The Rise of Do It With Cans

Robert Fell, director and chief executive at the Metal Packaging Manufacturers Association, details the success of the website which showcases DIY and craft products sold in metal packaging

During Covid, DIY searches on the popular photo-sharing platform, Pinterest, dramatically increased as consumers unable to go on holiday turned their attentions and wallets to updating their immediate surroundings.

Phrases such as ‘outdoor spaces on a budget’ increased three times over; ‘diy patio ideas on a budget’ up by 17 times and ‘backyard oasis on a budget’ by five times on the social media site.

As part of the Weekly Coronavirus Tracker by Rare Group, over a fifth of respondents saw themselves spending more on DIY and home management, and a similar number worked on their own DIY projects. It also showed that during June 2020, 12 per cent of respondents in London took part in interior design activities and 13 per cent of those working learned new home-making skills.

DIY has always enjoyed buoyant consumer spend, but in 2020 it received a particular boost. It was against this backdrop that the Metal Packaging Manufacturers Association (MPMA) launched its new campaign, Do It With Cans – a blog aimed at showcasing DIY and craft products packaged in metal to consumers.

Inspired by the success of consumer-focused sister site, Canned Food UK (cannedfood.co.uk), also run by MPMA, which highlights the benefits of canned food to UK shoppers, Do It With Cans raises the profile of the broad variety of DIY products available in metal packaging through easy-to-follow tutorial blogs written by an expert or influencer.

Written by experts

The blog will be celebrating its third birthday in October 2023, with over 25 different blogs written by a roster of experts with a collective Instagram and Pinterest following of over 145,000 people. Authors have included Helen Moore, founder of craft blog Whitewood and Linen; Victoria Fitz-Gerald, Fixing Up 58 blogger, and Sam Taylor-Crooks at Dove Cottage blog.

Do It With Cans also launched with a dedicated trade secrets column, authored by DIY Daddy, also known as Nigel Higgins, a qualified painter and decorator, covering topics from giving your boiler cupboard a makeover; decorating a metal garage door; preparing guttering for winter; to perfecting the paint finish on your walls.

In 2023, with the cost-of-living crisis showing no signs of abating, this year’s campaign takes inspiration from the ‘make do and mend’ mentality. The website has teamed up with two new influencers who specialise in thrifty, upcycling projects to help inspire homeowners to tackle projects themselves with straightforward advice.

Cassie Fairy, from My Thrifty Life, and Hester van Overbeek, from Hester’s Handmade Home, will be writing about a range of projects, including upcycling old bar stools to make a porch bench; a porch makeover; garden bench repairs; using empty cans to make a bug hotel and creating a new tin lampshade.

Each blog provides simple step-by-step instructions detailing the equipment and materials needed. Importantly, each blog is written to showcase a range of DIY products available in metal packaging, from paint; wax; wood stain; glue; spray paints and varnishes.

Image: MPMA

Making headway

Ultimately, the goal of Do It With Cans is to shine a spotlight on metal packaging within the DIY and craft sectors, and to showcase to both consumers and brand owners the benefits of opting for metal packaging. MPMA wants to highlight metal’s versatility, durability and its practical benefits – not least its ability to be fully recycled.

To do this, the blog content on the website is coupled with a Pinterest page: pinterest.com/ doitwithcans. Pinterest is the most popular channel for sharing DIY and craft-based content. In fact, according to the platform’s ad information, there is potential to reach up to 8.6 million people who are searching for DIY and craft related content. Home decor, DIY and crafts are consistently listed as one of the top seven subjects searched for on the site.

Through the Pinterest page, we share the most recent blog posts and, in turn, spread the key messages about the benefits of metal packaging to an engaged audience. To date, Do It With Cans has received nearly two million impressions (which means content from the website has been seen nearly two million times) on Pinterest, and has achieved over 23,000 interactions including likes, clicks, comments and shares. It has registered an engaged audience of over half a million.

Similarly, over the last three years, we’ve seen a dramatic uptake in organic search discovering the Do It With Cans website – doitwithcans.co.uk. When comparing website performance for the period January to May in 2022 versus same period in 2023, we saw a 992.96 per cent increase in the number of users finding the website via a search engine.

Image: MPMA

To date, the website has received over 11,000 page views from 7,900 users and received 34,000 event counts – the number of times users triggered an event on the website such as clicking a link.

Interestingly, our most popular blog posts are those that tackle common household DIY chores. ‘How to get the perfect finish on a skirting board’ has achieved over 2,100 views alone, while ‘How to paint tiles to transform a kitchen or bathroom’ has had 1,500 views and ‘How to renovate a metal garage door’ has had 1,298 views.

On the other hand, blog posts inspired by hashtags like #IKEAHacks and other Instagram and TikTok trends, such as ‘pimp your kid’s play kitchen (to match your own),’ consistently perform well. This tutorial takes the iconic IKEA Duktig kitchen, often available for next to nothing on secondhand sale sites, and shows you how to upcycle it to match your own kitchen. It is always in the top four posts on the site.

What’s next?

Really, we’ve only scratched the surface of Do It With Cans’ potential. The format goes from strength to strength and there are many more avenues for us to explore. Not only do we continue to expand our roster of influencer experts, but there are clearly opportunities for us on other social media platforms, not least Instagram and TikTok.

We’d also love to work with even more members and industry partners collaborating on content creation, writing new tutorials or dedicated Pinterest campaigns, highlighting an even greater variety of DIY products in metal packaging. Do get in touch via [email protected] or the MPMA directly. For 2023, we’ve a series of new blogs coming up from our make do and mend influencers.