El Palacio Launches Ad Campaign Celebrating Fashion ‘Renewal’

April 20, 2021

MEXICO CITY — El Palacio de Hierro launched a new image campaign to help shore up sales as the pandemic triggered a 26 percent decline last year.

Under the slogan “Renewal is in me,” the Mexican luxury retailer launched a 60-second TV spot on Monday with help from local ad agency Teran TBWA.

The effort features four clips showing models celebrating style through “renewal” moments. One features a model climbing a set of blue stairs reaching to the heavens in Mexico’s Texcoco desert, anchored with the catchphrase: “What’s distance today, tomorrow will be a tailored hug.” Another clip labeled “Mirrors” shows a model testing her current image in a mirror and then shaking it up to find a new self based on inner beauty, with the script “Today beauty is found in mirrors. Tomorrow I will find it in my interior.”

El Palacio’s newly appointed chief customer officer Werner Hirschi and fashion director Sofia Felix said the new campaign had its genesis from a need to connect with customers eager to find new ways to interact with fashion in a changed world. “Renewal is the axis of our new communications campaign,” said Hirschi, who previously held management roles at Japanese makeup brand Shu Uemura and L’Oréal Luxe.

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“We need to change with the world and find new versions of ourselves.” Felix, in turn, said consumers have engaged in deep introspection about style and fashion, looking for “new ways to renew themselves,” epiphanies that helped El Palacio choose “Renewal” as the spots’ focus.

Apart from the TV commercial, the campaign will feature outdoor ads and encourage customers to contribute their own versions of what renewal means — with the result set to be displayed in the retailer’s flagship store in Mexico City’s upscale Polanco quarter in a marketing event on Thursday.

El Palacio is not the only Mexican retailer looking to connect in special ways with customers as COVID-19 continues to crimp sales.

Rival Liverpool recently launched ads aimed at empowering women through fashion, celebrating diverse silhouettes and speaking to Mexico’s multicultural heritage.

“They did a great campaign talking to women with different body shapes and skin tones,” said Mexican designer Benito Santos, who has become known for dressing Mexican celebrities and first ladies.

Santos said his brand has benefitted from an aggressive push into e-commerce, which he noted Mexican department stores and other merchants were slow to embrace, though they are now improving on that front.

While El Palacio’s online sales have surged recently, it was still unable to fend off a massive drop in turnover last year as the pandemic forced retailers to shut for more than four months.

Sales fell 26 percent to 26.3 billion pesos, or $1.3 billion, according to a regulatory filing.

El Palacio’s communications director Luis Moreno would not venture a forecast for this year’s revenues but noted business is improving and that a recent overhaul of stores in Mexico City’s Santa Fe and Perisur quarters has helped bolster traffic.