Simply Insulate

NAIMA Case History–Marketing Insulation to Consumers: A Generic Marketing Campaign

Situation: High heating costs and brutally cold weather combined to create a crisis that threatened to spread nationwide. A national survey conducted by Wirthlin Worldwide showed that nearly 80 percent of respondents cited the cost of heating their homes as a vital issue, compared to other concerns facing their families. The North American Insulation Manufacturers Association (NAIMA) recognized the energy crisis as an opportunity to remind consumers that insulating their homes was the most economical and cost-effective method for reducing higher-than-normal utility bills and engaged Stanton Communications to create and implement a new generic marketing campaign for the fiberglass insulation industry.

Program: The program was designed to educate consumers about home insulation with easy-to-understand facts about its economic, comfort and acoustic benefits, while also increasing sales of home insulation products and services through consumer motivation to upgrade their home insulation levels. “Simply Insulate” became the program slogan, based on the fact that adding insulation is easy to do and represents a simply solution to high energy bills. Similar to “Got Milk?”, the slogan was a straightforward delivery of a message that had previously been a complicated and tedious call to action. With consumers in California, New York and the central United States bearing the brunt of the energy crisis, the program focused on homeowners in the these markets: Albany, N.Y., Sacramento, Calif., Atlanta, Indianapolis, Ind., Columbus, Ohio, and Madison, Wis. An interactive Web site, www.simplyinsulate.com, served as the centerpiece of the campaign and provided a “one-stop-shop” for information about the energy saving benefits of home insulation, including details on state-specific R-Value (insulation level) recommendations from the U.S. Department of Energy, as well as highly specialized information about financial incentives and government support available for homeowners interested in making their homes more energy efficient. Radio promotions and advertising opportunities, byline article placements and traditional media helped drive traffic to the Web site.

Results: The Simply Insulate Web site attracted tens of thousands of hits in the first month. A follow-up study showed that home insulation awareness levels were higher in exposed markets than in non-exposed markets. Similarly, consumers in program markets were significantly more likely to consider energy use and conservation a concern of high importance compared to consumers in markets not exposed to the program’s elements. Home insulation retailers in markets exposed to the program reported a measurable increase in sales after the launch of the Simply Insulate campaign. Insulation contractors and other service providers also reported higher sales during and after the program.