2022 Winner
SilverBest in Video
SilverBest Use of Display/Video
Lowe's Sico
"Spoiler Alert!"
Starcom
"Spoiler Alert!"
Starcom
In 2021, close to 1 in 2 Canadians had already done or were planning to do some home renovations during the pandemic. To capitalize on this surging demand, Lowe's Canada wanted to run a campaign around their SICO paints, including two new product lines, exclusively for sale at its retailers which include Lowe's, Rona, and Réno-Dépôt.
However, it had trouble launching into a highly saturated marketplace littered with competitor marketing. It was imperative for this paint not to appear as wallpaper. Even with the favorable macro-context, with the pandemic still at play and consumers still spending more time furthering their home environment, Lowe's wanted to create their own noise in the paint space.
To do this, Lowe’s executed a bespoke campaign with the objective to introduce the new brands - SICO Excellence and SICO Classique – and achieve a level of awareness sufficient for the brand to stand out. It goes without saying that sales were important too, and the lofty objective was set to grow the sales in the paint space by at least 16% during the period campaign compared to the previous period. If succeeded, it was time to paint the town red.
For the SICO brand, its value proposition lies in that it is loved by Canadians for its excellent color rendering and the quality of the paint. People want to get exactly what they pay for, so hammering home the strength of its color reliability was going to be paramount if it was going to continue to win the confidence of younger audiences who have so many options at their fingertips.
To brush up on its communications with young decorators, it was important that it speak their language and demonstrate colour reliability in real moments, rather than just talking about it like its competitors. Just like the warning young Millennials receive on social chatter as their favorite new TV show hits the airwaves before they’ve had a chance to see it, its strategic idea was to
give them a “Spoiler Alert”!
Spoiler Alert’s intrigue lies within its ability to seed within the culture – you want to paint your room in the exact same color as Cardi B’s jacket? You got it.
Since the SICO paint lines are available only in Lowe's/Rona and Réno-Dépôtstores, it was necessary to position the new SICO lines earlier in the purchasing process, in inspirational media, and to prove that the Classic and Excellence are must-have choices exclusive to Lowe's retailers.
Lowe's decided to steer clear of traditional media, given that it was saturated with paint products. The company chose to insert itself into pop-culture by favouring pre-video advertisements on YouTube, across Canada. Each ad was custom designed and presented as a "spoiler" alert, revealing the main colors of the upcoming video and inserted into the advertisement preceding the playback of this video.
The reliability of SICO paint was demonstrated through Pinterest searches. Users were exposed to the four dominant SICO colours presented in their Pinterest search result. The same colour recognition system was integrated into billboard banners, appearing in contextual digital environments such as weather results.
It clearly illustrated the reliability of SICO colors thanks to an innovative approach. First, thanks to its proprietary algorithm (the first of its kind) it was able to integrate into popular culture via custom-designed videos. The four dominant colours of the video were automatically detected, transformed into a SICO color palette, and then inserted into the advertisement preceding the
playback of this video.
Thanks to major partners such as Google, Pinterest and The Weather Network, it was able to completely adapt its content according to the videos/themes most sought after by their target.
The campaign achieved the desired level of awareness, with more than 100 million impressions across Pinterest, YouTube, and digital environments. The ads were widely viewed and generated comments on social media mentioning how the paint results reliably “spoiled” colours. Some mentioned having seen the advertisement several times and that it was never wrong.
In addition, the sales of the paint department increased by 20% compared to the previous period (target of 16%); 29% higher than the same period in 2019. The campaign drove an 11.3% increase in sales within Quebec versus the same period in 2020 (which was the previous record year of paint sales). The campaign became the base awareness tactic for several other paint lines throughout 2021 and a gold standard for future consideration campaigns.
However, it had trouble launching into a highly saturated marketplace littered with competitor marketing. It was imperative for this paint not to appear as wallpaper. Even with the favorable macro-context, with the pandemic still at play and consumers still spending more time furthering their home environment, Lowe's wanted to create their own noise in the paint space.
To do this, Lowe’s executed a bespoke campaign with the objective to introduce the new brands - SICO Excellence and SICO Classique – and achieve a level of awareness sufficient for the brand to stand out. It goes without saying that sales were important too, and the lofty objective was set to grow the sales in the paint space by at least 16% during the period campaign compared to the previous period. If succeeded, it was time to paint the town red.
For the SICO brand, its value proposition lies in that it is loved by Canadians for its excellent color rendering and the quality of the paint. People want to get exactly what they pay for, so hammering home the strength of its color reliability was going to be paramount if it was going to continue to win the confidence of younger audiences who have so many options at their fingertips.
To brush up on its communications with young decorators, it was important that it speak their language and demonstrate colour reliability in real moments, rather than just talking about it like its competitors. Just like the warning young Millennials receive on social chatter as their favorite new TV show hits the airwaves before they’ve had a chance to see it, its strategic idea was to
give them a “Spoiler Alert”!
Spoiler Alert’s intrigue lies within its ability to seed within the culture – you want to paint your room in the exact same color as Cardi B’s jacket? You got it.
Since the SICO paint lines are available only in Lowe's/Rona and Réno-Dépôtstores, it was necessary to position the new SICO lines earlier in the purchasing process, in inspirational media, and to prove that the Classic and Excellence are must-have choices exclusive to Lowe's retailers.
Lowe's decided to steer clear of traditional media, given that it was saturated with paint products. The company chose to insert itself into pop-culture by favouring pre-video advertisements on YouTube, across Canada. Each ad was custom designed and presented as a "spoiler" alert, revealing the main colors of the upcoming video and inserted into the advertisement preceding the playback of this video.
The reliability of SICO paint was demonstrated through Pinterest searches. Users were exposed to the four dominant SICO colours presented in their Pinterest search result. The same colour recognition system was integrated into billboard banners, appearing in contextual digital environments such as weather results.
It clearly illustrated the reliability of SICO colors thanks to an innovative approach. First, thanks to its proprietary algorithm (the first of its kind) it was able to integrate into popular culture via custom-designed videos. The four dominant colours of the video were automatically detected, transformed into a SICO color palette, and then inserted into the advertisement preceding the
playback of this video.
Thanks to major partners such as Google, Pinterest and The Weather Network, it was able to completely adapt its content according to the videos/themes most sought after by their target.
The campaign achieved the desired level of awareness, with more than 100 million impressions across Pinterest, YouTube, and digital environments. The ads were widely viewed and generated comments on social media mentioning how the paint results reliably “spoiled” colours. Some mentioned having seen the advertisement several times and that it was never wrong.
In addition, the sales of the paint department increased by 20% compared to the previous period (target of 16%); 29% higher than the same period in 2019. The campaign drove an 11.3% increase in sales within Quebec versus the same period in 2020 (which was the previous record year of paint sales). The campaign became the base awareness tactic for several other paint lines throughout 2021 and a gold standard for future consideration campaigns.
Credits
CREDITS: Spoiler AlertCREATIVE AGENCY: Sid Lee
CLIENT: Lowe's Canada
VICE-PRESIDENT: Julie Carbone
ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT: Valérie Jolivet
SUPERVISION, MEDIA PLANNING: Geneviève Bilodeau-Roy
MEDIA PLANNING: Pierre Nallet
PROGRAM MANAGEMENT: Greg Coyle
SOCIAL MANAGEMENT: Breanne Morrisson
EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTION: Alex Bernier CREATIVE DIRECTION: Brian Gill
DESIGN-EDITORIAL: Nicolas Labbé
ARTISTIC DIRECTION: Pascal Tremblay
CREATIVE TECHNOLOGY: Julien Roub Charland
FREELANTS: Mathieu Dufour, Vincent Tourigny
ADVISORY GROUP MANAGEMENT: Thalie Poulin
ACCOUNT SUPERVISION: Chloé Daoust
COORDINATION ADVISORY SERVICE : Camille Moreau
SENIOR STRATEGY: Laurianne Normandin
MAIN PRODUCTION: Marie-Soleil Patry
PRODUCTION COORDINATION: Hugo Beaupré
CREATIVE DIRECTION: Olivier Valiquette
VIDEOGRAPHER: Daniel Daigle
2D ANIMATION: Amos Nzamba , Patrice Mathieu (freelancer)
GRAPHICS: Paul Gaspari
EDITING ASSISTANCE: Sonya Nadon
MARKETING VICE-PRESIDENCY: Catherine Laporte
MARKETING BRAND MANAGEMENT: Marie-Hélène Cusson
MEDIA MANAGEMENT: Robert Allan
HEAD OF MEDIA STRATEGY: Louis-Philippe Charland