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Two hospitality trade groups have lambasted a new report that found significant risks of Covid-19 transmission in a minority of bars, calling it a farce.

A new study into Covid-19 transmissions in bars has been criticised for being flawed

Researchers from the University of Stirling have published a report titled Managing Covid-19 transmission risks in bars: an interview and observation study, which observed business practices and behaviours in licensed premises across Scotland.

To produce the study, researchers said they conducted in-depth telephone interviews with hospitality trade associations and licensed venues ahead of their reopening in July 2020. The team also visited 29 bars in Scotland and observed behaviour and practices in response to the pandemic.

The study, published by professor Niamh Fitzgerald and her colleagues at the Institute for Social Marketing at the university, reported that despite the efforts of operators to minimise the risk of spreading the virus, potentially significant risks of Covid-19 transmission persisted in a substantial minority of observed bars, especially when customers were intoxicated.

Sham of a report

Trade body Scottish Hospitality Group (SHG) said the study was a sham of a report.

Stephen Montgomery, spokesperson for the SHG, said: Its a farce that this report is even on the table for discussion. It is an out-of-date witch hunt, that is wholly unreflective of our industry, and while Scottish hospitality businesses are left to fail daily, the government has paid hundreds of thousands of pounds on a six-month old study based on a tiny number (0.17%) of Scotlands bars and restaurants.

In reality we are talking about just a handful of premises. From those 29 targeted, criticism is levelled at in their own words a substantial minority of observed bars. You dont need to be a mathematician to work out that basing the closure of a 10.5 billion (US$14.6bn) industry on this sham of a report would be ludicrous.

The trade body recently published its own data, which found fewer than 1% of staff members contracted Covid-19. The SHG, which employs more than 6,000 people, said just 32 positive cases of Covid-19 were reported among staff from July to Christmas 2020.

Flawed in the extreme

Hospitality trade bodies have called the report flawed in the extreme

Trade body UK Hospitality also criticised the University of Stirlings report for painting an almost wholly inaccurate picture of the steps taken to minimise the spread of Covid-19 in the on-trade.

Willie Macleod, UK Hospitality Scotland executive director, said: The report appears flawed in the extreme. It is limited to just 29 licensed premises out of an estimated 9,000 across the country, with these venues only being visited for a maximum of two hours each.

The report states that research was also carried out during the period of May to August 2020, even though businesses were only permitted to reopen in mid-July. We do not agree that the efforts of the researchers are anywhere near enough to accurately represent even a reasonable proportion of the sector, never mind its entirety.

Macleod highlighted that the majority of business owners and managers in the hospitality sector have taken a diligent approach to conform with government regulations and guidance.

To meet hygiene and physical distancing measures, venues have been forced to remodel their premises, install new equipment and overhaul staff training to ensure venues are safe.

Macleod added: Hospitality businesses have not been responsible for Covid transmissions in any meaningful way, but they continue to bear the brunt of massively damaging restrictions.

They are too often the victims of alarming rhetoric and specious innuendo. Their future, and the livelihoods of their employees, is at risk if they are forced to shoulder any more burdens introduced on the back of misleading and misguided calls for further restrictions.

See the rest here:
Industry slams 'wholly inaccurate' Covid-19 bar report - The Spirits Business

When mapping out your influencer marketing strategy, the most common approach is to go for the biggest names, who'll offer you the biggest audience reach, and thus, the best return on your ad spend. But don't overlook the value of those with smaller, but more engaged, communities, who can also help connect you with the people who are increasingly more likely to buy from your brand.

These smaller-scale influencers are called 'micro' or 'nano' influencers, and they can be highly valuable to your businesses, despite their relative audience size. If a local nano-influencer, for example, only has 1,000 followers, but all of them are local business owners, that can have a significantly larger impact on your promotion than a broader reaching campaign.

There are many variations of this, and it's worth taking a deeper look into your audience analytics to ensure that you're utilizing the right approach to influencer marketing - which may not be driven by audience size.

To provide some more context on this, the team from Planoly recently put together this infographic on nano-influencers and the potential benefits of this form of outreach.

Continued here:
Nano Influencers: Who Are They and How to Work With Them [Infographic] - Social Media Today

Knoq (formerly known as Polis) was a startup that recruited representatives to go door-to-door in their neighborhoods, talking up client products and services. So for obvious reasons, it faced challenges in 2020.

We stopped knocking on doors in February, and this summer, we were trying to figure out what the path forward was, founder and CEO Kendall Tucker told me.

The company had already pivoted once, shifting focus from political work to commercial marketing. But Tucker said Knoq also had some attractive assets, namely its unique, huge consumer models designed to predict whether someone would be interested in a given product, as well as the experience of building out these teams of neighborhood representatives.

So after what she described as a competitive bidding process, Knoq was acquired by Ad Practitioners, a digital media company that owns properties like Money.com and ConsumersAdvocate.org.

As part of Ad Practitioners, Tucker said Knoqs network of Knoqers will be able to interact with visitors to those properties and help pair consumers with the right product, whether thats auto insurance or software. After all, she noted that plenty of consumers are connecting with Ad Practitioners via chat bots and phone calls: These are people already asking for help were really just connecting the dots.

Image Credits: Knoq

In the acquisition announcement, Ad Practitioners CEO Greg Powel made a similar point, saying that the deal represents a shared vision of helping people make decisions through conversations driven by data and technology while educating people about products and services that matter.

The Money and ConsumersAdvocate.org brands are already trusted by millions of highly engaged users, Powel continued. Together, we foresee a world where consumers come to our sites for great content [and] reviews and to speak with representatives who can help them find the personal information they need.

Knoq leadership has already moved to join Ad Practitioners in Puerto Rico, with the rest of the Knoq team set to relocate later this year as well.

You might think a startup would be inclined to stay put in its current location (in Knoqs case, Boston), at least for the duration of the pandemic, but Tucker said shes a big believer in seeing your team in person. In fact, the Knoq team had socially distanced outdoor meetups over the summer, to brainstorm or just hang out and make sure people are okay. Plus, shes excited about the possibility of hiring the amazing people on this island.

The financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Knoq had most recently raised $2.5 millionfrom Initialized Capital and Haystack.vc, and Tucker said it was crucial that the acquisition provided a good outcome not just for her team and herself, but also her investors.

Were so excited for Kendall and her team on their successful exit to Ad Practitioners, said Initialized General Partner Alda Leu Dennis in a statement. Its been a pleasure partnering with Knoq over the last few years. The Knoq team will bring a tech-forward approach to sales outreach and customer analytics. And, Kendalls skills as a brilliant builder, operator and strategic thinker will be a huge asset for Ad Practitioners.

Read this article:
Ad Practitioners acquires Knoq to move the startups door-to-door marketing approach online - TechCrunch

Last week, Twitter couldnt stomach the idea of Weetabix and baked beans for breakfast. For brands, however, the viral moment signified an opportunity to showcase their personality and tone of voice. Today, Helen Gradwell, senior creative at Tangerine the agency behind Specsavers response explores how brands can ride meme culture successfully

Picture the scene.

Its a Tuesday night, 9pm.

A social media creative is contemplating two pairs of designer Specsavers glasses on a white plate.

Slowly, but deliberately, they spoon on some baked beans. The beans slide down the lenses and leave a tomato-smeared snail trail.

Perfect, they say, iPhone 12 in hand. They start snapping pictures some wide, some close. Flash on or flash off? Flash on. The beans glisten.

In a lot of ways, we all knew, deep down inside, that lockdown social media marketing would lead us to this moment. Brands liberally dousing their products with baked beans; an offering to the trend of the moment.

It all started with Weetabix, as many good days do. The brand posted a now infamous picture of some of its wheaty breakfast products, artfully arranged, topped with baked beans (the reason is not yet completely clear, but we look forward to finding out). Other brands, from Lidl to the NHS, waded in with their own crafty responses.

When you work in social media, your eye is always on the latest Twitter trends and conversations. So naturally, on the Specsavers and Tangerine social media team, we asked ourselves something were sure everyone questions at some point in their lives:

Should we put beans on something?

It seemed almost too silly. Surely we shouldnt?

But then again we have beans we have glasses and we have a half-decent camera.

By the time our beans au spectacles were put in the team chat, it seemed almost foolish not to tweet about beans on things. Approved, came the immediate reply.

But if we truly want to understand how every UK brand on social media found themselves mulling over the idea of beaning their own stock, we have to go further back.

Of course, the trend of irreverent social media marketing was with us long before March 2020. But the first lockdown (and the two subsequent lockdowns...) have really done something to the British online psyche.

At first, of course, everyone was scared. Uncertain. They needed reassurance from brands. Updates. Comfort.

But as the new normal became normal (and we all got really annoyed with the phrase new normal), things changed.

On Twitter in particular, conversation polarised more than ever between serious, political and societal discourse and truly daft memes.

In the face of global turmoil, it seems we gravitate to the typically silly and self-deprecating humour thats always run through British culture.

And these moments came thick and fast.

Everything was cake. Wembley was a lasagne. Chanel, the African Grey Parrot, was an icon. Coronavirus left the pub every night at 10pm sharp and then everyone was obsessed with substantial meals/scotch eggs. A giant Rita Ora rampaged through the quiet streets of London.

Lots of people started talking to us about Barnard Castle at one point

Before pandemic, Twitter and only a few of the savviest brands would have fun with a meme for 12-24 hours before the media, news outlets and then (some weeks later) Facebook got wind of it. But now, things reach boiling point in record time.

To put it into context, Jackie Weaver (the stoic meeting clerk from the Cheshire Association of Local Councils) only found viral fame last week. But, unlike days gone by,the video went viral on Wednesday evening (10 February) and Jackie was on BBC Breakfast the very next day, and later featured on every news bulletin until that evening.

A meme that wouldve taken up a good week to bubble up on the internet a few years ago quickly became overdone in less than 24 hours.

Same thing with the beans. In fact, by the time youve read this, well already have moved onto some other trend.

Oh yeah, that bean thing youll say to yourself, nostalgic for a trend that Twitter was obsessed with only a couple of days ago.

The reason for this acceleration of meme culture is really simple. Consumers are bored. Very, very bored. The internet is all they have, apart from walks. Theyre inside, looking at their phones, with no wandering to the pub, visits from their mum or spontaneous trips into town to pull them away.

Theyre hungry for entertainment, so when something happens (especially something as ridiculously British as beans on some Weetabix) they react instantly. All the hot takes are snapped up within the hour. Its over within a single working day.

So how do brands fit into this fast-moving (and often downright baffling) world?

Firstly, marketers need need to know what their brand stands for on Twitter and thisll likely be a bit different than other channels. No small task.

Specsavers is every marketers dream, as that quintessentially sharp and self-aware humour is baked into the tone of voice thanks to the iconic Shouldve Gone to Specsavers campaigns. And social media is the natural place for this to come to life.

When we look for opportunities, the formula we follow is: national conversation + personality + brand message = relevance.

National conversation could be a trending topic, or it could be Twitters main character that day (think beans-on-Weetabix, Jackie Weaver or that Zoom man who is definitely not a cat).

For Specsavers, personality is our warm, knowledgeable and down to earth tone of voice that runs through everything we do. In 2020, as the nation was coming out of lockdown, we launched our Something to Smile About campaign and as part of this, on Twitter, our mission is to make the nation chuckle using by seeking out 'Shouldve Gone to Specsavers'-worthy moments.

Its important to note that a brand message isnt the same as a sales message. Its essentially what creates the link between the trending topic and the brand. If theres no link, the audience doesnt understand why the brand is getting involved or why its funny. For us, the link is sight and hearing, but this translates to almost endless situations seeing or hearing something in our own unique way.

Trends are more transient than ever, so dithering by even a few hours can mean completely missing the boat. Marketers must make sure they have a good view of what the trend of that day, hour or moment is, and that theres somebody on-hand to react quickly.

The key here is not to overthink it. Consider your brands angle and strategy, then combine that with what people would laugh at if they saw it on your feed.

A lot of people have told us they admire the speed with which we doused some glasses with beans and got it out into the world to the extent that weve been asked if it was pre-agreed.

It wasnt. It was just a funny idea we had, inspired by the ridiculousness of the Weetabix post. It was shot, put into the approvals quick-fire chat and approved within 15 minutes.

The key to that is trust, which of course has to be built up over time, so everyone is always working to do the best (and funniest) thing for the brand on social media.

And if you miss the mark this time, dont worry. Were sure well all be slathering another breakfast food on our products soon enough.

Follow this link:
Memes in a post-breakfast world: lessons from Specsavers' response to Weetabix and beans - The Drum

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Social Media Integration market segments covered in the report:

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Competitive dashboard:

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The rest is here:
Outlook on the Social Media Integration Market to 2025 by Application, End-us - Business-newsupdate.com