Welcome back to another episode of The Barber’s Brief! Where Marc and Vassilis discuss marketing and business news that has caught their eye, they highlight our marketing moment, get into audience QA, and finish off by highlighting an ad of the week.

Enjoy the show!

Our Hosts:

Follow our updates here: ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/sleeping-barber/⁠⁠

Get in touch with our hosts:

Marc Binkley: ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcbinkley/

Vassilis Douros: ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/vassilisdouros/⁠

Timestamps

0:00 - Introduction

1:01 - Consumer Still Feeling teh Inflation Squeeze

3:26 - Tik Tok Tightens Teen AD Targeting

5:52 - Apple’s Vision Pro 1.4bn Failure

8:49 - The Growing Pains of Retail Media

12:05 - Marketing Moment: XBOX Football Manager

16:46 - Ad of the Week: McDonald’s Retro Birthday Party

Links:

Title: Consumers still feeling the squeeze despite falling inflation

Source:

Link: https://www.marketingweek.com/consumers-squeeze-inflation-data/

Summary

Title: TikTok tightens teen ad targeting and boosts AI transparency

Source: Search Engine Land

Link: https://searchengineland.com/tiktok-teen-ad-targeting-ai-transparency-443986

Title: Apple’s Vision Pro $1.4bn failure shows importance of market orientation

Source: The Drum

Link: https://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2024/07/15/apple-s-vision-pro-600m-failure-shows-importance-market-orientation

Title: The growing pains of retail media: Dodging ROAS gremlins

Source: Marketing Week

Link: https://www.marketingweek.com/retail-media-roas-gremlin/

Marketing Moment: Highlighting Case studies (3-4 minutes):

XBox Football Manager (FM24) Video Game

Everyday Tactician - McCann London

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elq83mERXv0

Background

If you’ve seen Wrexham docuseries they have been promoted to EFL One

There’s a huge advantage for teams that get promoted - more $, better players, better coaches etc

Bromley had been in the lower leagues for 132 years

Bromely paired with Xbox to recruit talent using their FM24 game

Like moneyball but with gamers

Filmed a documentary, promoted on social & the game

Results

Hired the “Everyday Tactictian” a guy named Nathan Owolabi who was a tour guide at Wembly

Became part of the team’s backroom staff and worked for the club’s manager

Campaign won a bunch of awards including Cannes Lions Grand Prix

Picked up a lot of press 1.5B impressions

190% increase in FM players

Most played version ever

Bromely FC promoted to EFL two for the first time in the past 132 years

Ad of the Week

McDonald’s serves up retro birthday party ad to celebrate 50 years in UK

Link: https://youtu.be/MgBs3DgLZBk

McDonald’s is kicking off a major new campaign celebrating 50 years since opening in the UK with a faithfully recreated reminder of the joy of its childhood birthday parties.

McDonald's new campaign commemorating 50 years since its first UK location opened in Woolwich, London. The campaign features a nostalgic ad filmed in the original restaurant, meticulously recreated to evoke the ambiance of 1980s childhood birthday parties. Produced by Leo Burnett, the 60-second spot aims to celebrate McDonald's heritage and appeal to sentiments of joy and nostalgia associated with its early years in the UK.