TTA Awards 2016
A TTA Award is an outstanding symbol of excellence and the annual event is a fantastic networking opportunity for all involved in tiles and tiling. There were 18 award categories to enter, including Excellence in Multiple Retailing, Excellence in Marketing and Excellence in Manufacturing.
The gala Awards Night itself – at which the winners in all categories were announced – was held on Saturday 14th May at St John’s Hotel and Conference Centre in Solihull. And we have to say, the Brazilian Samba theme was fantastic!
This year we were shortlisted in various categories but we are proud to say we walked away the Excellence in Marketing Award. To win this prestigious, national award from The Tile Association we had to beat off strong competition.
We have a strong marketing mix for Tile Choice across a broad cross section of media. A well planned advertising campaign with a combination of television, radio, press, outdoor and social media ensures that we stay at the forefront of the retail tile industry.
In 2015 we decided a fresh more stylish delivery in our creative for our Radio and Television campaigns was needed. This was to compliment the new instore designs, our new instore brochures and Press advertising.
Starting with a new concept for radio, which has proved to be the most stable platform and most cost effective. Previously for the last 5 years we had used TV celebrity Neil Morrissey who delivered a successful campaign but moving forward we needed to develop a new concept that would break through on radio and stand above other advertisers and lift our brand.
The idea was to change the style completely but retain connection of the old music ident; a new music bed was the key to the feel and sound of the new adverts. We went with well know band called Kinobe who famous for a track called ‘Slip into Something Nice’ which was used in a Kronnenburg 1664 TV advert. The track we used for the sound of our new creative was ‘Chasing Clouds’ which was perfect for what we was looking for.
The concept was profiling a person’s character in reflection of their choice of home decor and there choice of tiles. A total of seven profiles were finalised with a story outlining their character plus two sale adverts along with the music idents and store locations. These were created as 20 & 40 second commercials plus a generic 10 second to give us maximum delivery on air.
A total of 11 radio stations covering all the locations of our stores are booked over 12 months. The right message, products and the high frequency of delivery to the correct audience is key for any radio campaigns.
Our 2015 Television campaign needed to compliment the new radio creative to maintain continuity which helps to enforce our brand. This is the strongest form of media reaching a mass audience giving the consumer confidence in your business. Buying only selected regions of the ITV network, with a reach of over 6 million viewers, with a mix of peak spots and off peak spots throughout the day has delivered us a very successful and cost effective campaign.
As before the new TV advert is created entirely from CGI (computer generated images) lifting the profile of our business to the next level in a highly visual and polished medium. We story-boarded ideas that would fit with the new style of music and approached a studio to create the visuals. Working closely with them and choosing the right tiles for the room sets, paying attention to detail and finish, they created a series of photo-realism moving images. Using the script and same voice over as the radio commercials it was edited and overlaid with graphics to create the final 10 and 30 second adverts.
A strong brand identity and the right message combined with maximum exposure in all forms of media has proven to be an excellent marketing campaign in the retail sector. Over the past year this formula has proven to be successful in keeping Tile Choice at the forefront of customer’s minds plus bringing the focus to the tile industry and the products we sell within main stream media platforms.
On top of winning the award, we had the opportunity to catch up with people we know within the industry and see what they have been up to over the past year. Every year we really look forward to this event, and it’s definitely one that isn’t to be missed.
