2016 marks British Vogue’s 100th Birthday celebrations and Harvey Nichols, along with over 300 other retailers, wanted to show their support for this special anniversary. We knew we couldn’t compete with the investment of our competitors but we wanted to participate in the celebrations. The real focus of the centenary was on the June issue with plans to make it their biggest issue ever and Harvey Nichols had a one-page insertion planned. But we had a bigger vision. We knew we needed to punch well above our weight by doing something symbolic in our signature fearless way.

Our objective was plain and simple: to turn a small tactical print brief into a much bigger campaign story from Harvey Nichols and generate as much earned media coverage as possible along the way through a strong PR-led idea.

The film starts with a provocation that the average age of a fashion model is 16-25. We challenged this convention by introducing Bo Gilbert, the first ever 100 year-old model in Vogue. The two minute film features Bo sharing her approach to style in behind-the-scenes footage of her photo shoot with world class fashion photographer, Phil Poynter. The film shows how we broke the conventions of the youth-obsessed fashion industry.

To break the conventions of the youth-obsessed fashion industry, Harvey Nichols introduced Bo Gilbert, the first 100 year-old model in Vogue magazine.

Bo’s story was launched with a film featuring Bo sharing her approach to style in behind-the-scenes footage of her photo shoot with world class fashion photographer, Phil Poynter. The film was launched six days before the centenary issue of Vogue hit newsstands to generate conversation and social buzz. The total media spend for the campaign was only £18k of which only £5k was spent on social media.