Dive Brief:

• Online furniture retailer Wayfair enlisted singer and TV personality Kelly Clarkson as its latest brand ambassador, the company revealed in a press release. Clarkson will star in a cross-channel campaign throughout 2020 and will debut a new furniture collection available on the website.
• The "Home: You Got This" campaign kicks off on Feb. 24 and will include digital, social media, TV spots and brand engagements throughout the year. Wayfair will also integrate elements of the campaign into NBCUniversal's "The Kelly Clarkson Show."
• The effort aims to illustrate how Wayfair simplifies online furniture shopping, Courtney Lawrie, director of brand marketing, said in a statement. The retailer selected the campaign's theme and Clarkson as brand ambassador after polling current customers.

Dive Insight:

While furniture isn't historically the easiest category to shop for online, Wayfair's latest effort recognizes this challenge by tapping a well-known celebrity to illustrate how the e-commerce platform simplifies the task. In the series of new TV and digital ads, Clarkson will unpack boxes from Wayfair and demonstrate how to integrate new pieces into home decor.

In developing the campaign, Wayfair said it polled customers and found that Clarkson's authentic persona resonated with key audiences as an extension of the retail brand. The outcome suggests that shoppers wanted an approachable guide to demonstrate the ease of browsing online and integrating products into their homes. Wayfair's target customer is a 45- to 55-year-old woman, per co-founder Steve Conine, a demographic Clarkson may appeal to through her daytime TV show. A branded line from Clarkson could draw in new Wayfair shoppers who are loyal to the show.

The new campaign comes just months after Wayfair announced an updated mobile app, which features an augmented reality (AR) tool, a central hub for camera-based features and a 3D room planner. The tools were designed to inspire shoppers by helping them visualize how furniture might look in their homes via virtually placing items using a smartphone camera, visually searching for products and creating 3D rooms to examine layouts from different angles. Upgrading its mobile app to include these features builds off capabilities it previously offered to create a more user-friendly browsing experience. The campaign aligns with this app update in highlighting how Wayfair simplifies the at-home furniture shopping experience.

E-commerce sales of furniture and home furnishings accounted for 21% of total retail sales in the U.S. last year and will reach 32.3% by 2023, eMarketer projects