Blinds Make Better communications
The British Blind and Shutter Association (BBSA) is a UK trade body providing impartial expert guidance on blinds, shutters and awnings.
ICG was first approached by the BBSA as a result of our collaboration with Hunter Douglas.
With a cost of living crisis, rising energy bills and the impact of climate change, the BBSA had recognised that there was an exciting opportunity for the sector to demonstrate its role in helping people keep warm in the winter and cool in the summer.
The BBSA wanted additional marketing support to push its Blinds Make Better campaign to raise awareness about the benefits of shading.
Winter energy savings
With major advances in fabric innovation and technology, our objective was to demonstrate the energy saving benefits of blinds, and plug into the national narrative around energy efficiency.
A new piece of research proved that blinds could reduce energy loss through windows by up to 33 per cent.
ICG used animations to bring the research to life and segmented information into bite sized chunks. Eye-catching visuals and infographics helped convey statistics and key messaging.
Regular email marketing, features in the BBSA’s trade magazine, Openings, and social media content continue to amplify the messaging.
We also created a suite of social media graphics and downloads to encourage members of the BBSA to use on their socia media channels to help spread the word.
Smart summer shading
As we moved into spring and summer, the messaging was all about helping people discover how shading could help keep them cooler in their homes and workplaces.
As buildings becomes better insulated and air-tight to help conserve warmth in the winter, overheating has becoming an unintended consequence during the summer, particularly for people living in urban areas, new homes and properties with limited ventilation
Once again we used animations, infographics and downloadable information sheets to convey the BBSA’s messaging.
Social media plugged into key times of the year including the Spring Equinox as well as national headlines about rising summer temperatures.
“We have developed a great partnership with ICG. With the support of their multi-disciplinary team, our Blinds Make Better campaign has really started to gather momentum. Together, we make a great marketing team that delivers results.”
Andrew Chalk, Operations Director, BBSA
Media coverage
We wanted to use the BBSA’s status as the national trade body to provide expert comment to the media.
The publication of the new research by the University of Salford was an excellent opportunity to engage with consumer and environmental writers, landing pieces in a number of titles including Ideal Home magazine, Birmingham Mail and Improve magazine.
We react quickly to journalist requests for comment and insight and have generated coverage in blogs and publications including Business Education.
Global Shading Day
Global Shading Day is an event by the European Solar Shading Organisation to raise awareness about the positive benefits of solar shading products.
Launched in 2023, it takes place on the first day of spring to highlight how shading can help combat climate change, creating more sustainable, energy efficient buildings.
We maximised industry events to encourage everyone to show their support. A campaign strategy focused on delivering content in Openings magazine, social media channels, email marketing and PR.
Most importantly, we created an extensive suite of social media posts for members to use. Daily social media graphics and pre-written posts were available to download and push out on their own channels.
Make It Safe
Make It Safe is a campaign by the BBSA to promote window blind safety.
Its core audiences are parents and carers of babies and toddlers as well as a wider remit that includes landlords.
Our messaging focuses on encouraging people to buy blinds that are safe by design, or making existing blinds safer. We created simple explainer animations to demonstrate the wide variety of options and updated a handy guide for people to download.
We focused our activity around Child Accident Prevention Week in June and also linked up with Dadsnet to reach out to key audiences.
Organic and paid social media content campaigns focused on reaching our target audiences to generate awareness and drive traffic to the Make It Safe website
