The archive · Advertising · Marketing decision · 2025
Home Centre's 'There We Are' turns rivals' ads into its catalogue — Loeries Silver
Home Centre spots its own furniture inside other brands' commercials, then buys YouTube pre-rolls saying 'There We Are' just before those ads play.
Home Centre (Landmark Group) · Publicis Middle East
What it had to solve
Home Centre is the Middle East's largest home furnishings retailer but competes against global giants like IKEA with far bigger budgets, and advertising its 14,000 products individually would be enormously expensive. Yet regional production houses kept buying Home Centre furniture for other brands' commercials, so the brand's products were already showing up inside competitors' advertising.
How it works
Home Centre, the Middle East's largest home furnishings retailer, faced a classic underdog problem: it competed against global players with far larger advertising budgets, and showcasing a catalogue of over 14,000 products on its own would be prohibitively expensive. But the brand noticed an unusual regional phenomenon — production houses and other brands kept featuring Home Centre furniture and accessories in their commercials, because its range was the region's go-to for set dressing.
Publicis Middle East turned that accident into strategy. The agency identified commercials in which Home Centre products appeared, then bought targeted YouTube pre-rolls that ran just before those spots: short, cheeky messages like 'Skip this ad... we're in the next one anyway. There We Are.' The hijacks also saluted the brands that had done the work, with cards such as 'This ad may not sell this table. But the next one will.'
The campaign turned other brands' production budgets and audiences into Home Centre's spotlight. Results included a 600% increase in brand visibility, an 800% increase in ad views, more than 50 million in reach, a 161% lift in website visits and a 73% rise in purchase intent, achieved with almost no production spend. In October 2025 Loeries awarded the work Silver for Use of Brand or Product Integration and Bronze for Channel Creativity, and it was a 2025 LIA finalist for Creative Strategy in Use of Media.
Why it lands
- It turns an accidental, already-paid-for reality — Home Centre furniture in rivals' shoots — into the entire creative premise.
- The pre-roll reframes the next ad before the viewer watches it, so attention is redirected instead of interrupted.
- Zero production spend with targeted media means the underdog outsmarts bigger budgets rather than trying to outspend them.
- Thank-you cards flip potential bad blood into playful collaboration, so hijacked brands can't easily complain.
- The results were measurable on brand and behaviour metrics, from visibility and views to site traffic and purchase intent.
What it did
The hijacked placements delivered a 600% rise in brand visibility, an 800% jump in ad views and over 50 million reach, a 161% increase in website visits and a 73% rise in purchase intent, with an estimated US$25 million in borrowed production value and almost zero production spend. Loeries 2025 gave the work Silver for Use of Brand or Product Integration and Bronze for Channel Creativity.
What you can take
When your product is already inside other people's content, you don't need to produce new media — you need to point at theirs; data turns unintended product placement into owned advertising.
Since then
After the April 2025 launch, 'There We Are' generated more than 100 pieces of media coverage, an estimated US$25 million in stolen production value and, per the LIA entry, savings equivalent to eight years of production budget, while purchase intent rose 73% and audience size grew 65%. The campaign ran on across platforms, and at Loeries 2025 in October it took Silver for Use of Brand or Product Integration plus Bronzes for Channel Creativity and Integrated Campaign. The work was also named a finalist in Creative Strategy at the London International Awards 2025.
Sources
- Home Centre turns other brands' ads into their own
- Publicis Middle East's 'There We Are' campaign for Home Centre hijacks other brands' ads to spotlight their own products
- LIA 2025 winner entry — Home Centre 'There We Are' (Creative Strategy, Use of Media)
- #Loeries2025 Night 2 | All the winners
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