Darth Vader to Star in Dixons Retail’s Latest Multi-Million Pound Ad Campaign

LONDON, November 3, 2011 -

Dixons Retail, the UK’s leading electrical retailer, specialising in goods such as laptops, televisions and cameras, has today announced plans for a massive multi-million pound marketing campaign in another exclusive partnership with Lucasfilm.  Starring the formidable Darth Vader, the campaign highlights the outstanding in-store customer service experience that Currys and PC World has been working hard to deliver.

The 40″ advert breaks on Saturday 5^th November during the X-Factor on ITV1 and will run for three weeks during primetime TV across terrestrial and digital channels.  The ad will be supported by online advertising, as well as in-store activity, POS, social media, CRM and PR, and follows the success of last year’s campaign which featured Star Wars favourites C3PO and R2D2.  

This year’s ad recreates the infamous scene in Return of the Jedi, where Vader inspects the progress of the Death Star. We see Lord Vader arrive at a Currys and PC World store to assess and approve all 14,000 of Currys and PC World store colleagues, to see if they meet his high standards.

The advert starts with Lord Vader’s spaceship landing in the car park of a Currys and PC World Megastore, deliberately crushing the only car in the car park.  As the store manager and Vader inspect the rows of Currys and PC World colleagues, the store manager assures Lord Vader that they have been training for months and are fully motivated, with the dialogue in the advert mirroring that of the 1983 film.

Lord Vader is impressed with the level of training the staff have received as a store employee reels off the attributes of a laptop under pressure.  As he walks out of the store, we hear a voiceover saying: “We continually train all 14,000 staff to deliver great service.  We can help.”

Andrea Silver, Dixons Retail’s Marketing Director explains: “We have invested a huge amount in our staff training and development and we are very proud of the high level of customer service our store colleagues are delivering; so it makes sense that our new advertising campaign champions this.

“We are thrilled to be working with Lucasfilm once more on our Christmas advertising campaign and are really looking forward to seeing the results of this partnership.  We recommend our customers come and be surprised by the difference in the new in-store experience.”

About Dixons Retail

Dixons Retail plc is Europe’s largest specialist electrical retailer. It operates in 26 countries, with over 1,200 stores in 13 countries, across Europe employing over 38,000 people. We are the number one market leaders in the UK & Ireland, Nordics, Greece and the Czech Republic. In the UK the leading brands are Currys, PC World, KNOWHOW and Dixons.co.uk.

For further information please contact Andrea San Pedro or Simon Branney at M&C Saatchi PR,

Andrea San Pedro - andrea.sanpedro@mcsaatchi.com / +44(0)207-544-3686; Simon Branney - simon.branney@mcsaatchi.com / +44(0)207-544-3783

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