French Connection launches ad campaign as sales plummet

Fashion retailer French Connection is launching an autumn ad campaign with content tailored to specific stores in a bid to revive sales after revenue plummeted in the first half of the year.

French Connection
French Connection autumn winter 2010 ad campaign

French Connection has reported a loss of £6.3m in the first half of the year, compared with profit of £0.7m last year. Revenue fell 7% to £96m during the period as increased promotional activity affected margins.

The campaign, to support the launch of French Connection’s autumn/winter collection, uses outdoor ads to drive shoppers to specific stores, rather than the blanket nationwide creative execution previously used by the retailer. It will be hoping the campaign helps increase footfall and sales in the run up to Christmas trading period.

The outdoor, in‐store and digital campaign, created by ad agency 101, will launch in the UK this week and will roll out to New York, Hong Kong, Australia, South Africa and the Far East.

William Woodhams, director of marketing and PR at French Connection, says: “[We] have used digital technology to bring marketing back to its roots. Communicating to consumers at a super local level with products that are available right now, only meters away. Creating site‐specific ads really makes our actual stores the hero. We look forward to testing it and spreading it out internationally to eight more UK towns and cities this season’.

Meanwhile, online fashion retailer Asos.com has continued to outperform the UK retail market reporting a 15 per cent increase in UK sales in the three months to August 31. Total sales increased 31 per cent to £141m with international sales accounting for 42 per cent of the business.

Asos’s performance comes despite an 11 percent fall in total online sales during August as the Olympics “distracted shoppers”, according to the latest the IMRG Capgemini eRetail Sales Index, which measures online sales.

Recommended