A postcard from snowy Norway on the topic of people-driven influence. Our colleagues there work with Byggmakker; the Nordic equivalent of Homebase. They developed a DIY re-roofing product, but were struggling to figure out how to get people to buy it. Although those long dark winters are hard on a roof( harder than in Kent – really), people (especially older poeple) tended to think that it was going to be expensive and a monumental bum-ache to do. Their beautifully true/human approach started with them asking all their staff to identify areas in their locale with 50s/60s housing, spotting somewhere that really needed a new roof. They then put on a roof, took a lovely photo of the happy (older) couple in front of their spiffy new house and turned it in to a post card that was distributed in that neighbourhood, along with information about the suprisingly low cost. The staff were incentivised to keep them peeled for new development areas and punters were reeled in by the combination of relevance (seeing a house near you) and peer influence. Simple, brilliant, sold tons of roof (double the target in half the time).

'Lads - you can see my new roof from here'