iHus
How iHus became a leading UK granny annexe brand with a little help from Tony Blackburn and a big media push
IHus is one of the UK’s leading specialists in the design and build of stylish bespoke granny annexes. They approached us with the need to grow the brand’s awareness in both the B2B and B2C markets, identifying media relations as a key tactic to increasing the sales of their product.
The Brief.
iHus appointed us to build their brand profile and drive awareness with both the trade and end user, with the primary objective of increasing sales of the firm’s bespoke granny annexes.
We were tasked with delivering an outsourced press office function to handle all inbound media enquiries, dealing with media opportunities, and cultivating relationships with journalists in the media areas relative to iHus.
We were also briefed with leveraging iHus’s partnership with brand ambassador Tony Blackburn and use him to create compelling media angles around the firm’s products, to strengthen their media footprint and brand awareness.
The Research.
Through our research process, we looked at the competitor landscape and niche area in which iHus operated. By using Google search trends, survey data and expert opinion, we identified a series of topical campaign hooks to generate news hooks and lead the conversation around annexe buying trends and demands.
The Big Idea.
We identified journalists who had written about annexes previously to create media opportunities around property news as well as topical lifestyle and national hooks.
By positioning iHus as the expert on multigenerational living, injecting them into the conversation around the elderly care crisis, and stimulating discussion about the cost of care and the stigmatisation of the topic, we were able to introduce the relatively unknown iHus brand to the market as the champion of multigenerational living.
The Activity
We engaged with journalists on a national and regional level, responding to reactive media enquiries as well as creating bespoke pitches to secure coverage in top tier publications.
This included successfully pitching a piece on Tony Blackburn’s relationship with the reality series, ‘I’m a Celebrity’ to angle the brand into national media coverage in The Sun, as well as coverage in The Daily Mail which reached an audience of millions with over 1000 comments.
The Daily Mail coverage also resulted in a large increase in website traffic, with thousands of users in the days following publication, marking one of iHus’s best weekends ever for enquiries. In addition, iHus recorded a record number of click-throughs to the website in the first hour of The Sun article going live.
Interest was maximised particularly in the over 50’s media and strengthened national media stories with ‘celebrity’ commentary from their brand ambassador.
“The last couple of years have significantly moved the brand forward to the next level and we genuinely appreciate all your contributions to that journey.”
Julian Horberry, Group Marketing Director of iHus
“It’s not every day you get to combine creative media strategy with a genuinely interesting brand and a legendary ambassador like Tony Blackburn.
From national coverage in The Sun and the Daily Mail to a huge spike in web traffic and enquiries, this campaign delivered real results.
Seeing over 1,000 comments and thousands of users hit the site in just a few days was the kind of impact our PR team loves to see.”
Stefanie Hopkins, Communications Director
