Lise Haugan heads up digital marketing for Norwegian DIY retailer, Obs Bygg. Her expertise lies in creative strategies matching audiences, to ideas, and ultimately to business goals.
Obs Bygg is a Norwegian DIY retailer with 41% market share. We have 60 big warehouses all over Norway, which account for about 90% of our turnover. The other 10% comes from e-commerce.
But we were facing a challenge: attracting a younger audience. Our research showed a significant gap in DIY confidence between generations — only 37% of 18-25 year olds felt comfortable with basic DIY tasks, compared to 66% of those aged 58 and over.
To capitalise on this potential meant a new strategy to attract a younger generation of DIYers to consider shopping with us.
Learning how to create compelling “how to” videos
We’re a low-price retailer offering a wide range of DIY products for home improvement, gardening, and outdoor living. Because of this, our existing customer base historically skewed older.
In Norway it’s common for people to buy their first homes in their mid-20s. We wanted to inject DIY skills and enthusiasm in the younger generation to prepare them for this big moment. Our goal was to motivate and inspire them, and show that DIY is not as difficult as they perhaps think.
YouTube is filled with “how to” videos, so we had to create something unique and fun (but also informative) to stand out.
With this insight in mind, we trialled a fresh approach as our traditional advertising wouldn't resonate with this younger audience. Our company voice tends to be quite formal, showing product and prices in a very typical advertising way.
To attract this new audience, we knew we had to speak their language. We partnered with a social media marketing agency who came up with the concept of a "DIY school" for younger viewers.
But YouTube is filled with “how to” videos, so we had to create something unique and fun (but also informative) to stand out.
Our video series needed to position us at the top of the buying funnel, grabbing people’s attention before they’re even thinking about shopping. By being top of mind in this discovery phase, we hoped that when it came to starting a project and making a purchase, they’d think ‘Obs Bygg’ first.
Partnering with social media influencers: Oskar Westerlin and Erik Follestad
At the time of our campaign, Oskar Westerlin was a rising social media personality — he’s now the biggest influencer in Norway. With no prior DIY experience, we would be the ‘relatable’ face of the campaign; someone our audience could identify with. We wanted them to feel they were in the same boat as Oskar. To see his progression throughout the episodes, with his skills and confidence growing.
To add expertise — and a comedic counterpoint — we paired him with experienced carpenter and a well-known TV profile, Erik Follestad:
The series of videos chronicle Oskar's journey from DIY novice to capable handy-man, with a healthy dose of humour thanks to the mismatched skill sets and personalities. This lighthearted approach resonated with the younger audience we wanted to engage as it made DIY seem less intimidating and more achievable.
It wasn’t all plain sailing, we did meet some hurdles along the way. Because this was so different from anything we had done before, the management was initially apprehensive.
However, we championed the importance of experimentation and delivering the right message to the right audience — and the results speak for themselves.
Laughter leads to sales (and skills)
Our post-campaign surveys revealed a significant increase in motivation and inspiration among people who had viewed the ads. In fact, we discovered through our questions that 70% of people who viewed the series visited an Obs Bygg store afterwards to make a purchase.
We also saw 40% of our total sales growth coming from those under the age of 30. As I mentioned earlier, we already look at our first party data for insights on the age of our purchasers, so to see this sales growth was amazing. We don’t do much else to attract this audience so we know it demonstrates the power of influencer marketing and a willingness to take creative risks.
Our viewers were really engaged with the project and gave us a lot of great feedback. Some said they wanted the series to be on TV and others suggested we would feature the renovations of a whole house.
In fact, the series was so popular we even won a YouTube Works Award 2024 in the Nordics.
Oskar also sent out an ad on social media with the message: “Do you want me to come and do a renovation project with you?” It was tremendously popular and we got 700 applications in just 24 hours.
And we’re not finished. We will continue to create engaging content for younger audiences. The next iteration might offer a slightly more educational approach, but entertainment will remain a core element.
If you’re looking at attracting a new, younger audience, my key advice is to be daring. Be bold, take risks, do something different. You never know what you’ll find.
Key takeaways
- Understand your audience: Identify their needs, interests, and preferred communication styles.
- Embrace experimentation: Don't be afraid to try new things, especially when targeting younger demographics
- Work with a creator: These are the experts, they know how to build community, and can add authenticity to your messaging.
- Humour can be persuasive: A lighthearted approach can make complex topics more approachable and non-traditional storytelling helps influence consumer behaviour.
- Data is key: Track and analyse campaign results to measure success and refine future strategies.
