19.5% above-market store growth
DFS & Blis: Bringing the Joy of Summer Home
Summer isn't the obvious season to sell sofas.
- 19.5% above-market store growth
- 31% uplift in brand awareness
- 28% uplift in purchase intent
- 29% uplift in ad recall with Audio and DOOH together
The challenge
People are on holiday, at the beach, visiting family, and spending more time outdoors than in. Home furnishings often slip down the priority list.
But DFS saw the season as an opportunity. Its “Joy of Summer” campaign was built on a simple truth: the more time we spend out in the world, the more we appreciate coming home. Working with EssenceMediacom and Blis, DFS brought that idea to life through programmatic Digital Out of Home and Audio, using location intelligence and dynamic creative to reach people at the moments the message would resonate most.
Across 25.3 million impressions, the campaign turned a traditionally slow retail season into measurable store growth and brand uplift.
The solution
DFS needed to increase awareness, drive incremental store visits, and optimise creative in real time, all during a period when consumers prioritize travel and leisure over shopping for the home.
Blis built audiences from multiple real-world signals, including proximity to DFS stores, visits to competitor locations, time of day, weather, and spend behavior. Creative then adapted to that context. Someone near a DFS store could see a different message from someone near a competitor, a commuter heading home might hear about unwinding after work, and a heatwave could trigger messaging about escaping the heat in the comfort of home.
Smart Holdout Groups measured the campaign cookie-free and ID-free, comparing statistically matched exposed and control groups to reveal the impact of Audio and DOOH individually and in combination, across both brand lift and footfall.
The results
By combining audience insights, dynamic creative, and omnichannel measurement, DFS stayed top of mind during one of retail's most challenging seasons while driving people back into stores.
- 19.5% above-market store growth across targeted stores, with individual stores achieving up to 38%
- 31% uplift in brand awareness
- 28% uplift in purchase intent
- 29% uplift in ad recall when Audio and DOOH ran together, versus 18% for DOOH and 5% for Audio alone
Our collaboration on this campaign exemplifies how smart, strategic use of programmatic DOOH, mobile, and audio can create truly impactful brand moments. During a traditionally challenging retail period, this campaign not only delivered outstanding results but also set a new benchmark for how brands can use dynamic creative and omnichannel measurement to optimise performance.
The results showed the value of measuring omnichannel performance together rather than in silos. Audio and DOOH each contributed on their own, but combined they delivered significantly stronger recall and footfall than either channel alone – proving that real-world signals and dynamic creative can drive outcomes even when the season works against you.
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