Gen-X, Millennial Male Media Opps: Lands' End continues eCommerce success despite digital spend decreases

We told you about Lands' End (LE) recent eCommerce success a few months ago. Per its recent Q3 earnings report, it has continued on an upward trajectory as online sales increase by nearly 20%. It also increased total revenue by about 6% from $340m to $360m. LE's "Let's Get Comfy" campaign seems to have paid off as sleepwear, loungewear and knits were the top selling items, which makes sense, considering people are stuck at home due to coronavirus. It will continue to focus the majority of its advertising on promoting these items. Execs also noted social media and connected TV ads have been doing very well, so I expect to see more dollars allocated to those channels in the future. Furthermore, it is utilizing data analytics and search engine optimization to find new customers. It also allows LE to develop more personalized messaging, which improves retention marketing. 

According to iSpot's estimates, LE spent around $509k on national TV ads YTD, after only spending $82.6k in 2019. It did not allocate any ad dollars towards this channel in 2018. This year, it placed ads during programming such as "Cantore Stories," "Oklahoma:Tornado Target," "Top Ten Most Bizarre Weather," "Secrets of the Earth" and "Ice Pilots."

Per Pathmatics, LE earned 332m impressions through Facebook ads (78%), desktop display ads (11%), Instagram ads (3%) and mobile display ads (3%). It placed the majority (93%) of these ads site direct onto sites such as facebook.com, instagram.com, allrecipes.com, popsugar.com and foodandwine.com.It placed the remainder through a variety of indirect channels onto sites such as yahoo.com, retailmenot.com, finance.yahoo.com, pandora.com and reddit.com. It spent around $2.4m on digital display ads YTD, less than half (38%) of the $6.3m spent during the same time period of 2019. Full-year spend totaled $7m in 2019 and $4.6m in 2018. 

Sellers-- LE has a broad targets audience, but the recent decline in digital ads, and increase in TV ads, leads me to believe it is mainly trying to reach Gen-X and millennials with a male skew. It also invests in OOH, print and local broadcast TV ads, per Kantar. There will likely be extra holiday ad dollars througout the remaider of Q4, so reach out soon to get your share. 

Agency & martech readers-- LE not exhibiting any of the typical signs that signal an upcoming review; I recommend looking for work elsewhere.