Who: The Home Depot, with FCB for creative and strategy, UM for the TV buy, with The Home Depot’s internal team managing digital media.
What: “Do to Done,” a new brand platform with a slight twist on the brand’s “How Doers Get More Done” tagline.
When & Where: The campaign launched April 4 and runs to May 23 across TV and online video, along with social, print and in-store assets.
Why: Because this is the time of year when Canadian homeowners start considering the various home and yard projects they need to accomplish ahead of the precious few outdoor months. According to FCB, the campaign is built on the simple insight that homeowners always have something on their to-do list, and Home Depot can help get all those chores and projects done.
How: FCB created a visual device showing how Home Depot helps its customers get things done, with orange check boxes and the word “Do” inside changing to “Done” thanks to help from Home Depot.
The 30-second TV ad opens on a woman surveying her very sad (and likely recognizable) backyard soon after the last snow has melted. It’s in desperate need of repairs and attention, with the orange “Do” boxes appearing over each task that needs to be completed.
She opens The Home Depot app, clicks checkout, and then she and her two kids get to work, changing the boxes from “Do” to “Done.”
“Anytime we shared the idea of these boxes with homeowners, they instantly started talking about their projects and plans,” said Les Soos, group creative director at FCB in a release. “Visualizing the to-do list and designing it in a way that’s ownable to the brand and resonated with our customers was our focus.”
No men? Though DIY advertising almost always features men, Home Depot and FCB cast a woman taking care of it all, with only her kids to assist. “The spirit of a doer is that absolutely anyone can get whatever they want to accomplish done,” said Lauren Michell, The Home Depot’s senior director marketing and advertising. “[W]e put the ad in front of our customers to ask what they thought before moving into production. Research revealed a very positive response from a varied audience when it came to featuring a ‘female role model’ with kids as our DIY-er ‘who is able to complete all the projects’.”
And we quote: “Our associates are the heart and soul of our brand, and the visualization of to-do projects through orange boxes celebrates the pride they feel as a trusted partner in helping our customers accomplish their projects by taking them from Do to Done.” — Lauren Michell, senior director, marketing and advertising, The Home Depot