By Jennifer Quail
LANCASTER, Pa.–Armstrong has turned to iconic Hollywood royalty for a new consumer advertising campaign focusing on the realism of its premium laminate flooring.
Under the tagline “It Only Looks Like The Real Thing,” the ads use look-alikes of silver-screen legends to drive home the selling point of laminate product that bears a striking resemblance to real hardwood.
“Our premium floors are … often confused with their real wood counterpart,” said Milton Goodwin, vice president of laminate and ceramic products for Armstrong. “This is truly a case where seeing is believing. It’s not real, it’s unreal.”
Goodwin credited a combination of features for the realistic look of the product, including a patent-pending exotic finish, 5-inch-wide planks that present as one board and a “kissed-edge bevel” that is half the size of a standard bevel and helps to accentuate each strip. In addition, each plank is 12 millimeters thick for sound reduction. Goodwin said, when coupled with the company’s Quiet Comfort Premium Underlayment, the laminate provides the same level of “in-room sound” as a genuine, 3/4-inch solid hardwood floor.
For the print campaign, four famous faces—Lucille Ball, Marlon Brando, Dean Martin and James Dean—have been paired with four different laminate floors, showcasing the varied finishes available. Armstrong turned to BBDO, an advertising agency the company has worked with since 1918, and photographer Norman Jean Roy to achieve the desired results. The ads also direct consumers to Armstrong’s Web site for the location of a retailer in their area.
The company said an additional goal of the ads is to convince homeowners who are in need of new flooring that they don’t have to sacrifice design for functionality. By design, the laminate floors are “nine times more resistant to dents, dings and scratches than traditional hardwood,” Goodwin said, adding the durability, plus an anti-bacterial surface, makes the flooring a good choice for households with kids and pets.
Attention-getting consumer campaigns have become a mainstay for Armstrong. The screen legend ads follow a recent campaign that focused on an Armstrong floor’s ability to stand up to everything from pet accidents to a spray of rotten leftovers. The new ads are scheduled to debut as both single-page and two-page spreads in the May/June issues of consumer magazines, including Better Homes & Gardens, Martha Stewart Living and Southern Living.