Today marks the first ever Purple Tuesday, which is helping to raise awareness of the barriers to shopping for disabled people. A new video from agency We Are Fred is being screened at retailers across the UK.
It is thought that retailers in the UK are missing out on £249 billion of profit by failing to accommodate the needs of these customers.
We are Fred worked with Purple to put together the marketing video for Purple Tuesday which today is being screened in retail stores such as John Lewis, Sainsbury’s and Marks & Spencer up and down the country. The marketing video will be viewed by over 1.2 million people across the UK.
We Are Fred designed the concept, co-wrote the script with Purple, designed the animations and produced the video which will be used for staff training at all major UK retailers including Sainsbury’s and Marks & Spencer. It is also being played in stores up and down the country to help customers understand what the campaign is all about.
Purple Tuesday is the UK’s first accessible shopping day, established to recognise the needs of disabled consumers and promote inclusive shopping. Its aim is to make retailers and customer-facing businesses much more aware of the opportunities and challenges and inspire them to make changes to improve the disabled customer experience.
It is thought the collective spending power of disabled people – the Purple Pound – is worth £249 billion to the UK economy. This means that a large percentage of retailers are potentially missing out on this profit by failing to accommodate the needs of their disabled customers.
The three-minute video provides a number of tips for retailers to follow in order to make shopping a more enjoyable experience for everyone and in turn increase profits.
Over 500 businesses are taking part in Purple Tuesday including Dunelm, Marks & Spencer, Asda, Argos, Sainsbury’s as well as landlords such as Hammerson, Land Securities and Intu.
Mike Adams OBE, Chief Executive Officer, Purple, said: “We have been blown away by the number of retail outlets, shopping centres and landlords who have signed up to Purple Tuesday as part of their commitment to making shopping experiences easier. We needed to put together a video that was going to engage a wide range of audiences, grab attention and help people realise the true potential spending power being missed out on. We Are Fred were able to do just that, in a very short timeframe.”
Nick Street, Creative Director and co-founder, We Are Fred, said:“Purple Tuesday highlights the need for change across the UK where retailers are failing to understand the needs of their disabled customers and therefore missing out on billions of potential profit. Coming up with the concept for the video it was clear that it needed to be simple, concise and powerful in terms of ensuring that the messages really hit home. We are thrilled to have been able to work with Mike and his team on such a worthwhile initiative.”
The video can be viewed here: