Chapter 1
Where it started
Fernhill Outerwear is a small apparel brand that sells waterproof rain jackets through its own online store. The range runs from a light packable shell to a longer coat with a sealed hood. Buyers are mostly commuters, dog owners and parents.
The team is three people. The founder designs the range and handles the Meta and TikTok accounts herself, fitting uploads between stock checks and customer emails.
Chapter 2
The problem nobody had time for
Every ad Fernhill ran was built from the same product photos: a jacket on a plain white background, zipped up and perfectly still. A dry jacket on a white wall looks like any other jacket.
Rival brands were showing storms, puddles and soaked city streets. Next to those ads, Fernhill looked careful and quiet, and its click-through rate lagged well behind its store reviews.
Fit was the other gap. The comments under every ad asked the same things: does it run small, will it go over a thick sweater, how long is the medium. Size returns were eating into margin, and no ad showed the jacket on a real body.
Chapter 3
What we made
We delivered 36 ads over six weeks, six in each Monday drop, in UGC-style, Static and Motion formats. The first drop set rain footage against a fit comparison and a price-per-wear static.
Bus stop, heavy rain
Rain won clearly, and one shot above all: a slow close-up of water beading on the sleeve, gathering and running off without soaking in. Wearers waited at a bus stop in a heavy shower or crossed a park with a wet dog, each scene opening on water leaving the fabric.
Beads, then drips
Fit got its own track. Statics showed one style on three different body types, labeled with each wearer's height and the size they chose, and a UGC-style clip showed a wearer layering a thick knit underneath.
Same jacket, three sizes
In weeks four and five we added a forecast set. Wet-day versions met people in the weather they were already in, and a dry-spell version said to be ready for the next front. Fernhill signed off on each ad, then the founder uploaded the drops into her existing campaigns and switched between the forecast versions as the outlook changed.
Week by week
- Week 1Fernhill sent the brief and two jackets, and the first drop pitted rain footage against fit and price angles.
- Weeks 2 to 3The water-off-the-sleeve close-up led, so new drops paired it with wearers on commutes, dog walks and school runs.
- Weeks 4 to 5A forecast set went in: wet-day versions for rainy regions and a get-ready message for dry spells.
- Week 6The rain-led ads took the larger share of spend and the white-backdrop shots were paused.
The turning point
Water off the sleeve
A close shot of rain beading and rolling off the fabric settled the question every buyer has before they could scroll past. It worked hardest on wet days, when the scene on screen matched the view from the viewer's own window.
Chapter 4
What changed
Click-through rate rose 58% against the white-backdrop ads they replaced, measured in Fernhill's Meta Ads Manager. The sleeve opening carried the biggest gains, most of all in the wettest regions and weeks.
The fit statics brought fewer clicks but answered the comment-thread questions before anyone asked them. Sizing emails dropped, and the founder added the three-body-types image to her product pages.
The price-per-wear static became a follow-up for people who had already watched a rain ad.
+58%
Click-through rate
- Ads delivered
- 36
- Period
- 6 weeks
Measured in Fernhill's Meta Ads Manager, comparing the new ads with the studio set they replaced.
Chapter 5
What happens next
Fall is Fernhill's busiest season, so the coming drops cover first cold mornings, the switch to a longer coat and a holiday gifting angle.
The sleeve close-up stays in rotation with new settings and wearers each week, so the proof never goes stale.
Sound familiar?
- Your ads show the product looking neat, but never doing the one job people buy it for.
- Your comments keep asking the same question about size, and your ads never answer it.
- Your sales rise and fall with the weather, yet your ads run the same message whatever the sky is doing.
Your version of this story
If you sell something built for a specific condition, your version starts by showing it in that condition. Send us the ads you run now, and your free review points out where the product is posed instead of proven, with three openings that put it to work on screen. Each Monday drop then tests one of those openings, so you learn which proof your shoppers respond to before you spend more behind it.
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