Newsblog

KiK print campaign via METRO Advertising

June 2024 - Next new customer: In May, METRO Advertising's production department was awarded a substantial print order by the KiK clothing chain. KiK worked with us to produce a two-sided personalised MaxiCard with a print run of over 640,000 copies. These have been produced since the beginning of June and then sent out throughout Germany.

"We are delighted that KiK has realised this project with us. The aim of this advertising campaign is to reactivate customers with loyalty cards. We wish KiK every success with it and are already looking forward to the next joint project," explains Michael Eckert, Head of Production at METRO Advertising. Campaign partner KiK is the largest textile discounter chain in Germany and has around 4,000 shops and over 25,000 employees across Europe. KiK sells a range of clothing and underwear as well as toys, accessories and home textiles.

Basic styles with infrequent product range changes

The focus is on basic styles with only occasional changes to the range. This makes the company independent of trends and seasons. Orders can be produced with long lead times of nine to twelve months without time pressure.The products are imported to Germany by sea freight and distributed from there to the ten or so foreign markets in which KiK is represented.

KiK is a member of the German Partnership for Sustainable Textiles since June 2015. This initiative of the German Federal Ministry for Development and Cooperation is based on the conviction that an improvement in production conditions in countries such as Bangladesh or Pakistan cannot be brought about by individual companies alone.

MPULSE online shines in new layout

April 2024 - Relaunch for the METRO magazine MPULSE.de/en: New article layouts, larger images, an improved search function and optimised font - with the latest refresh, the online magazine is now visually up-to-date and user-friendly. The articles with videos and photo galleries complement the printed MPULSE magazine, which contains references and QR codes to the additional online content.

Since the first print issue of MPULSE five years ago, METRO Advertising has supported the production of the award-winning magazine (including Gold in the "B2B Print Customer Magazines" category in 2023) with procurement and print production. The most recent competition also enabled our POS team to achieve savings of up to 30% by optimising processes.

"In addition to changing printers, we particularly helped to improve the processes in place at the time, which had a significant impact," explains Mario Kaltenbach from the POS team at METRO Advertising.

The magazine is available in printed form and as a PDF at mpulse.de/downloads (and much more content online at www.mpulse.de/en).

Positive feedback from eight METRO countries

February 2024 - Promising kick-off 2024 for our content creation solution M.CREATE: In mid-January, the METRO Advertising project team successfully presented the live tools and mature concepts of the tool to numerous group colleagues from a total of eight countries. Many features that have already been successfully implemented in some countries, as well as new products such as 3D rendering, once again demonstrated to a large audience the endless potential of the M.CREATE content portal for almost all marketing channels.

"Such an international exchange with eight countries this time is always very exciting and fun. We are particularly pleased about the many positive responses about our new products," explains Project Manager Daniel Geißler.

For years, METRO Advertising's content creation solution has enabled seemingly unlimited possibilities, especially for online channels such as newsletters or websites, to extract existing and quality-assured article data and editorial content and thus use it quickly and efficiently for multichannel purposes. The feedback from the countries will now be concretised in smaller groups.

On the way to five DISH trucks with METRO Advertising

January 2024 - The touchpoint comes to the customer: The METRO Advertising POS team led by Mario Kaltenbach has effectively supported METRO Germany's sales organisation around Melanie Wagner with a highly original promotional project: Our POS team found the right service provider and used its experience to help with project management and the technical challenges of implementing the print on the diesel vehicle.

At the manufacturer J&A Automobile in Langenfeld near Düsseldorf, a total of five mini lorries (Aixam Mega) are being extensively converted for a major tour of Germany. In addition to a coffee machine and water tanks, a WLAN router, receipt printer and two TV sets are also being installed in the vehicle. Two of the promotion trucks have already been completed and are on the road since November. The main task is to present the DISH POS digital solution to key customers from the gastronomy and make it a personal experience.

Digital POS solution for the gastronomy industry of the future

DISH POS is the digital POS solution for the gastronomy and catering industry of the future, which was presented for the first time in Germany at this year's INTERNORGA in Hamburg in March 2023. The innovative point-of-sale solution was developed specifically for the catering industry. DISH POS offers numerous advantages for the hospitality industry and its customers - and digitally simplifies the day-to-day organisation of hospitality businesses.

Xmas outdoor campaign for METRO Germany

December 2023 - The Media department of METRO Advertising has successfully realised the next outdoor campaign for METRO Germany. This time, customer communication focussed on premium beef products for/before Christmas. The December campaign presented itself with three original motifs on numerous displays: for the period from 5 to 14 December (or until 11 December for CityLights), the media team booked around 3,500 large surfaces, full columns, City Light boards and City Light posters.

As with the "WEinkaufen" campaign in summer 2023, the marketing managers at METRO Germany led by Wiebke Enkirch are focussing on eye-catching placements in highly frequented squares and traffic junctions on the main streets. "The original word games around the theme are an eye-catcher in the sense of the customer and ensure optimal attention in this presentation," explains Elena Gudyrina, Head of Media at METRO Advertising.

Regional radio campaign on top

In addition, a regional radio campaign was planned and booked for our client METRO Germany. The campaign is intended to support the booked outdoor advertising campaign during the same period. The numerous conurbations in which the outdoor banners are displayed and the radio campaign can be heard include Berlin, Dresden, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Cologne, Leipzig and Munich in addition to Düsseldorf. Overall, this was already the third outdoor campaign for METRO Germany in 2023.

3D rendering 2.0 – a flexible solution for your needs

October 2023 - No packaging for your advertising? We have the solution! METRO Advertising operates its own photo studio on the Düsseldorf campus. This enables us to offer a professional photography service via short service routes. For more than one and a half years, our team has been working not only on photography, but also on the creation of digital renderings. If a product does not yet exist in a packaged form, we offer the solution: via METRO Advertising's 3D rendering console, our unit constructs a virtual package before it actually exists – e.g. in the area of METRO own brand products.

In this way, a high-end digital version is created in advance for all advertising channels, so that it can be integrated into the advertising process at an earlier stage. In addition to the digital rendering of the packaging itself, it is now also possible to construct outer packaging to represent the product in a sales unit or an entire tray. With this range of possibilities, the photo studio team shortens the "time to market" process, and can react flexibly to customization requests.

"This new feature is the next step in the context of our digitalization," explains Asset Administration Team Lead Tim Knackstedt. "With such convenient options, we are sustainably expanding the spectrum of our services for existing customers as well as future customers."

Trainings and kick-off in Amsterdam

September 2023 - METRO Advertising's Multichannel content portal, M.CREATE, continues to expand. From 1 October, Makro Cash & Carry Netherlands will switch content production to this simple and effective online platform. With M.CREATE, product data and editorial content for all communication channels (offline & online) can be easily managed and enriched.

Face-to-face training sessions for staff in Amsterdam over the last few weeks have now given the go-ahead. Product manager Daniel Geißler, Melanie Fetgenheuer and Tim Wollschläger showed on site what the new users of the multichannel content portal in the Netherlands need to know for their start.

"Our corporate solutions now map the entire process. This way, Makro Netherlands can easily and efficiently reuse the created content for future productions and digital use cases," explains Geißler.

The M.CREATE tool is now used in nine countries to create print and online catalogues. In some countries, the application also supports the automated creation of email campaigns, newsletters and large (store) posters.

Customer survey: Excellent feedback for METRO Advertising

August 2023 - Strengthening proven products and learning from customers for new products – this is how the results of the customer survey can be summarized. Around 35 national and international customers from the advertising, marketing and purchasing sectors gave us their valued feedback on service requirements and service levels. A clear signal was sent back: Customers feel very well advised and will continue to count on us in the future. The trusting relationship with METRO Advertising is obviously on the right track.

In addition optional assessments and wishes were expressed by the customers – in English or German. As a service provider for advertising campaigns, production, media and POS as well as digital IT solutions, METRO Advertising is always in intensive exchange with its customers and wants to align its services closely to its customers. In addition to a purely numerical evaluation (via a 4-point scale) of various criteria such as communication, reliability, speed, etc., customers were also able to name specific needs and wishes – such as consulting or market research on the topics of How are direct competitors positioning themselves with regard to print & digital marketing? or How will advertising change in the near future?

Digitization remains ongoing topic

Explicit information is now also available on topics relating to digitization. Desired services are, for example, "possibly a digital marketing calendar including analysis options, forecasts, etc.". According to Michael Eckert, Head of Print at METRO Advertising, the college will go into greater depth and "comprehensively into the individual responses for precise analysis. The bottom line is that I think the feedback is a very good result."

This assessment is confirmed by the responses to the final question ("Would you recommend us as a service provider?"): The evaluation shows that 77% of the customers "fully recommend" METRO Advertising (MA) and 16% recommend MA. Overall, according to the 4-point scale, METRO Advertising has a very good rating of 3.7.

"Reliability" and other focus topics

The goal of presenting one's own work as transparently and sustainably as possible to customers is rated best with a value of 3.8 for the point "Reliability". One customer feedback stated, "The partnership-based collaboration has developed very well over the years." One customer also highlighted the fact that not many service providers on the market can manage this complexity.

In addition to successes in digitization and automation - such as in the Netherlands as the next METRO country with our advertising tool M.CREATE - METRO Advertising also focuses on the topic of web stores for internal and external customers in order to maintain the highest possible service level. Eckert: "We are pleased with these constructive results and will not tire of finding and exploiting potential for further improvements".

"Günstig WEinkaufen" campaign for METRO Germany

July 2023 - For METRO Germany and the marketing team of Wiebke Enkirch, the media division of METRO Advertising is currently implementing an outdoor and radio campaign. The title of the advertising measures around the wine products is quite descriptive: "Günstig WEinkaufen".

The METRO campaign is taking place in the metropolitan areas of Düsseldorf, Cologne, Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt and Munich. Outdoor media such as billboards and column sized poster will be used, in combination with regional radio stations such as Antenne Düsseldorf. Further information via Media Division of METRO Advertising.

Printing papers becoming cheaper again

May 2023 - After the extreme price increases last year, printing papers are becoming significantly cheaper again: Energy and raw material prices have normalized in recent months. At the same time, demand for printing paper has fallen sharply and prices are under pressure.

Whether flyers, mailings, catalogs or customer magazines: Advertisers appreciate lower costs and some are already reacting with increased measures in the print area.

More info via Paper Division of METRO Advertising. Interest aroused? Please feel free to contact us: