We didn’t just want to talk about ‘today’, we wanted to show how Argos enables everyone to own ‘today’, ensuring that our media and message was relevant to the micro moments of Spring and Summer.

We ran bespoke analysis across sales, search and social data to identify Spring/Summer opportunities that informed both the phasing and content of our campaign. Using this data, we identified which products people were most likely to want each day of Spring and Summer, for example, we saw spikes for toys during half term, and paddling pools and fans during heat waves. From this, we developed an innovative campaign product selection process.

Informed and inspired by data, we broke the conventions of traditional TV campaigns and the expected 30 second TVC format, creating 80 unique 10 second spots – one for every day of the campaign.

Buying and delivering a campaign based on individual day specific requirements was an industry-first. In an unprecedented move, the campaign required a day-by-day buying approach and bespoke briefings to the TV stations, as the 80 days were essentially booked as 80 individual days – not something the stations had ever seen.

Ads were updated daily across all mediums and targeted at people interested in that day’s product on YouTube and Facebook using our bank of sales, search and social data.

Buying media by the day allowed us the flexibility to upweight ratings on days we knew would be popular, like Star Wars Day, on Bank Holidays or during half term We reacted to real time events like heat waves and the snap general election, often updating copy at the very last minute.

Argos has a huge and previously untapped bank of data that informed every aspect of this campaign. Data informed the strategy, with research indicating that focusing on the functional offering of Same Day Delivery was a message that the public would find compelling. But it went much further. A unique blend of Argos’s sales, search and social data informed every one of the 80 creative executions, making them as relevant as possible to the public’s interests on each day of Spring/Summer. Data helped us match products to relevant events and seasons. Then using media data, we targeted online executions at people searching for matching content.

Our data ensured that Argos was relevant to each moment of Spring/Summer, proving in an innovative way, that Argos enables consumers to ‘own today’.

This brave TV strategy enabled us to stay on air for much longer than a traditional campaign. The campaign received around 111 hours of airtime, delivering over 500 million impacts on TV, with the average person seeing the campaign 20 times, a +300% increase on average.

The short-form format enabled us to use our budget more efficiently on TV and enabled perfect integration into social. We saw improved retention rates, with the majority of users seeing 40-70% of each ad (compared to a typical 12.5% retention). This meant that our key messaging was delivered to and seen by millions of users, giving ’80 Days of Argos’ a competitive edge against longer ads.

The campaign significantly increased perceptions that Argos understands customer needs (77% +9% points YOY). Perceptions of Argos as the ‘fastest way to shop’ grew by +8% points YOY and 19% of new customer’s transactions used Same Day Delivery.

We broke the conventions of TV advertising, creating 80 bespoke, date-stamped films every day over Spring/Summer.

80 Days of Argos was unlike any campaign to come before it, and needed a media strategy to match. 80 individual ads each running for one day only meant, rather than block-buying, we had to buy by the day - something TV stations had never seen before.

Argos’ huge untapped bank of data informed our strategy, inspired our creative idea and impacted every execution. Data predicted which products should be in which ad, when to run each ad and who to target them at.

The campaign ran across TV, VOD, social and digital, including daily updates on argos.co.uk.

Since there was a completely new ad every day, seeing just one film wasn’t enough. We had to ensure people saw the message over and over to build across the season.

To increase impact we targeted films at people according to their search data (like Fitbits for people searching ‘London Marathon’) and upweighted the ad spend to react to popular events like Star Wars day.

Our budget was the same as it would have been for a traditional campaign of 30 second ads, but we gained efficiencies by buying ten second spots instead. Adjusting the second length and phasing enabled the campaign to air for 80 days for the same budget.

Our strategy ensured that Argos was relevant to each moment of Spring/Summer, proving, in an innovative way, that Argos enables consumers to ‘own today’.

Many retailers talk about ‘fast’, but Argos is faster than fast. Order before 6pm and Argos will deliver to you today. Nationwide.

Trouble was, no-one believed it. We had to show the British public that Argos owned today like never before.

So we created ‘80 Days of Argos’; 80 individually crafted ten second films that each ran for just one day. Every ad had the day’s date and a product that you could get that day, all shot in camera. It’s the first campaign to run a date-stamped ad every day.

A ground-breaking campaign needed a ground-breaking media strategy. Using the same media budget as previous campaigns, we had to be smart and use data to inform with our buying to ensure people saw the spots every day to build the Same Day delivery story.