Best&Less has gone live with a major new brand platform, ‘So.Much.Better’, marking the retailer’s most significant creative and strategic reset in years as it looks to modernise what “value” means in a culture shaped by social media pressure and parenting perfectionism.
Developed by agency of record Connecting Plots Group, the campaign reframes Best&Less’s 60-year heritage away from price alone and toward emotional freedom, positioning affordable, feel-good clothing as a way for parents to be more present in the beautifully chaotic middle of family life.
The work lands into a category increasingly crowded with trend-led fast fashion, at a time when research shows parents are emotionally exhausted by unrealistic standards.
Turning cultural pressure into brand territory
Research conducted for the campaign found that 56% of parents feel worried about appearances, fuelled by social media, which stops them from enjoying family time. More than half, 52%, said they regret spending too much time stressing over mess and chaos instead of enjoying small moments.
Head of Marketing Janine Van Deventer says the brand saw a clear opportunity to address that emotional tension.
“In a world where so much of family life is filtered and curated, it’s easy to feel like you’re doing it wrong,” she said. “So.Much.Better is about taking that pressure off. When clothes look and feel good, and the price is right, it gives parents one less thing to worry about – and more freedom to just be present and enjoy family life.”
For Connecting Plots, the strategy was to give Best&Less permission to own a more human, values-driven space in a category that normally defaults to price wars.
“The category tends to only talk price and trend, but Best&Less has the 60-year credibility to do something braver: to stand up for real Australian families and reject a culture of perfection that makes mums and dads feel judged,” said Dave Jansen, Co-Founder and Chief Imagination Officer at Connecting Plots.
Music, documentary storytelling and real homes
To anchor the new platform emotionally, Best&Less commissioned award-winning Australian country artist James Johnston to write and record an original song for the brand. The track is being used as a sonic signature across advertising, owned channels, and in-store environments, allowing the brand to appear consistently and flexibly across touchpoints.
Creatively, the campaign takes a documentary approach rather than a polished retail aesthetic. Filmmaker and mum Hailey Bartholomew worked with the team to capture unscripted moments inside the homes of 15 real Australian families.
“Being in these homes was such a reminder of how powerful it is to let life be real,” Bartholomew said. “The noise, the chaos, the laughter – those unscripted moments are what shape childhood. That’s where life really is so much better.”
The resulting content library includes hundreds of lived-in images designed to sit at the heart of the brand across all channels, showing clothes not as styled objects but as things worn, stretched, spilled on and loved.
A platform built for scale
The ‘So.Much.Better’ platform is now live nationally across BVOD, digital, social, in-store and retail environments, influencer partnerships, PR, and internal and B2B communications.
For Best&Less, the shift is as much about long-term brand equity as it is about immediate campaign cut-through. By embracing the messiness of real family life, the retailer is making a strategic play to stand apart in a category obsessed with perfection and speed.
In a world that tells parents they are never doing enough, Best&Less is betting that telling them they are already enough is… so much better.
CREDITS
Client: Best&Less
Head of Marketing: Janine VanDeventer
Brand Marketing Manager: Will Dance
Social Media & Digital Content Manager: Alice Shaw
Creative, Comms & PR: Connecting Plots Group
Chief Imagination Officer: David Jansen
Managing Director: Kate Sheppard
Strategist: Craig Page
Senior Art Director: Jonti Groth
Senior Copywriter: Phil Barnes
Creative: John Gault
Head of PR and Earned: Katie Eastment
Project Director: Rachel Smith Heffernan
Design Director: Blair Palmer
Publicist: Lucy Saarelaht
Social and Content Manager: Sarah Kennedy
Creative Services Manager: Mary Morrell
Production: Infinity Squared
Executive Producer: Erin McBean
Director + Photographer: Hailey Bartholemew
DOP: Mark Desiatov
Editor: Annika Damon
Sound: Michael Thomas