Ashley HomeStore Taps Empower for Media Strategy, Planning

Furniture retailer Ashley HomeStore has selected Empower MediaMarketing for media planning and strategy.

Icon International continues to handle media buying.

Empower, an independent Cincinnati, Ohio-based agency whose clients include Famous Footwear and Gorilla Glue, will work with Ashley HomeStore on media strategy and planning across all markets. HomeStore has 700 mostly licensee-owned locations across 36 countries.

The incumbent was McCann Minneapolis. Empower CEO Jim Price said the furniture retailer takes a granular approach to media in each market, which made the two companies a natural fit. “That’s kind of been in our history, our DNA… no cookie-cutter plans, no cookie-cutter buys, everything is very customized,” he said. He added the companies fit well together culturally since both Empower and Ashley HomeStore are family-owned.

Mr. Price said Empower also plans to help Ashley HomeStore with its digital marketing.

“We’ve been able to prove through some of our other retail partners how we’ve evolved clients to more digital marketing, so we really were able to prove to them how we’ve taken some largely more traditional media spends and migrate them, evolve them to more of a digital-first mindset,” Mr. Price said. “That was a big opportunity as we built the relationship together.”

Ashley Furniture Industries spent $161.7 million in measured media in 2016 for its HomeStore furniture stores, according to Kantar Media.