We decided if we were to truly live up to and highlight the brand's values of total honesty, we needed to make a change. Taking the brave step to ditch the famous 'Does exactly...' strapline, and replacing it with one that was as truthful as possible.

This was articulated through a heartfelt apology to customers for the previous lack of total honesty, delivered by the Ronseal Marketing Director.

Using a tongue-in-cheek approach, we explained; 'Ronseal Fence Life, now, does exactly what it says on the rotund 203.48mm by 189.12mm vacuum moulded white polypropylene copolymer 5 litre labelled bucket', admitting that while the new strapline might not be as memorable, it's certainly more honest.

Press ads, spoofing the apology ads that other brands run after a crisis, directed people to the online film. We also engaged in live conversations on social media and sent out press releases to announce the change.

Whilst PR and Social were at the heart of the strategy, we kicked-off with full-page press adverts, announcing our 'Apology' and directing consumers to view the full film online.

The film was central to the campaign’s success, as it allowed us to tell the full story in an engaging and shareable format. It also enabled us to fully measure and track the campaign, which was vital for the next part of our story.

Immediately post-launch, we initiated a disruptive social media strategy, using #RonsealApology. Speaking directly to consumers in real-time, from canvassing their opinion on our new straplines – through to the effect these new larger straplines were having on the business.

Each communication was strongly branded, enabling us to push individual products, without losing impact or engagement.

Finally we released a second film. This apologised for the first apology and announced a switch back to the much-loved original strapline.

- Overall reach of the campaign through combined daily website viewership was in excess of 33 million people in 7 days.

- Half a million daily impressions of branded content on social channels (up from 17,000 prior to campaign) – a 3,000% increase!

- Half a million combined views of the first videos on YouTube and on Facebook in a week.

- Spike in Ronseal website traffic of 81% compared to the week prior to the campaign launch (4,284 visitors on Sat 11th April) to (7,774 visitors on Sat 18th April).

- 10/10 relevancy score on Facebook, meaning the video was 100% relevant to the audience.

- 535% increase in mentions of Ronseal brand in social space.

- 69% positive sentiment for the brand (increase from 37% prior to the campaign).

- Cost-Per-Engagement on Facebook of just £0.001.

- Other results in 'Confidential Information' section.

The Ronseal brand and strapline, 'It does exactly what it says on the tin', is very well known in the UK following 21 years of TV advertising. However as the media spend has dropped over the years, a younger audience had begun to become less familiar with the brand, and what they stand for.

This project integrated a host of different media channels for the brand. Stepping outside of traditional TV for the first time to reach a younger audience, as well as maintaining the core older market.

The DIY market, especially the maintenance category, is a pretty unglamorous one and it's one no consumers want to engage with, never mind our younger target audience.

This gave us a problem. We needed to find a way to speak to our audience of new homeowners in a way that they would find compelling.

During research we noticed an increasing number of our target audience on social media questioning the accuracy of the strapline. As nowadays Ronseal products don’t always come in a tin, they also supply products in tubs, tubes and buckets.

We decided to create a fully integrated campaign based around the brand's core principles. One that highlighted Ronseal products are honest and trustworthy, doing exactly what they say and so letting you get those DIY jobs over with as quickly and easily as possible.

Ronseal's strapline ‘It does exactly what it says on the tin’ has over 21 years enjoyed incredible fame – becoming the UK’s 3rd most famous strapline.

In fact it's now a saying in it's own right. Everyone, from the public to the UK Prime Minister David Cameron, have co-opted the line, making it part of the British vernacular. It's used to describe something that, well, does exactly what it says.

However, the iconic brand – once famed for this stripped-down and straight-talking approach to advertising – had started to become disconnected from the strapline, and brand's core values of honesty.

As a result Ronseal were struggling to achieve the same level of relevance and resonance with their customers. This was especially true with newer, younger homeowners who didn't have the historic knowledge of the famous advertising strapline.

The campaign was designed to reclaim the line, reconnecting it to the brand.