Marks & Spencer has launched a pop-up tasting experience as part of its ‘Spirit of Summer’ campaign, focusing on its new food range which has been inspired by the Mediterranean.

The pop-up, which will include a pairings bar tasting experience and live music, initially ran from August 9^th-13^th in Leeds Briggate. M&S traces its origins back to a market stall opened by Polish immigrant Michael Marks in Leeds in 1884.

The ‘Spirit of Summer’ pop-up experience aims to bring the essence of the Med to the UK, where the campaign aims to sample the new food range to 50,000 people while really immersing them in an authentic Mediterranean experience.

The pop-up was created and is being managed for M&S by independent creative agency, RPM, which has been working with M&S for over 24 years – the retailer was RPM’s founding client.

Sian Lewis, M&S Food Brand Event Manager, says: “It’s great to be working on another project with RPM and bringing our Sprit of the Summer range to our customers in Leeds, where M&S first began 133 years ago.’

Dom Robertson, Managing Director, RPM adds: “We’re honoured to be working with M&S on another campaign.  As our founding client is been great to grow with each other and to partner on a wide range of successful projects over the years.”

RPM was founded in 1993. Current clients include Diageo, M&S, Mondelez, Heineken and Sky.

The post Marks & Spencer runs ‘Spirit of Summer’ pop up in Leeds appeared first on IPM Bitesize.

Sparks hits the mark for Marks & Spencer

‘National Treasure’ Marks and Spencer introduced its first store card, ‘Sparks’, in 2016, offering a personalised loyalty scheme and benefits to both food and clothing customers. Aimed at generating maximum take up of the loyalty card, a major pre-launch campaign was developed including high profile media coverage and an extensive direct mail campaign.

Challenge

M&S approached The Lettershop Group (TLG) to help with the challenge of how to best capture the interest of 2.7 million customers with an informative and interesting direct mail campaign, which would encourage recipients to register online for the Sparks card.

Solution

No matter how complex the idea, TLG always works on the principal that ideas can be made a reality by creative thinking and clever engineering. Print and Scheffer finishing lines were designed and then made by the in-house engineering team to produce a premium product to meet the clients’ needs.

Results

A premium-feel pack was created using an offset 6-page double thickness carrier which was inserted into a paper wrap.  The loyalty cards were attached mechanically inline, ensuring such a large mailing was cost-effective whilst being turned around quickly and to the highest standard, as expected of this leading brand. Within weeks of launch the campaign had over 3.6 million registered Sparks customers.

An M&S spokesperson says: “We approached the Lettershop team with an idea which they made into a very effective reality, engaging with our customers and promoting the benefits of Sparks.”

The Lettershop Group is a sponsor of the IPM Awards 2016.

The post Case Study: Sparks hits the mark for M&S appeared first on IPM Bitesize.