Following Tesco’s ‘Quality Apples’ and ‘F&F’ high performing cinema campaigns, further leading retailers are choosing the big screen this festive season including River Island and Ikea.
The advent of digital cinema has unleashed a more flexible and versatile medium meaning retailers can book and schedule media by the day instead of by the week. This lends itself particularly well to retail advertisers that wish to target customers at weekends on the busiest shopping days of the gifting season.
River Island made its big screen debut with the brand’s first ever cinema ad in the run up to the party season, premiering on the release day of Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2 on November 16th.
“We feel this film really allows us to capture our brand personality and showcase our product,” explains the fashion retailer’s Marketing Director, Josie Roscop. “We’re excited to be going into a new media channel and continuing to build on the campaign success we’ve already seen.”
Mindshare’s Head of Strategy, Alistair Green adds, “Our ambition is that cinema will inject even more momentum behind River Island by utilising an attention grabbing medium where few high street fashion brands operate.”
The 30” ad, featuring lots of cars and attention grabbing clothes was filmed at the iconic Pinewood Studios to showcase star pieces and trends of the season, bringing the fashion retailer’s autumn/winter collection to life. A world class team was behind the shoot, including director Jacob Sutton, who has worked for the likes of Burberry and Stella McCartney, as well as model Eniko Mihalik who has starred in campaigns for Gucci, Ralph Lauren and Givenchy.
Mary McClenahan, River Island’s Offline Marketing Manager, adds: "You see our stylish River Island boy and girl escaping from their car in a traffic jam. The setting is really atmospheric and the product looks fantastic - we think the film will look amazing on the big screen."
With retailers traditionally launching sales campaigns around Boxing Day, the week after Christmas is historically one of the year’s biggest for cinema. Major movie releases this month include Peter Jackson’s eagerly awaited return to Middle Earth with The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, as well as Ang Lee’s big screen adaption of one of the decade’s best loved books Life of Pi. Both, filmed in ground-breaking, 3D are expected to draw in broad family and adult audiences during the holiday period.