The Home Depot TikTok Launch

Trade School Custom Production for The Home Depot | June 2022

Our primary goal in launching TikTok as a channel for The Home Depot was to build authentic relationships with the next generation of homeowners and Associates through product, project or brand truths. We proposed a combination of organic content, Creator partnerships, and paid campaigns if the platform was going to succeed past launch. Trade School was tasked with creating enough content so The Home Depot could post 2-3 pieces every week while they established their place on the platform and began identifying Creators / Influencers to partner with. 

The Team

  • Scott Hunt, Creative Director/Director/DP

Be radically helpful and inspiring.

“Small Gear Production” FTW.

Engage with the audience in a way that matters to them: these users come to TikTok with the expectation of finding quick-hit entertainment, dialogue and community.

Use TikTok to evolve The Home Depot’s brand voice: TikTok users control and craft brand narratives just as much as the brands themselves, requiring a brand like The Home Depot to push its brand voice to be more conversational and lighthearted.

Create content at the speed of TikTok: The Home Depot is a large, slow-moving content behemoth; and the brand would need to adapt to vet and capitalize on trend opportunities.

We concepted sixteen “content buckets” for The Home Depot. They chose four—Tool Tranquility, Know Your Tools, Trend Transformation and Your [Literal] Niche—and put one on hold (The Beat Gets Bigger) for a future Influencer partnership. All our concepts were intended so The Home Depot’s internal organic social team could execute them on later on their own or have Creators / Influencers do their own unique spins on the content areas.

  • Tool Tranquility: ASMR videos have taken off on TikTok, now encompassing all “oddly satisfying” content. With the right tools from The Home Depot, you can make your own!
  • Know Your Tools: TikTok has become a hub for “life hacks” and product tutorials; and who knows more about tools than The Home Depot?
  • Trend Transformation: The Home Depot will demonstrate its knowledge of Gen Z and Millennial design trends by taking last season’s trends and transforming them into something completely new.
  • Your [Literal] Niche: TikTok’s algorithm is unmatched in serving niche content pertaining to users’ interests, and The Home Depot can provide inspiration for small space updates that match those interests.

The Beat Gets Bigger: How do you launch a brand on TikTok when they already have a “presence” thanks to their nearly-infamous music track? The Home Depot’s “Beat” track had been on TikTok for years; and with over 400K uses by May 2022, The Home Depot Beat was already a popular sound. Gen Z and Millennials both loved the track and made fun of it, using it to show their serious DIY projects as well as to make fun of “dad projects.” We recommended having Influencers known for DIY music creation partnering with The Home Depot to release their own unique versions of the Beat as part of The Home Depot’s “official” launch on the platform, giving proper credit to those creators and championing their individuality and creativity. This eventually became an activation with Trade School’s Influencer team working with a musician we recommended, @joeportermusic from Canada.

We had to push several “non-standard” production techniques to develop all of the content and have it feel platform-first. Trade School bought four brand-new iPhones for the shoot (yes, this campaign was literally “Shot on iPhone”), and the two lead Creatives—Jennifer Barclay and me—would act as Directors, DPs and Agency Creatives on-set. There would be no video village setup, which meant our clients would be watching over our shoulders as every shot was taken.

All seventeen launch videos would be shot in a single day by splitting the teams to do simultaneous shooting.

Oh… and it was all shot in and around my house.

Jennifer Barclay hand-picked me to work on this because we had launched Arby’s TikTok channel together. I come from a content creator background myself, so being on a small-but-experienced run-and-gun team was in my DNA.

We started this project with a robust Creative team consisting of Jen, me, Lindsey Cirmotich, Ben Goren and Tori Evert. Lindsey, Ben and Tori were eventually cut from the project due to budget and scoping concerns, but they were all key people in developing the concepts. Jen and I did whatever we could to try to get them on set when we were shooting, but even using a “training” job code wasn’t going to fly. I was eventually able to get Ben on-set with me for the 2022 Movers shoot as one of my TikTok experts.

This was an organic social shoot, which meant the budget was significantly less than a vendor-funded shoot. We spent a lot of time digging through Trade School’s prop storage for most of what you see on camera versus buying everything new.

I led “Team 2” on production day, which consisted of me as Director/DP/occasional talent, Morgan Oberg from The Home Depot as approver/occasional talent, and Judith Hoffman as our floating Producer between teams. Morgan and I were put in charge of filming all five “Know Your Tools” videos, two of the three “Trend Transformation” videos, and the “doing shots” for both “Your [Literal] Niche” videos. Jen’s “Team A” would have client Caty Leslie for the “Tool Tranquility” videos and the Painted Arch “Trend Transformation” video; with sound mixer Jimmy Gilmore capturing all of the audio.

We had a decent-sized Art Department led by Olive Lynch on the shoot, and they began load-in over the weekend… which my husband was just <thrilled> about.

I got to put my Maker talents to use for the Rotary tool video (one of the few that was shot on a tripod to free up my hands)—you can see me freehand drawing The Home Depot logo onto a piece of EVA foam. We filmed the whole thing start-to-finish and someday I might get around to editing it just for myself.

Post-production started immediately after filming, and Jen and I split duties pulling fifteen of the twenty videos we shot across the finish line. We spent many late nights online with Roger and Vivian to meet our deadline. We over-shot on the content just in case one of the final videos wasn’t working the way we’d hoped it would.

Which ones got cut?

We shot content for an additional “Know Your Tools” using a Tape Measure and two more “Tool Tranquility” videos featuring Carpet Cleaning and Rototilling in addition to the long-form videos of Paint Drying and a super-extended version of Pressure Washing.

400+

Total Video Clips

20

Video Segments

15

Final TikToks

2

Crews with

4

iPhones

2

Days of shooting at

1

Location (my house!)

Know Your Tools

TikTok has become a hub for “life hacks” and product tutorials; and who knows more about tools than The Home Depot?

We featured five different tools, from basic to more advanced:

  • HDX Caulk Gun: The supers were added endemically in-platform later so the TikTok voice could narrate each callout.
  • Husky 15-in-1 Painter’s Tool: This was one video where we wrote out all of the callouts in Sharpie as we went. Yes, it’s my handwriting.
  • Ryobi Drill: This video was the first one Jen storyboarded which sold the clients on the whole “Know your Tools” concept, and I shot it to match every frame of that storyboard.
  • Kreg Pocket-Hole Jig: I’ve worked with a lot of tools, and this is the ONLY time I’ve ever used a pocket-hole jig.
  • Ryobi Rotary Tool: This Rotary Tool was actually mine, which was a good thing because I ended up having to reshoot the entire video solo a week after we did the all-day shoot.

One additional video showing the features and hacks of a Tape Measure was left on the cutting room floor.

Tool Tranquility

ASMR videos have taken off on TikTok, now encompassing all “oddly satisfying” content. With the right tools from The Home Depot, you can make your own!

We featured five different tools or DIY processes:

  • Roller Painting: Ahhh. The sound of color.
  • Ground Tamping: That “thud” is an extremely satisfying sound.
  • Kerf Cutting: We wanted to have one project that involved precision cutting, and kerf cutting and kerf bending have been trending DIY content for years for that very reason.
  • Pressure Washing: Because who doesn’t love a good pressure washing video?
  • Spray Painting: My husband and I had only recently moved into our new house, so the fence was still raw wood and we got to pick the color.

*These videos do not auto-play because they’re best viewed with the ASMR sounds. You’re welcome.

We shot two additional videos for Carpet Cleaning and Roto-tilling that were edited but never posted, both using tools available for rental from The Home Depot. We also filmed two super-long versions of [literal] Paint Drying and Pressure Washing.

The joys of simultaneous teams shooting content meant that my team kept getting shushed while Jen’s team was capturing the ASMR audio for all of these spots.

Trend Transformation

The Home Depot will demonstrate its knowledge of Gen Z and Millennial design trends by taking last season’s trends and transforming them into something completely new.

We filmed three different ways to “upscale” prior season trends:

  • Painted Arch to Floating Shelf Backdrop: That painted arch saw a lot of activity during our shoot… first for Tool Tranquility and again for Trend Transformation. We even got a long-form video filming the paint drying that was never edited.
  • Ivy Wall to Outdoor Room Divider: One problem of simultaneous shooting while one team is trying to capture ASMR-like audio: we were both outside at the same time. The Ground Tamping video was being filmed at the same time we were trying to capture the finished Ivy Wall partition, and my team kept getting shushed.
  • Polaroid Wall to Polaroid Tabletop: My older son was horrified to know that his room had been used both for the Polaroid Wall transformation as well as for the Ivy Wall.

Your [Literal] Niche

TikTok’s algorithm is unmatched in serving niche content pertaining to users’ interests, and The Home Depot can provide inspiration for small space updates that match those interests.

We had ideas to make a fold-up vanity space for #beautytok, a stylishly-disguised cleaning supply storage area for #cleantok, a creative workspace for #crafttok… the list went on. But given we only had one day to shoot, we picked our two favorites: #booktok and #planttok.

  • #Booktok: That awkward alcove everybody has in their home redone for #booktok with shallow book shelves and a cozy armchair.
  • #Planttok: That same alcove redone with a repositionable peg wall and painted in a soothing teal color to accent the bright green plants.

The Beat Gets Bigger

How do you launch a brand on TikTok when they already have a “presence” thanks to their nearly-infamous music track?

The Home Depot’s “Beat” track had been on TikTok for years; and with over 400K uses by May 2022, The Home Depot Beat was already a popular sound. Gen Z and Millennials both loved the track and made fun of it, using it to show their serious DIY projects as well as to make fun of “dad projects.”

We recommended having Influencers known for DIY music creation partnering with The Home Depot to release their own unique versions of the Beat as part of The Home Depot’s “official” launch on the platform, giving proper credit to those creators and championing their individuality and creativity. This eventually became an activation with Trade School’s Influencer team working with musician @joeportermusic from Canada.

The first video was so popular on TikTok that @joeportermusic was brought back in the spring of 2023 to do a special “Garden Center” version.