In 2020, VELUX had big ambitions for their Single-Story Extensions (SSE) market. While VELUX was already well known for loft conversions, their research showed that during the planning of SSEs, the benefit of having roof windows is often overlooked, despite VELUX windows letting in as much as 50% more light into an SSE. Therefore, VELUX wanted to increase awareness of their SSE products, drive engagement with the brand and change perception of its primary associations with lofts to normalise the use of roof windows in SSEs too. Therefore, the brief to Sky Media was to target young couples, families and homeowners to highlight the benefits of using VELUX windows to transform an extension into the perfect living space for extending your family time.
By partnering VELUX with Sky, we knew we could combine unmissable entertainment with spaces (like the living room) that couples and families can’t wait to get home to and enjoy. What’s more, the average age of Sky viewers is younger than the average Freeview household and with a higher disposable income, this audience tends to spend 12% more on DIY than Freeview viewers.
To create the brand link between SSEs and VELUX, we designed a multi-channel, multi-platform partnership that would show the Sky audience how they could “extend” their “us” time, with licences for the Sky channel brands themselves at its heart. This innovative solution to create bespoke licensed content was a media-first for VELUX, it was also the first time that any brand had licensed Sky’s entertainment channels to integrate within their TVC. It involved commissioning bespoke VELUX TV creatives featuring Sky channel branding set in real extensions, to make adverts feel like they came from Sky and drove new contextual connections. In another first, VELUX also licensed the SKYQ/EPG in situ to use within the TVCs, so that the characters in the ads were searching specifically for the Sky shows on the relevant Sky channel on their Sky Q box e.g. Save Me Too and Dynamo: Beyond Belief; making it feel timely, authentic and relatable.
Three of Sky’s biggest channel brands were licensed, with each aligned to specific VELUX homeowner audiences. Sky One was perfect for the ‘family’ audience, while Sky Atlantic and Sky Witness, Sky’s upmarket channels for 25-54 adults, were the perfect home for the ‘Young Professional Couple’ audience.
With creative agency Recipe, we produced 4 x 30” TVCs to cement the idea of the Sky and VELUX partnership being the perfect way to extend your ‘us time’, and each brand-licensed TVC was aligned to the relevant Sky channel on Linear TV and VoD.
Running simultaneously, we launched a sophisticated AdSmart campaign to extend awareness of the availability of VELUX’s range of blinds available online, which used addressable targeting with the climate. In doing so, the ad was seen in households when it was warm and sunny, allowing VELUX to engage viewers when they are most receptive, therefore reducing ad wastage.
The TV activity was supplemented by social media content and Sky Advance, which reinforced the campaign online (specifically targeting ABC1 Homeowners aged 35 – 54) and, secondly, located viewers who had not been exposed to VELUX’s activity within target demograph.
Furthermore, we created a digital hub at www.sky.com/VELUX, which was promoted via a CTA at the end of the TV creative. The digital hub directed viewers to the VELUX app and included content from Farrow and Ball with a behind the scenes video to deepen the experience. Links to contact VELUX were also included on the hub landing page to ensure viewers could find out more or book a consultation directly with VELUX.
The Open University
