Following DoorCo’s success in the G Award’s with a win for Best Promotional campaign for the launch of FLiP & GRiPCORE, Ben Aspinall, IT & Marketing Manager shares how the radical campaign has shaped DoorCo’s marketing going forward.
Last year, DoorCo launched two new innovations – GRiPCORE, our solid timber core composite door, and FLiP, our revolutionary glazing cassette system – in a campaign that saw us win our first G Award for Best Promotional Campaign. The campaign was a radical step change in DoorCo’s marketing, using individual brand names and identities for the first time, and included CGI visualise the products individual features and benefits.
The background
While the campaign was a huge success, it was delivered during some of the toughest trading conditions ever. Back at the beginning of the pandemic, both products were still in the R&D phase, but we remained committed to launching them as they were both hugely significant to the business, positioning us as the only UK composite door manufacturer with two types of door slab and our own glazing cassette system.
As well as the importance of the products to the business, there were further challenges to consider. Firstly, each product type already existed in the marketplace. We’d evolved what was on offer with a lot of innovations, but this meant the campaign really needed to be different and stand out from the crowd.
Another goal was to expand our audience. DoorCo does not compete with customers, but desires to be a household name and the product launches were the perfect platform to kickstart this campaign.
The combination of these challenges forced us to think outside the box and invest in working with a branding and creative agency that could deliver an eye-catching campaign, that could support B2B2C communications and basically take the market by storm.
CGI
Computer-generated imagery (CGI) played a major role in creating the visual impact of the campaign. We wanted to demonstrate technology, innovation and key benefits of each product. CGI was the perfect vehicle to bring them to life and provide us with a library of assets we could use to explain and promote each one.
The campaign
Together with our marketing partners, a creative and high-energy multi-channel campaign was delivered using trade media, direct marketing, and social media, with a particular focus on Instagram to gain traction with the large network of renovators and self-builders, designers and influencers.
The campaigns ran concurrently, both following a consistent plan of teasers through to full CGI reveal, and once interest was sparked, we combined both products into ‘the ultimate composite door’ supported by a combined brochure that has a clever reversible design. The brochure highlights the features and benefits of the products, as well as showcasing the true capabilities of collaborating these products in a unique design portfolio.
Creating a House of Brands
Having individual brands was one of the key points of difference in the marketing of FLiP and GRiPCORE. The decision was taken to step out from under the DoorCo name – something we’d spent years cultivating. This process (a lot of soul searching by the team in exploratory workshops) led us to consider the wider DoorCo brand and the other products in our portfolio. For example, our foam core door, which has always been simply known as the DoorCo door, seemed to lose its importance in comparison. It is in fact one of the best on the market and the foundation of our business – an inclusive introduction to the world of DoorCo and deserving of its own brand that suits its class. What better choice than ORiGINAL.
We’ve also developed brand identities for our components too – Glass has become GLAZiNG and colour has become PAiNT.
This is the DoorCo House of Brands, that sits under the modernised DoorCo umbrella. The new DoorCo brand has been revitalised to better reflect the DoorCo of today. The same core logo still exists but it’s had a facelift with a new font and colour scheme, to make it more dynamic to match our position as innovators and disruptors. It has been brought in line with the quality of our products and service and allowed for the development of stamps and idents that show we’re proud of what we deliver. We’ve added a new tag line – ‘Whatever it takes’ – which aligns with our attitude and indicates what you can expect from dealing with DoorCo.
To support the new brand, we’ve also issued a set of CO principles that represents our values, the cornerstonesof our business that have existed since the very beginning and underpins everything we do.
All of this is showcased on our brand new website, which has been redeveloped to clearly demonstrate our brands, what DoorCo stands for, and what we want to achieve going forward in an engaging and modernised manner. One of the features is a new Asset Portal where customers can log in to access a comprehensive marketing portfolio.
Marketing Portfolio
With a House of Brands sitting under a new DoorCo umbrella, our company, products and services all have an individual look and feel; a separate personality, that stands out from the crowd and appeals to customers with different tastes and requirements. We made each of the distinctive identities flexible to suit customers’ own brand requirements, whether they want to use the full identity and logo with strapline or a simple stamp that highlights that the technologies are present within the door. Each one is supported by a comprehensive marketing portfolio of brochures, door designer, images, videos, logos, and other useful documents and physical assets that our customers can use in their own marketing. The aim of creating these individual assets is to deliver a consistent and unified brand that doesn’t get diluted as the marketing moves down the supply chain.
The work we’ve done in the last 18 months has been a great investment on behalf of our customers. We now have brands across our business that better reflects how DoorCo has evolved over the last decade, the products and services we offer, and a strong voice that our customers can use to support their own composite door marketing and sales. By attacking the market with a unified brand, we’re building a better reputation for a set of products which consumers will ultimately ask for by name, helping us all in the long run.
Find out more and explore the new brands via our home page
We’ll also be at the FIT Show on stand Q11 where we’d love to talk to you and get your feedback.
