Hudson’s Bay is Canada’s oldest brand. As a traditional department store, it can be challenging to foster the same emotional connection as smaller, direct-to-consumer brands, and even more challenging to combat the convenience offered by the Amazon’s of the world. Transforming Hudson’s Bay from a traditional brick and mortar retailer to a modern, digital-first lifestyle marketplace became the top priority in their race to reconnect and create meaningful, lasting connections with new generations of consumers.

It was time for a significant brand refresh, from the masterbrand to the “Rewards” loyalty program, an antiquated program with engagement rates at an all-time low. The mission was to overhaul the brand design system and copy tone & manner in order to re-introduce this legendary company to Canadians. This would primarily be measured by new Rewards loyalty member acquisitions and member engagement levels.

The agency’s work began with the company’s new brand signature: “Live a Colourful Life.” This positioning was reinforced by Hudson’s Bay’s diverse retail offer: hundreds of thousands of curated products across all categories, from fashion to kitchenware, homeware, electronics, etc. This overarching diversity became their strategic angle.

From a Rewards perspective, the product diversity makes it the loyalty program in which you can earn and redeem points over the largest, most diversified array of products in Canada. Compared to other well-known loyalty programs, which invite you to earn and redeem on what you need (pharmacy, grocery, gas…), Rewards invites you to also earn and redeem on what you want. Which allowed them to lean into aspirational language and visuals, vs. relying only on traditional promotional language. The unique Hudson’s Bay offering inspired the core communication headline, “Your life just got even more rewarding.”

They celebrated everything Canadian, starting with a new brand font, created by a Montreal based typographer. They created a flexible and elevated design system crafted for the speed and volume of retail, no matter the message or the medium. And, to embrace the retailer’s iconic status, they used the Hudson’s Bay stripes as a visual endorsement on every piece of creative, and as a simple video signature.

In terms of Rewards, they created an ownable brand platform that felt like a natural extension of the master Hudson’s Bay brand. They zoomed into the four iconic colours, with the platform using full bleed red, green, blue and yellow visuals. The goal was to signal the simplicity and customer-centricity of the new Rewards program with a design system that is minimalistic and reflects the new ease of becoming a member, earn points, and redeem on the things you love.

The brand refresh mandate also included a brand new Rewards Mastercard. They designed the card and were mandated to create the launch and acquisition campaigns. They extrapolated the new Rewards platform look and feel by creating colourful 3D universes showcasing again the sheer diversity of products at Hudson’s Bay.

By focusing on flexibility and diversity through their design system, imagery and tone of voice, they helped breathe new life into Hudson’s Bay, re-establishing it as the ultimate Canadian lifestyle retailer.

The campaign had tremendous acquisition velocity. After just 4 months of re-launching, new member acquisition was 176% of that seen in full calendar 2019, and 172% of the aggressive plan. Member engagement dramatically increased. The program burn/earn ratio increased to 102% from 52% prior to re-launch.

It was clear this was a more convenient program. Relative to pre-launch baseline, Hudson’s Bay realized a 5-point lift in Convenience attributes of the program driven by commensurate lifts in “ease of joining,” “ease of tracking rewards” and “ease of program comprehension” member research cores.

The retail category is highly competitive and fast-moving, with many players and departments involved in creating new brand communications everyday. In order to meet these challenges, and also signal to customers that the Hudson’s Bay brand and retail offering have evolved, they needed a design system that was both ownable and stylish, but not at the expense of usability.

Their solution reflects the brand’s contemporary personality and is adaptable to every canvas (in-store, print, out of home and digital). Above all, it helps the brand connect with a wider range of consumers nation-wide, with a skew towards younger audiences. In the end, their platform helps Hudson’s Bay bring to life their updated positioning: “Live a colourful life” with a design system that is distinct, robust and flexible enough to reflect the strength and ambition behind this conviction.

The updated design system is the result of many elements working together. Specifically, a new primary typeface was selected for its versatility, cleanliness and contemporary flair: Neue Montreal, designed by Montreal foundry Pangram Pangram. Typography is an essential part of this refresh, and so this new typeface helps the brand tell stories and relay information in a more polished and considered way. From a brand recognition standpoint, and based on research, the Hudson’s Bay stripes are recognized the world over, and so they crafted a way to seamlessly integrate this recognizable icon into every piece of communication in order to take full advantage of the power of this visual shorthand.

From tiny web banners to highway billboards, the stripes are integrated into the grid system in a proportional and impactful way. From a functional standpoint, they designed a modular grid system that can easily adapt to any type of communication need - from email templates, to social media stories, to out of home campaigns - the system works no matter the message, no matter the medium. It extends into the brand’s loyalty Rewards program, employing an amplified use of brand colours to differentiate between the two. In the end, the sum of all these parts have resulted in a brand that now expresses itself in a consistent, connected and well-tailored fashion.