Our client entered 2025 with the distinct advantages of being an iconic heritage brand: strong recognition, high recall, and generational familiarity. However, a modern retail environment presents a unique challenge. Familiarity alone no longer guarantees demand; growth increasingly depends on how effectively brands operate across the full spectrum of Discovery: being found, understood, and ultimately, chosen.

Working with the brand, Journey Further evaluated the Relative Discovery Score (RDS), an extensive proprietary measure of over 100 growth signals across three key pillars: presence – how the brand is found, interpretation – how it is understood, and momentum, all leading to an assessment of how effective and easily the brand is being chosen. 

The initial RDS was 32 / 100, with strong Presence metrics confirmed by a stable brand recall of 56%. Interpretation however was volatile, with early-year scores falling as low as 7.8.

Traffic share began the year at 22%, with brand engagement showing early signs of suppression. The RDS framework uncovered a particular opportunity for the brand’s Interpretation scores to improve – split into two distinct sub-constructs: human interpretation (tracked via sentiment, ad recall, and earned coverage) and machine interpretation (tracked via LLM visibility, search visibility, and domain authority). 

These insights led to media activity optimised to showcase the brand’s versatility of product lines outside of typical seasonal wear.

Using RDS insights, the primary opportunity for the brand’s media strategy was to address the interpretation gap – an imbalance between strong brand equity and weak demand capture. To break the cycle of seasonal dependence, we implemented a data-led approach to evolve the client’s seasonality to build effective, year-round discovery and understanding of its full product offering.

Our strategy focused on transitioning the label from a seasonal heritage specialist by aggressively scaling digital investment and diversifying product appeal:

• Search synchronisation: Using our proprietary methodology, we aligned paid and organic search to maintain core demand while building authority in non-seasonal categories.
• Evergreen authority: We conducted deep product reviews to pinpoint year-round opportunities in knitwear, shirts, and polos, creating optimized landing pages to capture evergreen organic intent.
• Multi-channel media stack: We refined the media mix to allow for a significant increase in total digital investment:
  • Tailored paid social: Moved beyond broad demographics to reach high-value segments prioritising quality and durability.
  • Product diversification: Campaign activations shifted focus toward year-round accessories and gifting (e.g., footwear and small goods) rather than relying solely on iconic outerwear.

AI-guided bidding: Directed systems toward specific ‘hero’ collections to ensure spend supported profitable, non-core category growth.

Growth accelerated dramatically in the second half of the year, achieving record-breaking performance against forecasts in four core global markets during the AW25 period.. 

Notably, this profitable growth was achieved despite a strategic decision to reduce reliance on heavy promotional periods like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, reinforcing that performance gains were not solely driven by short-term promotional mechanics.

Commercial growth excelled in parallel with the brand’s Discoverability indicators: the brand’s total RDS Score increased from 32.36 in January to 52.18 in December.

This increase was built on sustainable growth, as the brand operated between +15 and +27 points above its starting RDS position for the majority of the year.

• Interpretation (being understood): Metrics saw the most significant rise, increasing from a low of 7.8 to a peak of 45.55 in November. Following September’s strategic shift, scores materially strengthened to 34.34.
• Momentum: Signals grew strongly, peaking at 59.7. Additionally, the share of traffic doubled, rising from 22% in January to 45% in November.

Presence (being found): Remained structurally strong, peaking at 77.64 in March before stabilising in the mid-50s, ensuring high encounter probability while reducing ‘burst-driven’ volatility.

This performance illustrates a defining principle of modern growth: by ensuring your brand can be reliably and accurately found, understood and chosen, it establishes the right conditions for compounding demand. By aligning Discovery signals with commercial objectives, the brand successfully converted deep-seated brand equity into measurable, sustained momentum.