Boots shifts marketing strategy as CMO explains need for trust

Boots is rolling out a new marketing strategy as its chief marketing officer explains why relying solely on trust no longer works in the crowded UK beauty market. The retailer has launched “Give It Some Boots,” a campaign that moves away from category-led advertising to focus on customer missions and needs. The initiative represents a significant shift in strategy for the high street giant, aiming to unify its brand identity across healthcare, pharmacy, beauty, and wellness.

Adopting the “Brutiful” moments

The platform positions the retailer as a source of confidence and optimism through life’s “brutiful” moments – adopting both the beautiful and the brutal. The creative brings this idea to life across healthcare and pharmacy, as well as beauty and wellness, pairing a refreshed visual identity with a bolder, more confident tone of voice.

The campaign runs through 60- and 30-second films directed by Phoebe Arnstein, following people at different stages of life. It shows a young woman overwhelmed by skincare choices, another character discovering their first grey hair, and a woman entering perimenopause. Each finds what they need at Boots, before the films close with a choreographed dance sequence set to a specially recreated version of “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’.

A real No7 Macmillan Beauty Advisor from a Boots store also appears, representing the trained advisors who support customers experiencing the visible side effects of cancer. Charlotte Lock, the chief marketing officer, said the scenarios were selected through customer research to reflect relatable experiences that are less commonly represented in advertising, while also highlighting services that Boots can offer. In the skincare storyline, she pointed to the retailer’s free derm skin scan. Women take centre stage in the campaign film, reflecting the fact that they account for the majority of the retailer’s customer base.

But the wider campaign also features men, Lock said, including a sleep-focused execution following a man as he experiments with the retailer’s lavender mists, Happy Sleep gummies and mouth tape. The film also challenges traditional notions of beauty and age. The woman who undergoes a series of hair and beauty makeovers, all using Boots products, is 73. “We really feel that no age is too old to feel and look beautiful,” Lock added.

Customers shop by mission, not aisle

This rebranding reflects a broader strategic pivot for the company. Historically, Boots advertising was divided by division, with separate campaigns for beauty, health, and pharmacy. Lock seeks to move away from that approach, bringing the different parts of the business together under a unified strategy. “Whereas we might have shown up in the past with a beauty mission, a health mission, a pharmacy mission, and the advertising looked like that, we’ve flipped it to think about what are the customer missions,” she said.

The company notes that categories like nutritional supplements, scalp care, and body peptides are merging on the shop floor. “We don’t want to just categorise how customers shop by aisle because they don’t. They come in with a mission,” Lock added. Skin is one mission receiving deeper treatment, with in-store posters encouraging customers to ask about breakouts, pigmentation, wrinkles, and elasticity changes. Sleep is another focus, with mission-led content set to roll out across social channels and Boots.com.

Lock told TheIndustry.beauty that the retailer wants to be more than just a trusted advisor. “In customers’ noisy lives, you’ve got to be more than trusted. You’ve got to be innovative, inspiring, motivating and even entertaining – and that’s what this campaign does,” she said. The timing aligns with research published in late August finding that 44% of UK adults see September as the right moment to restart healthy habits. Lock described autumn as a reset point that often outranks New Year, noting that health, wellness, and beauty needs converge as skin changes and seasonal illness returns.

Extending the message beyond TV

The full campaign is supported by a nationwide, full-funnel paid media strategy designed to reach consumers wherever they are. Alongside the TV and cinema rollout, “Give It Some Boots” karaoke booths will tour the UK throughout September, inviting the public to sing, share their stories and put their own spin on the campaign. Creator activity extends the campaign into social media, drawing on a group of around 200 influencers. Lock said creators are being briefed on the campaign’s intent and encouraged to interpret it through their own experiences.

“Social and influencers is increasingly a way that we’re building our Boots community. It’s really about understanding them and their community and then giving them access to content that’s helpful in order to build that trusted relationship,” Lock said. Store colleagues are also being brought into the campaign through dance and singing competitions across the estate. “These campaigns only work if everybody owns them,” Lock added.

The platform arrives during a period of expansion for the beauty business. As reported last week when Boots welcomed its new CEO, the retailer has added almost 60 beauty brands over the past year, including Charlotte Tilbury Beauty and Jo Malone London, taking its assortment to more than 500 brands. Beauty Director Chelsey Aldridge outlined the wider retail strategy behind that growth in our interview earlier this year.