Wacky Warehouse: Bringing Back Fun House

The Challenge

To raise awareness of Wacky Warehouse among a consumer group which hadn’t been exposed to the brand name for two decades. The campaign had to reach and resonate with millennials, and generate online buzz around Wacky – especially on Facebook, where our value-conscious target audience over-indexed.

 

The Idea

We carried out an audience listening piece on social, and one theme came out strong – nostalgia. We soon had a plan – to bring back Fun House. A hit programme of that era, it revolved around games played in a set closely resembling a soft play centre. The show’s primary colours of red and yellow also perfectly complemented those of Wacky Warehouse.

 

The Results

  • Within hours of announcing the return of Fun House at Wacky, it was the number one trending story on Facebook
  • We were also seeing 150 tweets a minute about the campaign
  • Much of this was down to the national media interest – with coverage including the Daily Mirror, MailOnline, Now, Daily Star, Daily Express, The Telegraph, The Independent, Evening Standard, LADbible, Digital Spy, Free Radio, Smooth and Metro
  • On the Metro alone, Fun House at Wacky was the number one entertainment story for three days in a row, receiving 67,500 social shares in a week
  • Thanks to all this, traffic to the brands’ websites was up by 400%
  • Crucially, sales across the Wacky/Fayre & Square portfolio during the primary phase outstripped the YOY rolling average growth by 48%

The Awards

  • PRCA DARE
    • Best Event or Stunt of the Year
    • Best Media Relations Campaign
    • Best Consumer Relations Campaign
  • CIPR PRIDE Awards
    • Consumer Relations Campaign (gold)
    • Best Use of Media Relations (silver)