In a world saturated with data, marketers have never had more tools to target, optimise, and measure campaigns. But numbers alone can’t win hearts or inspire action – storytelling can.
Havas Media perfectly combined data with compelling storytelling that took the audience on a journey and cemented Matalan's market position in a challenging retail landscape. The campaign, which generated £1.6m iRevenue, took home Best Use of Data & Signals at the first-ever Meta Agency Awards, in partnership with ±±¾©Èü³µpk10 and Performance Marketing World.
Here’s how Havas and Matalan did it.
The partnership: campaign background
A popular retailer with value at heart, Matalan offers affordable fashion and homeware with a focus on family. However, the complex economic landscape of the last few years has impacted value retailers, with the level of inflation faced by families presenting a barrier to growth.
However, We Are Social and Statista Q found that 63% of UK consumers pay more attention to bargains, good deals, or offers when shopping as a result of the cost-of-living crisis. This means there are opportunities for value retailers to expand their customer bases and strengthen market positions.
This was the ultimate aim of the campaign, with Havas working to showcase the value of Matalan's extensive product line across multiple categories to its core audience and expand reach.
The approach: campaign execution
Havas and Matalan implemented a full-funnel set-up to cover every stage of the customer journey. Using Meta’s Conversion API (CAPI) to integrate all data systems, Havas validated incremental results on conversions and ROAS, and boosted brand awareness and search interest in Matalan’s product catalogue.
The agency leveraged Meta's Advanced+ shopping feature, enabling Matalan to reach valuable audiences more efficiently than manual sales campaigns, with the feature requiring fewer inputs during the campaign creation. The result? It was Matalan's best-performing campaign.
Matalan also expanded its reach after strategically adding a significant increase in investment towards discovery campaigns.
The results: campaign success
The simplified account set-up resulted in great scores across all campaign elements:
- 1.43x lift in conversions
- £1.6M iRevenue generated in the conversion lift study
- 10pts lift action intent and 4.2pts in brand awareness
- +60% of add to cart and product view through CAPI
- +30% purchase volume through CAPI
“Massive congratulations to our Manchester team who worked with Matalan on this, the culmination of a year’s hard work,” said Dan Lipman, head of paid social at Havas Media Network. “We’ve got a big team which is constantly pushed to innovate and try new things and this award is recognition of that.”
The awards judges said:
“This entry tells a compelling story of transformation for Matalan, a value-focused retailer navigating economic challenges. By integrating Conversion API it significantly boosted conversions and ROAS.
“The campaign's narrative is one of resilience and innovation, showcasing how strategic simplification and advanced technology can turn economic adversity into opportunity, ultimately reinforcing Matalan's market position and delivering impressive results.”