August
Harvey Nichols (or “Harvey Nicks” for short) and Aardman Studios are collaborating to promote the Fall grand opening of their newest location in England’s westcountry city of Bristol. Aardman Studios is enlisting its talent pool of Wallace and Gromit in a photo shoot featuring high-end brands carried in Harvey Nichols stores.
Wallace sports an Alexander McQueen navy cashmere and suit, D&G white shirt and a Giorgio Armani tie. Gromit sports a navy silk Paul Smith scarf.
The collaboration between the London based department store and the local favorite “actors” Wallace and Gromit seems to utilize a small scale example of glocalization.
The Bristol originated Aardman Studios, founded in 1976 by Peter Lord and David Sproxton, creates animation films, which due to the use of stop-motion techniques, are to long-term projects that take years and a lot of patience to complete. In 1989, Nick Park’s Oscar winning “Creature Comfort” short had put Aardman Studios on the map, allowing Park to introduce to the world Wallace and Gromit:
I love animation 
Harvey Nichols, founded in 1813, is “an international luxury lifestyle store, renowned both in the UK and internationally for the breadth and depth of its exclusive fashion merchandise” (Harvey Nichols). The luxury lifestyle store (I will refrain from using the word “department store” now) features high street brands like Gucci, Bottega Veneta, Marc Jacobs, Prada, and Tom Ford. With locations in London, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, etc., the brand has decided to open its doors in Bristol, England. The opening of a Bristol store signifies their need to increase consumerism in a largely populated city of 400,000+ that has been “undershopped”. The city of Bristol is known as a hub for culture. My favorite examples include:
- Birthplace of trip-hop or “Bristol Sound” (Look up artist Massive Attack).
- Finalist for the 2008 European Capital of Culture.
- Bristol University graduates include Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (Look up my favorite movie Shaun of the Dead).
- Daniel “I Drink Your Milkshake” Day-Lewis and Gene Wilder studied at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
- Darth Vader (David Prowse) went to Bristol Grammar School.
The campaign’s marketing treats Wallace and Gromit like real people, suggesting that although they are characters with only clay intestines, they are a part of Bristol’s culture. Or perhaps Daniel Day-Lewis was unavailable. Regardless, Wallace and Gromit are given the VIP treatment in Harvey Nichols’ personal shopping department. Even Harvey Nicks marketing director Julia Bowes keeps to character by saying that “we are delighted that these two characters so close to the heart of Bristol agreed to appear in our ad campaign…I hope that now they have started they will continue to shop with us.” It is very clever to take beloved yet fashion-inept characters like an oblivious bald man and his dog and put them in trendy high quality clothes.
Wallace poses in a suit by Paul Smith, and Gromit wears a pair of Ray-Bans and purple silk scarf by Duchamp.
They’re better than mannequins, because they’re faces we recognize (perhaps especially for the people of Bristol). They’ve lovable and they’re out of their element, which like their short films, is always the case. We pay more attention to them clothes modeled after the actual brands. The glocalization effect is seen here. If Harvey Nichols is becoming more and more an internationally known company, it should cater to each location’s clientele. By utilizing Bristol-originated local favorites in their promotions, Harvey Nichols may give people a sense of familiarity and ownership of a brand they enjoy.
I have only seen the photo shoot images and would suspect a promotional video utilizing Wallace and Gromit will not be seen. Stop-motion animation is an amazing art but is a highly time-consuming one. I would love to see Wallace walking down a fashion runway via some motor monstrosity and seeing Gromit come to save the day in his Duchamp scarf, but I doubt that this type of effort would be made for a “lifestyle store” opening. Regardless, overall the campaign seems like good publicity for both companies, giving Harvey Nichols some great connection with Bristol culture, and Aardman some good PR while they work on their next project. Hopefully another Wallace and Gromit film!
Below is the behind-the-scenes clip “When Wallace Met Harvey” of the Harvey Nichols/Wallace and Gromit photo shoot, featuring Nick Park himself along with the art directors:
Click here for the higher quality video on the Harvey Nichols official site.
If your local department/lifestyle store featured local stars/artists/famous personalities, would you be more likely to patron the store? Why or why not?
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This is just another example of a proven and effective advertising strategy: celebrity endorsement. But with a twist! : using celebrities local to a particular market vs. using national celebrities, and in this case, using local celebrity cartoon characters. I appreciate the novelty of using Wallace and Gromit as spokesmen, but I’m not sure the use of animated clay characters appropriately showcases a designer’s collection. The campaign is whimsical and catches your attention, but at the end of the day, I have to question whether or not I would be drawn in to make a purchase. The use of a model or mannequin for clothing enables the customer to make note of silhouettes, evaluate the materials used, and imagine what it would look like on. The cartoon characters Wallace and Gromit take that away. But if local SF celebs like George Lucas, Baron Davis, Robin Williams – i.e. real people – started endorsing designer apparel or local businesses, I’m sure locals would pay attention if they were appropriate spokesmen for whatever it was they were endorsing. In China, anything endorsed by Track Olympian Liu Xiang would be noticed by the millions of fans who view him as a local hero and, therefore, want to identify with him. But identifying with a cartoon character? Doesn’t really work…On the other hand, Wallace and Gromit would be great spokesmen for a local ice cream parlor, eatery, pet store, etc…but not designer apparel.
This reminded me of the time Harper Bazaar did a spread on couture collection on the *gasp* SIMPSONS! Check out the spread here: http://www.notcot.com/archives/2007/07/simpsons_coutur.php
They simpsonized lagerfeld, donatella, etc. and made marge wear all these high end dresses. I thought it was quite attention grabbing. It’s a sign that the big fashion houses are trying to downsize the snooty factor and be a little bit more approachable maybe?
Or maybe it was a promotional thing for the simpsons movie, either way, I loved it.
I do remember the Simpsons spread. Thanks for the link! I’ve been noticing pop culture collaborating with more “established” brands. I would not say it’s a novelty anymore. Even cartoon fans can be sharp looking. Wallace and Gromit may not be as “cool” as Harvey Nichols, but I also don’t remember the Simpsons being the hippest thing in the world when it first started. I love watching cartoons and even if watching cartoons seems childish or for nerds or whatever, they’re integrating themselves into the mainstream. Superhero movies for example. Even Scott Pilgrim is being made into a live action film.
I digress!
I think mannequins have been around for long enough that people don’t pay attention to the headless bodies any. HOPEFULLY, now they focus on the material and the cuts more. Even if Wallace and Gromit may not fit the clothes as we think they should, we can still see ourselves in them. Good clothing is still good clothing. As long as real live Wallace does not wear the clothes, I doubt it’ll be a negative campaign.
I do agree that Wallace and Gromit would be great for an ice cream parlor or something fun.
And although most people may not think Wallace and Gromit are as great as the Simpsons, some can relate to cartoons. Some want to see themselves as cartoons. Look at http://www.simpsonizeme.com or people creating themselves as South Park characters.
I agree; there is something fun and whimsical about seeing our favorite cartoons out of their normal context and integrated into something like this i.e. fashion meets animation. It’s a great short term attention grabber, but i don’t think it’s a smart long term branding strategy. Novelties, by definition, are great for their one-time-occurrence appeal.
That does make sense. It is a novelty that probably will not make a great deal of international attention, but it’s the local population is after. I think any marketing idea could be used to promote the store and would be successful. It’s a big name store and has a population with spending power. It’s just refreshing to see something new. It shows Harvey Nichols doesn’t take itself too seriously, which I like.
It definitely is refreshing and demonstrates versatility. It will be interesting to see how this campaign is received.