Shaw and HGTV: Smart Home, smart marketing

By Amy Joyce Rush

[Austin, Texas] Shaw Floors once again teamed with HGTV for its Smart Home, giving the company one of the most powerful consumer reaches in the flooring business.

According to Heather Yamada, director of consumer marketing and merchandising for Shaw Floors, the HGTV Network has about 97 million viewers. The giveaway, she said, had just under 20 million entries as of May 9.

This marks Shaw’s eighth year sponsoring the home which was initially started as the HGTV Green Home. As the exclusive flooring provider, Shaw carpet, hardwood, resilient and tile and stone are installed in the HGTV Smart Home 2015.

Jack Thomasson is the house planner and Linda Woodrum the interior designer. Yamada said Shaw’s goal is to get as many flooring types as possible in the home and works closely with the team to place the newest premier products into the home. “Most of the time, the products featured are new introductions, so that consumers can see and experience the latest styles, patterns, colors and flooring innovations,” Yamada said. “We have flooring in every room throughout the HGTV Smart Home.”

While Shaw also partners with HGTV for its HGTV Home Flooring by Shaw program, the HGTV Smart Home is focused on the Shaw Floors brand. And the maker provides its retailers all the content they can to help showcase the home on their own websites.

“Our goal is to get our dealers to take on these products if they don't have them in their showroom. However, our products are mostly new introductions so hopefully most of the dealers took these products during markets. If not, this would give them another reason to take on these styles,” said Yamada. “It is a great way to show their customers inspiration and information about the flooring products featured in the HGTV Smart Home. Everyone knows HGTV and it’s an easy connection to talk with their customers about the products.”

There is also in-store material available, like product tags and tent cards through ShawAdvantage.com that dealers can put in-store as well as support for the program via digital. As well, HGTV Smart Home 2015 is featured on Shawfloors.com and hgtv.com.

“We're able to provide all the assets of HGTV.com necessary for them to create a robust experience on their site with full 360 degree tours of the home with information about each floor chosen for the home. On our own site, we feature videos and lists of the products chosen as well as images from the home. These video vignettes run on-air and online. We also have social media posts for Shaw and for our dealers through Promoboxx and email blasts communicating the sponsorship. Since the HGTV Smart Home draws a lot of attention on-air and online we advertise Shaw Floors with our new Awesome Happens on Shaw Floor Campaign more heavily during the Smart Home Giveaway.”

It’s in the details

The some 2,300 square foot two-level modern farmhouse in the Zilker neighborhood of Austin promotes eco-friendly living and green technology. The home features rustic walls and floor to ceiling windows — complete with app-operated wireless shades. The living room features a giant smart TV and a stainless steel tile backsplash is one highlight in the kitchen. The master bedroom skylights operate remotely. The suite also comes equipped with a wet bar.

Shaw brings a diverse assortment of flooring to the home from its Epic hardwood to Anso nylon carpet. “We always feature our premier products like Anso Nylon and EPIC Hardwood. However, in addition to these premier products, we were able to feature our new introductions/innovation of Life Happens Carpet with LifeGuard backing and Floorté Resilient with LifeGuard Core,” noted Yamada. “The Life Happens Carpet is in the kid’s bedroom and Floorté Resilient is in the laundry room. To help support these new product collections, we have created dealer ads that are available on ShawAdvantage.com to help promote in their local market.”




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