Several years ago, in the face of losing market share to its more female-friendly competitor Lowe's, The Home Depot began upgrading its retail environment — starting with the paint department. Color Solutions Centers were installed in more than 1,500 stores nationwide to showcase and simplify the process of selecting colors. In conjunction with a new advertising campaign called "Inspiration," Richards Partners was tasked with launching the first-ever Home Depot media relations campaign to national and local-market home and decorating media. The goal was to position The Home Depot as an expert on paint and color trends, creating relationships with key writers, editors and producers that would continue as other home-related departments of The Home Depot were upgraded over time.

The centerpiece of our strategy was an event conceived to attract and inspire New York-based home media and to change their perceptions of The Home Depot. Staged in a beautiful loft space in Manhattan's garment district, the event carried the tagline "You have the inspiration. Now we have the solution." Attendees were invited to bring or choose an item that inspired them, which was given to a corps of working artists who translated the inspiration piece into a painting while guests visited with various paint vendors (Ralph Lauren, Glidden, Behr Premium Plus and Disney Color) and enjoyed a buffet lunch. Several representatives from The Home Depot's merchandising group were on hand to convey messages about The Home Depot's new attitudes about the home, and a video news release told the story in B-roll footage tailored for local news shows. After the Manhattan event, the company's style director toured major markets, conducting press tours with representatives from local magazines and newspapers.

Some 95 members of the media and a handful of celebrities (including the actress portraying Tony Soprano's sister on "The Sopranos") attended the New York event, and another 34 editors at Meredith Corporation headquarters in Des Moines participated in a local-market stop to hear the Color Solutions Center story. Extensive press coverage included The New York Times, The Washington Post, Real Simple, House & Garden and CNN. Total media impressions topped 38 million, with a value of $2.2 million. Sales of tinted paint have increased across the board, with many Home Depot stores doubling the volume of colored paint they sell.