A communication campaign to expand the product’s potential market
A recently-launched communication campaign aims to promote awareness of the positive values of ceramic amongst end consumers by using video clips posted to digital and social media channels. First introduced to the Italian market by the Italian ceramic manufacturers’ association, the initiative is being developed internationally through collaboration with Spanish, German, French and American partners, who are working together with the exclusive aim of promoting the unique, universal values of ceramic.
The starting point of the campaign was the observation that end consumers are increasingly responsible for their own purchasing decisions and that they use the internet to acquire information on product characteristics and applications and to explore the various options available to them.
With this in mind, eight 15-second video clips were produced in collaboration with the agency Exprimo to illustrate the distinctive qualities of ceramic (hygiene, durability, fire resistance and much more). These videos were uploaded to the website www.ceramica.info, where they appear on dedicated landing pages with links to articles relating to the various topics.
Along with these original eight themes, a further four will be added by the end of April to explore outdoor ceramic applications, including facades, swimming pools, residential driveways and raised floors.
The messages are disseminated exclusively through the digital channels YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and the website www.ceramica.info using the hashtags #ceramic and #asafechoice to maximise visibility and reach the target audience effectively.
Ceramic is a durable consumer good, a one-off purchase that is nonetheless influenced by fashion. And given that on average an individual makes a house purchase or renovation once every 19-20 years, just 5% of the total population is interested in purchasing floor or wall tiles in any given year. Choosing digital media that are capable of accurately targeting people who are in the process of choosing floors or are interested in renovating their homes is therefore the most effective communication strategy.
For a sector that has always been strongly B2B oriented, conducting a campaign targeted at end consumers may be challenging. This problem can be resolved by using two different channels. The first consists of direct communication campaigns targeting end consumers and featuring sponsored advertisements on the three above-mentioned social media channels as well as indirect campaigns conducted through commercial and design intermediaries. This second approach involves sending out Direct Email Marketing (DEM) messages at 10-day intervals to the 40,000 contacts (architects, distributors, construction firms, installers and the general public) contained in the CRM database of ceramica.info. The second channel involves the active collaboration and engagement of Italian ceramic companies, who have posted the information and videos of the campaign on their corporate websites, their newsletters and their social media channels.
Following the Italian launch, the next step was to widen the campaign to the important European markets and the United States. The same messages – suitably translated into English, French, German and Russian – and methods of dissemination were used for these markets, but they involved cooperation with different players: the ceramic tile producers’ associations of Spain (ASCER), Germany (BKF) and the USA (TCNA), the Dutch tile layers’ association (BOVATIN) and the ceramic tile distributors’ and installers’ associations of France (UNECB), Austria (OFV) and Switzerland (ASP).
This wide-ranging multi-player communication campaign spanning two of the most important continents for ceramic tile consumption aims to promote awareness of the many positive values of ceramic. The first step focuses on knowledge as a starting point for business development.
