Why White Stuff Went Off-Leash This Winter
White Stuff, a high-street fashion brand, wanted to build awareness and consideration for its upcoming Winter collection by creating a deeper emotional connection with customers. Confident that community-rooted storytelling could drive growth and loyalty just as effectively as traditional fashion advertising, the brand set out to stand apart in a category crowded by similar-looking adverts.
System1’s Test Your Ad Competitive Edge database highlighted the size of that opportunity. Fashion advertising tends to evoke low levels of emotion and performs modestly, with category benchmarks averaging 2.6 Stars out of a maximum 5.9 Stars (long-term brand-building potential). This gave White Stuff clear headroom to take a more distinctive, feeling-led approach.
Instead of relying on celebrities, polished models or product-heavy messaging, White Stuff chose authenticity as its differentiator. The “Walkies in Winter Wonderland” campaign features real customers alongside rescue dogs, bringing warmth and relatability to a category that often prioritises aspiration over real life. By putting community and genuine emotion at the centre, White Stuff aimed to cut through and stay true to its brand.
Through System1’s partnership with ITV, White Stuff tested two edits of the campaign, a 60-second and a 30-second version, with the Test Your Ad platform. With clear fashion-category benchmarks and methodology rooted in how real people feel about creative, Test Your Ad was the right tool to gauge likely impact before launch.
System1’s testing delivered more than emotional and category performance results. It also provided customer feedback to confirm whether the authenticity and community message was landing and measured how strongly White Stuff’s distinctive brand codes were coming through via the Fluency Rating.
Alongside these results, White Stuff received practical optimisation support through Test Your Ad Guidance. This highlighted branding as the key opportunity to strengthen. System1’s expert consultants recommended enhancing existing brand codes and combining multiple brand assets, so viewers would more clearly remember the brand by the end of the ad.
“Seeing clear benchmarks against other fashion brands showed us we were performing exceptionally well emotionally, in the top 0.5 percent, but also highlighted where we could further improve the creative,” said Steph Gilks, Senior Marketing Manager at White Stuff. “Testing with consumers before the campaign aired gave us an opportunity to further strengthen the ad and its commercial impact.”
The first round of testing showed that “Walkies in Winter Wonderland” delivered standout emotional impact. The 60-second edit achieved a 5.2 Star Rating, while the 30-second edit scored even higher at 5.6 Stars.
Both versions also comfortably outperformed fashion category norms for short-term impact (Spike Rating), signalling strong potential to drive immediate sales and action. By leaning into elements often underused in the category, such as characters with agency, an engaging soundtrack and beautiful settings, the campaign delivered a clear advantage in emotional cut-through and attention.
Following System1’s optimisation guidance, White Stuff made small adjustments to strengthen branding. In the second round of testing, this delivered a 7% uplift in Brand Fluency. Overall, testing gave White Stuff the confidence that a more distinctive, community-led approach could cut through in a low-emotion sector, while providing practical learnings to sharpen future edits.
“System1’s insightful Guidance allowed us to make valuable changes to better spotlight our product and brand. As a result, Fluency rose and our Spike Rating hit 1.35, ‘Exceptional’ by System1’s standards,” added Steph.
"Seeing clear benchmarks against other fashion brands showed us we were performing exceptionally well emotionally but also highlighted where we could further improve the creative. System1’s insightful Guidance allowed us to make impactful changes to better spotlight our product and brand."
Steph Gilks Senior Marketing Manager at White Stuff
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