Wood for Good has introduced its new marketing team and says their appointment will lead to important developments in the campaign’s strategy.

After a pitch process, the Wood for Good board chose a consortium of branding and design agency Tayburn and PR specialist Citypress to manage and execute the campaign.

A key change the companies are planning will be to give Wood for Good a broader emphasis; continuing to focus on timber’s environmental strengths, but also promoting its aesthetic, performance and cost advantages.

“Tayburn and CityPress’s research highlighted that key customers had a range of misconceptions about timber, including price and whether its aesthetics and performance suited it to modern construction,” said Wood for Good board member John White. “These, too, could be acting as a barrier to sales. So, besides promoting timber’s carbon benefits – and with the publication of the government-commissioned Low Carbon Construction Report there’s never been a more important time to do that – Wood for Good also needs to address these other areas.”

Tayburn and CityPress say key messages of the campaign will challenge assumptions that wood is “expensive, unsafe or cannot satisfy the needs of modern design”. These will be communicated through a mix of advertising and PR targeting “architects, contractors, designers, engineers and builders merchants”.

The Wood for Good website will also be overhauled.

In addition, the campaign will publish a manifesto aimed at politicians and other decision makers.

“There are specific issues which are very much the preserve of individual trade bodies in terms of lobbying,” said Mr White. “But there are others which it makes more sense to articulate on an industry-wide basis.

“The aim of the manifesto is to get politicians to recognise the value of timber and the timber industry so that we are better placed in the future to shape and influence legislation when the need and opportunity arise.”

Wood for Good said it has already secured core funding for 2011 from UK backers and the Swedish Forest Industries Association. But it is still looking to “broaden the base of funders within the Industry with the hope of reaching a target of £500k”.

“We have a golden opportunity to capitalise on timber’s multiple benefits if we can get together as an industry behind this,” said Mr White.