Fashion is back in the spotlight as Taxi explores women’s “real lives”
Reitmans has launched a new ad campaign around its new brand signature, “Fits your beautiful.”
The 15-second spots from Taxi feature friends talking about where they would wear Reitmans clothing, starting with a conventional suggestion (like a birthday party) and following with a bold second one (like motorcycle riding or playing guitar onstage at a rock show).
These dream-like second sequences were meant to reflect the fact that “real women, as people like to call them, still have an inner life,” said Stéphanie Bleau, vice-president of marketing at Reitmans. “Also, it’s kind of a statement against cookie-cutter categories that we put people into. I heard a lot of people calling our customers soccer moms – and I myself have been called that – and nobody likes to be described by a cliché.”
The ads are trying to break that box by showing that every woman is unique and “has a life,” Bleau said. Reitmans is hoping they will also attract a customers looking for more fashion-forward pieces.
The campaign will run across Canada on conventional and specialty TV, with a reach “in the 90% range,” Bleau says. It’s also on the web through YouTube, video pre-rolls and companion banners, and in a billboard campaign in six markets.
Touche! is Reitmans media-buying partner.
They fashion retailer is also promoting the campaign on their windows, which Bleau said they treat as a kind of media. The windows feature a decal that showcases a hero product, like a moto jacket, in a traditional way, and encircles a peephole. When customers look into the peephole, they see a woman riding on a motorcycle or another dream sequence.
The campaign evolved out of the popular “Designed for Real Life” messaging that ran for seven years. While those ads poked fun at high fashion with spokespeople Armand and Albert witnessing haute-fashion disasters, this campaign “is less of a knee-slapper,” said Bleau. “We used to put the humour first… This time we’ve put the fashion first.
“We started shifting a little bit about two years, moving the brand along, giving it a refresh, and bringing more fashion in,” said Jeannie Vondjidis, director of strategic planning at Taxi.
Vondjidis said the feedback from consumers was crucial to the new signature. “One of the things they love about the brand is that it understands women, that it recognizes that we’re not all these perfect model shapes, but that we look great… It talks to the women; it’s not about the company. It’s a complement to them.”
The TV spots are meant to emphasize the feeling that Reitmans is inclusive, she says, pointing out that they’ve gotten feedback that people who have drifted away from the brand have returned to it after seeing the new spots.
