When the macro environment is tough, that’s when marketers need to lean in and work even harder to find shoppers interested in their product, says Steve Nesle, Chief Marketing Officer at Bob’s Discount Furniture. So the retail chain is debuting an initiative that it’s never done before: creating its own reality TV show.
For six weeks starting July 10, Bob’s will release an episode—running two minutes or less—of a reality TV show called “Till Decor Do Us Part” on TikTok, Meta and YouTube. Each episode features a couple in which one is designing a room with Bob’s Discount Furniture pieces while the other watches on the sidelines and comments in real time with the show’s host comedian Gabby Bryan.
The goal is to connect with shoppers who are in the market for furniture where they are—and that’s on their phones. “This reality format that we launched is more in the entertainment space,” Nesle said. “So Bob’s is not front and center. We are—you know I hate to say it as a marketer—but we’re in the back seat,” he said.
But that choice is deliberate. “There’s no shortage of appetite for content, but there’s certainly a finite amount of appetite for advertising content,” Nesle said.
Connecting With Furniture Shoppers in Tough Times
Generally, the furniture industry is not thriving because of larger factors, such as a challenged housing market, tariffs and consumer sentiment, Nesle said. But the brand’s value proposition resonates during these times. Plus, even if the industry is down, there is still a large enough portion of shoppers who need to purchase furniture if they are in a life stage that needs it, such as if they are moving or having a baby.
“What makes this kind of program really effective in the social space is the level of targeting that we have at our disposal,” Nesle said. Plus, if general consumers who are not in the market for furniture are engaging with the show, after exposure, Bob’s Discount Furniture might be in their consideration set the next time they are furniture shopping.
Results and Goals for ‘Till Decor Do Us Part’
After one episode, Nesle is confident that the message is landing. The episode has 9.6 million views across all of its platforms, which has exceeded its goal. Plus, its average engagement rate with the video, which includes a like, follow or share, is 47% higher than its normal organic content. One example: on TikTok, the show’s handle (TillDecorDoUsPart) has reached 40,900 likes after a few months, whereas the Bob Discount Furniture TikTok handle has 38,600 likes after a few years.
Beyond engagement with the show, Bob’s will measure the series’ success through traffic to the brand’s website attributable to the show, conversion rate, as well as foot traffic in stores. The Bob’s website also has a landing page that highlights all the furniture featured in the show in one spot.
“My job is to sell furniture at the end of the day, and everything that we’re talking about here is a means to that end,” he said. “So providing a mechanism to allow viewers of the show who are enamored with the choices that the contestants made is a pathway to ‘shop the show.’”
Bob’s will determine if the campaign was a success by the cumulative results from all six of the shows, which it releases weekly, and then will promote with paid media spend until the end of the year.
While Nesle declined to share the hard return on investment from the show, he said based on what he’s seen after one week, he is confident that Bob’s will do another installment of the series within six months. In fact, the brand already is recruiting couples for the next batch of episodes.
“While the IP is hot we want to keep our season 1 subscribers satisfied as we work on acquiring new subscribers,” Nesle said.
Creating the Show
Bob’s Furniture hired creative agency Gale to take the lead with producing and casting the show. The contestants are all real couples, and the series is not scripted. Bob’s developed the strategy in Q4 of 2024 and the first show aired about seven months later.
Bob’s media agency Horizon Media helped with the distribution and content strategy to help the brand maximize its organic reach before layering in paid media. For example, before the show launched, Bob’s Furniture posted content on the handles every day to signal to the algorithms that this was a live and relevant channel. It also alerted current Bob’s customers about the series through its owned channels of email, website and its 200 stores.
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