A digital twist on bricks-and-mortar may require a new agency of record
Future Shop Canada is kicking off 2013 with an agency review.
Nikki Hellyer, the retailer’s Vancouver-based director of marketing, said only the creative portion of its account is up for review.
“It was time for us to see if we have the right partner to help us transform our business as we move forward,” she said.
Hellyer will be sending out a request for information this week, followed by a formal request for proposal mid-January. Cossette, which has handled the account from its Toronto office for approximately six years, has been invited to defend the account. (According to her LinkedIn profile, Hellyer was an account director at Cossette from 1999 to 2003.)
Citizen Optimum, a Cossette-affiliate company, won the public relations account in March 2012, while Media Experts handles the media business.
Aside from the standard checking of qualifications and potential conflicts, Hellyer said the RFI is meant to shake out any potential agencies that she may not know about. She expects about 10 agencies will qualify through the RFP process, and three to five will end up on the shortlist.
A winner is expected to be chosen by the end of March.
Future Shop is facing a number of challenges over the next few years as the retail industry goes through a transformation spurred by online shopping’s impact on bricks-and-mortar shopping. Showrooming – the practice of entering a store to price check items that are bought online later – is currently a big factor for U.S. retailers. Hellyer said her company is working to ensure that it doesn’t affect stores in Canada to the same extent.
“We don’t believe that showrooming exists here in the same way that it does in the U.S., and we have done some very strategic plays to make sure that it doesn’t become an issue for us,” said Hellyer. “We revamped our price-beat promise last year, so we actually price match all online competitors for the same products. We’ve launched a new concept store that integrates online into our store with iPad browsing stations, and we have trained our product experts in those stores differently to be able to sell online as well as sell within the stores.
“Finding the right partner to help us develop communications and programs against that is going to be key for us,” she said.
Hellyer declined to disclose her marketing budget, but said the company has a significant investment in a weekly flyer program. She said traditional media (television and radio) comprises around 25% to 30% of the budget and digital makes up another 20%.
“We need a partner that can be innovative and push us a little in the digital space, but we do also have some mass media vehicles that we can’t forget, so finding an agency that has a couple of different skill sets is very important,” said Hellyer.
