2020 Winner
2020 Winners
Bruno
Bruno Hoarding
Bruno is a custom residential and commercial construction company that collaborates with clients and architects to build unique, standout spaces and structures. Their uncompromising work ethic, problem solving agility, and outright love for what they do has forged their reputation as a trusted builder of residential and commercial projects in Halifax for years.
Bruno designs and builds a variety of projects, including everything from additions and home renovations to full multi-unit developments. After 6 years in business they have continued to grow through word of mouth. But while they had built a name for themselves, they felt it was time to start building a brand that reflected their approach and the work they do.
As part of the rebrand the primary goal was to develop a brand voice that let people know what makes Bruno different than other construction companies.
Insights and Strategy
There are a lot of stereotypes about construction companies and workers and since these companies don’t typically invest in marketing, it was pretty low hanging fruit for us to be the first to address these stereotypes and let people know what type of company Bruno was.
While larger scale development projects are determined through an RFP and proposal, the residential projects and major home renovations are earned purely based on referrals and word of mouth. When people are considering a contractor they have really high expectations. Price is a key factor, but they also want to feel comfortable that a builder will execute on their vision, can be trusted on their property, not leave behind a mess, and the list goes on. Luckily for us, Bruno already was checking all of those boxes and we just had to let people know about it.
We realized that when there is no specific retail brand or development being built, these steel hoardings typically just sit empty. So similar to how bigger development projects leverage their hoardings to advertise the new condo or apartment that’s coming soon, we used the hoardings that end up on residential sites to let people know what makes Bruno different.
Execution
To capitalize on this valuable out-of-home advertising space we created banners to be installed on every site Bruno works on. And rather than just slapping a logo on it, we wrote a variety of headlines that addressed all possible concerns a client could have when picking a contractor. Like catcalling on the job site, working too slowly, leaving behind a big mess, or cutting corners. And as more hoardings went up, we started to develop a fun neighbourly brand voice that really represented Bruno.
Results and Impact
As more sites went up around the city, people started to take notice. Referrals used to only happen through conversation at the end of a neighbours driveway or through the “anyone know a good contractor?” Facebook post. Bruno is now out there putting their name on their work and getting a bunch of free out-of-home advertising. While we’d love to tell you that Bruno has a CRM and sales funnel that specifically tracks hoarding referrals, they don’t. But they’ve had plenty of people commenting on their hoardings and they continue to see an increase in their residential projects, specifically in the neighbourhoods where they have already done projects. And as business continues growing, they’ll keep putting up more hoardings.