DFS Leverages Team GB Partnership At Rio 2016 To Drive Brand Reappraisal & Reach New Consumers

The aim behind DFS’ Rio 2016 activation of its Team GB sponsorship was to drive brand reappraisal and reach new audiences through digital channels – thus changing long-standing perceptions of the brand established largely via its heritage of traditional TV-led advertising.

This flagship sponsorship is a key part of DFS’s wider drive towards its corporate ambition of becoming the UK’s first £1bn furniture company.

To achieve this ambition, DFS understood it needed to communicate the ‘hidden truths’ of the brand – from including UK end-to-end production, its 15 year guarantees, furniture being handmade to order and 100% vertical ownership (from wood mill to delivery).

DFS’ Team GB approach – developed and delivered with a set of partner agencies including MediaCom Sport & Entertainment (which handled much of the deal negotiation, athlete ambassador selection and negotiation and management of athlete rights), MediaCom (which ran media planning & implementation), Krow Agency (which created the flagship brand film) and hybrid creative and production agency Just So – was based around the idea that this Olympic property could provide an appropriate platform to communicate these brand truths in an authentic way.

The 2014 decision to sign the partnership deal was partly guided by DFS internal insights and property analysis which led to the company negotiating a Team GB Olympic partnership with the British Olympic Association as its first ‘official sofa supplier’ (and help back the BOA’s healthy-living message).

This in turn led to the DFS marketing team and its agencies creating a multi-phase, integrated Rio 2016 activation programme primarily fronted by four leading Team GB sports stars – cyclist Laura Trott, swimmer Adam Peaty, gymnast Max Whitlock and former athlete Denise Lewis – as lead athlete ambassadors.

Indeed, along with Mediacom, DFS identified these four stars as the best brand fit for its requirements across the business using the agency’s own bespoke suite of sponsorship tools.

1st after day 1! Wishing our golden girl @TeamGB @LauraTrott31 another huge GOOD LUCK! #Olympics #GreatBrits #GameOn pic.twitter.com/kWc1KJdLQZ

— DFS (@DFS) August 16, 2016

In order to begin working towards its objectives, the early phase of campaign took a fresh approach to exploring the lives of leading British athletes: exploring and engaging around how rest and relaxation is as much a part of their success as the hard yards on the training ground.

So DFS began its activation by offering consumers an unprecedented glimpse into the home lives of Olympic athletes with ‘Home’ ads,

and through a pre-Games intimate online series of ‘At Home’ portraits for the brand’s first ever online content campaign.

These were further supported by family member digital and social short films – including a family quiz spot series.

.@justinmoorhouse hosts the ultimate head to head @adam_peaty party quiz: Miss vs Mrs @cazliz123 #GreatBrits #GameOn pic.twitter.com/DCMQKAJpuC

— DFS (@DFS) August 13, 2016

This opening phase also included a ‘Home Styling’ approach.

For example, DFS helped Laura Trott to relax as she prepared for Rio by giving her ‘the home makeover she was dreaming of’.

Laura, who has a penchant for all things restored and rustic, left her home makeover in the hands of the DFS design team and acclaimed interior stylist Pippa Jameson, who led with a chic theme of grey with blush pink accents.

This pre-Games tactic gained impressive media coverage in multiple lifestyle and home-led publications such as House Beautiful, Hello and national newspapers such as The Daily Mail.

As the Games approached, an addition leverage stage saw DFS create a suite of content that was utilised across DFS’ newly created social channels and seeded to sporting and lifestyle press to support the wider story of their sponsorship of Team GB.

Then, throughout the Rio Olympics, DFS promoted their official Team GB partnership and celebrated the hard work that goes into getting to the top of your game with a second campaign phase.

This strand was spearheaded by a core ‘Great Brits’ brand film which first aired to the UK as a 30-second digital TVC during the Britain’s Got Talent final and ran on TV from 1 August through to the end of the month (right through the Rio Games).

It was also screened in UK cinemas and, of course, hosted and amplified on the DFS’ own digital and social platforms.

This video, created with London based agency Krow, promotes the DFS/Team GB partnership and celebrates the hard work that goes into getting to the top of your game.

The film heroes three of the gold-winning Team GB Ambassadors who had amazing success in Rio: Trott, Whitlock and Peaty as well as DFS’ own craftspeople.

Throughout the 30-second ‘Great Brits’ spot, the film cuts between the three athletes going through their rigorous training regimes and the DFS craftsmen and women who are hard at work in DFS’ own Lincoln House Workshop, Derbyshire.

The aim is to portray a synergy between the athletes’ and crafts people’s actions; both look heroic and are beautifully shot in a moody atmosphere to create a stunning and slick sporting brand film.

The film aims to highlight the graft that goes into reaching the top of your chosen sport or craft and thus to ‘shine a light on British quality manufacturing’.

‘OK, so the craftspeople at DFS can’t do triple somersaults. But just like the Team GB athletes, they’re skilled and not afraid of a bit of hard graft. We’re glad we got to show that side to them,’ explained Krow creative director Darryl George.

‘This is a great piece of work to show our support for Team GB in Rio and to highlight the hard work, care and attention our craftsmen and women put into hand making every sofa. That’s why we have the best sofas to watch the Olympics from,’ trumpeted DFS marketing head Mark Mallinder.

The TV ad was also supported during the Games with a series of tactical ads on premium digital OOH sites on the evening before and after each of the featured athlete’s finals.

A bespoke ‘gold’ themed digital OOH execution and supported print and social work also congratulated the three Team GB Ambassadors collectively and celebrated their incredible success towards the end of the Games.

Trott won two golds and became the first British woman ever to win four Olympic golds, while Whitlock also won two golds (with his men’s floor triumph marking GB’s first-ever Olympic gymnastics gold), while Peaty won Team GB’s first medal by winning Gold for the 100m Breaststroke (and smashing his own world record and ending GB’s 28-year wait for a men’s Olympic swimming title).

A further ‘third’ phase, amplified on-site from Rio saw DFS run a Team GB House sponsorship and content series – primarily running across digital and social platforms and led by an DFS British House Tour spot.

This was spearheaded not only by the brand’s trio of golden athlete ambassadors and the rest of Team GB, but also by a specially designed and limited edition sofa, The Britannia, which provided a centre piece to British House – the home of Team GB at this year’s Rio Olympics.

This included a craft film style 30-second teaser,

and a full two-minute-plus spot.

The approach to this British House phase was based around creating exclusive, behind-the-scenes content from within the house itself.

This saw Peaty, Trott, and Whitlock, plus other British sports stars showcase the power and impact of having a strong support system and home network with a content series that spanned a set of ‘sofa interviews’ amplified across YouTube,

and Twitter.

.@maxwhitlock1 and @REGYATES chat gold medals, chips and gymnastics in the latest #GreatBrits #GameOn pic.twitter.com/qyKx17qSIh

— DFS (@DFS) August 19, 2016

as well as plenty of simple image-led content assets for social media.

There was also plenty of engagement and traction on Twitter through a branded DFS #Flipit game played by athletes and consumers alike.

You've seen @TeamGB Flip It… But can YOU #FlipIt for a chance to #Win? #GreatBrits #GameOn https://t.co/yw2CVPww9g pic.twitter.com/FEfnKTYF3f

— DFS (@DFS) August 24, 2016

#WIN £1,000 to spend at dfs with #FLIPIT. How many can you flip in 60 seconds? T&Cs:https://t.co/yw2CVPww9g pic.twitter.com/AnlF2NIzNZ

— DFS (@DFS) August 5, 2016

The game’s eventual Team GB leader board was topped by DFS’s own ambassador Max Whitlock.

Drum roll please..The winner of @TeamGB #FlipIt is @maxwhitlock1! Check out the best (and worse) right here: #GameOn pic.twitter.com/doS0HughNy

— DFS (@DFS) August 22, 2016

In fact, DFS tried to blend the right mix of utilising its official partnership assets with storytelling form their ambassadors coupled with highly targeted media partnerships and real time placements throughout the games.

Comment

When the partnership announcement was first unveiled some felt the DFS/Team GB sofa sponsorship was somewhat eyebrow-raising and unusual.

But the pre-deal research, coupled with the insights and brand objectives led to a strategically impressive, cleverly multi-phased and deeply integrated, cross-platform campaign that showed both originality and tactical sense.

DFS’ marketing messages were particularly focused on providing a ‘home from home’ for the athletes in Rio – particularly appropriate as the Rio Olympics followed a home London Games – something that is typically considered by Olympic insiders as being the toughest games for a team of Olympians.

While neither brand nor agency have yet to release any specific metrics about the success of the campaign, the campaign generated hundreds of thousands of digital/social engagements (views, likes, retweets etc) and the health and success of the DFS business following the partnership is reflected in the early October announcement that the company will pay its shareholders a special dividend next year after profits nearly doubled and sales neared the £1bn target.

Britain’s biggest furniture retailer said on 7 October that underlying pre-tax profits had increased to £64.5m in the year to July (up from £33.3m previously).

Sales were up 7.4% to £980.4m, while profits before tax and other charges rose to £94.4m o0n a 7.1% revenue rise to £756m.

Links

DFS YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/user/dfs

DFS Web:

http://www.dfs.co.uk/

DFS Twitter:

https://twitter.com/DFS

@DFS

DFS Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/DFS/

DFS Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/dfs/