The archive · Marketing & Growth · Marketing decision · 2024
Bunnings rebrands as Bluey's Hammerbarn for February — 312% foot traffic, D&AD Pencil
Australia's hardware giant renamed seven stores after Bluey's fictional Hammerbarn for a month — $12M earned media, 312% more February foot traffic.
Bunnings Warehouse · BBC Studios Australia & NZ · Bluey (Ludo Studio)
What it had to solve
Bunnings, Australia's dominant hardware chain, saw foot traffic and sales dip every February. Its quietest month needed a reason for families to visit — and Bluey's fictional Hammerbarn, famously drawn from a real Bunnings store, was the country's most beloved kids' show.
How it works
Every February, Bunnings — Australia's dominant hardware chain — saw foot traffic and sales drop year on year. Instead of discounting its way through the quiet month, it chose to give up its own name: seven stores became 'Hammerbarn', the parody hardware store from the hit kids' show Bluey, for the whole of February 2024.
The transformation was total: exterior signage, staff aprons, catalogues, backdrops from the show's scenes, exclusive products and free weekend DIY workshops for kids, booked through a custom website. The episode's 'husband' garden gnomes — Hecuba, Jeremy and Tony — became sought-after merch, and families travelled to stores that had been renamed after a cartoon.
The idea came from a licensing hunch: BBC Studios' Kate O'Connor cold-called Bunnings' managing director Mike Schneider, who was already a fan — his wife had bought him the Hammerbarn book for Christmas. The campaign never said 'Bluey' or 'Bunnings' anywhere; the single word 'Hammerbarn' carried all the meaning.
Results were enormous for a zero-media-budget activation: a 312% uplift in February foot traffic, 32 million audience reach, $12 million in earned media from 1,829 pieces of coverage within two weeks, and 30,000 workshop participants in the first weekend alone.
Why it lands
- It swapped paid media for earned affection: renaming the stores let fans and the press tell the story for free.
- The parody was already organic culture — families had called Bunnings 'Hammerbarn' since the episode aired, so the brand was completing a joke its customers had started.
- Full-store immersion (signage, aprons, products, workshops) turned a promotion into an experience families planned weekends around.
- Bunnings' confidence to remove its own logo from its own stores proved how much cultural capital the brand had earned.
What it did
February foot traffic rose 312%, with 32 million audience reach and $12 million-plus in earned media from 1,829 pieces of coverage — all on a $0 PR budget. The first weekend drew 30,000 people to the DIY workshops, tripling Bunnings' previous 10,000 registration record.
What you can take
A brand strong enough to lend out its own name can borrow culture's affection: becoming Bluey's fictional store for a month turned Bunnings' quietest season into the retail event of the year.
Since then
The takeover became the retail event of the year in Australia, with the 'husband' gnomes selling out fast across stores, and it won a D&AD Yellow Pencil in Commerce for 2024. BBC Studios called the collaboration a template for large-scale licensing partnerships, following its earlier Airbnb tie-up, and Bunnings kept returning to Bluey collections in later years.
Sources
- Hammerbarn — D&AD Awards archive
- Bunnings secures its place as a multi-generational retailer with Bluey collab
- For real life! Behind Hammerbarn and Bluey's Bunnings takeover
- Hammerbarn For Real — case study
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