2022 Winner
SilverBest in Audio
SilverBest in Durable Goods
Sico
"Shades That Show Your True Colour"
PHD Montreal
"Shades That Show Your True Colour"
PHD Montreal
Each year SICO has been attacked on its home turf, the province of Quebec, by new players and big competitors. It was important for SICO to create a campaign that could rekindle the love and passion for the brand amongst Quebecers. The campaign goal was to maintain its position as the number one considered brand in the province, while continuing to differentiate SICO from all competitors in market.
It decided to explore a new territory by leveraging one of the most creative aspects of the paint industry: the absurdity of paint names. Salsa Dance, Green Is the New Black, Love Note… based on their names alone it's unlikely a person would easily recall an actual colour. So as the only paint manufacturer founded in Quebec, SICO was uniquely placed to bring these colours to life using local cultural references and colourful French language.
To reinforce the link between SICO and Quebec, it launched the “Shades That Show Your True Colour” campaign, a campaign aimed at highlighting the absurdity of colour names, using faces and expressions unique to Quebec.
Its strategic approach had two fundamental pillars.
First, it recruited the faces of two well-known comedians in Quebec, The Denis Drolet, who are highly recognizable by their iconic looks; a brown suit, long hair and goofy faces. Second, it set out to find spaces where the absurd names made sense in theory, but when taking a second look was unexpected for a paint manufacturer.
The contextual strategy was launched using two well-known Quebec expressions. “Green Thumb,” meaning to be good at gardening, and “Cordon Blue,” meaning to be a good cook. They launched a 360 media campaign including TV, magazine, digital and OOH, where its Green Thumb and Cordon Blue colours were plastered across hyper-contextual gardening and cooking content. This helped it to stand out from the competition by being in unexpected places in a playful tone beloved by Quebecers.
In partnership with The Denis Drolet duo, it created a content series that brought the SICO palette to life. This included creating a signature song for the brand called “Rouge Cerise Rouge” (Red Cherry Red). Throughout the song, The Denis Drolet duo make reference to a variety of SICO colours in humourous skits. The song launched exclusively on Quebec’s number one summer station, Rouge FM, being promoted live by announcers as well as being pushed out socially by Rouge FM and SICO social accounts as “the next big release.”
After the launch, it became part of the ongoing playlist as a unique and subtly branded hit that
played throughout summer alongside big pop hits by well known music stars.
The great innovation of this campaign is to have capitalized on a strong insight, the absurdity of paint names, and to have applied it creatively to all the chosen channels. For example, contextual placements in magazines and digital environments that were not natural for painting, but where they could make the connection with the colored expressions.
Another innovative aspect of the campaign remains in the second activation where it used Denis Drolet, in partnership with Bell, for what they really are: two excellent, absurd singers. The creation of a unique new song that mixed the names of absurd colors with different colorful Quebec expressions demonstrates the strength of this project. This unique song allowed it to connect with Quebecers in an organic way while prioritizing the essence of the campaign.
The campaign had a dramatic effect on SICO’s notoriety and consideration in Quebec. Brand
awareness hit 97% and consideration 74%, a peak in the province. The brand song created a rallying cry for Quebec, achieving over 10 million impressions across the airwaves in summertime.
People loved to engage with the content, participating with the campaign by expressing which SICO colour represented them. It saw a cost per engagement 19 times lower than the industry and a click through rate five times higher.
By bridging culture with what made SICO unique, it was able to rekindle an emotional connection with its audiences. It ensured SICO remained top choice for all Quebec’s paint needs, and helped to make paint names more memorable than ever.
It decided to explore a new territory by leveraging one of the most creative aspects of the paint industry: the absurdity of paint names. Salsa Dance, Green Is the New Black, Love Note… based on their names alone it's unlikely a person would easily recall an actual colour. So as the only paint manufacturer founded in Quebec, SICO was uniquely placed to bring these colours to life using local cultural references and colourful French language.
To reinforce the link between SICO and Quebec, it launched the “Shades That Show Your True Colour” campaign, a campaign aimed at highlighting the absurdity of colour names, using faces and expressions unique to Quebec.
Its strategic approach had two fundamental pillars.
First, it recruited the faces of two well-known comedians in Quebec, The Denis Drolet, who are highly recognizable by their iconic looks; a brown suit, long hair and goofy faces. Second, it set out to find spaces where the absurd names made sense in theory, but when taking a second look was unexpected for a paint manufacturer.
The contextual strategy was launched using two well-known Quebec expressions. “Green Thumb,” meaning to be good at gardening, and “Cordon Blue,” meaning to be a good cook. They launched a 360 media campaign including TV, magazine, digital and OOH, where its Green Thumb and Cordon Blue colours were plastered across hyper-contextual gardening and cooking content. This helped it to stand out from the competition by being in unexpected places in a playful tone beloved by Quebecers.
In partnership with The Denis Drolet duo, it created a content series that brought the SICO palette to life. This included creating a signature song for the brand called “Rouge Cerise Rouge” (Red Cherry Red). Throughout the song, The Denis Drolet duo make reference to a variety of SICO colours in humourous skits. The song launched exclusively on Quebec’s number one summer station, Rouge FM, being promoted live by announcers as well as being pushed out socially by Rouge FM and SICO social accounts as “the next big release.”
After the launch, it became part of the ongoing playlist as a unique and subtly branded hit that
played throughout summer alongside big pop hits by well known music stars.
The great innovation of this campaign is to have capitalized on a strong insight, the absurdity of paint names, and to have applied it creatively to all the chosen channels. For example, contextual placements in magazines and digital environments that were not natural for painting, but where they could make the connection with the colored expressions.
Another innovative aspect of the campaign remains in the second activation where it used Denis Drolet, in partnership with Bell, for what they really are: two excellent, absurd singers. The creation of a unique new song that mixed the names of absurd colors with different colorful Quebec expressions demonstrates the strength of this project. This unique song allowed it to connect with Quebecers in an organic way while prioritizing the essence of the campaign.
The campaign had a dramatic effect on SICO’s notoriety and consideration in Quebec. Brand
awareness hit 97% and consideration 74%, a peak in the province. The brand song created a rallying cry for Quebec, achieving over 10 million impressions across the airwaves in summertime.
People loved to engage with the content, participating with the campaign by expressing which SICO colour represented them. It saw a cost per engagement 19 times lower than the industry and a click through rate five times higher.
By bridging culture with what made SICO unique, it was able to rekindle an emotional connection with its audiences. It ensured SICO remained top choice for all Quebec’s paint needs, and helped to make paint names more memorable than ever.
Credits
PHDSico
Substance