CASE STUDY: Most people don’t know that you can hire a general contractor through The Home Depot. How will you learn about this before you get started?

Here’s a case study where behavorial triggers launch a contextual storytelling campaign.  

One blogger. One kitchen teardown.  One campaign, running forever.

COMPANY PROFILE: THE HOME DEPOT

The Home Depot is the world’s largest home improvement retailer with nearly 400,000 associates and more than 2,200 stores in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The typical store today averages 105,000 square feet, interconnected with an e-commerce business that offers more than one million products for the DIY customer.

Founded in 1979, today The Home Depot is one of the top 10 retailers in the U.S. and Number #23 on Fortune 500 List with revenues of $100.9 Billion in 2017.

INTERNAL CLIENT & GOALS

Just In Time Messaging Required

The Renovation Services team enjoyed success with tried-and-true marketing methods for decades. But brochures could only go so far in showing how beautiful a kitchen renovation can be. The team needed modern creative, with a strong story, that could be shared in the field during sales consultations.

Traditional lead acquisition methods were pricey - could social media targeting help lower the cost per qualified lead?

CHALLENGES

• Although 98% of Americans are familiar with The Home Depot brand, customers may not know about Renovation Services.

•  It’s tricky for customers to understand technical options like ‘cabinet refacing v.s. replacing’ without clear visuals.

• Customers consider renovations for years before finalizing their plans.

SOLUTION

A forever campaign with behavorial triggers

We created a campaign with three basic components.

First, we’ll share a strong Renovation Story, highlighting one of our blogger partners as her family gets the kitchen makeover of their dreams.

Next, we’ll help customers decide whether to DIY their project or hire a professional.

And finally, we’ll continue to touch base about the Renovation Services options at THD, while Dynamic Product Ads will remind customers of the products featured in the blogger’s renovation.

CREATIVE APPROACH

In designing this program, we began with the customer experience, crafting influencer packages that started with a dream proposition - like a brand new kitchen!

We looked for blogger participants who could open their home to a rotating production team for 6 to 8 months. Video and still photographers captured each important stage in the renovation.

We additionally created tons of How-To content which published on the Home Depot blog with step-by-step instructional photography.

Read more about blogger Joni Lay's dream kitchen renovation on The Home Depot Blog. Home Depot Renovation Services spearheaded the renovation which was captured by creative agency 22squared and production team Flynnside Out.

TARGETING

How we Got the Right Content to the Right People For 2 cents a Click

BACKGROUND: Multi-modal storytelling campaigns allow us to sequence creative around the real-time needs of the customer. 

• TRIGGER: In this example, a customer will trigger the messaging cadence through a specific action: let’s say, searching for “Kitchen Renovation.”

• +1 DAY: Next, the customer will view Storytelling Ads - a real life renovation from start to finish - typically through Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube. 

• +5 DAYS: Most customers are now deciding between “doing it themselves” v.s. “hiring a professional.” To help, we serve up both DIY renovation tutorials alongside messaging for our professional Renovation Services. Browsing HD.com will also trigger dynamic product ads. 

• ONGOING: After the “education” component of the campaign, customers will continue to receive Service messaging and product ads, as budget allows.

RESULTS

The Renovation team was delighted by the beautiful campaign - and more importantly, our blogger and her family love their new kitchen.

The programmatic campaign is evergreen, and can continue to recruit new Kitchen Renovation customers for years to come.