DSW Walks the Walk with Consumer-Led and Consumer-Verified Campaign Supported by System1 Pre-Testing
Footwear chain DSW operates more than 500 stores in the U.S. With more than 25 million consumers in its VIP loyalty program, loyal shoppers with disposable income will always be a core target for DSW.
Over the last several years, the brand identified an opportunity to attract a new, younger shopper. Gen Z shoppers could also become loyal, lifetime fans of DSW. In addition to broadening the channels where it allocates media spend, DSW would need a brand strategy and creative that speaks to Gen Z without turning away its longtime customers.
DSW developed its Fall 2025 campaign centered around a new consumer-led brand strategy, “Let Us Surprise You.” It was based on the insight that customers enjoy discovering new styles and options offered in stores. Next, DSW sought to verify that the work would resonate with consumers.
“Everything we do at DSW starts with consumer insights. From there, we built a strategy and worked with our creative team to deliver against it. The final step would be putting our vision in front of the consumer to validate that we’re investing in creative that will drive results. This is where System1 came in,” said Kelly Ballou, Vice President of Marketing, DSW.
DSW leveraged System1’s Test Your Ad platform before launching the new brand spot. Test Your Ad measures consumers’ emotional responses and assigns a Star, Spike and Fluency Rating to creative. These metrics are easy for marketing and creative teams to understand as well as communicate to senior leadership and non-marketers.
The Star Rating predicts the long-term potential of creative to drive profit gain and market share growth based on the type of emotional response. The Spike Rating predicts short-term sales potential based on the intensity of the emotional response and the speed of brand recognition. The Fluency Rating is a measure of the strength of branding.
In addition to validated quantitative metrics, the platform also delivers qualitative insights that can help teams further improve the commercial impact of creative.
“Including System1’s simple and predictive metrics in presentations to our president and CEO helps us get everyone’s alignment on creative and media buying decisions so they are confident we’re putting the right work into the market,” added Ballou.
System1’s testing revealed that DSW’s creative had ‘Strong’ short-term sales potential and scored well above the category average on Fluency. Eighty-three percent of viewers recognized the brand, compared to the category’s ‘Modest’ 76%.
The “Let Us Surprise You” launch spot delivered meaningful commercial results. DSW reports that the creative achieved 26% higher return on ad spend (ROAS) compared to average ROAS. It also drove 10% higher average order value (AOV).
When it came time to plan its spring 2026 campaign, which further reinforces the brand platform and depicts a DSW store as a dollhouse, the team again turned to ad pre-testing with System1 to see how Star, Spike and Fluency compared to the previous work.
The spring campaign improved across each metric and all ratings exceeded category norms.
The 8-week spring campaign launched March 1 across CTV, out-of-home in six cities, email, direct mail, in-store and online. DSW reported that the campaign is exceeding its goals. Sales attributed to the campaign are generating an average order value that is a few dollars higher than typical, and ROAS is $3-$4 above its benchmarks for CTV and social.
And perhaps most notably, the campaign is supporting new customer acquisition, helping DSW reach a wider audience in order to secure shoppers who can be loyal and delighted customers for years to come.
“Our consumer-led and consumer-verified approach keeps us laser focused on our audience and enables us to create distinctive work that speaks to them and their experiences with our brand,” added Ballou. “Since the fall launch, not only have we seen notable commercial results, but with every iteration, we’re seeing improved results across System1’s metrics. I’m happy to say that the spring campaign is keeping our current consumer engaged and helping us to attract new customers.”
"Since the fall launch, not only have we seen notable commercial results, but with every iteration, we’re seeing improved results across System1’s metrics. I’m happy to say that the spring campaign is keeping our current consumer engaged and helping us to attract new customers."
Kelly Ballou Vice President of Marketing, DSW
As World leaders in predicting and improving advertising effectiveness, Test Your Ad provides the most accurate/predictive metrics.