The Challenge
Origin, the UK’s leading manufacturer of aluminium bi-folding doors, windows and residential doors, wanted to secure market position as one of the UK’s leading home brands, raise awareness of the Origin Home range to a key market of homeowners and renovators, and drive traffic to its website – which had recently launched an ecommerce platform.
Our strategy
To fully understand the best approach for achieving Origin’s objectives, we delved into the minds of the homeowner. Independent research carried out by Energy PR for Origin the previous year had unearthed two key insights:
Firstly, the importance of space. Half of homeowners want to move because their home no longer suited their lifestyle in terms of space, while opening up space is one of the top four home improvements that adds value to a property.
Secondly, the relationship we have with our homes – and the continued feeling of wanting to improve where we live – struck a chord with homeowners. Over 75% of people want to make improvements to their current homes, whilst a quarter of homeowners want to move because they want or need change. These insights showed how homeowners work hard to afford the properties they live in and, as a result, need their homes to fulfil their full potential.
Our strategy was to therefore position Origin as a brand that allows people to truly live in their homes.
How We Helped
We developed and implemented a series of tactics designed to demonstrate the use of bi-folding doors in unlocking the living potential of the home by creating a third space. This included a media relations campaign and influencer partnership.
Creative Campaign
We used Google search data to show a rising number of homeowners looking online for outdoor living products, such as outdoor cushions, rugs and sofas. This identified a homeowner trend in creating a new kind of outdoor living space for their homes.
Unlike traditional patio areas, outdoor seating areas or gardens, this new space, made possible by the installation of bi-folding doors, was much more akin to rooms inside a house. For example, comfortable seating areas, dining rooms and even outdoor kitchens, all designed to facilitate enjoyment of the garden and increase the ‘living’ surface area of the home.
We created a name for this space – the ‘Outroom’ – to give an additional twist and added media appeal to the story. We then quantified the existence of this third space by looking at the increasing number of properties installing bi-fold doors.
This was illustrated by two sets of property floor plans that mirrored those used on home buying websites. The first showed the ground floor of a home without bi-fold doors, while the second property showed the same home, but with the installation of bi-fold doors and the inclusion of the outroom.
Property experts at a leading UK online property agent were shown the graphic and asked to place a value on each of the properties. The home with the outroom increased in value by 6%, demonstrating how bi-folding doors are a worthy investment.
A quote from the property agent was also included in the media story. This confirmation from the estate agent of the outroom trend further strengthened the story and affiliated the Origin brand with a leading UK property expert – a credible third party.
The media story, plus floor plan graphics, feature content and Origin case studies, were all offered to homes and interior titles as an opportunity to talk about Origin and its key messages within magazines and websites read by homeowners and renovators.
Influencer Partnership
The second stage of the campaign was to partner with a leading homes and interiors influencer and challenge them to live in their outroom for a week to demonstrate the flexibility of this third space.
We partnered with Reena, author of Hygge for Home and one of the UK’s leading Interior Influencers and content creators, with 189,000 Instagram followers – all grown organically. A trusted voice in the industry, she has worked with several high-profile brands including Ikea, Dyson, Home Sense and Wayfair – so Origin was in good company. Over 90 percent of her followers are women aged between 25 and 44, all fans of her signature ‘Scandi’ style.
Reena was commissioned as part of a paid-for partnership to create several pieces of content.
- A guest blog post for use on the Origin website giving expert advice on how to create the perfect outroom
- Two Instagram posts showing the outroom being used in two different ways. The first showed the space as a cosy lounge, while the second showed the space being used as a picnic/dining area.
- Six Instagram Stories. These mirrored the content used in the Instagram posts.
The above content tagged the official Origin Instagram page @Origin_Global and use the hashtags #Outroom and #OriginOutroom. A link to the blog post was also included on the Hygge for Home Instagram bio for two weeks during the campaign.
