The Brief

• Create an editorial story about the Harrods bears to reclaim search authority around the keyword ‘harrods bear’

Context

The SEO team had informed us that Harrods was not ranking on the SERP when people googled ‘harrods bears’. As the Harrods bear is one of five brand codes and therefore synonymous with Harrods, I was tasked with creating an editorial piece that would educate customers on the bears and rank high on the SERP.

At this time, Harrods was celebrating its 175th anniversary. We decided that this provided the perfect opportunity to create a heritage piece around the Harrods bears.

Creative Approach

I worked with the Archive team at Harrods to learn as much as I could about the history of the Harrods bears. Once I had sourced all the information I needed, including imagery, interesting facts and newspaper articles, I planned the design and flow of the piece.

Tone of Voice

I wanted this piece to feel quintessentially Harrods. Therefore, it had to convey the key elements of the brand:

• British
• Heritage
• Extraordinary

Thinking specifically about how this piece was a 175th anniversary special, I wanted the copy to evoke the magic of Harrods not just at Christmas, but throughout the years since the brand was first created. These bears have been joyful companions to people of all ages for decades, so I wanted to convey that the bear can be both a cuddly soft toy and a seasoned collector’s most prized possession.

Design

As part of Harrods’ 175th anniversary product range, a series of limited-edition bears were released. These bears were crafted in partnership with some of the world’s most renowned designers, including Burberry and Bulgari.

I wanted to ensure that Harrods had authority over search traffic for these exciting launches. Limited-edition products so often get bought and resold and I wanted to ensure that, once stock was gone, Harrods didn’t lose authority over these terms to a C2C platform. Therefore, I gave each limited-edition bear its own section and bio.

SEO

One of the most googled questions about the Harrods bear is which annual Christmas bear was released in which year. I wanted to find a way to convey this information quickly, so I decided to include a scrolling timeline that showcased the picture, name and year of each annual Harrods Christmas bear. I worked closely with the Archive team to retrieve accurate information for this section.

Analysis

Within its first week of publication, we saw two 175th anniversary bears, plus an additional 15 Harrods bears, purchased after customers viewed the story. More than 50% of traffic to the story came directly from Google and users spent an average of 1m 22s on the feature.

This story went on to become a top performer in Q2 and Q3. It continued to attract high page views and convert users who visited the story, predominantly by leading them to purchase a Harrods bear.

Overall, this story exceeded expectations and is a great example of how cross-collaboration between multiple teams can produce exceptional results.