Product development & launch
The rewards credit card from John Lewis and Waitrose, the Partnership Card, is a unique product as it is the only financial services offering from John Lewis that is a physical product; a card. 12 years after its initial launch, the credit card product was updated with HSBC which resulted in the visual identity and assets being evolved as well. The update included; new card plastics designs, key art photography, updated site and app design, and integration with Apple Pay.
To launch the new product development, the Christmas campaign championed the card and was the largest campaign in its 12 year history. With more than 120 different printed items and 80 pieces of digital creative, this campaign aimed to achieve an active account rate of one million customers.
Client: John Lewis & Partners and Waitrose & Partners
Agency: In-house
Category: Product development, Retail financial services, campaign
Skills: Integrated design, Art direction, UI/UX design, InDesign, Photoshop
Partnership Card Redesign
As the physical plastic card was redesign to meet commercial needs, the digital representation was also updated for use with Apply Pay, the iOS and Android app, and in small form on site.
The creative was an evolution of the original four colour card designs which met commercial factors and maintained brand heritage. The hero card was then shot for future key brand assets, as well as a new set of illustrations of essential product features was commissioned. These new assts were then applied across all digital and print materials, including all marketing material and third party platforms.
New Assets
Application of new assets
Partnership card HSBC reskinned app
Christmas Campaign Launch
The creative strategy started with investigating dual customer needs, both John Lewis retail and Waitrose grocery, to determine festive trigger points and translate these into an inspiring and festive campaign. The three tired communication approach targeted shoppers appropriately during their journey: generic Christmas, product feature, and 0% APR.
Designs highlighted key relevant seasonal products for a variety of customer areas in both John Lewis & Partners and Waitrose & Partners shops.
Quantitative Review
Following the launch of the Christmas campaign, we worked with davies+mckerr to gauge the effectiveness of the new creative, explore the impact of email and DM, and understand how the campaign landed with the target audience. Together we conducted interviews with 92 shoppers across both retail and grocery within age 25-65 and BC1C2 demographic classification.
Overall, davies+mckerr found that adopting a sophisticated aesthetic ‘feels right’ and this campaign is in keeping with core customer values. The creative style is what customer expect from John Lewis, which feels aspirational in tone. Focusing on the emotional experiences of a rewards card elevates the Partnership Card above other benefit credit cards. But they found there are challenges to ensure that the work commands attention and lands a message to convert more than those who already want to be Partners.
Channel effectiveness
Four key product creatives that had more stand out than the other two.
Beyond the Christmas campaign, we found opportunities to refine the current reward-led creative or explore ways to refresh the campaign to make it work harder for future campaigns.
Refine the current creative and messaging
+ Maximise the standout of POS in particular
+ Enhance clarity and impact of POS
+ Ensure Partnership Card is in the right place at the right time
+ Opportunity to be more proactive in driving enquiries
Refresh in-store delivery and call to action
+ Tap into the emotion of the purchase
+ Dial up the value of being a Partner
+ Rewards be the cherry, not the cake
+ Revived generous backdated points