Title	ARRIVE LIKE YOU MEAN IT
Brand	George at Asda
Product/Service	School uniform
Entrant	IMPERO DESIGN LTD London, UNITED KINGDOM
Idea Creation	IMPERO DESIGN LTD London, UNITED KINGDOM
Media Placement	SPARK FOUNDRY London, UNITED KINGDOM
PR	ASDA George Lutterworth, UNITED KINGDOM
Production	IMPERO DESIGN LTD London, UNITED KINGDOM
Production 2	ARMOURY London, UNITED KINGDOM
Post Production	CHEAT London, UNITED KINGDOM
Additional Company	ASDA George Lutterworth, UNITED KINGDOM

Name	Company	Position
Michael Scantlebury	Impero	Executive Creative Director
Alastair Mills	Impero	Creative Director
Zara Bennet	Impero	Art Director
Clare Thomson	Impero	Agency Producer
Ato Yankey	Armoury	Director
Kwame 'Kz' Kwei-Armah Jnr.	Freelance	Music Producer
Jon Mobbs	Impero	Business Director
Charlotte Willcocks	Impero	Head of Strategy
Ginny Wilson	Impero	Senior Account Manager
Longbin Li	Impero	Design Director

Why is this work relevant for Integrated?

“Arrive like you mean it” was a multichannel campaign with our back-to-school rap group at the centre of our communications. The campaign led with a TV ad which was a mini-music video, introducing our key characters, (and of course their choice of school wear). They were the faces of the supporting in-store materials, social content, print and supporting online content, including lyric videos, micro-pop video bumpers, and more. "Arrive like you mean it" became a mantra for going back to school after an unprecedented time away, and the idea organically went viral across all media.

Background

A year of stops, starts and homeschooling meant that 2021’s back-to-school moment was going to symbolise much more than just the start of a new year. It was seen by many parents as the hopeful start of our post-covid lives - where above the good grades, sporting achievements and other classic school pursuits -  parents more than anything just wanted their kids to be happy, and to go back with confidence.  As the nation’s favourite school uniform retailer, George at ASDA wanted to capitalise on this moment, capture the imagination of kids and parents alike, and win the fierce battle for attention at what was to be the biggest back-to-school moment in UK history.

Describe the creative idea

“Arrive like you mean it” is about new beginnings: empowering kids to face their futures with complete confidence. It uses the moment when kids arrive back at school (after more than a year of disruptions) as the central focus for the whole campaign. To show the kids together in confidence and solidarity - we created a track and a music video in a genre of music that could reflect this perfectly - UK Drill. “Arrive like you mean it” was an idea designed to let kids lead the way, to project an authentic picture of a culturally diverse Britain to inspire kids to believe in themselves.

Describe the strategy

We were asked to maintain George at ASDA’s position as the number one school shop for parents and dominate the back to school peak. We needed to set the standard, bringing new news, not repeating old tropes and familiar category messaging. Our approach was to tap into the mood in culture: that this back to school moment would mark the start of a new beginning - where parents wanted nothing more than for their children to thrive. Doing this needed a truly integrated campaign to demand attention and engage consumers in culture, not just a TV advert.

Describe the execution

The campaign launched on TV with our 30 second music video performed by our diverse cast of kids. Simultaneously our young rappers were featured in-store, in print, radio/audio, social videos and animated gifs highlighting George’s sustainability and pricing messages.The track was uploaded to TikTok so people could use it for their own videos, and it was made into a lyric video.

List the results

"Arrive like you mean it" had a media reach of 44.3m (84%) at a frequency of 9.03. But the great success came from its virality. With no additional spend, it took the internet by storm. There were 2.7+ million views of the advert on social media / YouTube (with no spend). It enjoyed social engagement of over 7.6 million and was picked up and played by the non-commercial BBC Radio 1 with over 1.2 million listeners. Online sales of back to school wear for George.com were up by 29% on 2 years (2019 pre pandemic). The business target was to retain the number 1 spot in the back-to-school market - and we comfortably achieved this.