Neiman’s Fall Campaign Tackles ‘New Frontiers’
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Neiman Marcus launches its 2023 fall campaign Monday under the theme “New Frontiers” and with a new tag line: “In pursuit of the extraordinary since 1907.”
The campaign marks a creative departure from previous Neiman Marcus campaigns in that it uses as a springboard the history of the brand; will appear more consistently across Neiman’s digital, brick-and-mortar store and remote selling channels and marketing communications to customers, and will feature a selected assortment of 53 brands compared to wider presentations of the past.
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“Something that we took very seriously at Neiman’s is the consistency of the imagery development and the consistency of the tone of voice across all channels. Where we feel as a brand we’re going to be able to come through the loudest is by developing this consistency,” Ryan Ross, president of Neiman Marcus and head of customer insights for the Neiman Marcus Group, told WWD.
“New Frontiers really signals a turning of the page where we’re using our history and our lineage as a source of strength,” added Nabil Aliffi, chief brand officer of Neiman Marcus. “As you look at the visuals of the campaign, you will see a sense of familiarity and the boldness and the optimism that we identify as a retailer that started out in Dallas 116 years ago.”
As a nod to its past, the Neiman Marcus catalogue, known as “The Book,” has on its cover the signature Neiman Marcus butterfly. But within the pages of The Book, Neiman’s ushers in a new season of fashion, delivering “a nod to innovation — a nod to what’s new and exciting that keeps us relevant,” Aliffi added.
Ross and Aliffi believe that while campaigns of the past typically didn’t tie back to the fabled history of Neiman Marcus and how it began when Herbert Marcus Sr., his sister Carrie Marcus Neiman and her husband Abraham Lincoln Neiman all went out on a limb to bring luxury fashion to Dallas, it’s necessary to do so. “That’s a very important way in retail today that people relate to the brand and that customers have a connection to the brand,” said Ross.
Among the campaign’s innovations, an anthology profile series is being introduced, titled “The Achievers.” Each season the anthology will spotlight five individuals and for the inaugural edition this fall the subjects are Wes Gordon, creative director of Carolina Herrera; Cornelia Guest, actress, socialite and animal rights activist; CeeDee Lamb, wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys; filmmaker Gregg Araki, and writer and curator Amy Sall.
“These five individuals represent the spirit of optimism and boldness that we want to put out there,” said Aliffi.
For future catalogues, there will continue to be a cross section of people. “So yes, Wes Gordon is a designer, but there will also be sportsmen, musicians, actors, even customers,” individuals that you wouldn’t usually expect Neiman’s to spotlight. “Anybody who we think embodies the spirit of Neiman Marcus, you can expect to be in the anthology series,” said Aliffi.
For the 2023 holiday book, “We are working on holiday, which will be something different. It will be focusing on the joys of giving back through the lens of philanthropy,” said Aliffi.
In another departure, the campaign was shot in a soundstage in New York. Imagery captures American landscapes seen in movies and art, some of that frontier imagery. “Part of that is to evoke a sense of familarity and nostalgia,” said Aliffi. “But the modernity comes into play because it was all shot on a new technology, called Stagecraft, that allows you to project any image you want in the background. So we’re using new technology to reimagine how we capture our brand campaigns.”
The technology is more cost-effective than going on location to shoot, he added.
For the campaign, there is a limited-edition, large format, hard cover version of The Book. It’s cloth-bound, comes in a box, and goes out to only the 350 top customers of the past 12 months. Each book is numbered for a personalized touch.
The mainstream, soft-covered version of The Book is distributed to 500,000 households and though the paper stock was upgraded from last year, according to Aliffi, Neiman’s managed to keep the cost per unit the same. Each version of the book contains the same content. There is also a mailer for “emerging customers,” as the company termed those shoppers.
Among the fall 2023 women’s trends featured: quiet luxury; longline outerwear; flats, tall boots, dress boots, tote bags, and the color red. In men’s, trends highlighted are monochrome; dressed up tailoring; suede; chunky sole footwear, and dress boots.
“What we’re doing differently is really executing on an integrated marketing strategy. So we’re executing across all of our marketing mix, which includes store presentations and our windows,” said Aliffi. “So for the launch of the campaign on Monday, all of our 36 doors will have windows that speak to the New Frontiers campaign, and our top three doors will each have a kinetic installation in the windows that speaks to these expansive landscapes that we’ve used in the ad campaign. Within the ad campaign, there’s obviously the print, the stills, but also the videos that you will see in connected TV, and on digital screens. So we’re going big on the amplification of this campaign.”
The Neiman Marcus stores in Beverly Hills, on Michigan Avenue in Chicago and in NorthPark Center in Dallas will have the kinetic presentations. “They move,” Aliffi explained. “There’s a mechanical installation of the landscapes that rotates. It’s not a stationary window installation that you would typically expect. It also has a degree of animation that adds another layer of interest,” Aliffi said.
Asked if the marketing spend has changed from a year ago, Aliffi answered, “We’re spending less than what we expected. And much of that is because we’ve now got this in-house creative marketing capability, where we’re able to execute and deliver greater value with the same amount of business.”
Neiman’s always had creative and editorial staff, but Aliffi said the team has recently been pumped up. In one key change, Bruce Pask, formerly the men’s fashion director for Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman, is taking on a broad new role as senior editorial director for the Neiman Marcus brand, as reported. Pask will lead a team of 11 and report to Rachael Klein, the vice president of brand marketing for Neiman Marcus.
New Frontiers is the first campaign created under Ross and Aliffi. The campaign was photographed by Arnaud Lajeunie, with still photography by Andrès Jaña and Jeff Stevens; set design by Peter Klein, and styling by Katie Burnett and Jocelyn Meinster.
“Now we’re working on the holiday campaign,” Aliffi added, where the theme gets changed but the ‘in pursuit of the extraordinary since 1907’ tag line is sustained.
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