DFS appoints Pablo to creative account

We were approached by DFS at the end of 2020 to assist with their creative agency review. DFS had been working very successfully with krow for almost a decade and, since their appointment in 2011, the krow team had played a significant role in the success of the brand.

With an aspirational strategic vision of becoming ‘The Leading Sofa Retailer in the Digital Age’, the DFS team wanted to ensure any new agency could partner with them to achieve that ambition. The successful agency would need to have the capability to understand the entire customer journey, from consideration through to purchase and potentially repurchase. And, equally as important, there would need to be a very strong cultural fit. DFS was looking to appoint a potential agency partner for the next decade.

AAR consequently ran a pitch programme that allowed agencies to prove their strategic and creative capabilities while encouraging both client and agency teams to spend as much time together as possible, safely within COVID-19 guidelines. By the time DFS arrived at their final decision, there was no doubt that there would be a strong fit in terms of capability, personal engagement and collaboration.

The final presentations took place over two days at the DFS HQ in Doncaster, with Pablo being appointed following strong showings from the other competing agencies, BBH and VCCP.

Commenting on the review,  DFS Marketing Director Nick Ashworth said:

“I cannot recommend AAR highly enough after their support in our creative agency pitch selection process. Their knowledge, expertise and experience ensured that we had a phenomenally strong selection of agencies with the right blend of capabilities and cultural fit for our business. The process ran smoothly and was managed efficiently by the AAR team; whilst support was on hand from briefing to appointment (and beyond). A huge thanks to Martin and the AAR team for making it a really enjoyable experience.”

It was a pleasure to have been involved with such a mutually respectful pitch process and we look forward to seeing the results and the start of another ten year relationship!