B&Q Water Efficiency

Client: B&Q

Campaign: Water Efficiency (February 2007)

» Listen to “B&Q Water Efficiency” (2.8mb / .mp3)

Context:

For nearly 20 years B&Q has adopted a consistent and proactive approach to the challenge of being socially responsible.

The issue of water consumption and how much water the UK uses is an environmental issue that doesn’t often hit the headlines.

At present in the UK, we don’t use water wisely. The average family household wastes up to 165 litres of water a day.

The B&Q water efficiency campaign aimed to highlight the issue of how people could become more water efficient and show customers that they could save water by reducing waste, rather than restricting use.

NGO Waterwise supported the campaign, the independent body that monitor water use in the UK.

The campaign strategy was to use product innovation and strong communication mechanisms to raise awareness of how customers could become more water efficient in their homes.

Online Media Strategy:

Central to Current Digital’s online strategy was the recruitment of a respected publisher to act as an advocate of the B&Q product range.

With The Telegraph Media Group planning to launch its Earth channel in line with the campaign timings, an advertiser-funded content partnership was brokered to provide B&Q a channel for educating green consumers on the benefits of water efficiency.

Telegraph editors produced a microsite to address the issue of why water efficiency is important.

The microsite provided tips on how to become more efficient. B&Q branding was wrapped around this content to build association with the brand and water efficiency.

This microsite was heavily promoted using www.telegraph.co.uk and the print title itself.

Visitors to the microsite could link through to B&Q’s diy.com where further information was available on water efficient products for the kitchen, bathroom and garden.

The editor of the Earth Channel (Charles Clover) requested B&Q to allow its water efficiency calculator to feature on the homepage of the Earth Channel on launch. This remained on the homepage for three months at no cost to B&Q.

Results:

Across the eight-week communication, 17,000 unique users visited the microsite content area within The Telegraph Earth Channel.

A pre and post awareness tracking survey showed:-

• 71% of people who recalled the B&Q content area claimed to know about water efficiency. Before the campaign only 55% of respondents claimed to know about the subject. This life of 29% demonstrates the campaign’s success at educating consumers.
• 39% of respondents who recalled the campaign associated B&Q with offering practical tips for saving money through water efficiency. This 10% positive swing on the pre-campaign survey demonstrates the campaign’s success at raising awareness of B&Q’s eco credentials.
• 43% of respondents who recalled the campaign associated B&Q with offering a broad range of water efficiency products. Only 30% of people surveyed before the campaign associated B&Q with this product range demonstrating the campaign’s success at promoting its water efficiency product range.

The positive uplifts generated and the wider awareness delivered from this campaign helped B&Q to promote it’s new water efficiency campaign successfully. Not only did this drive significant sales in store of the range but also helped B&Q continue to delivery on it’s social responsibility mission.