The Background
2022 was the biggest year in The Very Group’s 40-year history in Ireland. Littlewoods Ireland was rebranding to Very to integrate with their UK brand, Very.co.uk. It was a daunting task to go from a well-established, multicategory online retailer with 78% awareness in the market to being an unfamiliar brand.
This campaign was on the Shortlist for Best Tactical Use of TV at the TAMI Awards 2023
The Challenge
Following the rebrand from Littlewoods Ireland in July 2022, Dentsu needed to focus on driving mass awareness of the Very brand.With such high sales in 2021, a very competitive retail market, and cost-of-living crisis, there was more pressure than ever to remain top of mind for customers and deliver sales targets. Being an online only retailer, Very.ie don’t have any store fronts to capture people’s attention, so Dentsu needed to make sure that they used media to remain top of mind and to drive sales.
Littlewoods Ireland (LWI) needed to focus on maintaining and migrating their existing customers, whilst building their brand metrics to LWI levels and beyond for the new brand Very. Devising the strategy, planning, and executing the campaign that would support the successful transition from Littlewoods Ireland to Very would require a full team and multiagency approach.
From an AV Perspective, Dentsu had two main objectives, drive Spontaneous Awareness & Consideration. As well as this, they also wanted to maximise SOV, drive brand reappraisal, strengthening brand relevancy and appeal & driving engagement at scale
The Strategy
The rebrand strategy was not a flash in the pan style approach. This brand campaign needed to introduce the Very brand and set it up for continued success in Ireland.
In the absence of on-ground stores, media was needed to work to drive brand visibility, TOM recall, ultimately driving sales.
Dentsu engaged with the client and all areas of the business to ensure the strategy was well informed, incorporating both theory and best practice case studies.
Boldly shouting out that ‘LWI was now Very’ was key to transferring the goodwill from one brand to the next. Dentsu did this through a fully integrated (TV/OOH/Radio/VOD/YouTube, digital display/paid social) campaign, planned with a focus on reach and frequency. Customer communications mirrored the campaign messaging to ensure consistency. TV was seen as the best medium to drive the reach and frequency and was integral to the media mix.
The Plan
The AV execution was backed by competitive and market place analysis, ensuring Dentsu were maximising SOV as well as driving awareness and strengthening brand awareness. The pink creative stood out across all channels and literally allowed Dentsu to
paint the town pink for launch.
They created buzz in a relevant way by:
1. Launching the AV element of the campaign with a spot buy in the All Ireland Senior Hurling Final as well as supporting the Linear TV campaign launch with both TV & VOD packages in Love Island to ensure they were driving reach & awareness from the outset.
2. Sponsorship of Irish events: In their 6th year sponsoring the Hurling Championship, Very.ie launched to the crowds at Croke Park on All-Ireland Sunday. Very.ie secured title sponsor of Ladies Day at the Dublin Horse Show, the most high profile event in the Irish fashion calendar, with heavy TV activity and spot buys around the events.
3. Our campaign went far beyond a standard marketing campaign, it involved a full refresh of every element, whether visible or invisible to the customer. From the delivery bag that arrived at doors to implementing strategic 301 redirects across thousands of URLs to protect organic & direct traffic, Dentsu managed it all.
The Results
- Very’s prompted awareness rose +20 percentage points from 34% to 54%.
- Spontaneous awareness rose +12 percentage points from 2% to 14%, overachieving the 6-month target by 4%.
- ‘They offer a choice of ways to pay’ SURPASSING LWI levels at 63% vs. 58%. Our credit offering is our USP as a business, landing this differentiating message is of the utmost importance.
- Very Ladies Day at the Dublin Horse Show landed 28 pieces of earned media (+8 on KPI), amounting to 38.2m in reach, with over 70 pieces of social coverage from our VIP’s, a record number of entries to the Very Best Dressed contest .
- The customer base trading rate is strong since rebranding, with a return rate of +13.4% YOY.
It is easy to get wrapped up in the excitement and opportunity of a rebrand however it is quite daunting to look at the potential risk it posed to the business. It’s widely acknowledged at senior levels that the rebrand was managed exceptionally well by our team reinforcing the value and credibility of marketing as a discipline throughout our business. We are particularly proud of achieving all of these results despite a challenging budget (low 6 figure).”
Catherine O’Toole, The Very Group
Credits
Brand:
Very.ie
Media Agency:
Dentsu
Award:
TAMI Awards Shortlist: Best Tactical Use of TV 2023