How Currys PC World used newsbrands to drive sales on Black Friday by cutting through the clutter and shouting the loudest.

1.
Executive Summary
Black
Friday
is
quite
simply
the
biggest
day
of
the
year
for
Currys
PC
World,
in
fact
it
has
rapidly
become
the
principle
trading
day
in
most
retailers
calendar.
This
brings
with
it
both
opportunities
and
challenges.
The
opportunity
and
objective
for
Dixons
was
clear;
we
needed
to
prompt
action
and
drive
short
term
response.
In
order
to
do
this,
we
had
to
capitalise
on
this
huge
consumer
interest
to
drive
the
largest
single
days’
worth
of
sales
in
the
year.
The
challenge
was
delivering
on
this
in
the
face
of
shared
ambitions
with
our
core
competitors.
Therefore,
we
needed
to
cut
through
the
clutter
and
shout
the
loudest;
getting
lost
within
our
competitors
communications
wasn’t
an
option.
We
needed
consumers
to
view
CPCW
as
the
number
one
retail
destination.
Newsbrands
gave
us
the
platform
to
do
this
and
provided
a
channel
we
know
is
tried
and
tested
from
an
ROI
point
of
view.
Utilising
Newsbrands
alongside
other
channels,
we
created
the
CPCW
Black
Friday
Roadblock.
Background & Objective
Black
Friday
has
had
a
huge
impact
on
consumer
mind-­‐set
and
purchase
habits
since
it
came
to
prominence
in
the
US
and
more
recently
in
the
UK.
This
has
meant
historical
sales
trends
have
been
impacted
upon
as
consumers
focus
their
attention
on
this
single
day,
pulling
forward
typical
sales
spikes
in
the
run
up
to
Christmas.
The
level
of
growth
of
BF
as
a
fully
formed
consumer
facing
proposition
was
evident
in
the
sheer
volume
of
sales
in
2015
–
Google
estimated
this
to
be
upwards
of
£1.1bn
through
online
sales
alone
(this
was
up
36%
on
the
previous
year).
This
huge
groundswell
of
consumer
interest
and
media
attention
has
therefore
provided
a
massive
opportunity
for
retailers.
The
communications
objective
for
CPCW
was
to
ensure
that
we
dominated
key
broadcast
and
digital
channels,
drive
the
highest
SOV
amongst
our
core
competitor
set
and
prompt
action.
The
business
objective
attached
to
this
was
clear;
short
term
sales.
To
deliver
on
this
and
alleviate
some
of
the
pressure
on
Black
Friday
alone,
we
constructed
a
comms
plan
which
balanced
out
the
event
across
a
longer
period
-­‐
running
in
the
week
leading
up
to
and
through
to
the
following
Monday
(Cyber
Monday).
Newsbrands
were
instrumental
in
allowing
us
to
deliver
a
consistent
presence
across
this
period
to
position
CPCW
at
the
front
of
consumers’
minds,
‘warming
up’
the
market
ahead
of
the
main
event
on
the
Friday.
A
sense
of
immediacy
through
print
was
key
to
illicit
short
term
reaction;
key
national
press
titles
ensured
we
could
deliver
on
this,
at
scale,
and
in
conjunction
with
other
channels.

2.
Insight
There
were
some
key
insights
that
we
took
into
planning
for
the
2016
campaign:
• We
had
to
utilise
multiple
touch
points
in
unison
to
truly
cut
through
and
the
halo
effect
this
generates
was
an
important
factor
at
planning
stage.
For
example,
we
knew
from
the
Newsbrands
ROI
Retail
study
that
print
newsbrands
make
TV
spend
work
twice
as
hard,
as
well
as
boosting
radio
revenue
by
up
to
10
times.
• The
same
research
also
highlighted
the
sweet
spot
investment
percentage
for
Newsbrands
as
part
of
the
overall
media
spend
as
around
20%
-­‐
30%.
This
insight
(alongside
Gain
Theory’s
econometric
work)
helped
guide
decisions
around
the
most
effective
spend
split
by
channel.
• Our
competitor
monitoring
through
Nielsen,
Ebiquity
and
general
market
trends
indicated
that
competitor
spend
was
likely
to
increase
YoY.
We
couldn’t
afford
to
stand-­‐still
and
risk
our
SOV
being
diluted
in
this
context,
dominant
share
was
a
must
• Black
Friday
was
no
longer
a
new
concept.
Consumers
are
now
well
trained
on
seeking
out
the
best
deals
and
search
trends
from
Google
showed
that
this
was
now
more
likely
to
be
done
at
an
individual
product
level
(rather
than
generic
“Black
Friday
deals”)
• CPCW
brand
tracking
(conducted
by
Millward
Brown)
from
BF
in
2015
showed
that
our
press
activity
had
weaker
persuasion
and
credibility
than
our
standard
campaigns
running
throughout
the
year.
Newsbrands
continue
to
provide
us
with
platforms
that
command
a
sense
of
trust
from
its
readers,
meaning
we
would
be
able
to
leverage
this
positive
association
to
tackle
these
perceptions
by
partnering
with
some
of
the
biggest
titles
in
the
market.
• Lumen
eye
tracking
research
had
shown
that
average
dwell
time
for
electrical
retailers
in
newsprint
is
between
2
–
3seconds.
The
challenge
therefore
was
how
we
used
print
formats
that
delivered
enough
impact
to
provide
a
clear
differentiator
amongst
the
Black
Friday
noise.
These
insights
led
to
some
clear
media
principles
which
informed
planning:
• Lead
SOV
across
the
market
• Differentiate
media
buys
to
cut
through
the
noise
• Evolve
Black
Friday
comms
to
cater
for
a
more
educated
audience
• Utilise
multiple
touch
points
to
match
consumer
mind-­‐set
in
the
run
up
to
&
on
Black
Friday
itself
• Be
innovative
with
our
use
of
format
It
was
very
clear
that
we
needed
to
partner
with
newsbrands.

3.
The Plan
The ambition for our Black Friday activity was to deliver scale across key channels to ensure
dominance, drive disruption and a sense of immediacy. To do this we created the ‘Black
Friday Roadblock’ – we wanted to own the biggest TV shows, the biggest newspapers and
the biggest websites in the market.
We saw press ROI increase from the previous year’s campaign so evolved our activity here even
further with takeovers in more titles. The inclusion of newsbrands, alongside channels we knew
would deliver from an ROI perspective, created an integrated campaign that stood out amongst
the rest. This holistic approach across multiple channels was used to ensure that from a
consumer’s point of view, the campaign appeared greater than the sum of its parts. We
planned to deliver this though the following comms framework:
Stage 1, Announce:
• Through TV we altered our standard end-­‐of-­‐week phasing to run from the Monday,
launching the CPCW ‘Black Tag Event’ in some high-­‐profile programming including
Coronation Street (9.7m individual viewers) and Dispatches (3m)
• While TV led the ‘announce’ phase of the campaign, it was important for all media
to sew the seed to their relevant audiences, so we selected 2 of the most prominent
titles in the newsbrands market to shout about “Black Tag is coming”! The Sun and
the Times captured two ends of our ABC1 spectrum maximising our reach.
Throughout the week we built coverage with additional titles and guaranteed front-­‐
of-­‐mind presence for CPCW
• We ran a combination of 10 and 30 second teaser ads on radio from the Monday,
delivering over 16m ABC1 Adult impacts before the day itself
• OOH also played a key role in announcing our BF deals week, allowing us to deliver
9.8m ABC 1 Ad impacts before Black Friday through digital Underground and Rail
formats
Stage 2, Dominate:
• Newsbrands formed the focal point of our ambition to ‘own’ Black Friday. The
print activity consisted of 3 unmissable takeovers, dominating three of the highest
circulating titles on Black Friday with just under 900cms per title in the first third of
the book. This not only ensured huge exposure to those readers, it meant we had an
enormous captured market over our competitors. Combined with a digital HPTO on
Sun.co.uk, we were sure to DOMINATE the newsbrands market and stand above
our competitors. Through the national print market alone, we delivered 51%
coverage of ABC1 Adults (an enormous 35m impacts)
• Across the Black Friday week we reached 19m ABC1 Ads through TV (delivering the
fourth highest number of TVRs across all advertisers in the market)
• Digital takeovers across the Sun, YouTube and MSN allowed us to reach a third of
the UK population online
Stage 3, Sustain:
• To ensure we had a consistent drumbeat of activity we maintained the weight of our
media through to Cyber Monday across all channels
• We maintained our presence in print over the weekend across all titles with large
fractional formats to ensure interest was sustained up until Cyber Monday
• Our newsbrands activity across the week provided the greatest SOV amongst our
competitors; 40% of CMs and double our nearest rival
• Through display we reached 45.3m unique users alone across the week, driving a
161% uplift in sales YoY

4.
Results
We went into Black Friday with clear communications and business objectives; Lead SOV
amongst our core competitor set and drive the most sales in one day the business had ever
seen. We delivered on both fronts.
We drove lead SOV across TV and press, establishing 30% share across Black Friday week. This
was higher than all of CPCW key competitor brands including Argos, Amazon, John Lewis, AO
and Very.
Lumen research showed that our Black Friday print activity was better recalled than our
standard ads by a massive 47 percentage points. Our activity was in fact the second most
recalled across the entire market according to the same study
Millward Brown brand tracking also showed that, compared with the campaign last year, our
Black Friday week activity was more credible and persuasive. The formats we used on Black
Friday specifically were also recorded as being more impactful.
Client View
“The importance of Black Friday to our business cannot be over stated. The media strategy
formulated by Blue 449 therefore was fundamental to delivering on firm commercial targets
and the ambition to improve upon what was already a record sales day last year. We were able
to do this and drive the single biggest day of sales. Newsbrands were an integral part to our
comms plan, allowing us to deliver mass scale, generate disruption and drive short term
response from consumers. We continue to see positive ROI figures from Newsbrands to
reinforce their effectiveness as a channel on plans and see no reason why this should change
going into Black Friday this year.”
James Cheetham, Head of Advertising, Currys PC World