Kingfisher – “If Walls Could Talk”

XYZ Thinking helped Kingfisher elevate its brands from everyday home improvement retailers to thought-leading campaigners on the serious issue of unfit housing.

“If Walls Could Talk” was a communications campaign for home improvement retail group Kingfisher to spotlight the serious issue of how unfit housing affects millions of lives across Europe, exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. 

We brought a team of creative strategists, communications experts and research analysts to work with Kingfisher’s central team along with their retail brands B&Q, Castorama and Brico Depot, exploring how the organization could credibly and effectively establish a voice in this space. Through a series of workshops, stakeholder engagement and creative problem-solving sessions, we developed a roadmap for Kingfisher to meaningful engage in the debate and provide a toolkit for their retail brands to do the same in each market across Europe. 

Our campaign surveyed 7,000 people in the UK, France, Poland, Romania and Spain, painting a grim picture of the devastating state of unfit homes and the real stories of their impact on people’s lives – affecting social interactions, work, physical and mental health, and children.  

Our work on “If Walls Could Talk” enabled Kingfisher to take action to speak genuinely and with authority on a highly sensitive topic, raise awareness of the issue, and position its retail brands as thought-leading campaigners across all five markets.  

The campaign rallied policymakers, the public and Kingfisher’s own colleagues together, widening the debate on unfit housing and in the UK helped to highlight their charity partner Shelter’s initiatives in the UK to address many of these issues.