To celebrate its most popular fitting, the 15mm equal elbow, JG Speedfit gave installers the chance to win £20,000 in cash amongst many other exciting prizes. Stockists also had the opportunity to get creative in their stores, with a host of free point of sale materials and prizes for the best displays. PBM looks back on the campaign’s success.
In recent years, John Guest has launched annual campaigns designed to capture the imagination of installers and stockists, and 2018 saw the company embark on its biggest promotion to date — ‘20 Grand In Your Hand’. Ending in September, the six-month campaign was also designed to give merchants a chance to create an exciting new look on their shop floor whilst driving increased sales of 15mm elbows — the best-selling product from JG Speedfit’s range.
As part of the campaign, 10 different pieces of point of sale materials were available to stockists, supplied free from John Guest. The wide variety of POS items meant that no matter how small or large, there was something for every merchant. POS displays included posters, banners, hex bins, buntings, pull-up banners, product dispensers and more. In total, around 8,000 POS items were delivered to merchants across the nation during the campaign.
Apart from the main prizes for installers, including monthly Speedfit Tech Bundles and the grand prize of £20,000, stockists could also win prizes for themselves. Merchants were encouraged to create innovative displays in their stores and send pictures into John Guest. Each month, the ‘best dressed’ store was given a £250 Love2Shop voucher. Alongside that, further £500 Love2Shop vouchers were available for stockists who sold the winning installer ticket for the monthly Speedfit Tech Bundle.
Mike Riseley, Sales Director at JG Speedfit, highlighted the importance of merchant participation. He said: “We produce the best pipes and fittings in the world, but if they don’t reach the end users then it is all for nothing. For this very reason, we’re always looking for ways to help stockists sell more and reward loyalty.
“Of course, merchants’ success relies upon footfall (and) our 20 Grand in Your Hand campaign was designed to drive as much footfall as possible. We created a buzz amongst the industry and we’ve had plenty of great feedback from both distributors and end users.”
Reinforcing the promotion, special ‘Trade Mornings’ were organised by the supplier’s Area Sales Managers and Technical Sales Engineers to enable the local reps to engage with tradesmen, promote the campaign and create awareness of Speedfit’s wider product solutions.
These were supported by bespoke posters and by Speedfit’s digital marketing team on John Guest’s social channels. At the events, more innovative competitions were organised — for example, installers were asked what they would do if they won the £20,000 prize, with the best answer of each month bagging two VIP tickets to see JG Speedfit Kawasaki Racing in action at a British Superbike Championship race of their choice.
Thousands of entries were received for the competition, with an “immeasurable amount of awareness and exposure for both merchants and John Guest”. Mike added: “The huge success of our campaign was helped by our loyal stockists and end users, and once again I thank them all for their fantastic support! It has not gone unnoticed how many new end users purchased and installed our product for the first time, and I would also thank them for putting their faith in the Speedfit brand.”
For more about John Guest and its JG Speedfit range www.johnguest.com/speedfit/.
