Digital Marketing

Austin, Texas – Three-quarters (75%) of retail marketers believe that digital advertising delivers a higher ROI than offline advertising, including circulars and direct mail. A survey of 200 retail marketing decision-makers and influencers commissioned by RetailMeNot Inc. and conducted by Kelton, shows that despite this belief, 51% of respondents said digital marketing spend in retail compared to offline marketing spend is still about 50/50.

Coca-Cola and U.S. soccer team member DaMarcus Beasley are joining forces to help consumers give soccer balls to schools. Through July 13, people can enter promotional codes from Coca-Cola products at coke.com/soccer and donate a soccer ball to the school of their choice.

“The Coca-Cola Company has always shared an enormous passion for soccer and the world of endless possibilities that it offers to youth globally and right here in the U.S.,” Coca-Cola North America’s VP Multicultural Marketing Lauventria Robinson, said.

Quill Ideas is the name of a new crowdsourcing platform the online division of Staples launched for customers and employees to share ideas in new and interesting ways.

Quill.com, acquired by Staples in 1998, is calling Quill Ideas an online-innovation community that is designed to solicit and implement ideas, review and rank them based on various protocols and then implement those that score the highest. A soft launch that began two weeks ago has already garnered more than 13,000 interactions made up of ideas, votes and comments, according to the company.

London, U.K. — Online grocery shoppers tend to buy fewer impulse purchases online than in store, resulting in smaller basket sizes. A recent survey of 1,154 online grocery shoppers from EDigitalResearch found that 29% of respondents feel that they make far fewer impulse purchases online than in store. 

Staples' secret weapon this back-to-school season looks to be Katy Perry. The retailer recently aligned itself with the pop mega-star who has the potential to influence the shopping behavior of 50 million Twitter followers and 71 million Facebook fans.

Staples said it will be the presenting sponsor of the North American leg of Perry’s Prismatic World tour when it resumes on June 22 in Raleigh, N.C., and also donated $1 million to the DonorsChoose.org charitable organization which helps fund teachers’ and students’ classroom needs.

Dodgeville, Wis. — Lands' End is launching its "Set Sail" omnichannel sweepstakes. The contest allows customers to play a virtual tic-tac-toe game on Lands’ End’s e-commerce and Facebook pages, with the chance to win gift cards.

One random winner will receive then grand prize getaway, which includes round-trip airfare for four people to Miami and five nights' accommodations. The contest runs June 12-July 12.