Marks & Spencer CANCELS Christmas clothing ads and turns to influencers to promote range instead

Marks & Spencer has cancelled its Christmas clothing adverts and turned to online influencers to promote its range instead. 

Traditional TV ads will concentrate solely on food this year instead, with the first to appear in the coming weeks. 

The retailer is still planning to use influencers on social media to market clothing and homeware in the hope customers will shop online in the event of a lockdown over Christmas, according to Campaign.

Marks & Spencer has cancelled its Christmas clothing adverts (2019 ad pictured above) and turned to social media influencers to promote its range instead

Traditional TV ads will concentrate solely on food this year instead, with the first to appear in the coming weeks (pictured: two people wearing jumpers in the company’s 2019 clothing ad)

Last year the company’s Christmas ad for clothing featured hip hop dancers in the store’s jumpers and pyjamas.

Sales for jumpers and pyjamas rose as a result but figures later showed that, overall, sales of clothing and homeware in the last three months of 2019 fell by 1.7 per cent.

It follows the onset of the Covid crisis, with more customers working from home, meaning demand for work-related wear has fallen since.

M&S announced in August that it is axing 7,000 jobs, with the bulk of cuts being made across its stores, hitting around 12 per cent of its 60,000 shop-based staff.

Regarding its last set of financial figures, retail analyst Natalie Berg, of NBK Retail, said of M&S clothing: ‘In trying to be everything to everyone they’ve ended up being nothing to no one.’

And fellow analyst, Kate Hardcastle, added: ‘Generally they have got a 25-year-old model wearing garments targeted at a 65-year-old who doesn’t feel included.

Last year the company’s Christmas ads for clothing, ‘Go Jumpers for Christmas!’ featured hip hop dancers in the store’s jumpers and pyjamas (pictured), with sales initially rising as a result 

‘They don’t connect with customers enough so they never know what the customers want.’

An M&S spokesperson said: ‘Despite all the uncertainty, we know our customers want to make Christmas special for the ones they love – however they’re celebrating. 

‘Whilst we aren’t sharing any details of our campaign yet, we’ll be marketing our clothing & home products with the magic & sparkle our customers expect of M&S. 

‘Alongside this we’ve made it our mission to help customers shop with confidence so we’ll continue to communicate all the robust measures we have in place – from contact free delivery to hosts on the door of every M&S store.’