Thank you to Media140 for having me to speak at their event on real-time social media today. It was a pretty daunting prospect to get up in front of a room full of social media experts, all of whom were sending their every thought on your words and ideas to a massive screen with a rolling Twitterfeed. (It felt a bit like being on The X Factor where everyone watching is Simon Cowell with access to a keyboard.)

Luckily, not too many people abused me. And I learnt some interesting stuff:

• ASOS’ number one referrer is Facebook. Its second-largest referrer is Twitter.

• The number of referrals at ASOS that convert into sales is twice as high from Facebook as it is from Twitter. Does this mean that Twitter isn’t a good sales tool and it’s better for customer service enquiries? Or does it simply mean that more people who will actually buy from ASOS use Facebook? Or people who use Facebook are more likely in general to buy stuff than those who use Twitter?

• When creating the Compare the Market meercat campaign, VCCP claim that the social media element was not the initial intention of the client. It was to be largely a TV-based campaign but VCCP felt that the character of the meercats lent themselves so well to social media that they took on that aspect anyway. A bit further down the line, this has paid off as this has been the element of the campaign that has really resonated with consumers.

• Innocent created a nice little customer-focused iniative by getting customers to send them amusing messages to go on the bottom of the brand’s bottles. The firm then picked eight messages, including “Help! I’m trapped in the Innocent factory!” And even funnier, the company actually had people calling them, saying “Er, I think you might have a problem at your plant….” after reading that one. A nice touch, consistent with the brand.

• Companies are really struggling with whether to have one sole corporate voice that acts as the official mouthpiece for the business on Twitter; or whether lots of disparate voices from various areas in the company “humanising” the firm through tweets is worthwhile.

Thank you to my fellow panellists:

Richard Baker, general manager for Virgin Trains

Will Mcinnes, managing director of NixonMcinnes

Candace Kuss, director of planning, Hill & Knowlton

Drew Benvie, managing director, 33 Digital

and our chair, Gordon MacMillan, who is social media and international editor at Haymarket.

There is an brilliant post on CrackUnit.com by Iain Tait about ads he doesn’t like (read it here). He picks up on the current Kingsmill bread campaign, which encourages people to make “confessions”.

As Tait points out: “I’m just bursting with a whole bunch of confessions about bread. What on earth are they expecting? If you’re dying to let your sandwich secrets out, head to kingsmillconfessions.com.”

He has a point. Personally, my favourite is someone who has “confessed” to Kingsmill on another site that their favourite bread is Hovis.

The confessions website is nicely designed but the comments don’t ring true. I’m not suggesting these comments are made up – as that would be dishonest – but they don’t have much confessing to them, more just good word-of-mouth about Kingsmill. Which, frankly, is a little dull. As ultimately, these are confessions about bread – how good can they be (see below)?

“My confession is that I never tried Kingsmill before, I wanted to see what I was missing out on so I tried some, now I only eat Kingsmill bread”

“I told my mum I was meeting up with my friends but then I went and bought Kingsmill and made a nice tuna/egg/cucumber sandwich HMMMMM saucy!”

“My nephew wanted to feed the ducks, so I told him they were all poorly. That way I could keep the Kingsmill all to myself ;n)”

Hmmm.

Saw this nice little bus shelter advert today. It uses a comical toy skeleton in 3D trapped between the two panes of plastic. I noticed it not only because as I approached it in the dark morning, its lit-up green exterior really stood out but because it was literally surrounded by children. All staring and pointing and telling their mothers that they wanted a skeleton just like that one.

It was notable because the skeleton was the real emphasis of the ad, with the retailer’s name being far lower profile on another bit of the shelter. But people were actually seeking out the name and asking people sitting waiting for a bus to move in order to check where they should go to satisfy the pester power. Which retailer got all the kids frothing at the mouth like this? Matalan.

Good work!