The encyclopedia · Marketing & Brand · Marketing decision · 2024
Bunnings renamed itself Hammerbarn for a month of Bluey
Australia's hardware giant rebranded seven stores after a Bluey episode, lifting February foot traffic with $12m of earned media on a $0 PR budget.
Bunnings Warehouse · BBC Studios (Bluey)
The solution
Bunnings, Australia's dominant hardware chain, faced its quietest month: February, right after summer. Meanwhile Bluey — the Ludo Studio cartoon distributed by BBC Studios — had aired a season-two episode called 'Hammerbarn', a spoof of the chain, and Aussie families had already started calling Bunnings 'Hammerbarn' in real life.
Instead of fighting the meme, Bunnings leaned in: for the whole month, six stores in Australia and one in New Zealand traded in the Bunnings name, becoming Hammerbarn with full exterior rebrands, free Bluey-themed kids' DIY workshops and exclusive Bluey merch. The campaign deliberately never said 'Bunnings' or 'Bluey' — both icons were so recognizable that the single word 'Hammerbarn' carried the whole story.
The takeover produced 1,829 pieces of coverage and $12 million in earned media within two weeks, on a PR budget of $0, and February store visits skyrocketed — the goal of pulling families into stores in the dead season.
Why it worked
- Fans had already coined the joke; the brand just completed it
- Renaming the logo made the story too big for media to ignore
- Kids' workshops turned a meme into an in-store reason to visit
- Omitting both brand names proved the cultural shorthand
What can be applied
When the culture already renamed your brand, don't correct it — lend your logo to the joke: a full takeover of your most distinctive asset generates news that paid media could never buy.
Aftermath
The D&AD Awards 2024 gave Hammerbarn a Wood Pencil in Commerce, and BBC Studios kept using brand-lore events to extend Bluey's cultural reach.
Sources
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