In 2018 Valspar came to us with a problem.
As a paint brand their potential consumers were actively looking for paint in very small windows across the year... you don't just remodel your house or re-paint your kitchen, and you certainly don't do this more than once every couple of years!
This meant social was needed to find people in the passive awareness phase of their consumer journey. Before they had a baby, before their kids moved out, or before they bought their first home; before their trigger moments hit.
The great news is that more people were DIY-ing rather than hiring painters. The trouble was, consumers were intimidated by doing these tasks themselves, instead relying on parents or handymen to teach them how to paint a room. We knew that we had to change this mindset and instil confidence in our audience.
We also knew that creative content, paid distribution and quality influencer collaborations would be the tools we needed to tackle this problem.
Our strategy consisted of four key elements. Firstly, the understanding of their differing audiences and how seasonality impacts consumers buying cycle. Typically, they'll spend 2-4 weeks making a decision on their paint purchase, and Valspar needed to be in the consumers' newsfeed at each step: Identification of need, Inspiration, Education and Engagement. This wasn't about short term purchase pushing. It was about long term emotional brand engagement.
We outlined a year long strategy, creating content for each phase of a consumers buying cycle and used paid media to ensure it reached the right people at the right time.
1. We created social first brand awareness videos to find people before they've identified the need for redecoration. We utilised the high impact TVC assets for this, showcasing the brands' exciting offering of colour and performance.
2. We curated lifestyle content on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest to ensure we were the most aspirational paint brand, using our feeds as a lookbook rather than product promotion, inspiring change in the home and helping them navigate the paradox of choice prevalent in paint purchase.
3. We partnered with 10 relevant influencers from our 5 trigger communities (mums, empty nesters, new buyers, upcyclers, garden renovators). We deliberately selected fewer partners, instead focussing on creating content with more emphasis on providing education and insight, over sheer reach. Alongside this we created how-to videos, Instagram stories and action carousels to educate our consumers on how to purchase and use the product. It meant we were creating easily accessible content to guide them through the daunting task of purchase and execution.
4. Finally, we used Facebook and Instagram at the end of the buying cycle to encourage consumers to share their DIY journey through UGC and continue to engage with the brand. Because knowing their next project might not be far away and that their pride in completing the task would encourage others to start that job they've been putting off.
After a year of contributing to a wider marketing campaign within an agency group, Valspar saw the largest increase to date of 30% in UK brand awareness.
We drove 16,758 people who had previously engaged in our content to the 'where to buy' section of the website. With an average offline conversion rate of 5% at B&Q and an average order value of minimum £40. 837 people bought paint as a result of Facebook advertising, generating £33,516 revenue.
