Woolworths?????

Woolworths... Is the classical chain store back? After seeing Britain plastered with the Woolworths 'Now Playing campaign' I was left confused. I thought this chain store had died during the recession and the 100 years it stood for had ceased? Was this billboard a one off?

Apparently not. I have since seen it everywhere. On TV, magazines, newspapers and billboards around every corner… it has been resurrected. They are undergoing an online renaissance of the high street world under shop direct. So essentially, Shop Direct has taken a strong brand, which could not be saved during the recession and have applied it to their own ideas and concepts of shopping.

Shop direct bought Woolworth’s in February. They boast that over 100,000 people visited in its first 24 hours. Who are you trying to convince Woolies? Most of those visitors were probably drawn in by the same confusion that I was. The collapse of Woolies was front page news, making the brand’s comeback a significant relevance.

The advertisement below is an attempt to grab these news hungry folk, so the simple and confusing advert cleverly works the confusion element. The marketing department obviously want to make front page news again by gripping the audience by the throat.

The cheerful, glowing typography is eye-catching playful and childlike. It represents the party product range and is used to reflect the fanfare associated with the revival of a much loved UK retail icon. The TV advert (link below) Closely follows this new brand identity.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqhJfry_ifU&feature=player_embedded

So, with closer inspection… Woolies has died and then been reborn into the digital era, forced to live its next century on the internet. But don’t worry, you can still by your pick’n’mix although you cant sneak a few freebies and its now called Click’n’mix.