Brand Innovation Challenge: Wickes Picks Say It Now To Chat To Gen Z
24 Aug, 2023
With the bank holiday upon us and many of you, no doubt, about to start on a DIY project, why not watch home improvement retailer, Wickes, choose voice activation company, Say It Now, to help them become the retailer of choice for younger, less experienced DIY’ers.
Wickes is looking to position itself as the retailer of choice, (online and instore), for younger, less experienced DIY’ers. The pitch was tasked with identifying solutions to excite and entice more 18-35 year olds, their fastest growing group of customers, to choose Wickes as their partner for any DIY project, whether large or small.
Gary Kibble, Wickes’ Chief Marketing and Digital Officer said: “As a digitally led service enabled business we want to engage and inspire a DIY customer who doesn’t necessarily consider Wickes, by developing solutions or tools or services which encourage DIY customers to start a project or DIY mission and support those customers from start to completion.”
Say It Now will now have the opportunity to scale their business with Wickes through a pilot. Their solution, as their name suggests, uses the power of voice. Maria Cadbury, their Global Director of Strategic Partnerships, told the audience on the Brand Innovation stage that you engage with Gen Z, “by talking their language, which is through voice" She added that "68% of 18-24 year olds have used voice assistant in the last month. And what's really important is the Gen Zed usage of voice shows no sign of weaning, it's growing. It is a meaningful way of communication for them.”
Say It Now then introduce actionable audio ads and actual TV ads to any campaign. “And this is where you think of your wonderful audio ad and we bring the live talking to the Gen Z,” Cadbury explained, saying that Gen Z would be able to ask and interact with Alexa and Wickes by asking questions around, DIY, turning a house into a home, saving money, and key sustainability key drivers that we're all looking for? “All this, merely by saying, ‘Alexa, open Wickes'.”
“Ultimately, you're in this wonderful experience where you say to them, would you like to be inspired? Would you like me to send you a link and how to save? And obviously they're gonna say yes. They then get the link pop and straight up on your phone. It's a phenomenal experience. Wickes can then go on to ask them to set a reminder for weekly inspiration videos, saving tips…”
To find out more about Say It Now’s winning solution watch the full pitch here.
You can watch all the MAD//Fest London action including the PITCH//IT sessions from on our YouTube channel. Just select the ‘House of Innovation’ playlist for each day to catch all of the pitches.