FlipSide
Lowe’s
Issue 40 | September 2016
Agency
BBDO New York
Creative Team
Chief Creative Officer, BBDO Worldwide David Lubars Chief Creative Officer, BBDO New York Greg Hahn Executive Creative Director Tim Bayne Senior Creative Directors Mike Sweeney Molly Adler ACD/Art Director Carolyn Davis Senior Art Director Ryan Wi ACD/Copywriter Matthew Page Copywriter Adam Gothelf
Production Team
Executive Producer Kristin Tomborello Agency Producer Whitney Husnik Production Company MPC Director Patrick Cummings Executive Producer Dan Sormani
Other Credits
Account Team Jim Reath Bob Estrada Miranda Hardy Marlee Caine Antoinette Del Rio
Date
April 2016
Background
US home improvement chain Lowe's, affectionately known as the Big Box, is an experienced player in the content game, producing short videos to help homeowners improve their properties.
The trick is to find the right platform or channel in the right way for the right audience, complicated by the profusion of new vehicles and the way they develop additional features and applications.
In the past, Lowe's has targeted Millennials with social video like Vine and Instagram.
To keep it fresh, Lowe's has used Instagram in an innovative way.
Idea
On Instagram the screen is locked, which means if you turn the phone 180 degrees, the content turns with it.
Lowe's used this limitation to its advantage: it split the video into two halves. The top video played upright, while the bottom half played upsidedown.
The only way to view the bottom video was to flip the phone upside down – hence the title of the project, 'Flipside'.
Thus Lowe's created two alternate realities, carefully mirroring the composition in both scenes so everything was simple to follow.
The top, upright half, shows the effects of neglecting your home in an amusing, exaggerated way. While the upsidedown, lower half, has a straightforward tutorial showing how to care for it.
Results
There were over 1.4 million viewsand 5,500 likes in the first week,making it the most cost-effective socialmedia launch in Lowe's history.
Our Thoughts
This is fun. Practically every DIY/home improvements chain has a YouTube channel with explanatory or tip videos. But staying on top of shifting consumption habits can make it difficult for retailers to keep up with their audiences, particularly millennials, who are more likely than other groups to move quickly to new platforms or embrace new product features.
The first clever bit with Flipside is to use Instagram’s flip facility appropriately. The second is to work the content so that it is in sync with the flip – i.e. one way to show what happens if you neglect your, let’s say, gutters, the other to show what happens if you don’t.
The stop-start music adds a light touch, and I’m taken with the raccoon who wanders into the neglectful owner’s home.