Work
Knauf Insulation
Getting specified in a time of transition
When an industry goes through a period of unprecedented regulatory change, it looks for leaders.
We worked with Knauf Insulation to help the UK’s largest insulation manufacturer to provide much-needed guidance to a construction industry in flux. In doing so, we’ve helped the business get closer to a core audience – the specifiers whose decisions will determine which products triumph in a changed world.
The challenge
When we began working with Knauf Insulation, the building industry was going through a period of transition. Building regulations and standards were being updated at an unprecedented rate and scale, upending the way construction products were specified and used.
For Knauf Insulation, this presented both a threat and an opportunity. A threat because the business was already the largest supplier of insulation into newbuild houses – any change in specification behaviours could impact this position. But also an opportunity, because Knauf Insulation’s non-combustible solutions and environmental credentials made for a compelling proposition when the bigger picture of regulation changes were taken into account.
Our challenge, then, was to ensure specifiers considered this bigger picture, and to position Knauf Insulation’s products as the answer to multiple specification questions. We needed to lead on the issues, to earn the right to present our solutions.
The work
Through a comprehensive, ongoing media relations programme, we ensured Knauf Insulation was visibly contributing to debate around these significant industry issues – such as fire safety and the performance gap. We placed expert comment and thought leadership articles across specification titles, the wider trade press and in national media, while developing more detailed specification resources – such as an embodied carbon guide – for the Knauf Insulation website.
This was punctuated by a series of integrated product campaigns to highlight specific solutions across paid, owned and earned channels. We developed a distinctive identity for Knauf Insulation product advertising, and rolled this out in a series of print and digital executions in targeted channels, supported by further campaign-specific media activity and engaging social media content.
Finally, to cement Knauf Insulation’s reputation as an industry innovator, we nominated the company for a series of prestigious industry awards. Today, its trophy cabinet is bursting with gongs, including the CIBSE Building Performance Awards, the Housebuilder Product Awards and the BMJ Merchanting Awards.
The impact
Knauf Insulation’s messaging is now getting through to the UK construction industry’s community of specifiers. As a result, its reputation is beginning to match its market position, and it owns the narrative around real performance and the role of embodied carbon of insulation in building sustainability.
All of which reinforces its position as a trusted expert on industry issues, helping it achieve its aim of building closer relationships with specifiers across the supply chain – resulting in the all-important inclusion on design specifications.
