In this article:
- Lowe’s is moving beyond serving as a showroom for sales to serving as a media network for brands in the home improvement space.
- It reports very positive results from its beta run with over 100 brands.
More and more brands are becoming publishers of sorts. At the same time, as Americans have spent more time at home, they’ve become more interested in fixing them up, which has translated into high sales for the stores that cater to such interests and the brands they carry. Lowe’s is capitalizing on these two trends with its “One Roof” offering.
Lowe’s just announced the launch of its advertising business called One Roof Media Network. It’s meant to bring the brands its stores carry under its roof into digital connection with customers.
That’s brilliant – it’s how a brand controls the narrative of its space.
Marisa Thalberg, Lowe’s executive vice president, chief brand and marketing officer, explained why the time was ripe for such a move: “There’s been a real shift in consumer behavior and sentiment toward home, and we know our partners are continually looking for new ways to command attention, drive relevance and overall sales.”
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She sees that Lowe’s is perfectly positioned to deliver the kind of insight that will advance their marketing goals because of its “deep understanding of the home lifestyle customer and real-time trends.”
The idea is that it can “serve as an extension of our partners’ marketing teams, helping them develop custom, comprehensive approaches designed to deliver on their business goals.”
Lowe’s got over 100 brands, including major names like Kohler, GE Lighting, and Samsung, to participate in the One Roof Media Network’s beta.
The results were promising. One kitchen and bath brand reported a 700% return on ad spend. That wasn’t the best return, according to Lowe’s that claims some brands saw returns exceeding 1,000%. On that basis, Lowe’s is planning on advancing to the next public beta stage in the near future.
Lowe’s One Roof Media Network defines its current and future capabilities set for the upcoming year “and beyond” as follows:
- Ad placement on high traffic Lowes.com pages and in the Lowe’s mobile app;
- Digital and social media extensions to help brands better reach their target customers;
- Sponsored home editorial content on Lowe’s social channels and Lowes.com;
- Custom research and thought leadership on future shopping behaviors, trends, and shifts;
- In-depth measurement and closed-loop reporting including consultation for growth opportunities.
Of course, Lowe’s also gets to leverage further insight from the reactions to the brand ads to deepen its understanding and direct future strategies. In that way, not just success but even failure can beget success. Of course, it will all depend on how well they use these new data sources. leveraging them to build new micro-segments and trigger ultra-relevant, cross-channel, cross-brand, real-time campaigns, should be the blueprint.