Loblaw retail banner Joe Fresh is launching its spring 2019 clothing collection with a new campaign celebrating the busy, fashion-conscious lifestyle of its broad customer base.
The retailer’s collection was designed to offer a range of stylish products and everyday fashion essentials, which the brand has become known for. But the new “Free Your Fresh” campaign goes in a new direction by bucking a long tradition of shooting creative in studio and going into an outdoor environment.
Lindsay Cook, the brand’s VP of marketing and communications, says this brings more authenticity and context to Joe Fresh’s underlying message. She says “Free Your Fresh” is more about reinforcing the brand’s “core values” through an “upbeat, happy energy, endless bursts of colour and the artful simplicity of the collections.”
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The campaign spot features a series of people expressing themselves through their talents, such as long-boarding and dancing, while clad in items from this year’s collection. In contrast to previous years, Joe Fresh cast the actors based on their talents, instead of factors that are more “aspirational and out-of-reach” for average customers, Cook says.
Creative strategy was led by Hans Dorsinville, North American chief creative officer at Select World, an agency focused on fashion and beauty. Now based in the New York, Dorsinville is Canadian born and is known for his work in the fashion space.
The “Free Your Fresh” tagline is a new one for the brand. Cook says it came out of consumer research showing the “sense of joy” people get from finding fashionable clothing at lower prices. The new work is about “tugging on those emotional strings, instead of just making it about a product and a price,” she says. “We wanted to make sure that that sense of happiness and joyfulness came through in the creative and concept.”
The joy that comes with finding good deals is an insight also utilized by fellow Loblaw-owned banner No Frills in recent campaigns.
While the majority of Joe Fresh customers are women aged 25 to 45, the campaign doesn’t have a particular customer profile in mind. Rather, “Free Your Fresh” aims to show the retailer’s broad assortment catering to a diverse customer base of women, men and children.
Part of the brand’s strategy this year is to tap into “big tune-in moments,” Cook says. As such, the spot launched during the Oscars on Sunday and is being followed with cinema buys and support on online and digital channels. Joe Fresh is also running an internal colleague engagement campaign and running assets on traditional and digital signage in store.
