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Communications

Boots Brand & Communications Christmas Campaign

A Christmas reboot for Boots

Make them feel good again

With Christmas coming, and no Communications Director in place, Flintlock Marketing was parachuted in to interim manage the 35-strong Boots Brand & Communications department to lead on all its creative and media output in this critical retail period.

After five years of sluggish reception to its festive campaigns, business and growth forecasts had become misaligned. A step-change in direction was needed. It was clear to us that the Boots brand had to feel good for its customers again.

With a gift that shows you know them

Working inside the group headquarters, we were available to support, and partner with creative agencies. First with Mediacom, we interrogated the media plan for efficiency, then pinpointed where the brand crossed-over into its customers’ orbits. It formed the spark of where and how we would create the campaign.

In response, we co-developed the new Christmas campaign with Ogilvy. It put the customer at its heart. Told through the eyes of a young woman giving an unexpectedly heartfelt Christmas gift to her mother, the campaign brought powerful insight to giving people gifts that show you know them.

To bring some Christmas cheer

Innovative use of the Christmas budget bought TV advertising, print and social media, plus identified and placed inspirational sponsorship with the X-Factor. An approach that added considerable value, with sponsorship also adopted into strategy for later campaigns.

The results were exceptional. Boots was a top ten Christmas advert that year, voted into 4th place, over John Lewis, Tesco & Aldi, for most positive reaction*. Engagement lifted 84% when the first TV ad went live. Creative and media quality dramatically increased ROI. Share turnaround was up to 0.4% at the Christmas retail peak for the first time in five years.

*compiled from data by 4C and featured in Mail Online.

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Engagement increase
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Painting a clear picture with Dulux Decorator Centre

Let’s create a spark together