The Container Store

The Objective

Launching a rebrand and one-day sale while driving platform engagement

The Container Store, a leading specialty retailer of organizing solutions, custom spaces and in-home services, has been helping people transform their homes and lives for more than 45 years. With the last most organized day of the century approaching (February 22, 2022, 2/22/22, or "Twosday"), The Container Store aimed to capitalize on the unique date with a major, one-day, 22% sale on all items. The brand also saw the symmetrical 2/22/22 date as the perfect moment to roll out its updated brand identity, including a new logo and the tagline, "Welcome to The Organization." To drive awareness for the brand's new look and Twosday sale, The Container Store came to TikTok aiming to get in front of the community with a compelling campaign idea.

The Solution

Getting the TikTok community excited to #ShowUsYourDrawers

The Container Store took a multi-pronged approach to achieve its goals, including using TikTok's Reach & Frequency buying method and rolling out a relatable Branded Hashtag Challenge to drive platform-wide awareness and engagement.

Ahead of its major Twosday sale, The Container Store launched an In-Feed Ad through Reach & Frequency to ensure it showed up in front of a wide TikTok audience. The ad was simple and elegant: shot on a mobile phone, The Container Store took users inside one of its retail locations, quick-cutting to product after product, with the words "22% off" overlaid against each. The ad concluded by placing the brand's new logo and tagline, "Welcome to The Organization" front and center for all to see.

Immediately following the Twosday sale ad, The Container Store launched the #ShowUsYourDrawers Hashtag Challenge, inviting users across TikTok to "reveal the one universal thing we all have, but never talk about: our junk drawers." The campaign used the humorous Organization Affirmations sound, where the narrator tenuously affirms her ability to keep her life together — then suddenly changes tone, anxiously proclaiming, "I need lots of help! Nothing is in order! Everything is out of control!" The sound provided an excellent backdrop for users to first show their homes in perfect order before cutting abruptly to a drawer or space in complete disarray.

To kick off the challenge, The Container Store partnered with actress Drew Barrymore, who showed a put-together facade before giving us a glimpse into her own drawer in desperate need of some organizational TLC. The Container Store followed by working with popular TikTok creators like @thehomeedit and @pinchofhelp, known to their fans for their excellent cleaning and #organizationhack content. The creators gave users a peek into their junk drawers and invited the community to engage by making TikTok videos revealing their own messy storage spaces.

The Container Store again used Reach & Frequency buying to spread the word far and wide about #ShowUsYourDrawers, with a call to action in the creators' ads driving to the official in-app Challenge page.

The Results

A clean sweep for #ShowUsYourDrawers

The Container Store's TikTok campaign saw ample success and was even included in an AdWeek press feature. The Twosday sale ad, powered by Reach & Frequency buying, ended up being the most successful e-commerce day in the brand's history, beating its next biggest sales event by 2.3x. 

Reach & Frequency also ensured mass awareness of the #ShowUsYourDrawers challenge. Drew Barrymore and the TikTok creators' In-Feed Ads saw a 63% lift in click-through rate to the in-app Challenge page compared to TikTok benchmarks. The challenge itself achieved enormous reach and engagement from the community. Within 3 days, videos for #ShowUsYourDrawers racked up over 2.4 billion video views at a 14% engagement rate. Overall, video views for the challenge exceeded TikTok benchmarks by 2.8x. Finally, a brand lift study proved The Container Store's TikTok approach paid off, with results showing a 3.6% lift in user awareness post-campaign.

Given the success of this campaign, The Container Store has since moved to an always-on paid approach on TikTok, as it continues working to "transform lives through the power of organization." After seeing our community's junk drawers revealed, it looks like we could all use the help!

You may also like: Retail case studies

Sign up to start advertising on TikTok within minutes

Learn more about TikTok Ads Manager