The old faces of Old Navy's advertising - comedic powerhouse spokeswomen Julia Louis Dreyfus, Amy Poehler and Amy Schumer - were influential figures who fit the brand's audience. However, as one of the most classic and recognizable brands in apparel retail, there is constant pressure to refresh advertising strategy. This is why Old Navy shifted strategies in 2017 and 2018 to a less celebrity focused approach.
Old Navy committed to "replacing its three-year-old funny lady campaign with a more products-driven marketing platform in 2017” says Adrianne Pasquarelli of Ad Age, who interviewed CMO Jaime Gersh about this shift. "We wanted to make sure the inherent DNA of the brand surrounded by the fun personality and wink really shines through, but also make sure the product is at the center of everything we do" Gersh said.
Their recent “Fun on the Ice Skating Rink” advertisement is a glimpse of how this new strategy looks in ads.
While classic brands like Old Navy are constantly expected to re-invent their advertising, oftentimes these decisions are also based on changing behaviors and attitudes among their target audiences. We decided to take a look at Old Navy’s most engaged fans and what Discover can tell us about the demographics and top interests for Old Navy’s audience, to see what we could learn about how best to connect with them.
Old Navy’s Audience: Primarily Women With Children
Old Navy’s audience is, not surprisingly, 90% female, but also over-indexes for being between the ages of 35-44, having children in the home, being married, and having only a high school education. Geographically, there is higher affinity in smaller cities like Columbus, Miami and Philadelphia, and below average in New York, Chicago and Boston.
The Brands These Women Are Most Passionate About
Looking at product interests across categories and brands, a focus on beauty as well as home and garden products is not surprising, but we also notice that these women appear to be more loyal to everyday and affordable household brands than more premium and aspirational fashion and beauty products. This, combined with higher affinity in general for retail stores than individual brands, shows that these women are quite loyal to their favorite stores.
Observed consumer interests are expressed as the Affinity Index, which measures how the target audience you are analyzing is different from the average American adult.
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0<Affinity<1: Audience is less interested in the item than the average American adult
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Affinity=1: Audience is as interested in the item as the average American adult
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Affinity>1: Audience is more interested in the item than the average American adult
Interest In Influencers Not As Strong As In Brands
Looking back at Old Navy’s old strategy of leveraging celebrities in their advertising, the data also uncovers that the relative interest in their audience’s favorite influencers is generally lower than interest levels in favorite retail stores and household product brands. This insight would also back up the strategic decision to focus more on the products themselves instead of using celebrity influencers to advertise the brand.
Judging by the insights from TelmarHelixa, Old Navy seems to be on the right track with their strategic shift.
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