.99 has secured the creative account for Carpet Court, one of the biggest players in the New Zealand flooring sector, after a competitive pitch.
It’s not clear which agencies were involved, but the account is thought to have jumped around a bit recently, with DDB and Ogilvy & Mather the last agencies to work on it.
Its ratecard media spend has been in the vicinity of $3.5-4 million annually, but it has plans to grow the brand and extend the range, so it looks set to become even more lucrative. Ben Goodale, managing director .99 and justONE, believes Carpet Court is the biggest in the category.
Rob Smith, Carpet Court chief executive, said in a release it was .99’s retail expertise that ultimately set them apart from the competition, as well as the undeniable passion and enthusiasm the team demonstrated for the business.
“We were looking for an agency partner that truly understood and cared about our business, and would offer more than a typical, transactional client-supplier relationship. .99’s pitch went above and beyond in every sense and they ticked all our boxes,” Smith says.
“Given the preparation and effort that went into the pitch, it’s a great win for us,” says Goodale. “We’ve already kicked things off working on a number of campaigns, and are really pleased with how the relationship is developing.”
A few years back, Carpet Court put its SmartStrand product in a rhino enclosure for two weeks to see how it coped. And the rhino-carpet still forms a big part of the marketing approach both on TV and instore.
Elsewhere in the flooring world, Godfrey Hirst conducted an experiment with a different type of wild beast when it put some carpet through its the paces in a Dunedin flat.
Flooring Xtra, which calls itself the country’s largest carpet retailer, has been running its quirky TV ad for a couple of years.
And Cavalier Bremworth recently brought its mascot wool I am back.
