Choosing a paint color can be difficult. In fact, it takes the average consumer more than three months to choose one. That's longer than most people take to select the house they're going to paint. With all of the pins, design shows and project inspiration, it's not hard to see why. We know consumers begin curating inspiration at the start of the year, following the holidays, but as paint season looms near, many still find themselves deep in color paralysis. There are just too many colors to consider. We needed to help consumers narrow down the vast universe of color, make a decision and paint faster.
Our campaign goal became simple: reduce the days between inspiration and painting. To help with closing the decision gap, specific campaign objectives were to spur paint sample sales (since we know that a satisfactory sample experience often leads to gallon sales), and support the brand's overall social KPIs of increased project intent conversation and brand social engagement.
To accomplish this, we created the BEHR Color Clinic, a two-day, live social media event across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, where seven color experts answered consumer color questions in real-time for 10 hours a day. Our experts, including headliner and HGTV star Sabrina Soto, created custom BEHR color palettes of their favorite shades for consumer sample purchase, completed easy-to-replicate room makeovers (because we know consumers are copycats and will move a project forward more quickly if they have inspiration to reference), encouraged consumers to participate by promoting event elements via their blog and social channels, and took part in the live event offering personalized advice, tips and inspiration.
Consumers experiencing color paralysis were encouraged to comment on a BEHR or influencer #BEHRColorClinicSweepstakes social post, or proactively ask a question using the campaign hashtag, for a chance to have their question answered live by one of our experts, and help move them down the paint path to purchase faster. The more personal the question, the better. Consumers were asked to submit photos of their rooms, ask a specific question to help them select a color, or pick the brains of our experts to help them better understand interior design. Consumers who participated using the campaign hashtag were entered for a chance to win $10,000 and a one-on-one Skype design consultation with Sabrina Soto.
All campaign elements were designed and planned with our campaign goal in mind. To bring the BEHR Color Clinic to life, our planning process included: identification and selection of relevant micro-influencers that met our established criteria relative to reach, brand and campaign fit, and design style; development of a detailed event calendar, matching our selected influencers with their highest-performing platforms relative to follower count and engagement rates, and in order to ensure social media coverage for 10 hours a day during the live event; development of integrated campaign elements (e.g. branded social content and a campaign landing page) to support the event; and coordination of community management and prize fulfilment duties.
From pre- to post-event, the BEHR Color Clinic was a tremendous success. A total of 8,000 consumer questions and color expert responses were delivered using our campaign hashtag, with 95% of consumer social conversation expressing project intent. Our "Add to Cart" click-through percentage for paint sample purchases was higher than originally anticipated, at 13% vs. the projected 8%, showing we were successful in helping many consumers make a color decision. We acquired 39,000 campaign landing page visits, which was 324% above our initial projections, and nearly 55 million influencer, paid social and media impressions.
The reason for the campaign's success? The BEHR Color Clinic capitalized on the consumer mindset at the onset of peak painting season, addressed the agony of color paralysis head-on, and delivered useful content and information to help consumers feel confident in their color decisions.
