Beton. Concrete Steps to Building a success story.
Old modern construction technology
Beton, known in English as concrete, is a mixture of cement with sand, gravel and other aggregates used in building and construction technology. This age-old technology has already been used by the Romans, known as Roman concrete (opus caementicium), among others for the impressive Pantheon.
Usage of Beton
Due to its highly effective binding function of different aggregates, Beton is incredibly versatile when used for construction. Anyone who ever visited Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia cathedral in Barcelona knows how Beton may be used extremely creatively. Depending on the usage intended, different mixes enable beton to be energy-effective, flexible enough to resist earthquakes, or offers great soundproofing qualities. It may also be used as architecural statement, if you think how Tadao Ando as specific structural details to make a grey wall stand out.
From B2B opening up to B2C
The German Federal Associations of Cement, Ready-mix Concrete, and Precast Concrete Element Industries got together to promote the use of beton more towards the B2C sector and not exclusively to the B2B.
Situation
A leading ad agency was tasked with creating a consumer oriented communication campaign. The popular campaign “Hoffentlich ist es Beton” resulted from the briefing and got high visibility.
Fast forward a couple of years later… the creatives who were at the origins of the campaign, happened to be my direct bosses. As the latest campaign proposals presented over the past two years never hit home, the client threatened leaving the agency. That’s when my Creative Directors gave me free rein to come up with a new campaign. They gave me a freelance copywriter and together we set out exploring the world of Beton.
Tasks:
Increase awareness for Beton within Germany’s population.
Talk to future single-home builders to consider Beton as alternative to the traditional brick stone construction, beyond concrete being the foundation of the house.
Humanize the image of Beton which often gets associated to boringly grey, impersonal, cold and ugly.
When you close your eyes, what kind of image do you see when you try to visualize beton?
Actions:
The process:
After studying tons of valuable information from a dozen folders (incl. Sichtbeton, Dämmeigenschaften, etc) and visiting construction sites, the question was to come up with a campaign touting the benefits of beton in an easily understandable way.
The question was, among others, how to show beton in the imagery.
It was long before beton-made kitchen countertops became fashionable. Same for polished concrete floors (that I personally have been loving for some time now) that look really nice in photos.
Solution for beton marketing:
After talking to numerous strangers in the street inquiring about their impressions of beton, I realised that the original briefing lacked the human point of view!
The breakthrough for my campaign came by not focussing on beton in any of its many forms. While I would often prioritise the products’ key benefits when writing marketing and communication campaign proposals, in the case of beton, I wasn’t interested in the product as such. I rather wanted to show the feeling that the unique benefits of beton provide: stability, security, warmth in your home!
Basic principles of visual communication
The single common denominator between people describing a home is the outline of a house, just like the typical children’s drawings. In this case, I created the outline of a house.
Inside vs. Outside Living
Inside the house you find an oasis of peace in warm and cozy colour tones.
This comes as stark contrast to the outer world that is cold, intimidating, loud, dangerous and stressful.
Both images combine a seemingly seamless transition between both worlds.
In the example below taken from the first subjects of the campaign you see that outside, the fishermen doing their work in perilous conditions are threatened by the storm. Whereas once on land and finally at home, they enjoy the warmth and steadiness of being in a house built with beton.
The headline reads “Finally, at home.” In the bodycopy we spoke about home is not only a location, but also a sensation.
The slogan states “Where there is a home, there is also Beton.”
The outline of the house marks where the outer world ends and where your home begins.
The clients immediately liked the concept, and asked coming up with more subjects and visual concepts to prove the longevity of the campaign. Very quickly the principles of the concept were applied to countless situations.
Take this example: a construction worker on a jackhammer wearing over-ear protection. At home, he is shown relaxing on a comfortable armchair listening to a vinyl disc, whereas the noise protection transforms into high-end headphones.
Kudos to the clients who accepted this anything but tamed down visual of some serious Heavy Metal fans! It was one of the subjects that got printed and sent on request to potential customers. The fact that the people shown in the house are regular people, made the campaign trustworthy.
Longevity in the campaign leads to ROI
As developing a successful marketing and communications strategy can be quite cost-intensive, I am a strong proponent for obtaining a great ROI due to creating a long-lasting campaign. Building continually a campaign over several years has the advantage that the target customers will already be familiar with the brand’s message and enjoy discovering the latest addition to the campaign.
Sharing with others: from the initial idea to the below the line activities
Paid advertising is only visible when the target clients see the communication in the media of choice.
But what about word of mouth? In a time before social media became popular, I came up with the little postcard-booklet. Potential customers could request a postcard booklet that contained 10 pre-franked postcards. Not only would Beton Marketing Germany obtain valuable customer data, but these customers were suggested to send these postcards at no charge to them to their friends. The cover of the booklet had the house cut-out (die-cut). This idea encountered so much success, that the clients had to order a reprint.
Results:
With a very happy client, the agency kept the account.
The client even agreed to spend 3x more on the production of the campaign than initially planned! The campaign was shot by famous fashion photographer Peter Gehrke in Stockholm – and that includes creating in the studio a storm for the fishing boat!
I was thrilled seeing this campaign going on for 6 years with a variety of subjects.
Some of these I had proposed initially, but then the teams continuing working on the campaign created also some fun new subjects… I really enjoyed the idea of the lighting that my former colleague sent me one day…
Client: Beton.org, Beton Marketing of Germany
Agency: Springer&Jacoby, Hamburg
Patric Pop's role: Concept, Art Direction, Rough drafts, Briefing of Illustrators, Retouchers