LBi London

NMA’s 2009 Marketing League Table

Posted by Simon Gill October 9th, 2009

Proud to be number one in NMA’s 2009 Marketing league table

LBi has topped the NMA Top 100 Interactive Marketing Agencies 2009 guide to become the UK’s NUMBER ONE DIGITAL MARKETING AGENCY www.lbi.co.uk. Founded in 1995 LBi currently employs 350 digital specialists in the UK and provides marketing and technology solutions to a raft of stellar clients including BT, HMV, Waterstone’s, Lloyds Banking Group, Unilever, Electrolux, The Conservative Party and M&S. This year, LBi has expanded its CRM and social media specialisms, made several key hires including Chris Clarke as Chief Creative Officer, and developed a proprietary intelligence platform called the LBi Digital Dashboard to help clients optimise performance across their marketing activities. LBi currently provides leading expertise in combining marketing and technology to provide solutions that span the entire customer journey; strategy and planning, media planning and buying, SEO, PPC, social media and e-PR, creative, user experience, e-commerce, CRM, analytics and managed services. In spite of the recession LBi has grown in 2009, and deepened relationships with its top clients. Highlights include:

BT has appointed LBi as its digital agency of record, retained across its consumer and business divisions to improve the performance of digital channels and help BT go to market as a more joined-up multi-channel organisation.

LBi has been appointed by the Conservative Party as its lead agency to handle digital services including Web development, online advertising and e-commerce in the run up to next year’s General Election. LBi has just launched an “Obama style” community called www.myconservatives.com to activate Conservative supporters.

LBi has become digital agency of record for Electrolux across 20 markets in Europe. Electrolux was also an important win for LBi because it was one of the first pan-European accounts to move away from a traditional broadcast/campaign model towards a continuous dialogue with consumers, using digital channels as the foundation to this strategy. As part of the 2009 work LBi has been developing the CRM strategy and platform. LBi has also integrated this with a digital media framework that will be used to determine what mix of channel and content will be deployed in each market. Campaign highlights have included putting a smart restaurant on top of the Palais de Tokyo in Paris and driving traffic to book this venue online.

HMV Group has extended its relationship with LBi leading to the complete re-architecture and rebuild of e-commerce platforms for both HMV and Waterstone’s. Phase two for both brands, now under way, will see the development of new experiences for consumers.

Now into the 13th year of its relationship with M&S, LBi has been broadening its engagement with new tools to help both parties to determine the effectiveness of their work across all customer journeys at a much more granular level. LBi has also been involved in high-profile projects to launch new product lines such as the Living the Dream collection (aimed at 11-14 year old boys) in conjunction with Lewis Hamilton.

LBi is Lloyds Banking Group’s digital partner and recently won the remit to transform the online banking experience for Halifax and Bank of Scotland as well as Lloyds Commercial (small business) customers.

Ewen Sturgeon, CEO, LBi UK says: “We are excited about the progress we have made this year and the increasing number of clients who look to our scale, mix of creative and technology skills and ability to measure return, to help them optimise the digital customer experience for their consumers”. Sturgeon adds: “Innovation is also very much on the agenda as blue chip brands look to innovate through digital – mobile applications are obviously hot right now: geo-targeting and augmented reality, used wisely, have fantastic potential. A bit further out, Google Wave is really interesting. If anyone can usurp email at large scale it’s probably Google, and the implications of widespread use of Wave on communication between people and brands are substantial”.

Anil Pillai, MD, LBi UK says: “Next year will be all about taking our partnerships with our top clients a bit further. Our best relationships allow us to deliver the full raft of services we offer and connect ideas across CRM, creative and innovation to help brands get closer to their consumers.”

Tags: press release

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MyConservatives

Posted by Simon Gill October 5th, 2009

Conservatives launch groundbreaking online campaigning network

The Conservative Party has launched a new online campaigning network on Friday 2nd October, ahead of its party conference. The network – called MyConservatives.com – represents a giant step forward in political campaigning and fundraising. It’s the most ambitious party political campaigning network of its kind outside of the US.

MyConservatives is the first fruit of the Party’s recently announced partnership with LBi – Europe’s largest online marketing and technology agency. Released initially in beta, MyConservatives will be constantly evolving over the coming months as it responds to feedback from users and adds new features.

David Cameron said: “We’re hugely excited by the potential for MyConservatives as we gear up for the general election, and beyond.”

“Over the last few years my party has talked a lot about how the internet is changing the nature of society. We recognise that the nature of modern communications means that we should disperse information and decision-making away from the political elite, to the man and woman on the street.”

“This understanding of what we call the post-bureaucratic age has been shaped our policy-making – all we’re doing now is applying those principles to the way we organise ourselves as a party. That’s why today we’re launching a new online campaigning portal that empowers people – whether they’re party members or not – to campaign and fundraise for specific candidates and issues.”

“MyConservatives is a first in UK politics, and probably the most advanced party political campaigning network of its kind outside of America. Although the General Election is still likely to be months away, the campaign to gear up our supporters and give them simple-to-use tools to make campaigning easier is already underway and MyConservatives represents a big part of that.”

“At a time when the British people have lost so much faith in their political system, this is the kind of politics we need.”

Tags: Conservatives, MyConservatives, press release

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HMV’s re-engineered search engine

Posted by Simon Gill October 5th, 2009

Boosting HMV’s online sales with re- engineered search engine

As strategic technical partner to HMV, LBi has launched the first phase of HMV’s new e-commerce platform - a new search engine that will support the company’s growth plans and the anticipated increase in online purchasing from customers.  The new search engine will provide faster search, better search results, faceted navigation, improved ability to merchandise products, increased ability to personalise the user experience and will allow HMV to support increased growth in online sales.   The new search engine will enable consumers to find what they are looking for more easily, leading to an easier purchase experience.  Also, HMV will be able to get to know their customers as individuals and communicate with them about things that will interest them.

 HMV is the UK and Ireland’s leading specialist retailer of Music, DVD/Video, Computer Games and Related Products. The company operates around 200 stores in key shopping locations nationwide, equating to over 1million sq. ft. of trading space, as well as a successful online store at www.hmv.co.uk, operated by HMV Guernsey.   HMV is part of HMV Group plc, which as of April 2004 operated 366 HMV stores in eight countries across Europe, North America and Pacific Asia as well as 193 Waterstone’s stores principally in the UK and Ireland. All of the Group’s operations, both in the United Kingdom and internationally, are wholly owned.

We acted as strategic consultants and guided HMV through a detailed analysis which highlighted the limitations of the current e-commerce platform. LBi was named HMV’s lead partner and asked to deliver a 2-year programme of work to replace the existing platform and using a technology stack able to support the significant growth HMV have seen in the online channel.  We assisted HMV with vendor selection and chose Endeca as the search partner for this phase of work.  We are currently helping HMV to select and implement the remaining technologies within the new platform which will go live in 2010.

LBi and HMV have enjoyed a strong relationship since April 2007 which has spanned engagements in digital strategy, web design and build, search engine optimisation, technology, design and implementation, user research, testing and quality assurance. In 2008 we designed and delivered HMV’s new social discovery site: getcloser.com.  LBi were then engaged in late 2008 to help solve a critical business issue: the declining capability of its ecommerce platform.

Tags: e-commerce, HMV, News, press release, search engine, UK

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We launch Barratt Homes’ first lifestyle campaign

Posted by Laura JB October 1st, 2009

Our integrated campaign guides first time buyers and growing families on how to find the house of their dreams with Barratt Homes (www.barratthomes.co.uk) and highlights helpful homebuying schemes and their extensive portfolio of properties.

Launched on 14th September, it is in place to assist first time buyers and growing families to find and move into their ideal property with ease. By dispelling current cynicism in the market, Barratt are showing their customers how they can make moving into a new home happen. The site demonstrates this through an animated online journey showing how Barratt understand that their customers, especially those with young families, need more space to live in. It has three targeted landing pages which demonstrate how Barratt understand what their customers need from a new home and showcases their extensive portfolio of properties. We also incorporated video animation to convey the campaign message in a more engaging manner. The online journey is further enhanced with cutting edge search functionality to ensure the process is as simple and efficient as possible.

To support the campaign launch online, we also designed and developed an email marketing campaign for Barratt. This will target different customer segments, helping Barratt learn more about their customer base and what to offer them.

“Digital is core to the information and research stage of the purchase cycle when selecting a property and it is critical we provide a value exchange to the consumer at every point to aid them in their journey. It is important for Barratt to connect with consumers at more than just a product level and that has been central to our marketing strategy for this campaign, basing our messaging and creative on lifestyle”

Tom Poynter, Client Partner at LBi

“Digital is the single most important channel for us to reach and communicate with customers. In an economic downturn, being able to help our customers facilitate the move into their perfect home is imperative and LBi are helping us to harness the Internet to create real dialogue with customers.”

Sam Moore, Head of Digital at Barratt Homes

Tags: Barratt, CRM, eCRM, email, press release, search, video, website

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