FIX YOUR FIRST
Background
Young first time homeowners often lack the skills, knowledge and confidence to handle basic DIY tasks for home improvement and maintenance. This means many homeowners have accumulated a long list of incomplete DIY jobs that they are avoiding or they are relying on costly professionals, even just to hang a picture frame! Homeownership has been pushed further for young adults so are more likely to live at home for longer or rent, where maintenance was handled by landlords or parents.
Solution
A confidence building campaign to encourage Brits to do DIY around the home. The campaign motivates first time homeowners to stop avoiding basic home maintenance jobs and just give it a go themself. It focuses on the small achievable tasks to make DIY feel less overwhelming and more approachable.
Research
Brits are not short of DIY and home maintenance projects, yet many homeowners are avoiding DIY due to a lack of skills, confidence, time and budget. While DIY culture is deeply rooted in Gen X, Millennials and Gen Z are more likely to call a professional or avoid the task all together. An incomplete home can often create low level background stress, and financial pressure is causing anxiety amongst young people who are looking for more affordable options.
Ideation
For first time homeowners, the main issue is having the confidence to start something and a fear of making mistakes in their new property so the main focus of this campaign is to celebrate the small wins and make DIY feel less overwhelming. The aim is to build confidence at a beginner level and help young people become more independent in maintaining their home. The main activation centres around a pop up experience which shows how quick, easy and cost effective DIY can be.
Solution
The Fix Your First campaign is intended to be run by the Department of Education and is all about giving it a go and proving that DIY can be achieved by anyone. It provides opportunities to practice hands on skills through pop ups and boosts motivation through simple DIY challenges. The goal is to encourage homeowners to be less reliant on professionals and help young people save money by building the confidence to tackle their unfinished jobs.
Pop ups will be located in towns and cities where visitors can test their DIY skills through the 5-minute fix stations. Each station introduces a simple home maintenance task such as changing a lightbulb, hanging shelves or screwing fixtures.
The pop up also features a kiosk where visitors can take a quiz to reveal their DIY personality and receive a tarot card. Each card reflects the habits that hold first time homeowners back on one side, before flipping over to a more confident mindset. From The Doubter to The Believer, the cards turn everyday DIY fears into something fun, relatable and motivational.
After visiting the pop and discovering their DIY capabilities, homeowners can take on a simple motivational challenge to complete 3 small fixes in 30 days. Inside the tarot card they can write down the 3 small jobs that they keep putting off and set the date to complete them by.
The website acts as a guidance tool which provides tutorials, tips and advice on a variety of DIY jobs. After signing up to the challenge, homeowners can track their progress and record their completed fixes so they can enter the prize draw.
Homeowners who complete the challenge will be entered into a monthly prize draw, with rewards such as vouchers or free workshops. This will drive homeowners to continue maintaining their home independently and keep developing their skills.
Physical advertisements will be placed around suburban towns and cities, predominantly around new build areas. Flyers will also be placed in community areas such as leisure centres and adverts in community newsletters.
