OMD has brokered a new partnership between leading cashback company Quidco and LGBT publication Attitude launch a digital fashion campaign timed to coincide with London Fashion week.
The campaign, which launched on Wednesday 14th September, has been designed around product rich content and is intended to drive awareness of the variety of fashion retailers now available on Quidco’s platform, enabled by Attitude’s reach to LGBT+ audiences and their allies across the UK. Through editorial, display, social media and outreach, the campaign provides a new way for Attitude’s readers to get the catwalk look for less by earning cashback through Quidco’s platform.
OMD is always looking for new ways to connect their clients with the right audience in digital environments. OMD chose Attitude magazine due to its strong affinity with fashion and strong engagement with its social channels, including its audience of 770,000 Facebook fans and an online readership of 2 million uniques per month.
Attitude has seen 30% year-on-year growth across its digital platforms by focusing on the topics that most matter to their readers and by featuring headline-grabbing covers such as Prince William and, most recently, fashion icon Naomi Campbell.
“Attitude is really excited to be working with OMD on our first ever partnership campaign with Quidco. We’re delighted that they have recognised the reach of the Attitude digital and social platforms. We are looking forward to delivering a successful campaign together, the first of many”.
Mike Buckley, Managing Director, Attitude Media Ltd.
‘”Quidco is always testing new ways to reach members and highlight the constantly evolving retailer offering on-site. We recognise the value in building deeper relationships through content that not only highlight our value proposition but also offers real value to the end readers”.
Nic Wenn, Chief Marketing Officer – Maple Syrup Media
“OMD is always seeking out strong partnerships to build value for our clients and innovate in the digital space. We are very excited to be working with Attitude Media”.
Colin Day, Head of Site Optimisation, OMD EMEA
In 2015 John Lewis and Age UK tackled the subject no one wanted to talk about, especially at Christmas – loneliness. In a ground-breaking partnership, Manning Gottlieb OMD activated the nation and inspired people to do good, helping the millions of older people who can go a month without talking to anyone, to have a Christmas they deserve.
“Did you see the John Lewis Christmas advert?”
John Lewis is an institution that over 150 years, has become one of the UK’s most loved and trusted retailer brands. A large part of this is down to the emotionally driven Christmas advertising. Their campaigns have had such an impact that the media have coined their ad launch, “The Start of Christmas”. The pressure’s on to raise the bar every year and make each John Lewis campaign more famous than the last.
The campaigns embody the spirit of Christmas, making people feel the warmth of family and the endearing spirit of thoughtful gifting. Unfortunately this isn’t the case for everyone, as 500,000 older people will spend Christmas day alone, a challenge Age UK know all too well. This year Manning Gottlieb wanted to use the emotional power of advertising, not just to make people feel good, but to also do good, whilst growing commercial success.
The Brand Idea
The idea was simple; to create not one, but two interlinked Christmas ads, each showing polar opposite views of the Christmas experience.
The first would launch our ‘feel-good’ story: a little girl looking through her telescope spies on an old man, living on his own on the moon. Her thoughtful Christmas gift is a telescope, sent by balloon, so he can see he’s not really alone. The tagline “Show someone they’re loved this Christmas” paved the way for a national charity partner: Age UK.
For Age UK, John Lewis made a second TV ad, showing the old man on the ‘Man On The Moon’ film set. As filming wraps up, he’s left alone and forgotten, to remind us of the problem of loneliness amongst the aged. This would become Manning Gottlieb’s call-to-action to activate the nation in support of older people at Christmas.
The Partnership Strategy
The desire was not simply to brand John Lewis’ campaign with a charity logo but to create a deeper, more emotionally resonant partnership. This idea required a true partnership strategy: integrating the creative, media and two brands into one cohesive campaign. This meant John Lewis could extend their traditional ‘feeling good at Christmas’ campaign into a true ‘doing good at Christmas’ campaign.
In return, Age UK would get the support and validation of one of the UK’s most loved brands, giving the public a new lens to see the importance of the work they do.
The John Lewis Christmas advert would be a catalyst for a wider campaign aimed at directing sentiment and action towards Age UK and ensuring that their message stayed centre stage. The second advert was designed to get people aware of and talking about the issue.
Making it happen
To ensure anticipation of the first ad, Manning Gottlieb created unbranded “#OnTheMoon” social accounts delivering a 10” teaser which started trending on Twitter before launch and trended no. 1 on Twitter, globally, only 40 minutes after launch. A joint-PR effort promoted the partnership, raising awareness of loneliness. The second ad was launched online across social and video channels to coincide with the second burst of activity.
In the week leading up to Christmas, the Age UK spot was broadcasted on TV, culminating in the marquee spot in the finale of Downton Abbey on ITV – the most-watched programme on Christmas Day. An impactful out-of-home campaign highlighted the scale of the issue and how people could help. Last but not least, John Lewis promoted the partnership across their social channels and in-store – every store ran a comprehensive fund-raising programme and Man On The Moon merchandise was sold with all profits going to Age UK.
Amazing results
- The campaign delivered a huge 38m online views for both ads, with the main ad topping the Google chart for most viewed ad on YouTube UK of 2015. This equates to over 835k hours of brand engagement!
- Manning Gottlieb helped drive 688k shares and 1,400 press articles, the most ever for a John Lewis campaign.
- People started to engage with Age UK too. On launch day, they received a donation every minute. They received an overwhelming 15,000 volunteer phone calls, 6x the number they get in a whole year.
- The impact has been so great that the UK Prime Minister’s office at Downing Street called to congratulate Age UK on the campaign and hosted a tea party for older people at Number 10!
- Finally, the campaign delivered £951m in sales, a 7% YoY increase, helping John Lewis have their biggest ever Christmas.
