DTC’s Daily Digest brings you the latest news on the world’s fastest growing direct-to-consumer brands. In today’s edition: Harry’s Harry Kane TV campaign; Farfetch & Harrods join forces; and Candy Club go Down Under.

Harry’s Harry Kane TV campaign

Razor firm Harry's has signed Tottenham and England footballer Harry Kane as the bearded face of the brand, leveraging his star power and conveniently shared name. The final frame spotlights Harry's Razor with the strapline ‘Made for Every Man’.

Aside from being released at a time that will inevitably see it compared to Gillette's ‘We Believe’ TV campaign, Harry’s new ad is an interesting insight into the marketing strategy of a DTC. The American shaving brand is almost six years old, employs around 370 people, and has raised USD$474.6m. Compared the majority of direct-to-consumer brands, this makes them well established, and along with Dollar Shave Club, they are perhaps the biggest name challenging traditional razors.

Their maturity in terms of age, size, and funding is mirrored in their advertising. Rather than relying solely on social campaigns, Harry’s has reached the next level of development, employing ATL advertising strategies such as TV, in order to reach a wider audience and help take them to even greater heights in the future. The choice of Harry Kane, who aside from sharing the brand’s name, is still recognisable to most as the captain of England’s World Cup journey last summer, is another prudent choice, which will make those who haven’t encountered Harry’s before take notice.

Farfetch & Harrods join forces

Farfetch has announced that it is linking up with Harrods, to be the luxury department store’s global commerce platform provider.

A greater number of luxury retailers are partnering with e-tail specialists to drive their web operations forward. However, it’s unusual for a department store to follow this route, especially one with such a global profile as Harrods. That said, Farfetch have got the relevant experience for the task. They have recently struck partnerships with Burberry, acquired Browns, CuriosityChina, and Stadium Goods, and absorbed Condé Nast’s Style.com e-tail operation.

The companies said that Harrods will “leverage the full power of [our] enterprise white-label offering, Farfetch Black & White Solutions, to create a state-of-the-art global online destination for the iconic department store’s customer base.”

Black & White builds multi-channel e-commerce platforms “that enable retailers and brands to seamlessly interact with their consumers, while allowing them to focus on the creative aspects of their businesses”. The success Farfetch have had with Black & White Solutions could be a blueprint for success for other DTCs too. With the clamour from traditional brands to improve their online (and DTC) footprint, there could be a lot of partnerships to be struck between DTCs with white-labeled solutions of technology, and legacy brands struggling to innovate.

Candy Club go Down Under

Candy Club has made its debut on the Australian Securities Exchange today after successfully closing its AUS$5m (£2.7m) initial public offering (IPO).

The money was raised through the issue of 25.12 million shares at AUS$0.20 (£0.11) each, giving the company a market cap of around AUS$30m (£16m) at issue price. The Los Angeles-based supplier of premium specialty candies is led by serial entrepreneur Keith Cohn.

It has also achieved impressive performance results to date, with customer reorder rates boding well for Q4 2019’s targeted profitability. Candy Club business operates a confectionary subscription service, delivering a curated box containing six varieties of sweet treats directly to customers each month. In the 2017 calendar year, this B2C arm generated USD$8.4m (£6.7m) in revenue and USD$3.4m (£2.6m) in gross profit.

The company rolled out its business-to business (B2B) side in July last year to bulk sell Candy Club branded confectionery to specialty market retailers in the U.S. Candy Club’s business segments have been designed to complement each other, with the rapidly growing B2B arm expected to drive demand in the B2C segment, as retail customers are encouraged to explore Candy Club’s e-commerce subscription website.