krow scoops Gold IPA Effectiveness Award for DFS

krow, with MediaCom UK, last night scooped a Gold at the IPA Effectiveness Awards 2018 at Hilton London, Park Lane for our work for DFS, the largest retailer in the living room furniture market.

The longstanding marketing and advertising communications approach we’ve taken has seen the brand evolve from a value brand to a brand that people really value.

Having worked with the retailer for six years, we have devised a marcomms journey which has dramatically improved the effectiveness and the profitability of the brand’s advertising – resulting in a 64% increase in profit ROI.

The overall aim has been to broaden DFS’ appeal beyond those focused on price and discount, whilst also improving the efficiency and effectiveness of advertising spend.

Changes to the detail of how DFS communicated sales and promotions effectively rewired consumers’ mental and emotional associations with the brand and what it had to offer – we devised a surprising partnership between DFS and Britain’s most loved sporting brand, Team GB, to help amplify appreciation for and improve DFS’ reputation as a credible, quality British brand.

And for the last two years, working with Aardman Animations created a new style of advertising that had at its heart the idea to showcase the expertise, enthusiasm and likeability of the DFS workforce through the medium of upholstered people.

“DFS is a team of hard-working people who care about the quality of the products they hand-make and the comfort they bring to your home. Together we have managed to emotionally prime people to be more pre-disposed to the brand based on valuing what it has to offer rather than just seeing discounts and price tags” said Founder, John Quarrey.

The work goes to show how effective advertising can lead to a far deeper emotional connection with brands, improving both short and long term performance.

“By turning DFS from being perceived as ‘just’ a value brand into a brand that people value, and we have created significant value for the DFS business,” added John Quarrey.

Nick Ashworth, Marketing Director at DFS said: “We are utterly delighted to win such a prestigious award which is testament to the hard work and commitment of the marketing team and our very close agency partners to balancing business objectives with building consumer closeness for brand success”.