• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, November 10, 2020

Joann, the craft and fabric retailer, understands better than most brands just how punchy the pandemic has made people. Its new docu-style holiday campaign is "Working from Home with Phyllis," starring Phyllis ("The Office") Smith.

The character, known for equal parts sweetness, vindictiveness and corporate scorn, is acing just about every aspect of work-from-home reality. Phyllis has kidnapped her handsome young neighbor's cat, crocheted it mittens, and has a Zoom meeting "You're frozen" routine down cold.

"It's been a tough eight months," says Richard Vollmer, Joann's chief creative officer. "We wanted to give the holiday campaign some levity, and at the same time, to inspire people."

He says the campaign hinges on the insight that people are in a definite make-to-give mindset -- and it doesn't hurt that so many of them have pets. "More than 40% of our customers make things to give them away as gifts -- often to people in need,” he tells Marketing Daily.

The company says its "Make to Give" DIY mask program, for instance, produced about 300 million masks.

The media plan includes rolling the three episodes out gradually, starting with "Two turtlenecks and a cat in a pear tree." Each episode also stars an influencer in the world of crafting, beginning with Vincent Green-Hite, the needler behind the "Yarn Punk" movement. 

The campaign is from creative agency Where Eagles Dare.

Ads are running on Joann's social channels, while 15- and 30-second spots are set to appear on national TV channels and streaming services, including Hallmark Channel, Food Network, Discovery and Hulu. 

On Dec. 8, the company plans a sweepstakes, giving away some of the strange crocheted items, including a wine box koozie, a clock and an office chair slipcover.

Vollmer says the idea was to build a campaign with plenty of moving pieces to help it break through the noisy holiday marketplace. 

"We wanted to have enough content, starting with the miniseries and then layering on the influencer element so that people would keep coming back for more. We created an ecosystem, and we'll be tracking it closely to see who is coming to our channels and websites."

Vollmer says the company is particularly eager to see how it performs on YouTube, including craft tutorials. Since the COVID-19 crisis turned so many homebound people into knitters, sewers and crafters, "We have almost quadrupled our subscribership," Vollmer says.

And while Joann is the largest craft chain, with some 850 stores, "during the holidays, we compete for eyeballs against every retailer, from Amazon to Walmart."