// Debenhams launches its first brand campaign since its acquisition
// The campaign will be live for eight weeks
Debenhams has launched its first brand campaign since it was bought out of administration by Boohoo Group earlier this year and turned into an online-only retailer.
The nationwide, multi-media campaign which goes live today positions Debenhams as a digital-first department store destination for fashion, beauty and home under the new name Debenhams.com.
The campaign also aims to connect with Debenhams’ established 18.9 million customers across digital and social platforms.
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A 30-second advert featuring an everyday family to reflect the wide customer base of Debenhams.com aims to drive both new and existing customers to the newly relaunched ecommerce site.
The campaign also highlights Debenhams.com’s multi-brand offering including in-house brands Principles, Red Herring, Maine New England and Mantaray, plus the addition of brands from across the Boohoo Group portfolio.
The retailer has also already begun the rollout of its beauty division with customer favourites Urban Decay, Benefit, Peter Thomas Roth, Elizabeth Arden, and perfumes such as Marc Jacobs, Hugo Boss, Viktor & Rolf, Ralph Lauren, Montblanc and more.
The campaign will run for eight weeks across primetime shows such as Love Island, This Morning and Celebrity Gogglebox, as well as some on-demand streaming platforms.
“I’m really thrilled to see the first milestone in Debenhams.com’s journey within the Boohoo Group,” executive director Carol Kane said.
“We feel this first campaign sets the tone for Debenhams.com and how we see the vision for the brand developing.
“As we go into the summer season, I’m looking forward to seeing the in-house brands grow and find their place within the group, introducing a strong product offering supported with a confident brand DNA you can see coming through from Debenhams.com.”
Debenhams had closed down its remaining 28 stores across the UK in mid-May, marking the final nail in the coffin in its 243 years of trading as a bricks-and-mortar retailer.
The retailer had suffered slumping sales in recent years as shoppers moved away from traditional department store models.
However, the enforced closure of non-essential shops during the Covid-19 pandemic was the final straw for the retailer, and in April last year – just weeks after the first UK-wide lockdown began – it fell into administration.
Debenhams then went into liquidation in December after the administration process failed to secure any buyers to save the business.
About a month later in January, its brand, ecommerce operations and assets were purchased by Boohoo Group in a £55 million deal.
This deal did not include Debenham’s physical store estate.
As part of the liquidation process, administrators said it would run closing down sales across Debenhams’ remaining shops – which counted 118 in December – once they were allowed to reopen from mid-April onwards, depending on what the reopening dates were for each UK home country.
With all of Debenhams’ stores closing down permanently as part of the liquidation and wind-down process, up to 12,000 staff have lost their jobs.
When it fell into administration in April last year, it marked the second of its kind that Debenhams had launched within the space of 12 months.
The first administration in 2019 was followed up by CVA that saw it close down scores of stores immediately after the Christmas trading season that year and before the onset of the pandemic.
Before that first administration, Debenhams operated from around 160 stores across the UK.
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