2022 Bronze Data and Insight

Agency: Team ITG and Emerald Thinking

Client: Wickes

Campaign Name: The MME: Using Data to transform the way consumers and tradespeople shop Wickes

Campaign Overview

Wickes was experiencing double-digit customer growth, and wanted to understand changing customer behaviours, retain relationships and drive increased market share through incremental revenue.

Strategy

The team needed to change existing perceptions and behaviours, moving Wickes from a 'to-do' on the project list to instead be considered in customers’ inspiration and planning phase.

This led to the development of a machine-learning data model that services the behaviour change part of the brain: dubbed the Mission Motivation Engine.

Product-focused communications had to appeal in future to the emotional, intuitive side of the brain where behaviour change happens. Using motivational theory, the team knew it could only make people 'want' Wickes by showing how the brand would help them achieve their goals in life.

A decade of transactional data was analysed to identify the DIY missions consumers were making. Blended web, search, social and quant data uncovered consumers' deeper emotional drivers. DIY turned out to be more than a pot of paint; it's a fully formed mission in consumers' minds, an expression of their personalities, a haven and a way to nurture their mental health.

The subsequent phase turned discovery data sources and insights into a machine-learning model, and the Mission Engine was born.

Creativity

The one-size-fits-all creative approach needed to better meet and influence customers' perceptions. Customers shop little and not often, so the revenue opportunity was getting them to shop more, and more often.

Enter Mission in Motion: an emotive, personalised multichannel experience designed to get more customers considering Wickes for more of their mission, triggered by a purchase.

Creatively the campaign stepped away from product-centric comms and delivered a more inspiring experience to change perceptions of Wickes as a supplier, using eye-catching imagery and Bauhaus-inspired shapes to give a feeling of action.

The creative overhaul included multichannel CRM programmes, each with distinct visual and tonal identities that connect to the customer's motivations, inspiring, educating and supporting them across every stage of their journey.

A messaging and content framework designed to inspire, empower and anticipate the challenges customers encounter was also delivered.

Results

Three Mission Motivation Engine programmes out of a potential 20 have gone live:

• The Week Ahead launched to TradePro customers in November 2021, getting them ready for the week with a mission-specific shopping list. It meets objectives by driving more customers to shop more missions - more frequently in Wickes.

• TradePro Welcome launched in May 2022, aimed at creating good behaviours from the outset. So far, customers are shopping over three times more than ever before.

• DIY's Mission in Motion launched in March 2022, a four-week programme that's changing perceptions, getting customers to shop more of their mission at Wickes.

Insight and data has revolutionised Wickes' communications strategy. The model influences trading decisions and has been described by the Board as a differentiating IP and strategic growth lever for the business.

The communications programmes smashed predicted KPIs across conversion, value and frequency, delivering the ultimate objective: incremental revenue. The work has featured in the Investor Pack.

The Team

Team ITG - Robin Jung, Business Director - Michael Loh, CX Strategist - Sophie Broughton, Account Director - Saul Montoya, Account Manager - Nico Friis, Creative Director - Tom Sheahan, Senior Digital Designer

Emerald Thinking - Claire Aldous, Data Strategy Partner - Clare Kelly, Data Planning Director - Tamara Hart, Senior Data Scientist - Dean Straw, Senior Data Scientist