Portbury-based Plasterboard manufacturer Siniat has used humour in its latest marketing campaign to increase awareness of its product range among homeowners and builders.
The firm, formerly Lafarge Plasterboard, called in Bath-based brand, creative and digital agency Mr B & Friends for what it admitted it knew was “tricky brief to tackle”. 
Siniat marketing and communications manager Fiona O’Callaghan said Mr B’s striking integrated campaign was a beautiful solution and hailed it as “truly astonishing”.
The campaign uses the strapline ‘If walls could talk’ and features actors with body paint emerging from different types of wall to deliver the message.
The integrated digital campaign leverages YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Google Display Network to drip feed different messages to homeowners and builders.
Siniat supplies plasterboard products to customers ranging from jobbing builders and merchants to major commercial developers from its main UK site in Portbury.
Mr B & Friends senior account manager Jen Neville outlined the challenge. “We were asked to tackle the lack of awareness among builders and homeowners of the varying types of performance plasterboards available within Siniat’s portfolio,” she said. 
“The agency had to create something that appealed to both audiences and encourage them to talk, not just about decorative finishes, but also about using the right board, in the right place.”
Mr B creative director Kate Gorringe added: “The strength of the ‘If walls could talk’ campaign is that it takes a product which is normally hidden from view, and puts it front and centre, in a highly disruptive way.
“With actors painted into walls and talking directly to the viewer, we’re in no doubt of the message – use better plasterboard.”
Fiona O’Callaghan said the firm was delighted with the campaign. “The outcome is truly astonishing! I think the use of humour has really broken down the ambiguity around the product,” she said.
The Siniat name has been used by Lafarge Plasterboard since it was acquired by the Etex group at the end of 2011. Siniat now has 35 factories across Europe and the Middle East employing more than 3,300 people.
