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YellaWood moves it upscale tells consumers move it outside in new ads

Breaking this week, a TV campaign by Great Southern Wood Preserving, Inc., Abbeville, Ala., will promote YellaWood pressure treated lumber to a new and more upscale audience for the brand: (“do-it-for-me”) DIFMers. The two :30 spots, created by advertising agency Brunner, Atlanta, will run exclusively on Fox Sports Major League Baseball.

Yellawood’s existing core audience is DIYers willing to build their own deck (also contractors, who remain a target). The new campaign is the brand’s first effort to reach “experienced” homeowners (on their second or third home), with $100K+ household incomes. Predictably, the decks shown are expansive.

The campaign, titled “Decklaration of Independence,” is a “category sell,” with no mention of Yellawood (closing title card aside) or its features. Instead the focus is on the joy of living and socializing outside. YellaWood’s competitors do not advertise to consumers, and the brand enjoys a commanding share of market.

In “No Rules,” supered type names all the things you’re not supposed to do indoors, (“no ball,” “shut the fridge,” “feet off the furniture,” etc.), as those rules are happily flouted on the deck. VO states: “When you bring the indoors outdoors, there are No Rules.”

In “Break Free,” over fife and drum, we see an empty home and abandoned electronics. Everyone’s out on the deck. VO: “America, it’s time. Time to Break Free from the confines of your couch. To tear yourself away from the tyranny of technology. To revolt against a social revolution that’s anything but social... It’s time to build your Decklaration of Independence.”

The campaign runs on regional TV in twenty mostly southeastern states, from Florida to Pennsylvania to Illinois to Texas, on MLB programming only. MLB’s audience fits the two target markets, consumers and contractors, exceptionally well, and so does its schedule, which coincides with deck-building season. There is also support pre-roll video via networks Tremor Video and BrightRoll.

Creative Credits:
Ad Agency: Brunner, Atlanta
CCO: Rob Schapiro
CD: Dave Vissat
ACD/AD: Derek Julin
ACD/CW: Kevin Corfield
Agency Producer: Danica Walker
Account Director: Zak Cochran
Media Director: Bill Zeigler
Production Co.: Seed Media Arts, Chicago
Dir.: Anthony Garth
D.P.: Trevor Fife
Executive Producer: Roy Skillicorn
Post: Beast Editorial, Atlanta
Editor: Eddie Kesler
Colorist: Bill Gabor
Music: Storefront Music, New York (“No Rules”)
Composers: Adam Elk, John “Scrapper” Sneider
Music: stock (“Break Free”)
Sound: Market Street Sound, Pittsburgh
Engineer: Dan Ferraro
VO: Bruce Jacobson