M&S on why its ‘vast’ social media structure drives virality

Marks & Spencer’s turnaround journey is one that has been well-documented. It reshaped for growth, regained its place in the FTSE 100, and was named Marketing Week’s Brand of the Year in 2024.

Much of its success was put down to its dual marketing leads, Anna Braithwaite and Sharry Cramond, but when Braithwaite announced she was leaving the business in May to join John Lewis, Cramond made the sidestep from heading up M&S Food to lead its fashion, home and beauty department instead.

Cramond, who is also in charge of the masterbrand and loyalty proposition for M&S, describes her new role as “the best job in the world”, and is determined to put the customer first in all her efforts.

“What I’m most excited about is making sure we really focus on storytelling and communicating the product effectively so it as easy as possible for customers to buy,” Cramond tells Marketing Week.

Her new role came with some immediate challenges. M&S suffered a major cyber attack in April when hackers broke into the retailer’s systems. Online orders had to paused, with product availability also limited, its click and collect service took 15 weeks to finally be reinstated.

In May, CEO Stuart Machin said the company brought forward investment into digital technology to “improve operational resilience” in the wake of the attack, promising the company would come out of it “in better shape”.

Yet Cramond feels the brand has already bounced back as a “modern marketing function”, and customer’s key concerns about the brand right now are “the must-have items for my autumn wardrobe” rather than security concerns.

“Customers have very much moved on, and they just want to know, as they always want to know, what are the amazing products that M&S is going have for me and my family,” she says.

‘Communicate as many products as possible’

The response the brand has seen from its latest social media initiative also affirms M&S is bouncing back from a difficult summer, believes Cramond.

Last week, it launched ‘Love That’, a weekly social series on YouTube set to comprise of 48 episodes, helping shoppers with fashion and style. The show is hosted by “relatable” celebrity stylist Melissa Holdbrook-Akposoe and Capital Breakfast hosts Jordan North, Siân Welby and Chris Stark.

The name itself came from Holdbrook-Akposoe, who Cramond calls “the country’s top style influencer”, saying “love that” to various M&S items in person.

“What we love about ‘Love That’ is that it tends to be a compliment given from one woman to another,” says Cramond, adding there’s “a lot of joy and kindness in there”.

The series will provide fashion advice and showcase new products with a humorous element. So far, from just one episode, the brand has seen a total reach of one million people across seven organic assets in the first week, a positive sentiment rating of 100%, which Cramond calls a “first”, and YouTube content surpassing 13k views in five days.

This translated to the products, too, as it saw a 482% increase in visits to the leather shoulder bag featured in the show compared to the four days before the episode was released, with over 6k visits to the product page.

“We are committed to this and, if it’s a success, then it will just be something that forms part of M&S fashion, home and beauty marketing,” claims Cramond, adding “it’s our job with the longer-form content to make sure we can communicate as many products as possible, because that’s what customers want”.

Cramond says the thinking behind the series was to respond to customers who said, “we love your clothes, M&S, but just help us with how to wear them”.

If we decide to get behind something, you are not going to be able to move on TikTok without seeing this product.

Sharry Cramond, M&S

The push into longform content also helps customers who “want to have a bit more time to understand all of the hero pieces in the range”, and to see “behind the scenes at M&S”.

“We have more followers on social media than any other retailer because people want to know about M&S products, the hero items of the season and how to wear them or how to style their home,” says Cramond.

The M&S customer’s need for information is something the marketer says is highlighted in its email open rate, which is often “triple” the global average of 20%.

M&S also recently launched its ‘M&S Man’ Instagram account, tailored to menswear, of which the company has seen interest in from both its male and female demographic. This was launched after the company found social media is the number one influence among men aged 18–34 buying clothing and footwear in a survey of 2,000 men.

Cramond claims ‘Love That’ and ‘M&S Man’ compliment its existing social presence including the M&S Insiders ambassadors scheme, and its goal to reach new audiences, specifically younger ones, through 600 store-based accounts on TikTok. Cramond claims that “no one has a bigger store social media programme than M&S”.

“I know we’re having an impact with younger customers,” says the marketer, citing the TikTok accounts for each store and its viral moments. For Cramond, success and effectiveness of its social media work is gauged through “overall engagement” and “sales”, as well as the longer-term impact on style perceptions for its fashion lines.

Managing virality

During her time at M&S Food, Cramond experienced virality often, from cookies to Christmas food, and explains she was “pleasantly surprised” by how viral things are in fashion too, citing the brand’s latest autumn jacket.

For Cramond, the brand’s recipe for virality is “getting involved at the very beginning” and thinking with a social cap on during the product development phase.

“There will always be the odd item that sort of surprises you, but we have a fairly good idea on what’s going to go viral,” she says, adding that there are different approaches to going viral depending on if they went a quick sell-out or longer-term excitement for a product range.

“Through all of our 600 stores operating their own TikTok account, through the sheer vastness of our ambassador programme, if we decide to get behind something, you are not going to be able to move on TikTok without seeing this product,” she adds.

Ramping up its number of social media ambassadors is part of the brand’s strategy to go even more viral and gain “additional reach”. It currently has 28 ambassadors with a combined reach of 48 million, with plans to expand. Cramond says ambassadors add to “authenticity” and that selected ambassadors must “truly love M&S”.

Customers have very much moved on, and they just want to know, as they always want to know, what are the amazing products that M&S is going have for me and my family.

Sharry Cramond, M&S

Behind all of M&S’s marketing is “storytelling”, which alongside social media, Cramond says is amplified by its ad-funded programmes – most recently its design-challenge show Dress The Nation which airs on ITV. The show was the idea of CEO Machin and returns for its second series on Sunday (14 September) after amassing 8 million views in series one.

Last year, M&S’s former clothing and home marketing director Anna Braithwaite said the show, hosted by AJ Odudu and Vernon Kay and looking for a new M&S mentee, was part of the company’s mission to “broaden” its appeal and become “more relevant to more people, more often”.

This year, the team will be leaning on its marketing channels to make sure products shown in the series are “easily shoppable”, as customers often want to buy the products “immediately” and want extra commentary on them through social media.

Being across all channels is key for the team, with Cramond saying TV is valuable for “mass reach” and ad-funded programming and social media allow for more “storytelling”.

Also heading up the Sparks loyalty programme, Cramond says the database of 20 million customers allows for personalisation and targeting of marketing and offers. She shares that some of the most-loved offers are 10% off babygrows, with over a million sold, and the free birthday treat. She says the “overall brand love” from the scheme, particularly the birthday offer, is “phenomenal”.

Going forward, loyalty, TV, social media and other channels will be used in tandem in Cramond’s mission to continue to communicate M&S’s “amazing value, incredible quality and style” through an “always on approach”, particularly during its upcoming autumn/winter campaign.

“I think it’s the best range I’ve ever seen across fashion, home and beauty, and we just can’t wait to share them with customers,” concludes Cramond.