By Mitch Hughes, Director of Menswear

Michael Marks & Thomas Spencer, the duo the retail industry needed.

Mark Wright & Spencer Matthews, the duo you didn’t know you needed, until now.

Earlier this year, we brought the two television personalities together to create a short and simple social video to coincide with the launch of our latest collection in menswear. 12 million views, a quarter of a million likes, shares and comments and over 25,000 clicks to our website. Little did we know - that one piece of marketing content - would not only go viral, but help create a new moment for Menswear at M&S.

Last week, by popular demand, we brought Mark & Spencer back, just in time for Christmas.

The response has been incredible, we have reached a total of six million views across all platforms - and we’re still counting! In the first 24 hours we saw 4,500 clicks to our website driving a 77% uplift in sales in Spencer’s roll neck jumper (Autograph Stone Pure Extra Fine Merion Wool Roll Neck, £45) and 38% uplift in sales of Spencer’s overshirt (Autograph Stone Cotton Rich Twill Textured Overshirt, £49).

But the truth is, we’ve been having a moment in Menswear for a while now. We’ve been on a real journey to reshape for growth, and lots has been done since I joined as Director of Menswear at the start of last year. We’ve raised the bar on talent and become a beacon for new talent in the business. Whether that be the arrival of Callum Briggs who joined us as Head of Design in the summer, or more recently David Olaniyi, who joined us as a Junior Designer, following his win on Dress The Nation, our first ever design competition in partnership with ITV – we’ve created a high performance culture which is laser focused on creating stylish, quality product at a trusted value.

Today, we remain #1 for quality & value and our style perceptions are continuing to improve with a +10ppt increase vs 2 years ago. In our Autumn Winter collection – as modelled by Mark & Spencer - we’ve really shown up with confidence to deliver a collection which delivers on style, quality and versatility and existing and new customers are noticing the difference. In the first half of this year, we have welcomed over 600,000 new customers to menswear. These customers are not only younger, but they are spending more.

At the heart of our Menswear offer sits our Autograph collection. Focused on elevating wardrobe staples with style and sophistication – it is going from strength to strength. In the first half of the year, sales of Autograph were +47% and the collection now makes up nearly a fifth of total Menswear sales, with 40% of Autograph customers new to the brand. Showing the power of the collection as an entry into M&S.

These new customers are driving sales growth and supporting us as we continue to grow our market share in Menswear.

Lots has been done, but their remains lots of opportunity – particularly in growing our omnichannel, improving our availability in store and investing even further in quality, value and style.

But, as Spencer said last week, we’re just getting started.

Watch the latest on social media here.