Silver: Partnering

Colour inspiration influences a consumer’s paint purchase, so CIL Paints and The Home Depot developed the “Colour Outside the Headlines” campaign, an integrated in-store and social program designed to inspire consumers by linking daily trending news stories with CIL paint colours.

From a pumpkin shortage to the royal baby christening, news stories that could be connected to a colour were selected every day from Oct. 16 to Nov. 8, 2013. The news story was then weaved into a web post that explained the colour’s history or gave a piece of interesting colour trivia, and uploaded to the brand’s Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest pages as well as the CIL blog.

In-store postcards were placed in the CIL paint section on a weekly basis, showcasing the week’s news stories and providing creative inspiration while at the store. Cards describing the campaign were placed on main counters in the paint section, driving shoppers back to the CIL blog and social platforms. The in-store materials gave consumers a direct connection to the campaign, even when they weren’t in front of their computers.

The campaign increased social engagement on CIL platforms, with Facebook fans increasing by 68% and the number of people talking about CIL Paints on Facebook increasing by 5,000%. Traffic to the CIL blog was up more than 100% and Twitter and Pinterest fans also increased over the course of the campaign. Preliminary results show CIL paint sales were up 16% in Home Depot stores during the first few weeks of the campaign.

Credits: 

Brands: CIL Paints, The Home Depot
Channel marketing manager, Akzo Nobel (CIL Paints): Charlene Taylor
Marketing manager, The Home Depot: Craig Zavitz
Agency: Shopper DDB, DDB Canada, Tribal Worldwide
VP managing director: Jason Dubroy
Senior account executive: Colin Brown
Account coordinator: Lillian Mak
Account supervisor: Meghan Kelly
Sr. Consultant: Greg Vallentin
ADs: Branko Dundjerovic, Carla Rimando
CD: Barb Williams
CW: Valentine Ho
Community manager: Sharilyn Johnson
Community cultivation manager: Laura Muirhead
VP, director of print and graphic services: Rose-Ella Morrison
Production artist: Kirk Broadhead
Producer: Yulia Danilova
Production coordinator: Elizabeth Fitzpatrick