Pablo's first work for furniture retailer DFS airs today (13 December). The campaign is the opening iteration of the new DFS brand platform created by Pablo, after the agency won the £64.4m account in April this year.
The platform, which asks viewers "What's your thing?", is designed to emphasise and celebrate differences in individual taste and style, with a promise that DFS will help consumers find their "thing".
As well as brief cameo appearances from The Addams Family's "Thing", the creative features a wide variety of families and individuals in home settings, each with a key "thing" that translates directly to their choice of sofa.
Mark Sng, partner and chief strategy officer at Pablo, said: "During 2020, DFS online sales grew by 76%. It was a reminder that while DFS stores are hugely important, there is a world beyond the stores where people spend a lot of the purchase journey.
"The ambition is to create a brand that will come alive in these places. The new brand platform aims to shift perceptions of DFS from just being the sofa experts – which they are – to being a brand that's actively helping its customers make choices that are right for them."
The campaign, which includes a 60-second spot, will run across YouTube, Spotify, digital display, digital out of home and print into 2022.
Devised by a Pablo team led by Dan Watts, executive creative director, and creative directors Chris Bovill and John Allison, the work was created through Drool Productions.
James Brewer, digital and brand director at DFS, said: "The new brand platform is based on a truth at the heart of the DFS business: we have the biggest range of sofas as well as expert staff committed to helping you find what's right for you.
"By encouraging a two-way dialogue with our customers across our comms, store and digital experience, we can help them feel comfortable and more confident in their choices, and help the whole nation 'find their thing'."
Pablo London has been an agency in the ascendant for the past few years. An independent shop with billings of £15m in 2020 (up 39% on the previous year), according to Nielsen, and a staff of 62, it replaced Krow Communications, which had held the DFS business since 2011.
Although the smallest of the agencies on the DFS shortlist, it beat Bartle Bogle Hegarty and VCCP in the final round of the review, which was managed by AAR. Krow and Publicis.Poke had also pitched at an earlier stage.
Krow's work for the brand had included a string of distinctive animated films produced by stop-motion experts Aardman, featuring characters including Wallace and Gromit. It was an IPA Gold-winning campaign that delivered an estimated £109m of incremental sales over six years and a 64% increase in profit.
In a category often defined by "the sale", DFS wanted to "really tap into the idea of the sofa as a very emotional piece of furniture that represents how you live and who you are", Watts said. "It's one of the most expensive, considered things you'll purchase for your home. This requires more of a brand point of view that DFS can activate."
With more than 120 stores across the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands and Spain, DFS employs more than 4,000 people. It is among the UK's biggest advertisers, ranked 12th by Nielsen, with a spend of £64.4m.
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