Inside The Or’s inaugural work for Asos that blends heritage with a fresh curiosity

In the first ad spot, viewers follow an ‘Asos eye’ as it hunts for inspiration in unexpected places – a yearbook at a car boot sale, a funfair carousel, a chandelier at a dinner party and a pair of overalls in an abandoned warehouse – all set to a suitably nostalgic soundtrack by The Streets.

“That authenticity came through this feeling that it was like a human eye, kind of searching around,” says Charlene Chandrasekaran, creative partner and joint executive creative director at The Or. “And that made it a little bit purer because there’s a very easy way to approach this spot that would feel quite ‘advertising,’ but what we wanted to do was create a vibe and an energy, an unexpected take.”

The creative team agreed early on that it should “feel like its own” and encourage people to say, “That’s Asos.”

The long-term aim is to make the site the go-to destination for fashion trends from a diverse range of brands while also capturing the vibrant, creative energy of its office – something that Dan Elton, the brand’s executive vice-president of customer and marketing, feels hasn’t been fully conveyed to the public.

He explains: “One of the big things for me at Asos is the dissonance between how you feel in the building when you’re an Asos-er and how our most loyal customers feel and how we’ve presented ourselves over the last couple of years, maybe going back last five years.”

This new platform also reflects an evolution of Asos’s heritage, which dates back to its founding in 2000. Initially surrounded by a bit of mystery, the brand’s name sparked debates about its meaning, with ‘As Seen on Screen’ being the correct interpretation. According to Elton, this legacy is still very relevant today, especially in a world where screens are all around us in various forms.

“Our heritage is about fashion discovery, it’s ‘As Seen on Screen,’ it’s about customers being able to find styles that they wouldn’t necessarily be able to buy elsewhere,” he says. “What we’ve been looking for since I’ve been here in the last couple of years is a creative platform that allows us to do that consistently. We flirted with in-house productions, but if I’m honest, we don’t feel that they’ve been able to deliver the message quite as effectively as we would want.”

Sarah Oberman, co-founder and strategy partner at The Or, echoes this sentiment: “It’s just as likely now that you’re seeing trends on someone on the street through a music video. It’s everywhere, everything, all at once.”

Elton says that the team even considered bringing back ‘As Seen on Screen’ overtly as it “has real power” but that “seen on stage or seen on the streets” is a better representation of what Asos stands for today; there are many interpretations that suit.

This blend of modernity and nostalgia all comes together with the soundtrack of Turn the Page by The Streets. “I think there was something to be said about the iconic Britishness of Asos in people’s minds,” says Chandrasekaran.

“When The Streets came out, it was roughly the same time Asos was founded, in the early noughties, and we thought that was quite significant. There was just something poignant about having a track that spoke to that nostalgia but also felt modern.”

With this new platform, the team has the flexibility to adapt to different trends each season. They are already planning phases two and three but keeping tight-lipped.

“We looked at Asos being almost like this curious eye that’s constantly seeking out new ways to look at trends, new sources of inspiration,” adds Chandrasekaran. “And then when it sees something, it’s always a little bit more unexpected.”