Matalan Christmas TVC 2010.

Value fashion and homewares retailer Matalan has launched its first TV advertising campaign for four years.

The four-week campaign aired at the weekend during The X Factor, and is designed to “showcase the breadth of the Matalan offer from homeware to kids”.

Matalan senior brand manager Carly Hughes said it has returned to TV to “appeal to new and existing customers” after focusing on improving the design and quality of product as well as the in-store shopping experience in the last three years. This year’s ad features a “magical gift box from which Matalan products are taken and handed to the community”. Matalan’s last ran a TV campaign in autumn 2006.

John Lewis Christmas 2010

Department store John Lewis focused on customers “who care about showing they care” in its Christmas campaign.

Created by advertising agency Adam & Eve, it is set to a cover of Elton John’s “Your Song” performed by BRIT Award winner Ellie Goulding. The 60 second ad shows the full spectrum of Christmas giving, including the difficulties of wrapping and the lengths people go make sure gifts remain a surprise.

Presents featured in the campaign, which will run from five weeks, include top toy performers Butterscotch Pony and Le Toy Van Honey Bake Kitchen Set, as well as a Celia Birtwell watering can, handbag and twin candlesticks.

Craig Inglis, director, marketing, John Lewis, said: “Last year we focused on the joy of receiving presents so this year we felt it was important to show the emotions we all experience at Christmas when choosing and giving gifts to others.”

The ad, which also has two 30-second executions, will be supported by catalogues; in-store and online marketing, including social media, and the song will be available to download on iTunes. John Lewis has used cover versions in its past two adverts, including Guillemot’s singer Fyfe Dangerfield’s cover of “Always a Women”, which became a top ten hit.

Hamley's Christmas Pop-Up stores

Temporary stores in shopping centres will extend the retailer’s reach in key toy-selling period.

Famous toy store Hamleys is making its first foray into pop-up shops with the opening of three around the country to capture Christmas spend.

Hamleys opened Hamleys Toy Box shops in Bluewater and Sheffield’s Meadowhall last week. It opened a third in Chapelfield shopping centre in Norwich on Decemebr 22nd. All stores are expected to remain open until the end of January.

Because of its year-round popularity with visitors to London, Christmas accounts for only 25% of the retailer’s sales, but the pop-ups provide an opportunity to increase takings in the most important toy-selling period in the year.

Hamleys chief executive Gudjon Reynisson said: “It’s an idea we have had for quite some time and we decided to go for it this Christmas. We are taking things one step at a time and haven’t made any decisions yet, but we could either make these stores permanent or have more locations for pop-up shops next Christmas.”

Hamleys branched out from its flagship on London’s Regent Street in 2008 when it opened a large-format store in Dundrum Town Centre in Dublin, followed by another in Glasgow’s St Enoch centre in 2009. The pop-up stores will more than double the toy retailer’s locations in the UK, excluding its travel stores.

Reynisson said Hamleys was “extremely happy” with trading at the 1,000 sq ft Bluewater shop and the 2,000 sq ft Meadowhall store.

“They are very different to our wonderful big stores,” said Reynisson. “It’s really important to give more people access to our own-brand range, and to give customers a taste of the magic of Hamleys.”

The stores will stock 900 SKUs, with own-brand accounting for 70%. The rest of the offer is made up of Christmas best-sellers.

Reynisson added: “We are looking forward to Christmas. We are very optimistic and happy with the year so far.”

Reynisson said that, while pop-up shops were new to Hamleys, operating small-formats was not. The retailer has a handful of airport stores as well as one at St Pancras International railwaystation in London.

A Christmas White Wash

Well it has certainly been a turbulent Christmas for retailers across the world. The weather having had a huge effect on many Christmas sales.

I was in London for Christmas and all over the news were reports of retailers suffering across the UK as a result of the snow. People just couldn't get to the shops and what should have been the busiest weekend of the year on December 18th (40% of high street shoppers and 25% of out-of-town shoppers shop in the two weeks before Christmas) turned out to be quite a white wash.

Reports suggested that whilst many had bought their Christmas presents early, the last minute impulse buys that retailers rely on in the last few weeks of the year just weren't happening. The problems came as heavy snow resulted in shoppers staying in at the weekend causing a disruption to trading. Brent Cross shopping centre had to be closed on Saturday 18th December and shoppers in Bluewater in Kent had problems entering and exiting the car park.



And it was the supermarkets who were hit the hardest. Grant Liddell, key account development director at logistics group Uniserve, said the costs of supply chain delays would have hit grocers the most because of the scale of their operations. He said the snow must have “cost millions for the retail sector”. He said that drivers having to take stock back to depots or ports if it could not be delivered would “add about £1,000 to each container”.

As the weather improved on December 21st it encouraged punters back onto the high street. In fact in that week John Lewis reported sales increase of 4.3%.

But what about those who bought online? Well if you got in early your deliveries were made in time, however the snow caused such transport disruption that many people missed out. In fact online supermarket Ocado said that about 20% of an estimated 3,500 deliveries could not be delivered.

Especially affected were those in Scotland where retailers including Amazon, Marks & Spencer and Tesco either suspended deliveries or warned of delays.

Scottish Retail Consortium director Fiona Moriarty said: “People will rely on the high street rather than online - the high street has been extremely busy since the thaw.”

M and M Direct boss Steve Robinson said while there had been more web visits, it had been difficult to distribute catalogues. But he said: “I think [the snow] has benefited multichannel retailers most.”

John Lewis selling operations director David Barford said: “We’re in a fantastic position. What doesn’t go to clicks goes to bricks".