Littlewoods campaign aims to integrate TV and online

Littlewoods Ireland kicks off its €2 million new autumn-winter campaign today with two firsts: the television campaign, a 40-second with 30- and 10-second cut-downs, is directed by Barry McCall, the country's most sought-after fashion photographer, who is making his TV commercials debut; and the use of ad-sync technology.

And if that works for the online retailer it will solve “the second screen” advertising problem whereby viewers glance away during ads to the mobile device in their hand to look at Twitter, Facebook or mooch around online.

The TV campaign is straightforward – it’s about fashion and it looks probably a bit more high end than the typical Littlewoods ad. But it’s how the campaign works with the digital world that is particularly interesting and which earns the campaign the overused description “integrated”.

“Second screen is a real challenge to advertisers, but we think we’ve cracked the nut,” says Rossa Butler, ecommerce and marketing manager with Littlewoods Ireland.

Working with UK agency Somo, the campaign uses ad-sync technology which synchronises online advertising with TV advert air times.

So when the ad break comes on and the Littlewoods ad is screened, the ad also pops up on several platforms online – to catch likely customers who have looked away momentarily from the big screen to their phone or tablet.

And to translate passive interest piqued by seeing the TV visuals into direct engagement with the campaign’s landing page, Littlewoods is working with Shazam, the sound-recognition app more commonly used to identify songs on the radio.

“It’s the first time Shazam has been used this way in an Irish campaign,” says Butler, who explains that if viewers shazam the ad as they watch it on TV they will be taken directly to the site where the clothes are sold.

The primary target audience is women aged between 25 and 45; and the broader digital media strategy included commissioning Irish bloggers to spread the word.

These include fashion bloggers Suzanne Jackson who blogs as sosueme; Ciara O'Doherty, and Louise O'Reilly who blogs as stylemecurvy, as well as beauty blogger Tara O'Farrell.

The creative in the eight-week campaign, which includes press, radio and outdoor, was devised by DDFH&B, with media by Carat and digital from booming Dublin specialist agency Wolfgang and Somo in London.

The TV ad was filmed in Ardmore Film Factory.