I Want One of Those (IWOOT) has embarked on a television
advertising campaign that will see it go beyond its online
marketing roots. Tim Booth, the company’s cofounder and creative
director, told Catalogue/e-business that TV advertising
was a natural next step for the company, whose target audience
may not necessarily be traditional mail order buyers.
The business started out in 2000 as an online retailer of gadgets with the tagline “Stuff you don’t need… but you really, really want”. It was acquired by Kleeneze’s parent company, European Home Retail (EHR); when EHR collapsed in 2006, Findel bought IWOOT along with sister brands Kleeneze and Kitbag.com.
Booth said that online retailers can sometimes forget that people, particularly those who are not online or catalogue shoppers, may not be familiar with the brand. Therefore television was a logical marketing route for the business, which already has a radio presence. It is currently sponsoring Virgin Radio’s Geoff Show, a late-night tongue-in-cheek programme, and has been advertising on other radio programmes throughout the year. IWOOT has also branched out into taxi advertising with ads in a dozen taxis across London, it is also trialling taxi advertising in Liverpool, Belfast and Birmingham.
Even though the emphasis is on new advertising channels, IWOOT is not neglecting its print catalogue this Christmas. For the first time, the company is releasing a “bumper” perfect-bound edition of its catalogue. Booth said that the 132-page edition feels like “a proper catalogue” and gives customers a wider choice of products. “It’s twice the size of anything we’ve ever done,” he said.
Whether IWOOT repeats this activity next year has yet to be determined. Booth said that research teams are gauging brand awareness and that early indications showed a significant traffic spike immediately after the TV ad first aired. As for what’s next for IWOOT, Booth said, “We’ve got our heads down and are peddling fast”.
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