Industry insights
Michael Smith is the consulting architect for Built Environment Channel and lead consultant of Spec Up.
On the chopping block
Australia’s most mainstream building products marketing vehicle is back for another year. Channel Nine’s ‘The Block’ is what many people may think of when it comes to advertising building products. In the past, the popular reality TV show draws an audience of just under one million viewers for their most watched episodes.
These raw numbers no doubt draw in a number of marketing teams looking to boost brand awareness, website clicks and hopefully sales. It is vitally important however to understand the limitations and consequences of marketing building products on ‘The Block’ to ensure that you are not wasting your advertising spend.
The first thing to consider is who you need to reach. If you are looking for the general public, the ‘Mum and Dad renovator’ or the DIY enthusiast, ‘The Block’ may well be a great option. However if you also need to reach the architect or other design professionals, the job is not done by simply investing hundreds of thousands in this show.
In fact reaching architects is actually made more difficult if you are featured on The Block. This is because The Block is far from popular with architects. It is actually something many architects ‘love to hate’. For this group of professionals it is seen as sending the wrong message to the public about what is involved in creating great buildings.
The design of the project on the show is specifically disjointed between a qualified architect providing a base building and unqualified contestants choosing products, finishes and layouts on a whim.
The show presents unrealistic time frames, processes and financial constraints in order to make it into a reality TV format. This leaves architects having to educate clients on the project process that occurs in the ‘real world’ when there is no TV show.
It presents the idea of the design being nothing more than trends and fads undermining the value of trained design professionals.
Ok so many architects dislike the show. But they might still watch it though right?
Well sure, some will. However even if we don’t take into account the evidence that professional designers dislike this show, it is a very wasteful way to reach less than 1000 architects.
For this reason, advertisers on ‘The Block’ should never try to leverage their association with this show with their professional designer and architect audience. You are actively damaging your brand with this audience.
Keep in mind that often when clients engage architects, they are looking for a bespoke and professional design that is not just something their untrained relative could come up with. They are specifically looking for a level of quality that sits above ‘The Block’. Promoting your product ‘as seen on the block’ therefore could be putting your product on a blacklist of ‘what not to use’.
With all this being said, if your product also relies upon reaching the weekend Bunnings shopper as well as the architect, it may still be necessary to invest in The Block. The critical thing to remember though is to as much as possible segment your audience and speak to each of them independently.