The Wickes Partnership

The Challenge

When the world went into lockdown, a new kitchen was the last thing on people’s minds, so we needed to keep the spirits of ‘tradies’ high, as well as showcasing the DIY stalwart as being at the heart of every community.

OBJECTIVES:

A. Increase brand awareness

B. Drive brand engagement

C. Increase purchasing behaviour

The Insight

Price promotions became irrelevant.

Our Bauer insights highlighted 87% still wanted to hear from their favourite brands — and over 50% favoured those who were making positive contributions to their community.
We needed to demonstrate an understanding of the public mood to create that audience connection.

We introduced Wickes to KISSTORY, who allowed them to reach the key Trade audience as insights showed tradespeople already listened, and Grazia whose readers love DIY and DIFM (Do It For Me).

The idea

Renewing the Wickes and Bauer Media partnership for its ninth year in a row!

This time the partnership spanned across some of Bauer Media’s biggest audio brands such as Absolute Radio & KISSTORY and publishing brands such as Grazia.

Execution

The Dave Berry Breakfast Show traded its price-promotion tone for a “voice for the people and a company which rewards key workers”.

Wickes sponsored Absolute Radio’s Good Deed Register, where more than £10,000 was given away – meaning listeners associated the company with celebrating the best in humanity.

Wickes partnered for the launch of Absolute Radio marking VE Day, creating brilliantly funny adverts that illustrated how they would have sounded if Wickes had been trading during wartime.

Wickes owned Grazia’s DIY skills section, showcasing how tiling/flooring transforms kitchens/bathrooms, and increasing consumer knowledge of Wickes’ end-to-end service so readers could achieve their desired look.

This content lived online and on social media.

KISSTORY featured TradePro messages − boosting the audience’s mood, tapping into purchasing moments for listeners to stop off at Wickes and gather future supplies − and ‘Tradie Shout Outs’ to big-up and celebrate those working throughout the pandemic.

Results

7000+

ENTRIES WITH A WHOPPING ENTRY CONVERSION RATE OF 75%

67%

OF LISTENERS LIKED THE WICKES SPONSORSHIP IN 2020 UP 2% YOY

69%

FELT POSITIVE ASSOCIATION WITH WICKES (UP FROM 61%)

70%

OF LISTENERS MADE A WICKES PURCHASE

CLIENT TESTIMONIAL
Shelley Allison, Head of Marketing at Wickes“We’ve never valued this relationship more than in 2020 when Absolute Radio helped us to find our tone of voice in dark times, demonstrated creativity and flexibility, and truly helped us to not only convey business-critical messaging, but showcase our values. It’s constantly held up in our business as our most successful partnership and we hope you see why.”