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Campaign Imminent: Burlington names new media AOR amid digital ad spend increase (Score 39)

Concluding a competitive review, Lockard & Wechsler as its new offline media AOR, replacing Horizon Media, incumbent of two years. L&W's responsibilities will include TV, radio, print and OOH.

According to execs in Burlington's Q3 2020 earnings call, it will begin rolling out changes in its marketing strategy in Q4. This new program will hopefully better leverage the company's marketing reach and spend and is focused on direct off-price value messaging.

Burlington is trying to better position itself for the world that will exist once the global pandemic is. Online sales have become a high priority for many brick-and-mortars, but Burlington CEO said "eCommerce is much less effective or competitive in meeting the needs of value-oriented shoppers." The company will have a chance to regain retail store traffic in an effort to reach new consumers when the pandemic dies down.

Per iSpot, Burlington's national TV commercials have targeted a wide demographic that had a momvertising skew and included Hispanic audiences; top targeted programs included Tough as Nails, America's Got Talent, Víctimas del Amor, Family Feud and Today With Hoda & Jenna. Approximate YTD spend of $14.4m marks a significant drop from the approximately $50.7m spent by this point last year. In 2019, Burlington allocated $59.5m toward this channel, down % from the $52.7m spent in 2018.

So far this year, Pathmatics reports the company generated ~726.2m digital impressions via Facebook (65%), Instagram (33%), desktop video (2%) and desktop display (1%) ads. YTD spend of around $5.5m more than tripled the roughly $1.4m spent within the same 2019 timeframe; Burlington allocated an estimated $1.5m toward this channel in 2019, half the estimated $3m it allocated in 2018.

Additionally, per Magellan, the company aired eight podcast ads within the past year.

This drop in national TV spend allowed higher digital ad spend. This shift, along with Burlington's usage of paid social and podcast ads, signal its traditional momvertising target demographic skews toward Gen-Z and millennials. Remember its national TV commercials also target Hispanic audiences. Kantar data reports the company also invests in OOH and radio, as were mentioned in its new media AOR's remit description, but the upcoming usage of print media will be its first since 2018. Burlington's spend typically spikes in H2 ahead of and during the winter season when its coats are more needed than in the warmer quarters.

Since the company is still focused on its brick-and-mortar traffic, albeit with coronavirus-related safety precautions, its leaders probably need all the localized advertising help they can get; find a retailer in your area here.

Agency & martech readers - As you know, agency reviews typically follow one another; reach out soon to secure potential creative, digital analytics and/or social media management work. Winmo states M Booth & Associates handles PR.