A winning formula

THE RESPONSE

The agency was able to lean on the fashion credentials and contacts of Hearst media brands like Elle, Cosmopolitan and Red who had the expertise and bulging contacts books to produce complex campaigns with high production values.

As a business, Hearst drives the agenda on sustainability, diversity and inclusivity within its own brands and could draw from this experience to create content that would appeal to a diverse set of customers. 

The Agency worked together with George during each campaign’s briefing process to learn from previous campaign activity. We also reviewed competitor activity in totality – which channels they were investing in, the messaging, pricing, partnerships and celebrity endorsements, influencer programmes, themes - to gauge an extensive understanding of their strategies and how these plugged in to the wider market trends and customer behaviours to ensure any content proposed had relevance to the customer.

HCA’s dedicated George team provided a creative response to each brief in a two-step present-back process. The George team were responsible for the overarching strategy and idea for the campaign, managing and producing each shoot, amplifying content and acting as brand guardians for each campaign. Every element of the process from sourcing industry-leading photographers, lighting, props, location and models was driven by the Agency team. Alongside the visual creative, we also led the overall narrative and editorial, creating the ‘We are George’ construct which has been used across campaigns since 2018.

Given the extent of the media channels, we operated a ‘create once, publish everywhere’ approach to maximise costs efficiencies and brand consistency. In addition, we work closely with the other agencies on George’s roster, working to complex critical paths.

Campaign assets are created for and used across TV, Cinema, Press, In-store magazine editorial, Social, Web, Video, Radio, DOOH and POS according to each media campaign. Campaign content is shot with purpose and each asset works across the specific channels with rationale and relevance. Content is amplified by paid support online. In addition, HCA has organised influencer campaigns with the likes of Lorna Luxe, Chloe Lewis of TOWIE fame, Laura Cranr and Kaz Crossley.

THE RESULTS

HCA’s creative approach has been incredibly effective when measured both against the market and commercial plan. The ‘We are’ construct has improved brand recall and the diverse representation has also been very well received. The first summer TV ad created by HCA in 2018 led to the fastest-selling woman's range ever, with customers agreeing  ‘I would definitely shop in-store or online as a result of seeing this advertising’.

Each campaign varies in performance but drilling down into one - the AW18 campaign – there are some amazing stats. TV ads delivered a strong ROI, up 76% period on period. The hero lines featured exceeded budget by 25% and increased sales per square foot by 31%.

One of the key metrics – to increase conversion of ASDA shoppers – was also met. Period on period, George sales accounted for a +1.25% in terms of share between the overall product lines with ASDA.

Comparing performance against the market, this campaign placed George in second place for share of voice in the market, behind only M&S, and it led to growth in terms of both value and volume product sold.