• by Sarah Mahoney , 10 hours ago

 
As Exemplar Luxury Group continues the hard post-bankruptcy work of restoring its luxury retail brands, Saks Fifth Avenue is unleashing a holiday campaign that makes celebrating look easy, joyful and a little bit magical.

Themed “Main Character Energy,” the campaign takes a playful approach to the holidays, following a group of friends on a holiday spree as they discover something new on every floor of the company’s Manhattan flagship. Nadine Ijewere directed and photographed the campaign.

"With 'Main Character Energy,' we wanted to capture the joy and magic of the holidays—the unexpected discoveries, moments of delight and sense of possibility that make this time of year so special," said Cheryl Han, Exemplar’s chief marketing and digital officer, in the announcement. "Bringing that spirit to life across Saks, from our Fifth Avenue flagship to Saks.com, gives us an opportunity to make holiday shopping feel inspiring, playful and full of surprise.”

This year, shoppers will find the retailer’s traditional Holiday Market, offering an assortment of décor, gifts and special finds, alongside some dancing penguins, a life-sized Santa and a Saks Fifth Avenue snow globe. There’s something new, too: Saks Fifth Avenue's Epicure program, with plenty of high-end treats in keepsake tins.

And on Nov. 23, Saks will officially welcome the season, unveiling holiday windows and a light show. This year, it’s all about New York. The six center windows will showcase a whimsical holiday journey that will take viewers on an animated adventure through the Big Apple, with additional windows capturing “the magic of a quintessential New York holiday shopping excursion.”

This is Saks' first holiday as a division of Exemplar, a privately held, newly named company that emerged in June after the bankruptcy of Saks Global. After closing about half of Saks Fifth Avenue stores and all but a dozen Saks Off 5th stores, the newly named company emerged after shedding about 75% of its debt. It vowed to rebuild and strengthen the company’s three primary retail banners: Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman.

At that time, the company committed to “setting the standard of excellence for luxury retail across all three,” CEO Geoffroy van Raemdonck said in the announcement. “As the gateway to the U.S. luxury customer, we are uniting coveted brands with unrivaled customer experiences to drive growth for Exemplar Luxury Group and the broader luxury ecosystem.”

That has meant centralizing key marketing and merchandising roles across all three banners, rebuilding fractured vendor relationships, and reminding young, affluent fashionistas that department stores are still a meaningful way to discover fashion.

And all this comes as Bloomingdale’s, a luxury rival owned by Macy’s, continues to post double-digit sales increases and gain market share.