Dixons tones down second leg of ad push

The retailer caused controversy with the original campaign, which lampooned department stores such as John Lewis and Harrods, but the new version is more generic.

Created by M&C Saatchi, the campaign debuted on the London tube network on Tuesday. An ad will run on London radio stations from Monday, narrated Dickensian-style by comedian David Mitchell.

In a first for the brand, the radio ad will also feature on the dsgi” class=”intextlink”>Dixons website and be seeded online through networking forums. DSGi UK marketing director Niall O’Keeffe said: “Dixons.co.uk is a challenger brand and the campaign reflects this.”

Last week DSGi, owner of Currys and PC World, reported that sales trends have improved and posted a lower-than-expected interim loss.

The retailer, which is in the midst of a renewal and transformation spearheaded by chief executive John Browett, said shoppers have responded well to the changes made, such as store reformatting, the launch of megastores and service initiatives such as TechGuys.

Browett said: “We’ve seen improving trends in a number of our businesses, particularly in recent weeks. While we are cautious about the outlook for 2010, we are well-positioned as we enter into peak trading.”

DSGi made a flat underlying pre-tax loss of £17.6m on group sales down 1% to £3.33bn in the 24 weeks to October 17. Group like-for-likes fell 4%, but rose 1% in the last eight weeks of the half.

Underlying retail profit was £10m, compared with a loss of £6.3m in the comparable period last year.

At the core UK and Ireland division, sales fell 11% to £1.63bn and like-for-likes also slid 11%. The like-for-like declines were 9% and 15% respectively in the electricals and computing businesses.