Nordstrom’s new U.S.-only campaign from DDB Canada has a lot of sole.
The high-end retailer is in the midst of testing its “Shoes That Move You” campaign that includes two 30-second videos, out-of-home and print.
The effort, which is currently only running in Denver and San Diego until mid November, marries the excitement of special childhood moments to the joy of finding the perfect shoe.
In one spot, viewers see a little girl’s excitement at receiving the biggest piece of birthday cake at a party, and as an adult opening a Nordstrom shoe box and “finding something even sweeter.”
While the retailer often focuses on specific products with its advertising, shoes are of particular importance. “Shoes are part of our heritage. We started as a shoe store 100 years ago and it really is engrained in the Nordstrom DNA, and it’s what a lot of our customers really know us for,” Kristen Lamey, vice-president of marketing at Nordstrom, told Marketing.
After the test period, the retailer will decide if tweaks need to be made and determine how to best move forward, said Lamey. OMG Chicago handled media planning and buying for the campaign.
“The campaign connects the emotions that we associate with shoes and the emotions experienced in childhood, a time when simple events possessed an almost magical quality,” said Cosmo Campbell, executive creative director at DDB Canada, in a release.
“Finding the perfect pair of shoes instills a similar delight of boundless possibilities and that is Nordstrom’s calling card,” he added.
DDB Canada was named Nordstrom Canada’s agency or record in September 2013, following a competitive review that included two other unnamed agencies.
DDB Canada’s Vancouver and Toronto offices have been working hard over the last year getting to know the brand and have developed and launched the retailer’s first campaign for the Canadian market, says Lamey.
In support of Nordstrom Canada’s first Canadian location, which opens this Friday in Calgary’s Chinook Centre, the retailer introduced the “Calgary we Like Your Style” campaign in Sept. 1.
The effort features shots of 14 fashionable Calgarians from all walks of life captured by famed Canadian photographer Tommy Ton.
“We’ve been working with [DDB Canada] for over the last year and loved what they were doing for Calgary, so we decided to partner with them [on] the ‘Shoes That Move You’ campaign,” said Lamey. “We feel they really get Nordstrom and chose them for that reason.”
Rather than work with an agency of record in the U.S., Nordstrom prefers to partner with a short list of agencies on a project basis, said Lamey.
“We really do like to work with a small list of agencies that we feel really understand Nordstrom,” she said. “We feel that’s when the partnership works best.” A great deal of the work is also developed in-house, she added.
The retailer announced a year ago that it is opening stores in Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary and Vancouver starting in the fall of 2014.
The tentative timeline for the stores opening is spring 2015 in Ottawa, fall 2015 in Vancouver and fall 2016 in Toronto.
