H&M

Driving a specific community in-store to support a new store opening

Background

H&M chose London’s Camden to launch its first and only dedicated ‘Divided’ store – clothing and accessories inspired by street culture – aimed at a young, edgy consumer.

Camden is renowned for its bohemian, alternative shopping so as a large high street brand H&M had to demonstrate their understanding and commitment to the essence of the area whilst simultaneously driving footfall.

Why radio?

Music, in particular new bands and gigs, plays a massive role in the lives of the ‘Divided’ customer. Given Camden’s wealth of bars and radio’s rich musical heritage, H&M capitalised on the interests and passions of their audience to create a buzz around the brand.

The local structure of radio allowed H&M to reach a particular audience in a specific geographical area creating a very efficient media schedule.

Implementation

H&M partnered with XFM London – the perfect station to reach the trendy ‘Divided’ customer. Listeners were given the opportunity to explain what Camden meant to them by designing a T-shirt. The winning design was printed and sold in the Camden store with proceeds donated to a London charity.

A unique H&M venue was also created as part of the Camden Crawl – a musical event attended by over 15,000 music lovers – where cutting edge bands performed.

Results

This unique approach resulted in driving 1,300 customers in store for the first ever evening opening. It was so successful H&M had to close the doors! Over the course of the first week 5,500 customers shopped in the new store – many more than expected.

Over 100 budding fashion designers entered the XFM competition and the limited edition T-shirts proved so popular that they sold out in just 2 weeks. Significant levels of PR were generated off the back of the competition maintaining momentum for the campaign.

RAB Comment

By tapping into the unique character of a community and utilising radio’s ability to engage and mobilise an audience H&M successfully drove awareness and footfall to support their new store opening.