|
Bluenotes is talking on television for the first time in four years; its new “If jeans could talk” branding campaign from MacLaren McCann aims to change consumers impressions of the store with lifestyle- and fashion-focused ads.
The national campaign breaks Sunday with 15- and 30- second ads, the company’s first since 2004 when it ran a two-week holiday ad exclusively on MuchMusic.
The ads show twentysomethings telling stories about the jeans they wore during major life events such as traveling abroad, kissing the hottest girl in school and touring with a band.
With the growth of new competitors like Joe Fresh in the retail clothing market, the time was right for a brand facelift, said Rachel Fox, vice-president and group account director at MacLaren McCann. The campaign is based on MacLaren’s research from earlier this year that evaluated Bluenotes’ brand status among consumers.
“It confirmed that they have a very strong position within the denim world and that consumers found them to be a reliable resource,” said Fox. “Also, that they were a safe choice, a wholesome, unpretentious brand.”
The goal of the new campaign is for Bluenotes to “own” denim in Canada using a fashion-as-lifestyle approach, she said.
“Everyone has experienced life in their jeans… Everyone has a favourite pair of jeans because of their experiences.”
Bluenotes, a division of the Toronto-based YM Inc. (which also owns Suzy Shier, Urban Planet and Stitches stores) teamed with MacLaren in January after years of handling its marketing internally. Much of that marketing has focused on in-store promotion. There will be a major in-store element of the new campaign as well, appearing in all 125 national locations on Sunday. Like the TV spots, it will be mostly black and white ads with colour used to highlight the denim products.
“[Black and white] signals change for the store,” said Fox. “Traditionally, their work has been very colourful. We wanted to try something different…it’s a nice way to highlight denim.”
Consumers will also be driven to a revamped company website at blnts.com by in-store postcards, asking customers to post their own stories for a chance to win a $5,000 gift certificate.
The campaign will include outdoor, washroom and online advertising.
“It’s a much bigger position, a big departure from where we’ve been,” said Michael Roden, executive vice-president and COO of Bluenotes. “It’s more image marketing, kind of a hip and cool approach to Bluenotes as a brand…It wasn’t ‘Let’s have a great back-to-school season, and call it a day.’ There could be a sequence of follow-ups when we come to the holiday season. There’s life in [the campaign] that we can take further.”
