Renovated Billboards
OBI DIY materials
Issue 31 | June 2014
Agency
Jung von Matt AG
Creative Team
Executive Creative Directors Doerte Spengler-Ahrens Jan Rexhausen Creative Directors Felix Fenz Alexander Norvilas Art Directors Michael Wilde Max Pilwat Michael Hess
Production Team
Production credits Philipp Wenhold
Other Credits
Managing Director Nic Heimann Client Service Carl-Christian Berge Natalie Martens Tanja Tauber
Date
March 2014
Background
2013 was a tough year for DIY stores in Germany. In the aftermath of nearly 250 stores closing down and facing an ugly mass of sales-driven advertising, OBI, the biggest chain of DIY stores in Germany, was looking for something else. The challenge was to stand out from all the competitors and their hard-sell advertising.
Idea
The question the agency asked was, "Why does everybody advertise things that can make our homes look nicer in a way that makes our cities look uglier?"
From that came the idea that OBI really did make a difference by renovating houses. All that was needed was to show this simple truth.
Run-down and derelict buildings were chosen as sites for OBI to demonstrate the effect of a bit of DIY. But only an area the exact size of a regular advertising billboard.
The Renovated Billboards pushed ads for DIY stores beyond talking about paints, brushes and hammers and towards more beautiful homes.
Results
The most important result: more beautiful homes.
Our Thoughts
This isn’t strictly speaking ‘direct’; but it is innovative, turning 4.064m x 3.048m of brickwork and plaster into billboards for OBI.
It’s startling communication because the agency has managed to go beyond communicating the benefit of DIY (it makes your home look nice) to the benefit of the benefit (everyone can see how beautiful your home looks.) It’s a form of brand interrogation that takes you from talking about the attributes of a product (cheap paint, bags of nails etc) to sharing values (let’s be proud of where we live.) One approach is talking at people, the other is talking with them.
Jung von Matt did not enter work to Cannes last year, keeping the money back for training (bravo to them!) but I do hope this is entered and wins Gold this June.