Latest Blog Posts
3 things retail banking can learn from the media industry
4 minute read
In a zero interest rate economy, money no longer makes money. The UK’s ‘free if in credit’ model - which allows us all to hold our money in accounts at no charge and the banks to generate revenue through overdraft fees and loans - is at risk.
Nailing direct-to-consumer: how big beauty brands can fuel their growth
4 minute read
Take a peek into a millennial’s beauty routine, and you’ll see the pastel colours and sans serif fonts starting to pile up - the D2C brands are starting to take over! There are a couple of ways big beauty brands can tap into D2C, but which big bet can properly move the needle for the business and create long-term commercial and consumer impact?
Taking luxury online, a challenge beyond the pandemic
Au revoir buses of Chinese tourists on the Champs Elysées. Welcome virtual personal shopping! Au revoir Fashion Weeks, reuniting ‘la crème de la crème’ in the fashion capitals. Welcome live-streamed catwalks!
Monentising fandom
Around this time last year Manifesto launched a report on Membership Economics, a perspective on how to build deep, long-lasting relationships with customers, and how to monetise them. Sports clubs and associations are in the fortunate position of building the former, but many are struggling with the latter.
Content is king, but engagement reigns supreme
4 minute read
There is no doubting that the current crisis offers both opportunities as well as challenges for publishers. The former will only be long lasting though if brands not only capture the demand but make sure that they’re ‘sticky’ in the lives of their readers
How to shift an organisation to engagement thinking
5 minute read
Engagement is the leading indicator of performance for the leading brands because it’s a sign that audiences are enjoying your proposition. So what are the options for measuring it? And how could you set up your teams to deliver their contributing role?
DTC: the forgotten friend of marketers
direct-to-consumer as a big opportunity for CPG marketers to build their brand, however, only until recently has it started to appear on most marketing plans. Here is why DTC should be front of mind.
Understanding Orchestration
4 minute read
WTF is orchestration, what can it allow businesses to do and what does it mean for your customers?
The content wars is heating up
3 minute read
We live in a golden age of content; it’s at the heart of the proposition for publishers and has triggered an ownership battle amongst streaming services.
Engagement in a cookie-less world
Third-party cookies have been used to track our web movements for decades. They’ve been relied upon to serve up targeted ads and offers, with many brands building profitable businesses around them. So how do you start to build audience profiles in the absence of something that’s been relied upon until now?
The future of Financial Services: data-driven ecosystems
Our learnings from our speaking slot at the PayThink conference
The Nutshell: Membership and Gaming
The Nutshell's take on how video gaming has taken on its more established peers, and won
The Parent Hood: Membership for Superheroes
Manifesto's Membership Proposition project with The Parent Hood
Open Banking: Our View
Open Banking launched in 2018, but the dialogue has been dominated by technical implications at the expense of fruitful discussion about commercial opportunities. We sought to shift the locus of the debate.
The Nutshell: How Disruption is Taking the Healthcare Industry Off Life Support
Manifesto's monthly newsletter, The Nutshell, this month focusing on disruption in the healthcare industry
Pricing can kill agencies... but it doesn’t have to
How to drive value through pricing and advertising
The Nutshell: Fierce Competition - Is Membership the Future for the Business of Sport?
Manifesto's monthly newsletter, The Nutshell, this month focusing on how sports are being impacted by membership
How Instagram is Taking on Amazon (and Winning)
4 minutes read
For years Amazon have sat on the eCommerce throne as the go-to online retailer. This year, Instagram launched their own checkout functionality - we look at how their ‘aspirational’ shopping experience could expose Amazon, and the four things Instagram need to do to ensure retail success.
The Nutshell: Lifting the Bonnet on Automotive Subscriptions
4 minutes read
Manifesto's monthly newsletter, The Nutshell, this month focusing on the wonderful world of automotive subscriptions
Champagne and New Revenues at the Digiday Publishing Summit
A review of the Digiday Publishing Summit
The Nutshell: Cracking Open Craft Beer
It's a topic that certainly divides opinion. Whether you like beer or not, the industry is a case-study in disruptive innovation. So sit back, chill out (with or without liquid refreshment) and read some of the cool stuff that’s going on in the World of Beer.
What Blockchain means for you and your customers
It’s that time of the year again, where we take on an upcoming tech trend and try and help you understand what it really means for your customer value proposition. Last year we tackled Open Banking, this year we are turning our attention to the wonderful world of Blockchain.
Our top five tips to nail a company away day
All things considered, company away days can often be very difficult to get right; get it wrong, you might end up fostering resentment even from the most loyal employees. We think there are five essential factors that give away days a better chance of being a success.
Innovation fatigue: The start of an analogue fightback?
It appears people may still prefer to curl up with an actual paperback book. Recent stats show the incredible resurgence of physical books, with the electronic e-book alternative in significant decline. We investigate the consumer rationale that explains this turn of trend.
Are dentists more attractive than banks?
The new wave of startup companies on the banking scene have brought a surge of excitement; customers finally have something to show off, from slick money monitoring apps to quirky vertical debit cards. We dissect the market, and take a look at the new banks and products contributing to all the hype.
Blockchain: the emperor’s new clothes or a knight in shining amour?
The world of Cryptocurrency in 2018 has been flipped on its head more times than we could have ever have imagined. However Blockchain is a very different story, as we start to see a rise in the number of its practical applications, with some very tangible operational and customer-led benefits.
Now that the dust has settled, Pokémon Go and how it makes money
"Pokémon Go" became an overnight viral sensation, with iPhone users spending more time on it than on Facebook. But it is difficult to see how the app actually makes money, until now.
Retail-iation: How retailers should bounce back
Christmas 2018 saw one of the worst like-for-like sale periods for many years. The pressure is on retailers to inspire consumers to purchase and create desirable experiences that are worth coming through the shop door for.
Customer service: Focus on the revenue, not the cost
A poor customer experience may cost your business 200 fold of a cost you may have been trying to save. Willingness to genuinely investigate and positively impact customer feelings and reactions, can help build and manage a positive reputation for your brand in the long run.