M&S launches first TV ad for ‘killer’ denim category

Marks & Spencer (M&S) is launching its first standalone TV ad for its biggest product category, denim, as the challenged retailer ramps up its marketing investment in “killer” clothing categories such as knitwear, sleepwear and denim.

‘Start a Denim Love Affair’ is the third marketing campaign for M&S Denim in less than a year but with double the marketing investment and double the buy of product to support the addition of a TV ad.

It is also the retailer’s first campaign for several years outside Christmas to spotlight womenswear, menswear and kidswear together. M&S launched its first standalone menswear campaign last October.

The TV ad, created by ODD, features 15 dancers showing off M&S’s best denim products to Donna Summers’s ‘I Feel Love’. M&S says it follows strong customer feedback that the dancing in its ‘Go Jumpers‘ Christmas campaign helped customers engage with the brand.

To coincide with Valentine’s Day and reinforce the message around encouraging people to fall in love with denim, M&S will show the TV ad in love-themed shows including Love Island, Love it or List it and First Dates.

Specifically targeting the family-aged customer during February half-term, the retailer will show a specially created version of the TV ad in the cinema with focus on key family releases such as Dolittle.

The campaign will also include billboards, print and social media, with 97% of M&S’s target customers expected to see the campaign on average 13 times. M&S says digital content will be more personalised than before.

“Denim is a real killer category for us and that means it should be backed with a killer marketing campaign,” says M&S’s clothing and home director, Nathan Ansell.

“The upbeat and optimistic creative aims to help make us front of mind with our target-customer with an unmissable campaign. Valentine’s Day is traditionally known as a time for flowers and chocolates but who doesn’t fall in love with a pair of great fitting jeans?”