‘The Showroom’ campaign by Drum OMG won Gold in Experiential Collaboration at The Drum Awards, transforming Tu’s image from a functional to a fashionable brand by partnering with Elle for a mysterious pop-up store, ultimately shifting perceptions and boosting purchase intent.
In challenging market conditions, Tu was struggling to make shoppers part with their hard-earned cash. The problem was that the brand wasn’t seen as either fashionable enough or good enough value for money, with Tu at least three points behind the competition average on statements around value and fashionable clothing.
Our Style Savvy target audience were thinking of Tu for function not style; whilst they may use Tu to pick up some basics or kidswear, they were not going there for key pieces in their wardrobes. They simply didn’t realize that Tu had carefully curated collections of fashionable womenswear on offer, and as a result Tu was losing out. We needed to change this.
Our audience wanted to look good, but they were increasingly being constrained by their finances. The outcome was that they were turning to fast fashion brands in order to buy cheaper but more often. However, the audience was becoming increasingly aware that the quality and fits of these clothes were failing them.
In contrast, we discovered that those who had found Tu were huge advocates of the brand’s style and quality. As people found the brand, they were often displaying surprise at just how much a supermarket brand had to offer. The issue was that, as a result of Tu’s placement in Sainsbury’s, most of our audience wasn’t looking at them in the first place.
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The shopping environment plays a hugely important role in our perception of fashion. Unfortunately for Tu, living in the aisles of a supermarket had created preconceptions about the brand’s offering that were damaging its potential. Whilst people were going to Tu for functional items, they were failing to see the great quality and stylish women’s clothing that Tu has to offer. We needed to overcome this barrier.
In order to change people’s perceptions, we decided to remove all of the unhelpful noise around the clothes and get people to focus on their intrinsic style and quality instead.
Taking Tu out of the aisles of Sainsbury’s, we put the brand shoulder-to-shoulder with high-end fashion brands by creating ‘The Showroom,’ an exclusive pop-up store in Soho.
However, we couldn’t do it alone. It was key we did this with an authoritative voice – one who already had the attention of our audience – if we were going to get them to listen, so we partnered with go-to fashion tastemaker Elle to create a high-end shopping experience worthy of Tu’s chic womenswear. The pop-up centered around a capsule collection of modern, elegant womenswear essentials from Tu, curated by Elle’s own Shopping Editor, Grace Clarke.
The twist? We didn’t tell anyone it was Tu. Initially presented with no branding or labels before revealing that the clothes were all from Tu, we upended people’s preconceptions and showed them that Tu has a range of chic womenswear for every occasion.
In order to focus on the intrinsic value of the clothing, we had to keep our secret at the start. Elle teased the event in advance to drive interest, letting their audience know that they were partnering with a mysterious brand for the pop-up. Close-up crops of items in the assets ensured nothing was given away.
The brand behind the clothing remained a mystery for the first day of the pop-up. Visitors were greeted by signage that read ‘The Showroom: Elle x Who?’ whilst the clothes were all displayed without any labels or branding. This meant that first impressions were all focused on the style and quality of the clothes, on their own merit.
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Working closely with Elle, we invited a range of influencers down to the event along with Elle readers. Visitors could get up close and personal with the clothes whilst enjoying a coffee or taking photos in a photo booth. The first day was capped off with a special evening event, featuring a panel discussion.
The event climaxed with a live reveal of Tu as the brand behind the collection. On departure, visitors to The Showroom were gifted a note from Elle’s Editor about the store’s concept, along with a subscription to Elle and a voucher for Tu.
Once the secret had been revealed, the signage on the shop was replaced and we shared the news through editorial and social content. With Tu branding proudly in place, people could browse the collection in the chic, upmarket environment.
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We set out to change perceptions of Tu’s clothing from functional to fashionable, and the results of the campaign were exceptional. Not only had we made people re-think what they thought they knew about the brand’s clothes, we also brought people considerably closer to the brand.
We saw really significant uplifts in key brand image statements that showed we had successfully changed people’s perceptions of the brand. Amongst those who had been exposed to the event content, we saw increases of over 20 ppts across a range of statements about quality, style, and desirability. 87% agreed that Tu ‘has the latest trends and style’ (a 38 ppt increase), whilst 81% agreed that Tu is ‘a brand for someone like me’ (a 31 ppt increase).
Importantly, these perception shifts actually drove intent too. A 14 ppts increase in favorability contributed to driving an 11 ppts increase in consideration and a huge 29 ppts increase in purchase intent. This increased interest was evident in the direction actions taken after seeing the campaign, with 46% searching out more from the brand and 44% talking to a friend or family member about it.
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