Why Currys enlisted a strongman to do its heavy lifting

The Media Plan

Currys is a well-established electronics retailer in the UK, but did you know that it also repairs tech – even those not bought from its stores?

That was the challenge that Spark Foundry was faced with: there was very low awareness of Curry’s repairs offering. When tech breaks down, consumers tend to consider costly repairs direct from manufacturers or cheaper high-street shops that could lack expertise.

Furthermore, Currys research has found the UK collectively spends £9bn a year repairing broken tech.

With consumers increasingly passionate about sustainability, Currys needed to make its voice heard in this area because extending product cycles — via repairing something rather than outright replacement — would be a simple sustainable behaviour that people can adopt.

“Currys is positioned to fill this gap in the market with a unique offering of accessibility, professional craftsmanship and expertise — and this is what Spark Foundry needed to showcase,” said Elizabeth Swadling, business director at the agency.

To achieve this goal, Spark Foundry decided to leverage humour to connect with as wide an audience as possible. “Striking the right tone has been crucial in making our approach relatable,” Swadling stressed.

And with an above-the-line budget to play with for the first time, social media was identified as the channel with the highest reach that could also encourage conversations to generate more buzz for the brand.

Working with Platform Media via SPP Media, the team created a content series that showcased a blossoming friendship between Currys repairs expert Gary and Eddie Hall, to highlight the struggle between human clumsiness and broken technology — a challenge that even the former world’s strongest man can face.

“The decision to invest the entire budget into a single activation, without any supporting channels, could be interpreted as a risk,” Swadling continued. “This was a calculated risk, however, which fortunately proved very successful.”

Spark Foundry utilised Currys’ social channels to drive engagement as well as Hall’s own channels to reach a dedicated fanbase. Currys also worked with a select range of publishers and communities, including TechRadar and Pubity, to create positive sentiment and initiate conversations.

Media views of the campaign exceeded targets by 94% and its average engagement rate reached 3.47% compared with the industry benchmark of 1%.

Swadling added: “It wasn’t just Eddie who received all the praise either; Gary was the unsuspecting star in the eyes of the public.”