Not On The High Street will be running consecutive campaigns from now until December, as part of a 120 per cent investment in TV and VOD.

Rachel Wells, VP and brand experience manager at Not On The High Street explains that the business wanted to ramp up its marketing activity across all its channels including TV. But it didn’t want to just do that, it wanted to place the spotlight on the small businesses who sell with it, placing them at the centre of the narrative.

She says: “I think it’s our superpower; the real people that we have behind our brand. It’s such a huge differentiation point from our competitors, where we’re seeing loads of horrible mass-produced or AI produced products.”

And with this campaign they were able to do that.

She adds: “It’s so special that our business is still founded on real people, all of the makers and everybody that just pours their heart and their soul as small business owners into creating the products. We know that customers then really like products that they cherish forever. 

“It was so important to just shine a light on all of those businesses, and make them the heart of what we’re doing.”

According to Wells, there are so many moments in the campaign that stand out to her. One in particular was being able to visit the small businesses featured in the campaign.

She shares that it was “just so inspiring”.

“You just uncover more creativity the more visits that you do, and you suddenly realise how creative and just how much talent there is. The amount of craftsmanship that is hiding in and around Britain is amazing.”

TV remains a powerful channel

Not On The High Street has therefore invested heavily in TV and video on demand in Q4 this year.

She says: “It’s just so important for frame driving at this point of the year and we’re looking at how our wider marketing channels can support that. 

“We’ve got a full funnel channel mix throughout the period, and we’re pushing customers further towards that conversion.”

Additionally, the campaign utilises social media to compliment its work. Wells shares that having a combination of high fidelity assets like the TV campaign and low fidelity assets works well.

On socials the retailer has launched a content series which offers deep dives into 25 of its retail partners who sell on the platform.

She explains that social reinforces the brand’s messaging and helps it to hyper-target consumers specifically.

She says: “It helps us to connect with customers on a device that’s in their pocket as they’re going about their daily business and remind them of our brand and all of the amazing creative businesses that sell with us.”

Emotional storytelling works

The campaign is in its “infancy” but Wells highlights that they know from previous brand activity that this type of emotional storytelling resonates with its existing consumer base and new consumers also.

Consumers “really value” businesses that have real people as opposed to AI. Not On The High Street found that the public was still holding on to the “amazing” craft and creativity that lives in Britain. 

“We have high hopes that this campaign will resonate really strongly. We have seen that emotional storytelling works. We started it from Christmas last year and we have started to see shifts in our brand perception scores come from there. 

“We are hoping this year will be another lift in that too”.

However, it wasn’t all smooth sailing getting the campaign off the ground. She shares that compared to larger retailers their budget is not as big.

“We are certainly going early this year in terms of our messaging, so we can really cut through and prompt brand awareness early in the season, which is exciting.

“But it is always a challenge to work out how we can live up to the massive competitors that we go up against. That’s where it’s then extremely important to really double down on that emotional storytelling, on where we know we can really resonate with our customers. There’s so many things that small businesses can do which large businesses can’t.”

She highlights that small business’ creativity and agility is something huge retailers can’t compete on 

“In the past few years we’ve definitely taken the creative concept and concept of all our brand campaigns in house. We don’t use a creative agency at the moment, and that’s something that’s really shifted in the last two years”

She shares that since moving in-house the brand has had greater control over its brand messaging. 

“It’s just so pure and authentic coming from the in-house team,” she says.

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