Hanson launches new fashionable neighborhoods advertising campaign
Company’s Unique Fashion-focused Advertising Message Creates Platform for Customer Design Tools

CHARLOTTE, N.C., August 15, 2006
Brick manufacturer Hanson Brick has unveiled its new advertising campaign, continuing a unique fashion-focused, approach to promoting Hanson brick products. The ongoing emphasis on fashion aligns with the company’s plans to introduce several new customer-oriented design tools this year.

Unlike typical brick branding campaigns, the visuals in Hanson’s advertisements don’t include brick structures and instead use fashion to position the company as the brand of personal style. The series of print advertisements, called “Fashionable Neighborhoods,” uses brick-patterned fabrics on a sofa, a jacket, an umbrella and a scarf. The campaign’s tagline reads, “It also covers the most fashionable neighborhoods.”

“When architects and builders hear ‘fashion’ or ‘selection’ or ‘choice,’ we want them to think of Hanson Brick before any other brand,” said Kathleen Jonila, director of marketing for Hanson Brick and Tile, headquartered in Charlotte, N.C. “The Hanson brand represents the ability of our customers to create their own personal styles in homes or buildings, much like people reflect their styles when they buy clothes or accessories.”

The campaign, developed by Atlanta-based STEELE+, will start appearing in architecture and builder publications throughout the U.S. and Canada in September. Shot on location in Atlanta by award-winning advertising and editorial photographer Jim Fiscus, two of the advertisements show women wearing fashionable brick-print attire and accessories, while a third shows a chic woman posed on a brick-print fabric sofa.

In all three, the surroundings create a sense of refined elegance. “These ads target architects and builders, and we want to give them a sense that when they select Hanson Brick they’re giving the Hanson homeowner what they want: a stylish home in a fashionable neighborhood,” said STEELE+ Chief Creative Officer Rick Julian.

The ads build on the company’s 2004-2005 “Fashion” campaign, developed when Hanson Brick merged seven regional brick companies in the U.S. and Canada. Hanson caught customers’ attention and differentiated itself with a campaign that used bricks as fashion accessories – sunglasses, a belt and a purse – in a stark, haute couture setting.

“The ‘Fashion’ campaign created conversation because it was unique, and people remembered the advertisements,” said Jonila, who said the campaign made such a mark on an industry whose product is often thought of as a commodity that Hanson Brick has received inquiries from advertising professors to use the “Fashion” campaign as a case study in branding.

“The ‘Fashion’ campaign has become a differentiation point for Hanson, and we wanted our new campaign to build on that,” Jonila said. “It accurately reflects the Hanson product offering, which gives people the chance to capture their own personal style in their living areas, businesses and commercial buildings.”

The new advertising campaign is part of a larger effort by Hanson Brick to reinforce the concept of brick as a design element, a message which complements the design resource tools it plans to offer to customers.

“We are taking a designer approach by offering our customers the design tools they need to select brick and use it effectively – and fashionably – in their projects,” Jonila said.

For one new program, Hanson has collaborated with Edith Snell, a residential color specialist and designer with Jonesboro, Ark.-based Interior Solutions Group, LLC to include brick by Hanson in Snell’s Design Plan-In-A-Can (www.designplaninacan.com) for home exteriors.

“I loved the Fashion ad campaign because it wasn’t just about bricks and mortar it was about personal style,” said Snell, whose Design Plan-In-A-Can offers architects, builders and consumers a color-coordinated package of design elements for residential exterior and interior design. “I’ve always felt that design is an expression of your self. When you drive up to someone’s home you can tell a lot about that person by the look of their home.”

Hanson Brick is North America's largest brick manufacturer offering more than 1,000 styles of brick in five regional collections in the United States and Canada.

Hanson Brick is part of Hanson Building Products - Lightside, a leading manufacturer of clay and concrete brick, concrete roof tile and concrete paving stones and retaining walls. Individually or together, Hanson cladding, roofing and hardscape products are durable, beautiful and give residential and commercial creations lasting curb appeal.

Hanson Building Products North America is part of the HeidelbergCement Group, which employs 70,000 people across five continents and has leading positions in concrete and heavy building products and is the global leader in aggregates.

Further information on Hanson Build Products - Lightside can be found at www.hansonrooftile.com, www.hansonhardscapes.com or www.hansonbrick.com.

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