Stripe & Stare broadens marketing after sales reach £15m

Stripe & Stare is widening its advertising mix and pursuing further international growth after sales at the underwear brand rose from roughly £4m to around £15m in little more than two years. The US already accounts for about a fifth of the business, while a six-month King’s Road pop-up has encouraged interest in more physical retail.

Growth director Andrew Boddy outlined the strategy in an interview published by Retail Gazette on 7 October 2026. His priority is to increase recognition among shoppers who have not encountered the brand, rather than rely solely on improving the advertising channels that already bring in customers.

What happened

Stripe & Stare has expanded a marketing operation previously centred on Google and Meta to include podcast advertising, catalogues, affiliates, creators and television. Streaming and video are becoming increasingly important as the company looks for audiences beyond its established digital channels.

The change is not a withdrawal from performance marketing. Google and Meta remain part of the plan, but Boddy wants to reduce the commercial exposure that comes with depending heavily on two platforms for customer acquisition.

Research into customers’ media habits is guiding that allocation of spending. The company uses brand tracking to identify the people it wants to reach and understand which platforms and types of media they consume.

Although Stripe & Stare regards its products as suitable across age groups, it targets a defined demographic in its marketing. Boddy’s assessment is that attempting to address every female shopper would spread the company’s resources too thinly.

That research revealed a mismatch between the audience’s viewing habits and the company’s advertising presence. Video and streaming were attracting consumers Stripe & Stare wanted to reach, yet represented relatively limited parts of its activity, giving the team a basis for considering further investment.

Creators have also moved from a smaller supporting role to a channel Boddy regards as comparable in importance with Google and Meta. The selection process puts more weight on audience trust and a credible relationship with the product than on the size of a creator’s following alone.

The background

Boddy says the business has been recording year-on-year growth of around 40%. Alongside the sales increase over the longer period, that continuing expansion has sharpened the question of how its marketing should change as the company becomes larger.

His career spans online travel, luxury fashion, hotels, mattresses and high-street fashion retail. Experience at established businesses has informed his view that a recognisable consumer brand requires sustained work beyond the optimisation of paid social advertising.

Stripe & Stare’s diagnosis is that its product and conversion of interested shoppers are stronger than its public awareness. Boddy says customers respond well once they discover the business; the constraint is the number who know it exists before they begin shopping for underwear.

Its response includes a new brand positioning, For All of You, built around the varied experiences of women’s lives. Rather than concentrate on an idealised appearance, the approach makes room for everyday pressures, contradictions, frustrations and unremarkable moments.

The creative direction reflects Boddy’s criticism of a gap within underwear advertising. In his view, claims about confidence and inclusion frequently sit alongside highly polished imagery that still presents an unrealistic standard of femininity.

For All of You is intended to provide a consistent basis for marketing over two, three or four years. Its proposed lifespan distinguishes it from a short advertising campaign whose identity is set aside when the initial spending ends.

What people are saying

Boddy argues that a durable creative framework should also make the marketing team’s work more efficient. Seasonal activity, product launches and partnerships can sit within an established approach, rather than require a separate concept each time.

That framework now informs creator work, digital advertising and the company’s own website. The aim is to establish a recognisable position that belongs to Stripe & Stare and becomes more valuable through repeated use across those different settings.

Despite the greater emphasis on awareness, Boddy says commercial measurement remains central. He points to data visibility, unit economics and customer behaviour as the checks underpinning decisions about advertising investment.

He does not regard measurement as necessarily complex for a business of Stripe & Stare’s size. His position is that the team can assess whether podcast, television and search advertising are contributing, then shift money towards activity that performs better.

For creator partnerships, he is wary of accounts carrying so many commercial endorsements that another recommendation makes little impression. Believability and the opportunity to develop a relationship over time matter more to him than securing the most prominent name available.

The company is consequently looking beyond conventional fashion creators. Underwear presents a particular constraint: people can be enthusiastic customers without wanting to appear publicly wearing the product, limiting the usefulness of a straightforward modelling brief.

Boddy sees the broader positioning as a way around that problem. Partnerships can communicate the lifestyle and values associated with the brand without requiring creators to pose in underwear, opening up other ways to present the product.

He assesses those relationships against several practical questions: whether they increase awareness, reach the intended audience, reinforce the wider message and offer scope for further activity. A partnership’s usefulness therefore extends beyond the response to an individual post.

What happens next

Deeper international expansion is high on the agenda, with the existing US business providing a starting point. Boddy also sees opportunities for events and partnerships that translate the advertising positioning into experiences outside digital media.

The King’s Road pop-up has prompted consideration of a larger physical retail presence. Further shops remain an opportunity rather than a specified rollout: the interview sets out no opening timetable, location list or investment figure.

Boddy’s longer-term ambition is for Stripe & Stare to be among the first three or four underwear brands consumers recall. He identifies Marks & Spencer, Calvin Klein and Victoria’s Secret as the larger names alongside which he wants the company to be considered.

He believes there is space for a contemporary, appealing underwear brand that does not depend on overtly sexualised advertising. Building that position will require the company to maintain its chosen message over time while extending its reach into the media and markets it has identified.