1. Beacon Guiding you through
the ever changing
world of communications
2011 saw a plethora of changes to The year ahead will be no different, and we
consumer buying habits and a multitude curious folk at Finn have taken the liberty to
of new communications platforms look ahead and pull together the must-know
blossom, offering us more opportunities trends. In this edition of Beacon, we look at
than ever to creatively engage with the hottest technologies, the latest consumer Powered by
our audiences. quirks and give you a slice of insight about
the campaigns, tools and news that have
turned us on this year.

2. 01
2012 Trends Finn PR 2012
Health & Wellbeing Corporate Volunteerism
Food Health and wellness has long since
Corporate The value that volunteering adds
been a driving factor on food in- to the UK economy is in excess of
novation and research by Deloitte £21.5billion and increasingly, busi-
found that 77 per cent of top manu- nesses are playing a vital part as it
facturers, retailers and food service becomes more central to the CSR
providers thought it would be the mix. Despite the financial climate,
primary trend shaping our palettes volunteerism, particularly stemming
in 2012. More than half of shoppers from business initiatives is on the up
are likely to read the food label be- and it’s increasingly done on a na-
fore buying a product, so expect tional scale. This year, spending cuts
more active promotion of health within charities, the government’s
benefits on shelf. The quest for ‘five Big Society vision and the 2012 Lon-
portions a day’ is alive and kicking don Olympics, a huge undertaking
and remains the message that reso- that will require up to 70,000 volun-
nates most strongly with consumers. teers, are all likely to give the sector
This, coupled with tough new regu- a boost.
lations, especially on childhood di-
The World’s Local Larder ets, means that health will continue Real-Time Consumer Data
to be top of the consumer agenda
The UK is one of the more gastro- this year. 2012 will be the year that real-time
nomically adventurous nations, online decision-making comes of
and this year will be no exception, age. People are increasingly shar-
with Peruvian cuisine likely to hit ing everything they do, buy, watch,
the mainstream. However, when listen to and read, in real time,
we’re not chowing down on Cevi- whether that’s through Twitter,Tumblr
che, we’re likely to be going local in or social apps on Facebook (think
an attempt to reduce our environ- Spotify and The Guardian). For busi-
mental footprint, with authenticity, nesses, this means a big opportuni-
provenance and localness being ty to align themselves more closely
the most important factors influ- with the needs of their customers.
encing food choice. Leatherhead The challenge for marketeers is to
Food Research, a global food re- make sense of this data mass and
search company, actually predicts use it to make quick, smart business
a blending of these two trends, with decisions, identifying and predict-
consumers demanding internation- ing upcoming trends to capitalise
ally local ingredients. A food’s origin on them.
will increasingly become a mark of
quality, so expect to see the likes of
Madagascan vanilla become pop-
Functional Food
ular.
Functional food, those that come
CSR
with added health claims, will in-
creasingly line our grocery shelves in
Ethical business is now expected
2012. Why? It’s an age thing. The ag-
and consumers are increasingly
ing Baby Boomer generation, who
looking for community benefits
form the largest group of influencers
when making purchasing decisions.
in the food sector, will take an active
The Food & Drinks sector is one of
interest in maintaining a healthy, ac-
the most scrutinised industries, and
tive lifestyle as they hit retirement. We
it’s brands that offer that feel-good
can expect to spot more products
factor that seem to be leading the
with glucosamine to help strength-
way. Take Innocent for example,
en joints and omega-3 to improve
who’s whole business strategy is
brain health and help reduce heart
built around sustainability and fair-
disease.
ness - sustainable nutrition, ingredi-
Random Acts of Kindness ents, packaging, production and
profit sharing. However, it doesn’t
Mood Food
Increasingly open communications stop at food and drink; those that go
between brands and consumers beyond simple ethical claims gen-
Food can make us happy, ener-
mean it’s simple to surprise and de- erally outperform their peers. Last
gised or even make us more pas-
light your fans with a relevant ges- year’s World’s Most Ethical awards
sionate in the bedroom, but it
ture to brighten their day, help them honourees generated on average
doesn’t stop there. New develop-
celebrate or thank them for their 30 per cent greater returns than
ments in science are revealing that
opinion. Social media has prompt- other publically owned companies.
everything we eat has the potential
to change the way we think and ed a lot of free brand-to-fan love,
feel. Next generation foods will be but the power behind RAK is in its
tailored to meet the needs and the selectivity. Last year, one of the most
desires of an individual consumer, talked about brands was Interflora,
whether they want to be woken up, who scoured the internet for those
cheered up or chilled out. Accord- having a bad day and offered to
ing to online food resource Food & send them a bunch of flowers. How-
Drink Towers, 44 per cent of industry ever, the prediction for 2012 is that
experts believe mood foods will in- campaigns will have to become
crease in market value, with happi- more complex and personalised
ness and stress foods expected to in order to provide that level of cut-
be the main areas of growth. through and talkability.

3. Finn PR 2012
2012 Trends 02
DIY Health Gamification
Lifestyle Who needs professional health ad-
Digital Gamification has evolved from buz-
vice when there’s an app for that? zword to viable online strategy and
Do it Yourself Health will naturally be it’s now being tipped as one of the
driven by technology in 2012, with top tech trends for 2012. Based on
novel apps and quirky devices in- the idea that rewards are crucial in
creasingly letting consumers track, creating an engaging digital experi-
manage and improve their health ence, the phenomenon involves en-
themselves. Apple’s App Store cur- gaging people by applying game
rently offers 9,000 mobile health mechanics, for example use of level
apps and by mid-2012, this number progression, leaderboards, badges
is expected to reach 13,000. One of and achievements, in an online
our personal favourites is the Skin business environment. It all started
Scan app, which helps early identifi- with Foursquare’s check-in based
cation of malignant moles. badge system, but we’ve seen other
innovative incarnations of late, such
as Samsung Nation, a game-based
website that allows users to earn
Super Premium Near Field Communications points and progress by reviewing
products, watching videos and par-
Despite ever tightening pockets, UK Soon every mobile device will come ticipating in user-generated Q&As.
food lovers still like to treat them- equipped to handle Near Field
selves with posh nosh from time to Communications (NFC), a technol-
time. This year will see a divergence ogy that allows consumers to per-
in food purchasing habits, with con- form seamless, no-nonsense trans-
sumers looking to the extremes of actions and exchange information
both discount and super-premi- wirelessly. Early use of NFC has been
um products, with centre ground about streamlining the shopping ex-
brands feeling the squeeze. A pre- perience, such as a Starbucks app
mium treat can be justified as an that allows consumers to snap up
affordable indulgence, particularly coffees through phones pre-loaded
if it includes a feel-good health ben- with credit, and a register-free eBay
efit and we’re likely to see this trend Stay at Home Dads shop where bargain-hungry bid-
extend to 2012 and beyond. And If ders snap up deals with their smart
you don’t believe us, you may want This budding set of home bodies phones. However, being marketers,
to note the success of Heston’s pre- is one to watch, particularly if you we’re also excited about the possi-
mium Christmas pud that flew off work in the food, beverage and bilities for NFC to be used to push
Waitrose’s shelves over the festive FMCG sectors. Research by Aviva re- deals, coupons and messages to
period. ports that there are now 1.4m stay consumers’ smart phones at rele- Smart Phones
at home dads in the UK, 10 times vant times and locations.
as many than a decade ago, with Up until recently sky high prices
one in seven fathers now the main have kept the majority of the popu-
childcare provider. The trend has lation out of the smart phone mar-
been driven by increasing numbers ket but thanks to the emergence of
of women earning more than their cheaper models, penetration has
partners and reflects changing at- more than doubled in the UK over
titudes amongst couples, with more the last two years. This year usage is
men able to relinquish their the role predicted to reach a tipping point,
as family breadwinner and instead with 50 per cent of consumers ex-
take on more work in the home. pected to own a smart phone by
the end of the year.
For marketeers, mobile was once a
way to reach those influencers that
stayed ahead of the curve, but as
Social Commerce
mobile devices become an ever
more common touch point be-
Social Commerce is about consum-
tween brands and every day con-
ers using peer recommendations
sumers, there’s much more motiva-
to make purchases through social Open Graph
tion for brands to invest in mobile
media, whether these be ratings,
technology and campaigns.
reviews or comments. For brands, Facebook’s Open Graph is a set of
it means harnessing the power of programming tools that make con-
word of mouth to drive purchases nections between Facebook and
and includes everything from group external objects on the web. On
buying and check-in rewards on one level, it lets you take Facebook’s
Foursquare, to selling limited edition social experience and integrate it
products through a Facebook shop. within your website. Even more excit-
2011 saw some of the more daring ing is its ability to take the platform’s
brands experiment with social sell- rich social data and turn it into a
ing, such as Starbucks and ASOS, personalised web experience. The
but as user recommendations and thing to watch out for in 2012 is its
reviews increase their influence on addition of social actions over and
consumer behaviour, social com- above the now ubiquitous ‘like’,
merce will stop being a “nice to such as reading, writing and watch-
have” and will start to fuel sales ing, that will allow more dynamic
volumes on a par with traditional content sharing through the new
channels. Timeline profile.

4. 03
2012 Consumer Finn PR 2012
In 2012, 23 per cent of the UK’s
population will be over 60. The sig-
nificance of this statistic is that the
baby boomer generation is reach-
ing retirement, meaning that many
of tomorrow’s pensioners will be Collaborative consumption describes an
more well informed, well educated, emerging economic model based not on
health conscious, and discerning ownership, but on sharing, swapping, bor-
than their predecessors. They’ll exer- rowing and renting access to products and
cise twice as much as the previous services. If it all sounds grubby and socialis-
generation and more will continue tic, it’s not. It’s set to be one of the hottest and
to work. These seniors are interested far reaching trends of 2012 and is reinvent-
in successful ageing, extending ing not just what we consume but how we
their middle years by maintaining consume it. We’ve already seen it permeate
a healthy, active lifestyle, sparking emerging sectors such as social lending
demand for products and environ- (check out Zopa if you’re short on cash!), ac-
ments that accommodate their commodation (with peer-to-peer travel pro-
changing physical and sensory ca- vider CouchSurfing) and car sharing (Zip-
pabilities. car), and you can expect a raft of imitators
in 2012.
Amongst 2012’s utopian vision of collabora-
tion, gamification and random acts of kindness,
there’s still an ever present undercurrent of auster- The mass of data readily available online, particular-
ity looming large. Research shows that the num- ly through social media, has driven a mega trend in
ber of British shoppers that feel they have little personalisation. Custom made, personalised goods
or no spare cash has reached an all time high and services are growing in popularity among
at 32 per cent. The average family has around consumers who desire completely individualized
£2,000 less disposable income than in previous products and services, blending creativity with pur-
years. 71 per cent have changed their shopping chasing power. Everything from customised online
habits and 65 per cent of these have switched experiences, to personalised gifts, to large, custom
to cheaper grocery brands, an acceptable com- built creations. Early instigators this year include Toy-
promise that is set to continue even as financial ota, which is encouraging fans to create bespoke
pressure eases. music videos alongside their ad campaign’s pup-
pet characters, and airline KLM, which is letting pas-
sengers choose who sit next to them based on their
social media compatibility.
While traditional coupons are considered
tired, outdated, and cumbersome, and bar-
gain hunting was once something to hide,
We’ve already explored Near Field Communications (NFC)
new and innovative uses of online deals, dis-
and it’s that very technology that’s contributing to what
counts and coupons are driving a new and
is fast becoming a cash-less society. It’s not that far away.
affluent breed of hagglers to seek out the
We’re serious! The initial lure of this system is convenience
best prices in 2012 and beyond. Consumer
and speed, but it will eventually open up a whole new world
attitudes are shifting in a big way, and such
of payments, rewards and targeted, real time offers. We’ve
frugalicious behaviour is now considered
followed this trend for a while and it’s been a slow burner
smart, admirable and dare we say it, darn
as the technology has been gradually made affordable
right cool. The lure of attractive online tech-
and available. While 2012 will not be the year that the UK
nologies touting deals will ensure this is a
adopts cashless paying en masse, we’ll see big boys such
big trend in 2012, with 9.2 million consumers
as Google, Mastercard and Paypall roll out cashless initia-
expected to use online coupons throughout
tives worldwide.
the year. That’s a helluva lot of savings!

5. Finn PR 2012
2012 Consumer 04
Alongside the renaissance in high quality
home dining, consumers will also look to ex-
Tightening pockets and the growing in- tend this premium food experience outside
fluence of cookery programmes will fuel the home. Despite anxieties over the econo-
a growing interest in entertaining in the my, many commentators suggest that where
home, with consumers investing more there are cutbacks elsewhere in the house-
time and effort into meal times to add hold budget, eating out will remain central to
fun and theatre to the ordinary work- our lives. Dining out used to be a special oc-
ing week. Original recipes and unusual casion, but research has shown that it’s now
ingredients will be the focus for home- considered a regular treat. 70 per cent of us
cooks in 2012, who will be influenced by now claim to visit a restaurant at least once a
TV, foodie magazines, websites, social month and the market is expected to grow six
networks and Smartphone apps. per cent to reach £36.6bn this year. Increasing-
ly social media will lead decision making, with
location-based deals, mobile couponing and
group buying discounts dictating where peo-
ple eat. Who said it was all doom and gloom?
You’ve heard about crowdsourcing, employing
the collective wisdom of consumers to help de-
sign products, create content or solve business
problems, but democratic buying takes things one
step further. It bases product design and produc-
tion entirely on the votes of the crowd. Take shop-
ping website Shopping Forecast as an example.
It lets you view, comment, vote on and share next
season’s styles, with votes on each item affecting
where and in what volume the piece appears in
stores.
The democratic buyer is not a passive voice
amongst the throng of the bazaar, but an active
contributor to the market place. Expect their voic-
es to be heard loud and proud this year!
Today’s consumer typically looks to
Google before hitting the shops, a trend
Over recent years, our ailing economy has ac- that has significantly contributed to the
celerated the trend for locally sourced food, as decline of the British high street. While
consumers seek to support the economy and total growth in online retailing slowed to
local communities. In December last year, over eight per cent last year, there are now an
half of shoppers claimed to buy local products estimated 37m regular online shoppers
to support local producers, a quarter to sup- in the UK. What we also saw was massive
port local retailers, and over a fifth to keep jobs growth amongst the under 45s who have
in their area. Supporting British producers has adopted it as their primary purchasing
now become the most important ethical con- point, a sign that internet shopping is
cern for grocery shoppers, with more than four reaching maturity.This year we’ll see con-
in ten consumers intending to buy more locally sumers embrace online shopping in new
sourced goods this year. and innovative ways, such as through
social commerce, mobile coupons and
daily deals, which should breathe further
life into the channel.
Forget the regular weekly shop.
Rather than stocking up on all the
essentials, grocery shoppers are in- With group buying, there truly is strength
creasingly hitting the stores on nar- in numbers. Last year, group buying took
rowly focused missions. They may be off in a big way through sites like Grou-
looking for a specific meal, they may pon, LivingSocial and MyCityDeal, who
have run out of something, or could began offering huge discounts on prod-
just be hungry for a snack. Shop- ucts once a certain number of people
ping has not completely become signed up. Brands got on the bandwagon
a spontaneous activity and the too, with campaigns like Innocent’s Tweet
majority employ some form of plan- and Eat, which unlocked bigger and big-
ning beforehand, such as making ger discounts as more people tweeted a
a list, devising recipe solutions and hashtag. This year, we expect much more
looking for deals, but we could see emphasis on geo-located deals through
a shift from category management mobile devices, market consolidation as
to mission management as retailers consumers develop preferred group buy-
and brands seek out ways to capi- ing brands, and expansion into other sec-
talise on the trend. tors, as media providers and others get on
board.

6. 05
UK Social Media Landscape Finn PR 2012
LinkedIn
Facebook
Twitter
Youtube
Foursquare
Flickr

7. Finn PR 2012
Things To Look Out For In 2012 06
F-Commerce QR Codes
Why do brands use Facebook? Generally because of its potential as a viral Will 2012 mark the tipping point for QR codes? They were everywhere last
medium, its propensity to allow dialogue with consumers and increasingly, year – on products, posters, in magazines and shops – but questions still
its ability to house apps that provide engaging, interactive content. We’re remained about their usage and value. A study late last year found that de-
now also seeing F-Commerce, the act of selling products through Face- spite their ubiquity as a marketing tool, only a third of consumers knew what
book, start to take off in a big way. one was and how to scan one, but it’s still early days for this technology.
This year we’ve learnt that Facebook is a great place to trial ex- The beauty of QR codes is that they enable brands to provide something
clusive or new products. Heinz sold limited edition ketchup with balsamic exclusive to smart phone users with the knowledge to use them, but up un-
vinegar through its page, creating a lot of talkability; and more recently, til now, they have largely been used as URL alternatives, driving consumers
Magners started selling limited edition cider through its page. However, the to brand homepages. A novel way to drive traffic, but hardly revolutionary!
primary goal behind these campaigns is to drive advocacy and conversa- However, we did start to see evidence of brands starting to use them
tion, rather than large sales volumes. to add real value to the consumer experience. We saw Tesco create a QR
There is mounting evidence to suggest that F-commerce is already code store in a Korean subway that saved time for busy commuters; Heinz
a viable retail platform. Around 50,000 retailers have opened an F-store used QR codes to let Americans show their appreciation to their troops
through the e-commerce platform Payvment and 75 per cent of retail- by leaving them personalised messages; and Victoria’s Secret launched
ers plan to use Facebook for social commerce in the future. The top three a naughty billboard campaign with QR codes covering the modesty of
brands on Facebook (Coca Cola, Starbucks and Disney) all sell directly nearly nude models. Phew! With smart phone usage expected to surpass
through the medium and have reported healthy sales figures. Over 1m Star- 50 per cent of the population this year, there’s a real possibility that the
bucks users are using the brand’s e-commerce enabled Facebook loyalty creative use of QR codes will become a real value driver in the world of
program and over 5,000 used Walmart’s group-buy Facebook app on the mobile marketing, so get your thinking caps on!
day of its launch.
The jury is out as to whether the average consumer is ready to adopt
Facebook as a mainstream buying medium and it will be up to brands to
provide compelling reasons to use the medium over others in 2012.
Social TV Instagram
How many of you have ever Facebooked while watching X Factor? Or An homage to the old Kodak Instamatic and Polaroid cameras, Instagram
Tweeted your opinion during Question Time? Chances are you have. In fact, is a free app that allows users to take photos, add quick stylistic fixes like
44 per cent of UK consumers say they use social networks to enhance their vintage hues and dream-like blurs, and then share them instantly with their
TV viewing. These days, the majority of prime time television shows already social network.
have their own hash-tag to group together social media discussions and You’ve probably heard about it, the chances are you’ve used it or
many programmes, particularly faux reality shows like TOWIE, have their par- at least spotted a photo run through one of its array of filters. It was iPhone’s
ticipants tweet during air time to engage with fans. Whilst television owner- app of 2011, currently boasts 14 million users and before its year anniver-
ship is in decline, ratings for live entertainment are creeping ever higher sary, a whopping 150 million photos had been uploaded.
as viewers look to watch in real-time so that they interact socially through Its popularity is undisputed, but why do we think it rose to fame and
these channels. why should you keep an eye on it in 2012? We put its success down to a
Up until recently, social media and television have been separate winning combination of quality, ease of use and people’s never ending
mediums that just happen to be complementary, but we’re now seeing the appetite for sharing their lives visually. Essentially, it gives a mass of casual
first forays into a fully immersive social TV experience, with second screen photographers the ability to produce images with some sort of artistic merit
apps such as Unami and Zeebox (which you’ll learn more about later) without the need for any professional design skills, and at the click of a but-
being released for the iPad. For those with smart TVs (TVs with online tech- ton, lets them share it amongst their peer groups to garner instant gratifica-
nology), the possibility of having all this interaction all in one place will be- tion and admiration.
come a reality over the coming months and make sure to keep an eye out We think this is just the tip of a booming mobile photo sharing trend,
for Apple, as its launch of a television set this year could signal a complete and the increasing prevalence of high megapixel smartphones amongst
reinvention of the concept. the population is only going to throw further fuel to the fire. Last year, the
app made its first hint at welcoming brands by introducing a hashtag fea-
ture for grouping content, but we wouldn’t be surprised if additional cam-
paign-friendly features are added in 2012.

8. 3,2,1 Share At the end of each month, we like to take the
time to relax with a glass of wine and present
3, 2, 1 Share is three slides and two minutes on
one topic area and in this final section, we’d like
each other the content, ideas and campaigns to give you some insight into the topics we’ve
that have been catching our attention. A show been pondering over. Below you’ll find a teaser
and tell of sorts, it’s rather like being back in on each Finnster’s latest loved topic and if you’re
primary school, in a good way. eager to find out more you can follow the QR
code or URL to a blog post on our website.
A suitably strategic topic for the boss, Rich Greg attended a Geo-location lunch as part of James likes grandiose ideas, so it’s no surprise
explores the quandary of social media meas- Leeds Digital Festival and that got him thinking his topic of choice is “one idea that will change
urement and our fixation with big numbers, about, you guessed it, Geo-location. He explores the world”. He takes a look in more detail at the
whether this is reach, impressions, clicks or fol- the past, present and future of the technology, trend, or rather the revolutionary movement that
lowers. In the social space, this fixation can lead focusing on the countless opportunities there is Collaborative Consumption. He muses over
to a skewed view of success, so in his post, he are for brands in this space. some of the most successful organisations that
argues the case for digital communications to are facilitating this new economic model and
be measured for quality, depth and nature of how all this swapping and trading is affecting us
engagement
http://bit.ly/bnsyndrome http://bit.ly/geofuture http://bit.ly/collabconsumption
Jessica illustrated the mega trend of customi- A lover of all things social, Chris drills down into We love the idea of marrying brands with culture
zation by looking at two stand-out campaigns the emerging world of social television, explor- to create credibility. Tom spotted an innovative
launched last year: Heinz’s Get Well Soup ing the recently launched free iPod app Zeebox, campaign by Volkswagen Canada called ‘The
campaign in which the brand gave its 80k Fa- which works in tandem with Facebook and Twit- Great Volkswagen Art Heist’, which effortlessly
cebook fans the chance to send personalised ter to let TV chatterboxes get together around blends art, ambient activity and social media to
cans of soup to their friends; and Nivea’s Christ- programmes they are watching, and even feeds create truly talkable content.
mas campaign that allowed fans to send gift them relevant content about the people, places
sets enveloped in wrapping paper made from and products they see on screen.
their friends’ pictures.
http://bit.ly/customking http://bit.ly/zeebox http://bit.ly/artheist
Rachel explores the continuing progression of Always the joker, Janelle took to a clever tongue Sophie dug up a fantastically useful iPhone app
digital magazines. She takes a look at a new in cheek campaign from Kellogg’s Rice Crispie called ‘Can I Eat It’. It allows food conscious
food trade title, Encounter Magazine, and uses Squares. Based on the idea that Rice Krispie consumers to upload their dietary preferences,
it as a vehicle to weigh up the pros and cons Squares are in fact rectangular not square, the whether allergies, lifestyle choices or dislikes,
of magazines moving into the digital space brash campaign catches people’s attention and use it to check the appropriateness of
and the opportunities for brands to gain added with outrageous lies, subverting the conventions products by scanning the barcode. A genius
value in this new environment. of traditional advertising while poking fun at the choice for those on a January health drive!
industry.
http://bit.ly/digimags http://bit.ly/squarelies http://bit.ly/canieatit
www.finncomms.com Round Foundry Media Centre
hello@finncomms.com Foundry Street
0113 394 4333 Leeds. LS11 5QP