John Lewis Fashion on the Front Row

Executive summary

Through the brave use of a content partnership with a trusted newsbrand, the Guardian, John Lewis became a credible authority in fashion. By the end of the campaign we increased opinion of our fashion credentials by over a third; our videos were viewed 44% more than the Guardian’s own videos and delivered a positive ROI.

Background & objectives

• Not just for mother of the bride

John Lewis fashion has previously been perceived as out of date, mumsy and only for occasionwear. However with brands including Whistles, Reiss, French Connection and the exclusive Somerset by Alice Temperley, John Lewis had the permission to position themselves as a key fashion authority.

• Having a point of view: “The Edit”

The product offered had improved to such a degree that in AW 2013 we launched “The Edit”, a new ATL way of communicating the brand’s opinion and expertise by showcasing a monthly fashion trend. This meant our activity could be less seasonal and more relevant to how customers were actually shopping.

A key part of this campaign was to educate our audience not just on what the latest trends are, but how to actually recreate them with the extensive John Lewis range. To do this we needed to create credible and informative content that went further than our owned channels. We needed to find a media partner to help us to create this content but also to get it viewed by our key audiences.

• Identifying a new audience

John Lewis had also just completed their largest ever customer research and identified a new key target demographic, “Time-short Urbanites”. This group are different from the traditional John Lewis customer; they are much younger, status conscious and tech savvy. A perfect match for the fashion category! However this audience are much harder to reach through traditional media preferring digital channels in particular online video and social media.

Therefore it was clear we had three key objectives:

1. Modernise the brand 2. Position John Lewis as a fashion authority 3. Appeal to a younger, more urban audience

Insight

• Newsbrands provide trust & loyalty

To modernise the brand we needed to align ourselves with an already established and trusted fashion authority, this is where we looked to newsbrands. We wanted a reputable brand with a loyal audience that we could engage with on a regular basis across multiple touch points.

The Guardian is a key title for Time-Short Urbanites (TGI index 127) and offers solid figures across all its channels – print, digital, tablet. They have a proven track record of creating world class content and have access to key figures in the fashion industry.

• Editorially led video content

Our vision for this was a truly integrated, editorial content partnership. There would be elements of press, but the majority of content would sit online, in video format. Videos would be a perfect way to engage this younger digitally savvy audience and provide them with content they could share socially.

To take the partnership further, we decided to take the content beyond womenswear. There is a huge appetite for beauty content online so we knew this would be a great way to engage our audience further. We had also seen a huge growth in interest around men’s fashion with growing popularity around events such as London Collections Men. As a category, we had not really promoted our menswear offering in the past so this gave us a perfect way to test interest.

• Accessing top talent

For the partnership the Guardian gave us unprecedented access to their top talent:

o Womenswear: Jess Cartner-Morley, fashion editor

o Menswear: David Hellqvist, uber cool fashion writer & online editor of Port Magazine

o Beauty: Sali Hughes, cult beauty columnist

The partnership was split between new and established content strands.

“How to Dress” by Jess Cartner-Morley was an already established weekly video where Jess outlined a trend, picked out key pieces within the trend and explained how to wear them. These videos were already a hit with the Guardian audience achieving an average of 17k views per video, so we took this format and subtly weaved John Lewis products within it.

We then launched “Fashion Fix”, menswear advice videos where David helped men dress for different social situations, and “Beauty Tips” with Sali.

• Pushing the boundaries

John Lewis have run many partnerships and advertorials before, but they have always remained very much in control of the final look. Every word, every image, every product, has been through multiple rounds of internal sign-off, with everyone from marketing, buying, and suppliers weighing in.

However to make this truly native and authentic content, the Guardian had complete editorial control and they were not instructed on what products they had to feature but selected their own choices from across the John Lewis range. The videos remained an editorial property, but all products featured were available to buy at John Lewis, demonstrating the breadth of the franchise and exclusive own brand offerings. This was a brave move from the fashion team and despite some early reluctance this freedom allowed the Guardian to produce some outstanding content.

The Plan

Our three month package comprised:

• 10 x Womenswear “How to Dress” videos • 3 x Menswear “Fashion Fix” videos • 3 x “Beauty Tips” videos • 6 x Menswear print advertorials • 6 x Menswear iPad advertorials • Digital traffic drivers, sponsored feature links and roadblocks around all our fashion

content

Total of 12m digital impressions and 1m print circulation!

Results

In total the videos received a staggering 392,949 views across the campaign and the campaign reached a total of 166,484 unique users.

The average Guardian video views is 17,000, we outperformed this with an average of 24,559 views for the John Lewis videos, a +44% increase on the benchmark.

The partnership delivered on all three of our key objectives:

1. Modernise the brand

Guardian Brand Aid research showed a 29% increase in consideration of John Lewis as a “destination for fashion” (40% pre: 69% post). This research also showed a 20% increase in people that would consider shopping at John Lewis for “the latest fashion and beauty trends” (40% pre: 60% post).

2. Position John Lewis as a fashion authority

Brand Aid research showed a 32% increase in people who agreed that the fashion and beauty range at John Lewis is “more fashionable now than ever before” (20% pre: 52% post)

3. Appeal to a younger, more urban audience

The men’s videos proved to be a hit with users, despite being an unknown offering from the Guardian. “How to Dress for a Date” was the highest watched of all the videos, with just short of 50k views! This proven interest led to John Lewis launching their largest ever menswear campaign in A/W 2014.

Client view

With such a strong performance the response from all sides has been highly positive:

Mike Tait – Guardian head of multimedia:

“This was a territory that we had never entered before with a commercial partner. The Guardian's requirements for complete transparency with our users and editorial independence meant that we had to have John Lewis trust us to create content that we know our audience will engage with.”

Emma Colthorpe – head of fashion marketing at John Lewis:

“This has been a fantastic partnership, we have been overwhelmed by the response both internally from suppliers but also from the customers. It took a big leap of faith from us as a brand to hand over the reins to the Guardian but we also knew we needed their authenticity and authority to showcase how our fashion credentials have changed beyond recognition.”