Refreshing the Persona of a Distinguished Home Decor Brand

Prior to the onset of COVID, our initiatives proved successful in building a younger audience base. New users, as indicated by web analytics, increased about 10% from early 2018 to early 2020. “Dog Days of Summer” increased followers of the Calico organic community by 10% as well. Over 450,000 potential customers viewed each individual video in the 16-part Calico Cross-Country series, and internet hits to calicocorners.com doubled or nearly doubled in each of the six months following the airing of the series.  

Calico, formerly Calico Corners, started as a fabric store in the 1940s. Today, they offer custom window treatments, furniture and free interior design services at over 60 stores nationwide. While product quality is extraordinary, the brand was experiencing the challenges of a changing market, with a trend away from heirloom furniture and layered-fabric window treatments. We were challenged to tell the Calico story to a younger audience and to find cost-effective ways to build market share with a limited budget. 

Using the tagline “Don’t Buy Boring,” we found inventive ways to let the Calico personality shine through, encouraging Calico customers to avoid the vanilla offerings of typical home decor outlets. Using attention-getting digital and social media mini campaigns to microtarget by life stage and other interest factors, we created award-winning campaigns that ranged from a video road trip series entitled Calico Cross-Country to a humorous series of social posts—theoretically authored by a pet dog—on the benefits of stain-resistant furniture fabric.  

Prior to the onset of COVID, our initiatives proved successful in building a younger audience base. New users, as indicated by web analytics, increased about 10% from early 2018 to early 2020. “Dog Days of Summer” increased followers of the Calico organic community by 10% as well. Over 450,000 potential customers viewed each individual video in the 16-part Calico Cross-Country series, and internet hits to calicocorners.com doubled or nearly doubled in each of the six months following the airing of the series.