Insight
Over the past 5 years, Réno-Dépôt trailed behind the competition in the paint category with the lowest market share. With a fall in business results in the face of a growing number of specialised stores and new US franchises launching in Quebec, Réno-Dépôt needed to get the consumers’ consideration back quickly or face disastrous consequences.
Looking into the consumer journey when it comes to paint purchases, Carat proved to the client that the cost of the product is as important as the variety of colours found in-store. Consumers prefer to travel short distances and compare multiple brands and colours than to go from store to store.
Réno-Dépôt is known for its low prices so Carat challenged the client to go for a strategy based on colour variety, which the brand was not recognised for. Carat wanted to showcase Réno-Dépôt’s expertise in terms of colour choice, availability and quantity. Doing so would make the client’s stores more relevant for the consumers, making Réno-Dépôt a one-stop destination and thus, increase sales.
Strategy
By understanding the strengths of the client, but also the perception problems it faced, Carat developed a tailored strategy to address it. To be disruptive and generate impact, it redefined the role of digital boards and pushed the limits of everything that had been done previously with this media, making sure the innovation would make this campaign memorable while setting new standards.
In order to demonstrate Réno-Dépôt’s expertise, the agency aimed for the stars and chose the sky as its media partner. Constantly evolving from day into night, the colour of the sky offered an unlimited palette to pick shades from. With this backdrop, it contributed to develop from ground up a brand new technology that was able to identify the precise colour of the sky above the digital boards and compare it to a large database of more than 1,000 varieties of colours, each one with its own signature name.
Execution
To heighten success, Carat selected the best digital boards in town where the consumers, from their ground perspective, could see the sky in the background. This was key in order to simplify the consumers’ association between the colour on the board and the colour of the sky.
The highlight of this execution is that it was orchestrated in real-time: the detection of the sky shade and its association and synchronisation with the digital board, showcasing the identical colour with accompanying signature hue name. The digital boards were not only a simple medium to push the creative, they became intelligent tools that were able to detect, convert, showcase and establish Réno-Dépôt as a leader in the paint category.
Never before seen in Canada.
Never before seen in North America.
Never before seen anywhere else!
Results
It contributed to create from scratch a whole new technology to transform normal digital boards into intelligent and compelling brand ambassadors. Carat redefined the digital billboard and with this trailblazing use of technology, enabled Réno-Dépôt to make a powerful and clear statement that elevated its brand: “The Sky is the Limit”.
The technology was able to identify 53 different shades over the duration of the campaign, lifting the sales up to 165% comparing to last year for certain colours.
Overall, Réno-Dépôt paint sales increased +17%, the brand was able to gain +19% market share in Quebec during the campaign and maintain a +11% share of market since !
The technology is now being adapted to conquer new markets in 2015.