Brand
Argos
Brand owner
Home Retail Group
Media agency
Mindshare
Creative agency
CHI & Partners
The run-up to Christmas is the pinnacle of the marketing year, as clients launch heavyweight campaigns to cash in on consumers’ festive shopping sprees.
This year, Argos was the first major retailer to launch its Christmas campaign, kicking off its festive ads three weeks earlier than last year to steal a march on its rivals. An additional consideration may have been that people are spreading the costs of Christmas this year by starting to buy their presents early.
The activity continues the brand’s money-saving strategy, using the line Celebrate Christmas for less. The first ad to break – the 20- second Lists execution – launched on 18 October to promote the new Argos Christmas catalogue, which features 1,600 price-cuts and 200 half-price offers.
The main TV ad – the 50-second Together creative – launched on 23 October and continues the humorous take on Christmas.
Mindshare based its strategy on changing consumer behaviour in the recession: the move away from accumulating consumer goods towards realising the importance of family relationships.
Since the ad first aired, the public’s perceptions of the Argos brand have improved, with an impressive uplift across all measures.
At the beginning of October, Argos had an index score of +24, and its buzz, recommend and satisfaction scores sat at +12, +31 and +33 respectively.
By 20 October, the brand’s buzz score was +24, while the index score for the brand reached +31 by 2 November – an increase of seven points in two weeks.
The increase in the brand’s overall index rating was driven by the uplift in its satisfaction scores, which climbed 17 points over the same period to reach +50, and by its recommend scores, which rose 11 points to hit +42.
As Christmas inches ever closer, early signs suggest it will be a very merry one for Argos.
By Richard Wood
www.brandindex.co.uk