How We Helped Regis & Supercuts to Generate 96% More Revenue over Black Friday

The approach

To generate the results Regis and Supercuts needed, it was crucial we stood out from the competition.

The hair and beauty industry is saturated with large, widely-recognised names, boasting big budgets. Our challenge was to devise a strategy enabling us to compete with these industry giants.

The competition

Competition was evident in two forms: direct competitors – including ghd and Kérastase – and indirect. The latter presented itself in various forms, including beauty brands, like Look Fantastic and Feel Unique, as well as those selling similar products amongst a larger offering, including Amazon, ASOS and Argos.

Competition was particularly high on Regis and Supercuts’ best-selling products, so our approach had to be unique and cost efficient.

Planning played a huge part, therefore we started working on the campaign back in January 2017 – almost a year before Black Friday.

Step 1: Restructuring PLA campaigns

We began by completely restructuring the account, creating PLA campaigns for every brand featured on the Regis and Supercuts websites. This enabled us to control costs by brand campaigns, as well as tailor bid budgets for each product.

This proved successful, as we could adjust bids when products performed well, and vice versa.

By implementing this restructure early on, we had almost a whole year to test it ahead of the event.

Step 2: Competing with industry giants

Here, our partnership with Regis and Supercuts was vital.

Eight weeks before Black Friday, we worked closely with them to devise an approach, which started with an early bird sale; a staple in modern Black Friday campaigns.

Keen to bring the excitement back to Black Friday, we opted for a week-long sale that:

• Users trusted (by knowing products would not be reduced further on Friday)
• Was worthwhile (the offer was good enough to provoke action quickly)

This worked well, with website sessions running up to the event increasing 82% year-on-year.

To make promotions worthwhile, we worked with Regis and Supercuts to create bundles, by grouping together relevant products and offering significant savings. This encouraged users to make a purchase, due to large savings, and enabled us to stand out against the competition thanks to unique offerings.

Step 3: Crafting powerful ad copy

Ad copy was the final step to the strategy and key for generating clicks and sales.

The bundle deals gave us an outstanding USP that could be reflected in powerful copy. Thanks to ad copy tests from 2016, we also knew mentioning monetary savings generated more engagement, so ensured this featured.

Summary

Our impressive performance over Black Friday 2017 was achieved by:

• Using learnings from 2016 to recognise challenges we might face
• Restructuring the accounts for more granular control
• Working with the client to create unique, worthwhile promotions
• Showcasing these to customers via powerful ad copy