SGIS
How do you turn single-event sponsorship into lasting engagement?
When you’re a major construction materials manufacturer, like Saint-Gobain Interior Solutions’ brands, British Gypsum and Isover, sponsorship is a tried and trusted way to maintain awareness and reputation – but activating it in the right way can supercharge a whole new level of engagement…
The stage for this was already set: London Build 2024 – one of the year’s calendar highlights for architecture and construction. Saint-Gobain Interior Solutions was proud to be one of the headline sponsors of one of the event’s keynote speaking forums. However, the challenge was to ensure that the names of Saint-Gobain, British Gypsum and Isover did not become wallpaper – unseen, unacknowledged, unengaging.
Together, we saw an opportunity to activate not just this sponsorship, but our new episodic content platform, Building Better. With the platform established, cameras rolling and traction building, there was a chance to extend Building Better across another channel: live events.
In swept the Building Better production team, together with the show’s host, architectural designer and TV presenter Charlie Luxton, to host a landmark panel discussing the major challenges facing UK construction right now, into 2025 and beyond. Certainly, with one major industry issue being diversity and representation, our panel included representatives from the ‘Magnificent 7’: an all-female group of housebuilding mentors formed to support the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) campaign ‘I am a Housebuilder’. Alongside them, we also featured the CEO of YouthBuild UK, to discuss encouraging and nurturing new and emerging talent in the sector.
Having curated the questions for the panel, as well as promoting it at the venue and beyond, we drew the attention of key industry figures at London Build – itself attended by over 35,000 professionals. Meanwhile, we amplified our reach across social media with incisive footage and salient discussion points – and secured a bank of assets and content for ongoing activity.
And, vitally, by bringing together Building Better and London Build, we helped British Gypsum and Isover score a win on two counts: extending the coverage of its multichannel content platform to the live realm, and establishing a bigger audience platform for continued growth, beyond a single event, in awareness, response and engagement in the long term.