The challenge

The high street is a tough place to be and it’s not much easier in retail parks either. And that’s especially the case if you’re selling big-ticket items.

For furniture giant Harveys the challenge is to keep awareness high, spread information about its product range and ultimately get consumers coming through the doors to check them out.

A key plank of its promotional activity is the flagship sponsorship of ITV’s Coronation St.

The TV solution

The Harveys’ brand has been deeply embedded into the Coronation Street interactive area as part of its goal of educating customers about its product range.

The brand has a presence on the red button opening screen as one of five discrete options in a menu that also offers catch-ups, previews, gossip and extra video.

Once inside the interactive area, Harveys has run prize competitions allowing consumers to win furniture from the store by taking part in a lifestyle quiz that subtly introduced them to the brand’s products.

In February and March the brand became the first to use interactive vouchering. The aim of the promotion, which only ran in the Harveys interactive area, was to drive consumers into the stores.

The vouchering activity enabled users of ITV’s red button service to communicate with the brand and get a money-off voucher. Messages also run on ITV.com.

For this campaign, mobile was selected as the return path so consumers could send a text and receive a special eight-digit code that could be redeemed in stores for a 15% discount.

This two-week message was sent at a time when there were no money-off messages being broadcast via other channels.

Results

Corrie fans are engaging with Harveys in large numbers in the interactive area. The service attracts 3m interactors a month, who spend an average of five minutes on the site. Of this group, 17% visit the Harveys section, some 510,000 connections each month.

During the two-week interactive vouchering campaign, the impact of this communication could be seen in the stores. Response was heavy with an overall redemption rate of 30% peaking at 50% on some days, significantly ahead of more traditional direct marketing channels.

“We are delighted with the result and will be looking to use these learnings to drive repeat purchase and other sales opportunities. The staff found it very easy to implement in store.”

Helen Vinken,
Marketing Director, Harveys