Jacamo, Sky Media & Carat/Dentsu

Jacamo’s campaign was a Force of Nature

In 2020, Jacamo renewed its long-standing partnership with Sky Media and challenged us to meet several big new objectives. They wanted to improve brand associations and awareness, shift consumers’ brand perception, increase purchase consideration and increase spontaneous awareness (from 2% to 5%). This partnership, their third with Sky Media, titled ‘Force of Nature’ tells the story of male body confidence and celebrates the natural beauty of big in the great outdoors, highlighting the brand’s 2020 Autumn/Winter range that caters to a broad range of sizes. Moving away from a Sport solus approach to a more entertainment focused solution, we helped Jacamo achieve their objectives and reach a broader audience.

Leveraging Sky Media’s access to talent, channels and platforms, this truly integrated partnership was activated using linear, VoD, branded content and licensing. The campaign was a big success, and the objectives were not only met, but many of the KPIs were exceeded.

Formerly pigeon-holed as an unfashionable plus-sized male clothing specialist, Jacamo came to Sky Media in 2019 wanting to promote its full range of products and change its perception in the market. Following a successful campaign that increased likeability by 28pp and consideration by 27pp. The partnership was renewed and revitalised the following year to showcase the brand’s 2020 Autumn/Winter range and to continue positively impacting brand associations. Jacamo wanted to own, embrace and champion big; to drive strong associations with powerful, fashionable and stylish attributes by proving that big isn’t simply a matter of size. It is values like strength, determination and being the bigger man determine the true measure of a man.

Jacamo gave us some specific and ambitious targets to hit, but we were up to the challenge. They wanted to continue to build brand awareness, increase purchase consideration, increase spontaneous awareness (from 2% to 5%) and increase favourability (from 33% to 46%).

We came up with a branded content solution called the ‘Force of Nature’, to tell a story of male body confidence and celebrate the natural beauty of big in the great outdoors. Moving away from a sport solus approach to a more entertainment focused solution, we wanted to help Jacamo breathe life into their objectives and showcase their Autumn/Winter range against an epic natural back drop. In a year when we had found so much value in the great outdoors, the creative established this message by showcasing the natural beauty and powerful parallels between big mountains, big trees, big open spaces and most importantly, big men.

It was crucial that we used the right brand ambassadors for this campaign, as research had shown that Jacamo’s audience were receptive to the influence of “brand ambassadors”, but that the connection needed to be relevant, authentic and representative of diverse men in order to land effectively. We enlisted well known outdoor experts including former SAS Elite forces Ollie Ollerton and Jay Morton, and physically imposing former athletes, Paul Olima and James Haskell, to take each other on in a competitive race, set in the big outdoors.

Against a backdrop of stunning landscapes in the Lake District, the talent was put to task. Split into pairs and armed with a Jacamo pack (clothes, tech and outdoor equipment to help them along the way), the men were dropped at a starting point and challenged to reach the final meeting point, a remote pub called the Jacamo Arms, within an allotted time. On the way, against the great outdoors and against the clock, the big pairs faced a series of big obstacles in a competition to finish the journey quickest and earn the ultimate bragging rights. The longform content captured the huge physical challenges, authentic moments and men’s reactions along the journey, culminating in a chat over a pint down at the Jacamo Arms.

A great creative needed a great media plan, so we leveraged the Sky channels and platforms to ensure the campaign would be seen across multiple touchpoints and achieve the objectives. The channels underpinned in the partnership were Sky One and Sky Sport, both of which were licensed, and the campaign covered linear TV, VoD and branded content that lived on Sky’s On Demand.The campaign ran from 16 October to 21 December 2020 and consisted of 2 elements. Firstly the Sky One and Sky Sports channels were licensed to introduce and endorse an existing Jacamo 30-second TVC on linear and VoD with a 10-second ‘Sky Presents’ ident across the two channels. The TVC was a highimpact and highly stylized advert showing the beauty of big and we built contextual relevancy for Jacamo by using the channels’ biggest shows, including Premier League football, 2020 Scottish Championship golf and The Russell Howard Hour.

The big moment of the partnership culminated in a cinematic 10-minute 40-seconds branded content piece hosted on Sky Sports EPG and Jacamo’s YouTube channel, plus a 2-minute 40-seconds cutdown. The ‘Force of Nature’ challenge content was teased at the end of a 40-second interactive red button Jacamo advert on linear TV across the Sky portfolio; this was a shortened version of the branded content piece and was used to build interest around the longer creative, that is hosted on Jacamo’s social channels and Sky Sports VoD platform.