Title	WHATEVER YOU
Brand	HEIST
Product/Service	HEIST TIGHTS
Category	A01. Glass
Entrant	RAPP London, UNITED KINGDOM
Idea Creation	RAPP London, UNITED KINGDOM
Media Placement	RAPP London, UNITED KINGDOM
Production	RAPP London, UNITED KINGDOM

Name	Company	Position
Ben Golik	RAPP UK	Creative Director
Sara Soares	RAPP UK	Copywriter
Maria Leiria	RAPP UK	Art Director
Simon Chashire	RAPP UK	Designer
Jeffery Osborne	RAPP UK	Motion Graphics
Jennifer Musgreave	RAPP UK	Planning Partner
Joe Hopper	RAPP UK	Senior Social Strategist
Ursula Benson	RAPP UK	Business DIrector
Ryan Brady	RAPP UK	Project Manager
Manuel Costa-Campos	RAPP UK	Project Manager
Patrick Kerrigan-Hall	Freelance	Photographer

Background

Our brief from Heist was to sell tights without selling out the women, and men, who wear them. As a lingerie brand that rejects the sexualisation of its audience as a ruse to sell its product, they refused to create imagery with the male gaze in mind. So, we abandoned the antiquated clichés of a tiresome category and made the campaign positive, provocative and, above all, inclusive.

Describe the cultural/social/political climate in your region and the significance of your campaign within this context

For the past few years, our society has been openly debating and evolving our social and cultural norms, while also working to understand and embrace intersectionality. We are now in a new era of ‘wokeness.’ Though Sadiq Khan and Transportation for London have banded together to begin eliminating body-shaming ads on public transportation in London, we recognise the world has a long way to go in dismantling social constructs that oppress us. The onus is on us as advertisers to take ownership in our role of cultural production by doing our work differently and better. We created a campaign that does not exploit or alienate bodies. Instead, our campaign celebrates and embraces Heist’s entire customer base, without showing bodies. We made Heist’s campaign a prominent touchpoint in public discourse around inclusive advertising, all while proving that walking the walk in this new era of ‘wokeness’ drives sales.

Describe the creative idea

Traditionally tights have always been packaged with images of slim, young, mostly white, able-bodied, heteronormative, binary depictions of women. When you show a body, the conversation turns to appearance. Why preemptively alienate your customer base with body-shaming? We did away with the dated advertising and countered it with "We don't make tights for perfect bodies. Just perfect tights for every body." Naturally, we swapped bodies for fruit. Using prickly pineapples to show mood and beautifully veined melons to suggest age, Heist could talk about form and complexity, without being myopically focused on appearance. The campaign was positive, provocative and above all – inclusive.

Describe the strategy

Our research told us 60% of UK adults felt ashamed of their appearance, and 70% of adult women felt pressure from media to have a perfect body. UK women also have one of the lowest body confidence scores in the world. While globally, 69% of women stated pressure from advertising and media was one of the key forces driving their appearance anxiety. Heist’s main audience groups were also united by their weariness with ads featuring a singular view of female beauty, shot with overt sexual overtones. While casting models with different skin tones or body shapes was perceived as tokenistic and void of any greater motivation beyond corporate political correctness. So, we rose to the challenge of creating a campaign for bodywear, without objectifying bodies, under the proposition, “Perfect tights for every body.”

Describe the execution

This campaign didn't objectify anyone. Instead, we cast a pineapple (and a banana, too). In fact, a whole fruit bowl. This socially responsible campaign pushes back against the objectification of women in advertising. Casting fruit also neatly helped us avoid the traps of tokenism common in more 'inclusive' campaigns. Instead, these eye-catching and humorous images gently poke fun at the language of “peachy bums”, “melon boobs” and “pear-shaped bodies”. They also allowed us to talk about hot-button issues like size and colour – with a lightness of touch. It turned out fruit was a great leveler. Just like Heist tights, this was a campaign designed with every customer in mind. Including men – an important 10% of Heist’s customer base. As the campaign proclaimed, these are tights for “Whatever You” – whatever shape, mood or style. There are no binary decisions. Not even about gender. These aren’t tights. They're untights

Describe the results/impact

The campaign worked and worked brilliantly, driving a 25% month-on-month direct sales increase. These offset the additional media investment to maintain a flat CPA YOY. But that’s not all. We generated incredibly positive PR. The campaign was designed with every customer in mind, including men, an important 10% of Heist’s customer base. Heist was the first to publicly acknowledge them, gaining free, positive publicity with Hosiery4Men and other similar influencers relevant to this niche audience. Conversation generated by the campaign is also drove NPD, specifically around the challenges of leg length, and the true variety of ‘nude’ shades currently unmet by the category. The ads also achieved a perfect Facebook Relevance score of 10. Plus, we cut through busy Facebook feeds, with the best-performing executions driving a 5.3% click-through rate. Targeting lookalike audiences achieved a peak click-through rate of 3.2%.