Wood.for good scooped a top prize at the Construction Marketing Awards, beating campaigns by leading materials suppliers and construction companies to take the Best Use of Advertising title.
The campaign, which ran in magazines and on television between June 2001 and June 2002, was orchestrated by London-based Crammond Dickens Lerner.
The rationale behind the campaign was to increase demand for wood in the UK to overcome growing competition from substitutes to wood products and dispel public concern about the environmentaal credentials of wood.
The campaign was developed in two different strands. “Building with Wood” aimed to promote the benefits of building with wood to specifiers and design professionals while “Living with Wood” targeted home owners and focused on the use of wood in homes and gardens.
In October 2002 wood.for good published the findings of independent consultants Jaakko Pöyry which showed that UK softwood sales increased by 200,000m3 in 2001 and were forecast to grow by another 400,000m3 in 2002. There was also significant growth in plywood and engineered wood products consumption.
The research also showed that almost 80% of consumers believed wood is “a material for the future”, and 63% of responding members, specifiers and trade or industry representatives believed the campaign had contributed to increased sales.
A focus of the campaign was to underline the sustainability of Europe’s forest resources and the environmental credentials of wood products.
A £1m national TV advertising campaign gave consumers the message “One tree is cut, two trees are planted”.
Building professionals were targeted through specialist magazines and advertisements focused on specific uses for timber in the building industry. Each topic was backed by seminars and information via mail and the wood.for good website.
