Marks & Spencer launches digital-first Must-Haves campaign

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Sep 4, 2018

M&S is launching its most digital marketing campaign to-date with the Must-Haves campaign designed to be “inspirational”  as it supports the retailer’s Clothing & Home offer across online, mobile and in-store.

The focus is on digital channels including Video on demand (VOD), Google Advertising and Instagram as the Clothing & Home marketing team promotes the “must-have wardrobe essentials for the coming season” across Womenswear, Menswear, Kidswear, Home and Beauty. 

Must-Haves is launching with a “high-impact execution across multiple channels including national press and digital out-of-home.”

Given the turnaround process that the company is currently going through, this is clearly an important move for M&S. But it’s also important because it’s the first major Clothing & Home campaign following the restructure of the retailer’s marketing function. We’re told that it represents “the start of a new conversation with customers about M&S Clothing & Home products, one that is more seasonally relevant, more inspirational and more agile in utilising digital channels to target customers.” 

The company said that the Marketing team is using digital channels to help achieve the Clothing & Home business’s aims of sourcing one-third of sales online and achieving a “growing customer share of busy mums and dads.” 

As a result, its TV advertising will be exclusively through video on demand services, “allowing more effective customer targeting," and M&S is using Google Inventory Advertising “so customers can easily search what is in a local store when they’re nearby.”

Following the retailer's “success” as one of the first retailers to use Shoppable Instagram, the team “will continue to develop this channel through the campaign, using the highly popular channel to highlight Must-Have products – from the Must-Have satin blouse to the Must-Have checked blazer,” it said. The campaign will also use Shoppable Facebook with inspirational videos and clear links for customers to purchase.

Nathan Ansell, Clothing & Home Marketing Director, said: “M&S is using new ways of engaging with our customers and the digital focus with Must-Haves is the result of customer insight, collaboration across our business and creative thinking. Must-Haves is all about product and is designed to show M&S as a stylish and affordable choice for high-quality, seasonal wardrobe essentials.”

The company also said that the campaign will “touch every element of the M&S Clothing & Home experience” and is supported by wider changes this autumn, including better optimisation of online product pages for mobile, and clearer navigation in store. 

M&S’s marketing team has separated visual merchandising into a specialist team "to ensure the most inspirational experience in-store for customers and the result of this will be evident in how the campaign is laid out in shops.”