Case Study: Marks & Spencer achieves major lifts in ad recall, message association and favourability with Facebook

Marks & Spencer - Customer Case Study

Marks & Spencer, the long-standing UK retailer, faced five years of declining sales and had lost relevance with its core female shoppers (especially women 45+). For Christmas 2016 the brand’s challenge was to emotionally re-engage this audience and drive them back in-store and online with a compelling seasonal message.

M&S created a modern Mrs Claus with agency RKCR/Y&R and adapted its TV ad for Facebook News Feed (square format, subtitles, logo open, enlarged final frame), then ran reach-and-frequency buys and a Facebook Brand Lift study targeting UK adults 25+. The optimised social creative lifted ad recall by 12 points (vs 6 for standard TV), increased message association by 6 points, improved favourability by 4 points, and boosted association with “Christmas with love” by 6 points.

Marks & Spencer

Ira Dubinsky

Head of Christmas