Italian products' sales rise spurs Harvey Nichols Britalia campaign

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Nov 4, 2016

Luxury retailer Harvey Nichols is bucking the marketing trend this Christmas season with an ad campaign that is a humorous celebration of Italian style following a rise in sales of Italian labels and Italian products at the retailer’s UK stores.

Harvey Nichols is standing out from many fashion-focused UK vendors who are opting for animations and traditional sentimentality. Instead its Britalia campaign is focused on the fashion, beauty and lifestyle of Italy and does not mention Christmas.

The ad was was created by agency adam&eveDDB, which is also responsible for the hotly-anticipated John Lewis Christmas ad due to be aired next week.

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The retailer’s creative and marketing director Shadi Halliwell said the concept plays on the Italian love of passion, drama and lively debate.

It features a scene from Luigi Pirandello play As You Desire Me. The characters are raging about something and the subtitles suggest it’s because Harvey Nichols has taken all the best Italian fashion, beauty, homewares and food and “left us nothing but scraps”.

It is a complete contrast to last year’s Gift Face campaign that focused on people’s facial expressions when they are given a disappointing present but which was very similar to several other ads that season.