Channel 4

Let's Do It Right, with Wickes

Championing a 'Buy it now, do it later' mentality for Wickes marked a change in their bank holiday weekend strategy

The Big Idea

Somehow, the Great British Public feels compelled to spend their bank holidays doing DIY. Wickes uncovered the insight that during the bank holidays, most people start DIY tasks but do not finish them, leaving unpainted walls and half fixed cupboards crying out for attention. But Easter is Wickes’ biggest weekend – so how could we drive sales but avoid ending Easter Monday with homes across the nation full of half-done tasks? Easy, we would tell people to have a break from the DIY entirely - we would create the first ever Wickes ‘buy it now, do it later’ sale.

Making it Happen

Working with Wickes’s creative agency, IRIS, we created a campaign fronted by well-known Trigger Happy comedian Dom Joly. Dom showed up in a variety of adverts encouraging our viewers to go out and enjoy their bank holiday instead of doing DIY. On Good Friday, Dom interrupted the Wickes 15% off ad with several protestations dissuading the viewer from doing DIY on the bank holiday. He continued to chip in throughout the advert break with smaller 5 second copies, insisting on viewers doing a series of other activities – contextually linked to the advert before – over Easter. He closed the break laden with Wickes bags before heading off scuba diving.

We also created a raft of All4 inventory to drive home the message and boost online sales. Innovid created an Ad4You store locater with opening hours of the users’ nearest store – different stores had varied opening times so this was an important customer message - and an Ad Pause also proudly displayed the 15% offer as users paused their viewing. 

Overall sales were up a spanking 13.3% across the 4 days
The weekly record for sales was smashed, with gross profits for the CORE business being the biggest ever in Wickes’ history!

The Results

Wickes had a record-breaking Easter weekend, significantly exceeding the profitability of last Easter. Overall sales across the 4 days were up a spanking 13.3%. In addition, Week 15 (which excludes Easter Sunday and Monday) smashed the previous weekly record sales by a significant margin, with gross profits for the CORE business being the biggest ever in Wickes’ history!