Freemans, the digital department store, announced that it’s Christmas activity will launch today (27 October 2023), over a week sooner than last year and earlier than any full festive campaign in its 118 year history.
The Christmas campaign builds on the announcement by the retailer that it was now fully digital and was dropping the paper catalogue (14 September 2023) after 118 years, while at the same time moving to a completely new look and feel brought together through the ‘Made You Look’ concept.
The successful move resulted in a surge of visitors to Freemans.com with 23% increase of visitors to the site compared to the week before launch.
The latest TV advertising iteration of Made You Look – designed specifically for Christmas – sees 10 and 20 second ads premiering a day later (28 October 2023) and runs until 15 December 2023.
The ads won’t be missed as they will appear on some of the biggest shows across ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 including Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Yorkshire Vet, Home & Away and Julia Bradbury’s Irish Journey.
For the first time ‘out of home’ activity will be trialled regionally, as well as extensive digital campaign amplification through all owned channels and significant investment in paid channels including YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook.
As the headline suggests Made You Look is designed to do just that – to stand out and attract attention, to make people look again through what Freemans calls, punchy, bright, energetic relatable, down-to-earth, and exciting creative.
For Christmas, this celebrates the breadth of the offer to help get the whole family sorted for Christmas.
This comes to life through product heroes including partywear, shoes, knitwear, handbags, festive PJs socks, toys, Christmas decorations, perfume, a ‘magical’ kettle as well as gift accessories for ‘pooches. The quirky execution finishes with the end frame of ‘Freemans.com – Fashion, Beauty, Home, Gifts.
Its objective being to grow and retain the existing customer base and attract new shoppers, breaking the link with the catalogue and increase market share.
The campaign showcases Freemans.com point of difference from the High Street – with the retailer’s products been front and central and is aimed primarily at 45 + female audience.
For digital out of home* Freemans follows the same ‘stop and look at me’ approach.
In one iteration, models of all ages, don festive PJs while at the same time creating the shape of a Christmas tree set against bold and bright backgrounds.
Commenting, Richard Cristofoli, chief customer officer, Freemans said: “Customers are telling us they are actively looking for Christmas home, party and gift ideas earlier than ever as cost-of-living pressures mean spreading the cost is more important than ever. As such we made the decision to go earlier than ever before with Christmas at Freemans.
“It allows us to showcase the breadth of the offer, in a fun and standout way and keeps the momentum going at pace, from our already well received Made You Look, AW23 campaign which has seen visits increase and driven new customers to shop with us,” added Richard.
Traditionally most Christmas campaigns launch the first or second week in November. The move by the retailer is designed specifically to ensure share of voice, from the get-go, while at the same time allowing customers to help spread the cost of Christmas through its flexible ways to pay, backed by its powerful free delivery and returns on everything promise.
Freeman’s marketing and creative teams worked with agency MullenLowe on the Made You Look concept and execution. All content was shot in London.
The digital department store announced last month that it would stop printing its catalogue after an incredible 118 years – ending the run of the UK’s most iconic store directory, as customers move to shopping on-line and it reinvents itself as a digital pureplay.
The move coincided with the retailer sharing sales data to the six months to 30 June 2023 which showed sales were up 13% year on year, its customer base had increased by 34% to over one million and it was growing ahead of the market by a total of 16% (Gap to Market).
