What has kept Wickes and Bauer Media together for 10 years?
In a media world dominated by programmatic buying with multiple advertisers competing to reach audiences across publishers, it’s becoming increasingly rare for advertisers to invest spend and marketing muscle into a single media owner. Bauer Media’s commercial chief and Wickes’ head of marketing explain how their relationship has now lasted for a decade
Simon Kilby, MD, Bauer Media Advertising
Not only is our partnership with Wickes the longest we’ve had at Bauer Media, it’s also one of the longest and most successful in UK commercial radio history. Unlike standard ad buys or sponsorships, Wickes messaging integrates seamlessly into every aspect of the show.
I remember when our relationship started 10 years ago; I had just started at Absolute Radio as commercial director, and we didn’t have a sponsor on the Breakfast Show. We were working with Carat at the time when Wickes was being pitched, and we knew that Wickes and Absolute Radio could be a perfect fit.
It’s quite funny to look back now, but during final negotiation stages, the Wickes team mentioned that they wanted a three-month break clause in the contract.
Suffice to say Wickes never used that break clause, and here we are 10 years later and stronger than ever.
I believe our success comes down to our “treat every year like a first date” approach.
Each year we look to reinvent the partnership and bring fresh, new ideas, ensuring that both parties’ objectives remain aligned. This also means that, even though teams have changed over the years, we make sure we work closely and consistently together with a level of honesty that leads to understanding, which ultimately leads to great work that gets great results – both great content for our listeners and great ROI for Wickes.
The relationship works because we genuinely listen to what the client needs and work hard to understand the challenges they face to provide the best possible solution.
So when we come to evolve the partnership and Wickes provide us with a new brief, they trust that we will come back with new ideas that reflects their needs in changing market conditions and that will deliver the most impact. They give our creative teams free rein to propose fun – and often unexpected – ideas, safe in the knowledge that our responses are always founded on insight and deep knowledge of our audiences.
I believe our success comes down to our “treat every year like a first date” approach.
The creative commercial team then build on these ideas with our Wickes client team, the agency team at The Story Lab and relevant programme directors and editorial teams to ensure that the proposition meets the brief. This culminates in the final proposal which is pitched before the final response is agreed and signed off.
Throughout this creative process, Wickes’ objectives are always front of mind so that we are focussed on solving their challenges by connecting them to our audiences – in print, audio and digital – to create impact.
This past year has seen an incredible strengthening of our partnership – when the world came to a standstill and brands were reducing their spend or cancelling partnerships, our commercial creative and client teams became even more inventive.
Since ease-of-shop and safety were a top priority compared to price, we traded in the price promotion tone of voice for a “voice for the people”. Wickes became the partner for Absolute Radio’s Good Deed Register, awarding those who had done good deeds with Wickes gift cards.
Going a step further, when Absolute Radio 40s launched in lockdown for VE Day, we immediately approached Wickes about creating funny ads for the station, reflecting how they would have sounded had they been trading in wartime Britain. Creative like this epitomises why this is a true partnership as opposed to a sponsorship, showcasing 100% collaboration and mutual understanding.
Last year we also extended our campaign to other Bauer brands, including other relevant radio brands KISS, Kerrang! and Planet Rock, and leading magazine brand Grazia. This proved to be a successful move, with both radio and publishing brands helping Wickes achieve a record year despite the pandemic and our audiences telling us how much they valued the partnership and content.
It’s been amazing to see how this partnership started with Absolute Radio, expanded to multiple of our brands and continues to grow, even a decade later. We just signed on our longest booking – 18-months until 2022 – and we aim to keep this relationship going as it is one that that we love and value very highly at Bauer and one that demonstrates perfectly that together with our partners we can create impact.
Shelley Allison, Head of Marketing, Wickes
When I started at Wickes seven years ago, I could see the opportunity that the partnership offered; the chance to engage with listeners to make home improvement feel less daunting and be seen as a brand that can help the nation feel house-proud.
I loved that the partnership was based in radio – it allowed us to achieve cost-effective scale while also still being really creative. The Absolute Radio audience matched perfectly with the audiences we wanted to reach, and the engaging presenters and creative activations gave us the opportunity to have a personality.
I believe our partnership is truly unique, built on creativity and a combined desire to deliver the best work possible. The fact we’re entering our 11th year together is proof we’re continuing to do this.
The power in our partnership comes from both challenging and trusting each other. As we land bigger and better activations, we take learnings and push boundaries. Over the past 10 years some of my favourite examples of this work include; producing a Christmas song with Cassette Boy, creating ‘Dave Berry Blue’ paint, and running a Euros 2020 secret sweepstake.
And, of course, our staple activity ‘Wickes Fix’, born out of the desire to make a meaningful difference in someone’s life.
As the mood of the nation changed during the pandemic, we needed to be agile and reflect the content listeners wanted to hear.
The Absolute Breakfast Show has been our bedrock over the past 10 years, and nothing gives me greater joy than when Dave is chatting to a caller and he plays back our strap-line or a deal.
What’s more, we’ve delivered some landmark work too; creating ‘Brekfest’, a music hall renovation project at a local school, culminating in a mini music festival. Put on the ultimate Christmas Work Party, with Absolute x Wickes inspired games, food, drink and rock-band Feeder for a well-deserved ambulance service.
We’ve even paid for a tradesman to take time off to visit his grandchildren in Australia, allowing him not to worry about taking too much time off work.
As the mood of the nation changed during the pandemic, we needed to be agile and reflect the content listeners wanted to hear.
As radio is such a flexible medium with such fast turn-arounds, we were able to change our messaging and campaign almost instantly. We worked really closely with the Bauer team and created the Good Deed Register, an activation that we’re really proud of. At a time when people were apart, hearing tales of local heroes was truly heartwarming – we encourage our stores to help their communities so this work could not have been more perfect.
Even with a pandemic in the background we made sure we still had fun with our partnership, and we really got behind Absolute Radio 40s to celebrate VE day. I never thought I’d hear the George Formby and When I’m Cleaning Windows while eating my breakfast, but I did and worked brilliantly along with 40s style Wickes credits.
Recently we’ve worked together to broaden our audience reach, exploring more of the Bauer portfolio of brands. This is why you might have seen Wickes in Grazia magazine and heard our partnership across Planet Rock, KISS and Kerrang!.
We now work together delivering a multimedia partnership across radio, digital and print platforms, and I couldn’t be more proud of what we’ve achieved together.
As I look ahead, I know there’s more exciting, ground-breaking work to come, and I can’t wait to get stuck in.