Currys Techmas – exceptional results for our end-to-end campaign

Every year the CRM team at Currys puts together the ’12 Days of Techmas’ – an omnichannel Christmas campaign that uses a gamified approach offering awesome tech prizes to customers while encouraging sign-ups to Currys Perks. This year they collaborated with us here at ITG to create and execute the concept for Currys Techmas – a prime example of how we’re able to support big brands with high-quality halo content!

Currys Perks runs various initiatives to help the brand stay top-of-mind when it comes to tech purchases, by maintaining effective communication with members and regularly offering deals. This brand awareness is crucial for Currys, so for 2023’s Techmas campaign, they had the primary aim of increasing engagement, while rewarding current Perks members and attracting new ones.

They also looked to reinforce Currys’ position as the home for tech gifts during the festive season.

ITG were tasked with delivering the halo content for the Techmas campaign, unlocking standout creative concepts to target time-conscious consumers during the chaotic rush of the season. To do this we prioritised using simple and effective messaging and design.

The campaign was split into four key elements, each with content that needed to integrate seamlessly to achieve success:

• The advent calendar
• The prizes
• The mechanic
• The talent

Currys also wanted store colleagues to play a key part and their role was integrated into the campaign – so how did ITG approach this task?

How did we deliver Currys Techmas?

Our work on Currys Techmas started at conceptual creative, and seamlessly navigated to strategic planning, to creative ingenuity, then to execution at Capture Studios and finally delivery. Let’s break down each of these steps so you can get an insight into how ITG can deliver an end-to-end campaign entirely through our own expert teams.

Conceptualisation

We started with conceptualisation which involved our strategy, creative, client services, and project management departments, delving into current market trends and consumer insights, then aligning these with the brand’s objectives.

The cross-functional team worked together to create a detailed brief combining the client’s goals and the vision we had created. This took the form of the ‘Techmas in Wonderland’ concept which both resonated with the target audience while also capturing the essence of Currys as a brand.

Strategic planning

For the strategic planning the same group of teams continued with the concept in place by crafting a detailed roadmap. This included key milestones for the project and how these could be achieved by setting deadlines and allocating resources. These decisions were all informed by:

• Delving into target demographics
• Observing the competitor landscape
• Identifying the best channels for deploying the campaign

This was also the point in the project that double RuPaul’s Drag Race UK alum and TV personality Cheryl Hole was selected to be the face of the campaign. 

Creative development

The creative development for the Techmas campaign featured collaboration between the creative, client services, Capture Studios, animation, and project management teams – with fantastic work by ITG’s designers, copywriters, and content creators to bring the concept to life.

This was tailored perfectly thanks to iterative feedback loops that kept all created assets aligned with the core concept and messaging the brand wanted to maintain. Because of this, every piece of content had a cohesive and compelling narrative, with visuals, taglines, and storytelling techniques all refined to capture attention and resonate with the intended audience. 

Multichannel integration

Our creative, client services, animation, and project management team worked together to strategically integrate the campaign over multiple channels. This included:

• Social media platforms
• Email marketing
• Paid media
• Brand website
• In-store digital screens

The campaign was meticulously adapted to each of these mediums to ensure a seamless multichannel customer journey.

Capture Studios & Cheryl Hole

The core creative assets for the Techmas campaign were created at Capture Studios using our state-of-the-art XR Cube to film the charismatic Cheryl Hole with all her signature charm.

The XR Cube gave us the capability to create the dynamic advent calendar backdrop and this, combined with Cheryl Hole’s captivating ability to showcase the festive magic of tech for Currys, was a match made in heaven.

The XR Cube is an extended reality space, so we capitalised on this ability to transport Cheryl Hole and viewers to a virtual winter wonderland, creating a visually rich and interactive environment.

The space was the perfect setting for experimenting and pushing creative boundaries – with eye-catching results! And by leveraging the dynamic real-time rendering capabilities, visual effects were seamless, whether it be seasonal transitions, or virtual wand effects

Post-production

Finally, the campaign assets make their way to our post-production wizards to fine tune the content and ensure everything was cohesive.

Because we used the XR Cube, it was simple to integrate extra effects to enhance the content. Using this tech streamlined the creative process and showcased our ongoing dedication to pushing the boundaries of creativity.

Outputs & results

Alongside everything else we’ve covered, we also delivered content for Currys printed gift guide, animation for Currys’ and Cheryl Hole’s social channels, email creative, website banners, and the skin for the online Qualifio game.

And it achieved exceptional results!

• >20,000 new Currys Perks sign-ups
• >100,000 clicks on paid social media (+4% YOY)
• 13,432 Facebook shares (+1,045% compared to 2022)
• +5.57% for email opt-ins compared to 2022

We’re thrilled that the campaign was received so well by the client and customers, with ITG delivering the halo of engaging, tech-enabled, agile content needed to bring it to life across Currys’ channels.