Tuesday February 17, 2004
Gimme an H: Hilfiger Plans $10M Campaign for New Line
By Lisa Lockwood
NEW YORK — “It’s the biggest thing we’ve ever done in terms of a launch,” said Peter Connolly, president of worldwide marketing and communications president of international marketing at Tommy Hilfiger Corp.
For the official kickoff of H Hilfiger, Tommy’s new upscale sportswear collection for women and men, the company has budgeted more than $10 million this year. The effort includes a multimedia campaign with a major newspaper and radio initiative; eight-page inserts in a dozen national magazines; a 16-page mailer sent to one million homes, and a cross-country tour, led by Hilfiger, to seven cities, where fashion shows and VIP parties will be held.
The H line, priced at the upper end of the better category, will be carried exclusively in 100 Federated doors this season. It also will be available in Hilfiger’s directly owned boutiques in SoHo in Manhattan; White Plains, N.Y.; Short Hills, N.J., and Santa Monica, Calif.
On March 14, Hilfiger will unfurl four-color black-and-white, double-page spreads introducing H in 29 newspapers, including the Boston Globe, Miami Herald, Seattle Times, Atlanta Journal and Constitution, San Francisco Chronicle, Philadelphia Inquirer, Columbus Dispatch, Los Angeles Times and New York Times. Sources estimate the Sunday newspaper buy alone will exceed $2.7 million.
The ads, which were photographed by Ellen von Unwerth, feature David Bowie and Iman and a letter from Hilfiger introducing the H collection. Additionally, a 16-page mailer highlighting H will be mailed in mid-March to one million homes in 39 markets, culled from Federated’s mailing lists. The mailer features images from the ad campaign, as well as still lifes of the products.
To rev up the business, Tommy Hilfiger himself will hit the road, starting March 18. He will visit seven stores, stage full-fledged fashion shows and host several VIP parties. Among the stops are Macy’s Herald Square on March 18; Rich’s-Macy’s in Atlanta on March 31, Macy’s West in San Francisco on April 3, and Bon-Macy’s in Seattle on April 7. All seven visits will be accompanied by newspaper ads touting the event. The shows will be open to the general public, but there will also be VIP seating for retailers’ top customers. Local celebrities in each market will be invited.
Accompanying the launch will be a major radio buy with Infinity Radio. The spots, which are currently being created, will have Hilfiger talking about why he developed the H line. There will be promotional events tied into each market, as well. The radio effort, which includes more than 1,900 total spots, will air nationally on classic rock, contemporary, urban, country, news and soft adult stations.
Furthermore, eight-page inserts featuring Bowie and Iman will break in April in Esquire, The New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, In Style, Interview, Out, Harper’s Bazaar, Vanity Fair, GQ, Details, Vogue and W (the last four of which, like WWD, are owned by Advance Publications). In May, four-page inserts will run in the same titles.
Von Unwerth shot Iman and Bowie both individually and as a couple in their room and in the lobby of the Amstel Hotel in Amsterdam. Doug Lloyd, owner of Lloyd & Co., was the campaign’s art and creative director, and Dustin Horowitz is Hilfiger’s in-house creative director.
H, which is more sophisticated than Hilfiger’s casual sportswear line, is priced about 20 to 30 percent higher, and in some cases 60 percent higher. It has more luxurious fabrics, such as cashmeres and leathers, and has more detailing and tailoring. It is geared to a customer 28 years old and older. In the men’s area, the line will be housed in the current Hilfiger shops, although they will add new fixtures. In women’s, H will be housed in all new shops, in separate areas from the Hilfiger women’s sportswear collection and Tommy Jeans. Hilfiger executives declined to give a volume projection.
Connolly noted that Bowie and Iman will appear in the fall campaign, as well, and von Unwerth will photograph the couple again in New York on March 25.
In other news, Hilfiger named two independent members this month to serve on its board: Mario L. Baeza, 53, founder and controlling shareholder of Baeza & Co., a private equity and hedge-fund specialist, and Jerri DeVard, 45, senior vice president of brand management and communications at Verizon Communications.
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