The brief
Watco is the market-leading manufacturer and direct supplier of specialist floor repair and coatings products for the industrial and commercial market.
Last year, following a very successful 12 months centred around research insights from the facilities management industry, Watco asked Refresh to develop a brand-new campaign – kicking off in May 2023.
The teams agreed that a second piece of research would allow Watco to combine the survey’s learnings with in-house knowledge, in order to share an accurate picture of the industry and deliver even more tailored support to FMs to overcome the challenges highlighted. This would cement its position as a thought leader on topics including repairs and health and safety. This time around, it was agreed that the campaign would target a broader pool of FMs, including those from four key sectors:
- Building, construction and refurbishment
- Warehousing and storage
- Production and manufacturing
- Retail logistics and distribution
The core objectives of the campaign were to:
- Increase brand awareness and grow a strong presence for Watco and its expertise amongst its key audiences
- Educate Watco’s key audiences on research insights and actionable recommendations, encouraging greater engagement with the brand’s resources
61
brand mentions
45%
backlinks
12,800
click throughs
The campaign
Following the success of the ‘Lifting the Lid’ campaign in 2022/2023, and a strategy session with Watco, Refresh developed a 12-month campaign that would position the new research as a continuation of the Lifting the Lid (LTL) concept.
By adding to the content on the existing LTL landing page, those already engaged with the campaign would be delivered new, educational content and new audiences would benefit from even more resources. Having easy-to-access, digestible resources is something we knew to be very important to the audience based on first-hand insights and the FM research.
For this campaign, the research would facilitate continued engagement and relationship building with the core FM audience. However, it would also support an introduction to target adjacent sectors by exploring applicable topics such as regulation, industry skills and health and safety. The survey’s results were analysed and used to inform the approach for the three core types of content: earned, owned and paid. Content was then crafted to hone in on the most important data insight, and support it with actionable recommendations and available resources – directly from Watco’s experts or signposted by Watco
Refresh delivered a targeted mix of content to make the research insights as engaging to the audience as possible. This included a core report and one-page digest reports which were hosted on the LTL landing page on Watco’s website. Press releases and thought leadership opportunities were secured to explore the key topics in greater detail and drive readers back to the landing page for more free Watco content.
This year, following analysis of the performance of the previous year’s campaign and discussions with the publications, media buying activity focused on educational content delivered via eShots and sponsored features.
Following another highly successful campaign, with all KPIs met or considerably exceeded, Watco and Refresh are already underway with the latest campaign. Look out for updates on the highlights from the current campaign!
The results
Over the duration of the 2023 – 2024 campaign, we delivered:
- 61 brand mentions across targeted media groups (FM, health and safety, logistics and more), exceeding the KPI of 50
- 45 backlinks to the website secured via earned and paid media, against a target of 40
- Over 12,800 click throughs to relevant website pages via paid media, almost doubling the KPI set of 6,500
- 8 pieces of thought leadership secured with key titles to demonstrate Watco’s industry expertise, meeting the set target
- 16 pieces of owned content generated incorporating research insights and expert knowledge to educate and engage Watco’s network, exceeding the target of 12
- 18 eShots developed to educate on Watco’s key topics via owned and paid channels, surpassing the target of 12 set
Services delivered
- Strategy and planning
- Thought leadership
- Content creation
- Market research
- Media relations
- Media buying
- Consultancy and ideation
- Social media
- Measurement and evaluation
“Our Lifting the Lid campaign has been pivotal in cementing Watco’s position in the FM sector as a trusted adviser and partner. The campaign captured our full-service offering, combining industry insight with practical recommendations and actionable advice – all founded on a genuine understanding of the challenges and opportunities FMs are facing. The approach and delivery of the campaign stayed consistent with our campaign objectives, receiving a hugely positive reception from the press, customers and peers –as shown by the exceeded KPIs.” Lisa O’Neill, Group Marketing Director at Watco