How Screwfix Supercharged Black Friday With Its Lightning 2021 Campaign

Screwfix has unveiled the process behind its 2021 Black Friday campaign, building on the huge success the company achieved last year following Five by Five’s dramatic creative and multi-pronged approach that found success across the board. This year, the independent creative and innovation agency delivered again, with a new fully integrated creative delivered across TV, radio, social and digital. With steel like lettering and an immersive, stormy backdrop, the TV creative brings four products to the forefront and captivates audiences both visually, and through the clever use of audio via sparky sound effects. 

And Screwfix themselves have even taken the campaign a step further, applying the creative across not only their website and stores but also across their app, press activity, RCS activity, and internal comms.

Jack Wallace, director of marketing at Screwfix told LBB: “Five by Five have continued to show passion and dedication, working with us to execute an impactful and dynamic ‘Supercharged’ Black Friday 2021 campaign. The creative builds on from last year and has been implemented across all channels creating a consistent, fully integrated campaign. Their attention to detail and agility across TV, Radio, and Digital production has been impeccable, all imperative to making Black Friday 2021 bigger and better for our customers.” 

The immersive multi-channel campaign takes audiences on a journey through a lightning storm to bring its hero products into full focus. Screwfix is immediately recognisable for its blue and red trademark colours, and this year Five by Five’s creative directors Andy Mancuso and Ravi Beeharry wanted to pull on audiences’ expectations of the brand to offer up something fresh and exciting. 

“Whatever we did, we knew that red and blue would play a huge part in it, so as a visual device this year we made it subtle and elegant, to contrast with the lightning bolts and thunder,” Andy told LBB. 

The result is a supercharged Black Friday campaign that captivates audiences across all channels by pulling in special effects and 3D to make Screwfix’s 2021 offering its 'most innovative' yet. 

It goes without saying that DIY boomed last year during the lockdowns, and 2021 has been a slightly different year so needed a different approach. “Last year was a huge success,” says Ravi. “We knew coming off the back of its bumper year, we needed to do something more revolutionary than evolutionary.” 

As we look ahead to 2022, it’s common knowledge that an omnichannel experience is what brands are going to need to offer. Tapping into this, Five by Five recognised the importance of having consistency across all touchpoints to make a fully integrated campaign of this kind work. 

“I find that Black Friday sales are all often very similar, and loud. So what we were looking for was something that would really stand out and stand above the crowd, and be as loud as they are. But also be more memorable for a better reason,” says Ravi. 

Andy acknowledges the trickiness of launching a TV campaign too: “When the commercials come on, people switch off. The TV happens in the background. So whatever we did it had to be arresting enough to capture attention. Even when sound is off on socials, visually, it punches out. All the lightning bolts and thunder special effects stand out.” 

The team also brought in 3D effects to the social offering, creating an immersive off-the-screen experience for audiences viewing on their phones. And when it came to text, Five by Five was able to find the best equilibrium to combine creativity with Screwfix’s need for a font that could be easily changed and versioned. 

“We wanted it to look like brushed steel. To be metallic when the electricity hits it, and refract and be charged up. We went through a few iterations to find that bright tone and take something that was plain white text to work as Screwfix’s system font and give it a treatment. It's definitely a move on from last year, it’s punchier,” says Ravi. 

Five by Five shot the products on a turntable and built the environment in 3D. “It was tricky, and a challenge for us as we’ve never done anything like this for Screwfix before. It's much bigger and more ambitious than last year but we think it turned out to be a success. At first, we got fixated on the TV ad, but there’s point of sale, digital, so many different touchpoints where it needed to translate and it’s testament to the creative which it does really well,” says Andy. 

It’s out-of-the-box creative both in idea and visuals, where the products jump out at you. “The team did a great job of making it visually interesting. Products are breaking out of the frame, overlapping, and stretching it. It’s so much better than staying within the parameters,” says Ravi. 

Five by Five’s collaboration with Screwfix goes back four years now, and each year has highlighted the independent creative agency’s ability to pivot, adapt, and grow with innovative content while building on previous successes. This year, Five by Five and Screwfix have together pushed further than ever before to create a fully integrated campaign that’s been used both externally and internally for the brand.