Who: Goemans Appliances, with The Garden for strategy and creative; Someplace Nice for production (directed by Pete Henderson); post-production by The Editorial Factory, Berkley Studios, and The Vanity; and media by Cairns Oneil.
What: “Do Appliances Right,” the first mass brand advertising campaign from the home appliances retailer. In the past, it mostly focused on the appliance brands it carried, and promotional offers and events.
When & Where: The campaign is live now running on TV, online video, social, and out of home.
Why: Research conducted last fall revealed that Goemans was not as relevant as it wanted, said Jenn Kittmer, strategy director at The Garden.
“Even though a majority of Ontario appliance shoppers were aware of Goemans, they didn’t think to shop there and were unsure of their opinions about the brand,” she said. “Instead, appliance retail was dominated by the ‘big boxes,’ like Home Depot or Lowes.”
The goal is to raise awareness of the fact that the eight-store chain is family-owned with some breakthrough creative focusing on the regret that can come from buying the wrong home appliance—with the message that Goemans will help the consumer get it right.
The campaign is intended to make Goemans the first choice for appliance shoppers by reminding them of the importance of service in making the right buy. “Because really, no one should be buying their appliance from the lumber guy,” said Kittmer. “And the way we did that is by viscerally (and humorously!) demonstrating the impact that an appliance decision can have if it’s not guided by an expert from Goemans.”
How: The campaign includes two 15-second spots that use dark humour to deliver a message about the importance of customer service.
Both ads open in idyllic slice-of-life moments—a woman hanging laundry outside, and a man being welcomed to the community by friendly neighbours. In each case, the featured character suddenly and inexplicably turns nasty: The woman crushes a kid’s baseball that rolls into her yard, and the man swats a dish of lasagne from the smiling neighbour’s hands.
The ads then jump one minute into the past to reveal the reason for the shocking rage: A home appliance disaster. “Bad appliances turn us into bad people,” explains a super, before the Goemans logo appears on screen with the line: “Do appliances right.”
“Talking about expert service isn’t exactly new, so we wanted to focus on what it means when you don’t have that expert service,” said Chris Lihou, senior copywriter with The Garden, in a release.
Out-of-home ads deliver the message with images of household appliances and headlines like “Prevent dryers remorse,” “Stop nuking your patience,” and “Rinse away dishwasher resentment.”
And we quote: “Let’s face it, shopping for an appliance at a big box store is an experience some of us would rather forget… From having to flag down an employee in the next department over, to high-pressure sales tactics, to a lack of expert product knowledge—the whole thing puts your patience through the spin cycle.”—Andrew Borsk, director of marketing and e-commerce, Goemans
