Alarm.com, Vienna, Va., a provider of interactive security and connected home services, is rolling out a new ad campaign it is calling, "So smart, it's simple."
The new campaign is designed to create awareness of interactive services and reinforce consumer's knowledge of all the benefits working through a professional dealer. You may have already seen one if you've been watching the HGTV, the Food Network, and the DIY network, and the Travel Channel.
The four stations are all part of the Scripps Network. Today Food Network and HGTV alone each reach almost 100 million U.S. television households.
"These are home improvement, travel-oriented, theme-oriented channels, and one of the great things about that is they're actually highly targeted to homeowners and people who are investing in their home and are making changes, so it is a great target market full of potential customers for our dealers," said Jay Kenny, vice president of marketing at Alarm.com.
The ads feature a simple, white background and a clear-speaking professional using colorful props to describe how the services work and benefit consumers.
The approach is really simple, smart, and instantly understandable, without over-simplifying anything, while still showing how the technology works and benefits consumers, Kenny described.
Focus group testing prior to launching netted the kind of feedback the company was hoping for.
Customer comments included:
• "The way it was presented was simple and interesting."
• "The ad caught my attention and definitely compelled me to learn more."
• "I like this ad because it's offering a new type of product and service. For me, it grabs my attention and piques my interest.
• "This ad is more non-threatening than some ads that focus on worst-case scenarios."
The ad campaign's focus was carefully crafted by Alarm.com to break the mold, so to speak. "We do believe that these commercials look different than anything that has been a traditional security commercial in the past," Kenny told SDM.
"Obviously it takes a big step away from more of the fear, prevention type of message, and is more about the connected home. Security is the centerpiece, but it does all these other things for you as well."
Kenny also shared that increased competition from new players outside the market (Comcast, Verizon, AT&T and the like) along with significant increases by those companies in advertising spends and pushes to acquire customers created an opportunity for Alarm.com to stand out and differentiate its technology through this campaign.
"What we have recognized was the need to, on behalf of our dealers, go out and create some consumer awareness and preference for this technology delivered by a professional dealer, because that's the best solution in the market," Kenny said.
Alarm.com launched the new campaign in August and will run it though early November.
The home security product has changed and the core concept behind the new campaign is that people adopt new things more readily when they understand how they work, Kenny explained to SDM.
"We tried to create a really simple presentation of how these new interactive services actually help somebody, how they work, how a person would benefit and interact with the services, and more," Kenny described.
Alarm.com has taken that same concept and applied it to its marketing program for its dealers, working to create an end-to-end marketing program for its dealers that spans the customer acquisition life cycle from awareness to interest to activation and retention.
"From a marketing perspective, we are focused on creating multiple services, content, and programs to help make our dealers successful selling interactive services and these connected home solutions in the market," Kenny described. "We use market research and focus groups and put that learning into our consumer messaging and into our dealer marketing program that provides all the tools for our dealers to be effective and successful," Kenny added.
For more insight on how to effectively utilize the marketing collateral manufacturers like Alarm.com provide, read Kenny's article, "5 Tips for Tapping into Marketing Success."
The new campaign is designed to create awareness of interactive services and reinforce consumer's knowledge of all the benefits working through a professional dealer. You may have already seen one if you've been watching the HGTV, the Food Network, and the DIY network, and the Travel Channel.
The four stations are all part of the Scripps Network. Today Food Network and HGTV alone each reach almost 100 million U.S. television households.
"These are home improvement, travel-oriented, theme-oriented channels, and one of the great things about that is they're actually highly targeted to homeowners and people who are investing in their home and are making changes, so it is a great target market full of potential customers for our dealers," said Jay Kenny, vice president of marketing at Alarm.com.
The ads feature a simple, white background and a clear-speaking professional using colorful props to describe how the services work and benefit consumers.
The approach is really simple, smart, and instantly understandable, without over-simplifying anything, while still showing how the technology works and benefits consumers, Kenny described.
Focus group testing prior to launching netted the kind of feedback the company was hoping for.
Customer comments included:
• "The way it was presented was simple and interesting."
• "The ad caught my attention and definitely compelled me to learn more."
• "I like this ad because it's offering a new type of product and service. For me, it grabs my attention and piques my interest.
• "This ad is more non-threatening than some ads that focus on worst-case scenarios."
The ad campaign's focus was carefully crafted by Alarm.com to break the mold, so to speak. "We do believe that these commercials look different than anything that has been a traditional security commercial in the past," Kenny told SDM.
"Obviously it takes a big step away from more of the fear, prevention type of message, and is more about the connected home. Security is the centerpiece, but it does all these other things for you as well."
Kenny also shared that increased competition from new players outside the market (Comcast, Verizon, AT&T and the like) along with significant increases by those companies in advertising spends and pushes to acquire customers created an opportunity for Alarm.com to stand out and differentiate its technology through this campaign.
"What we have recognized was the need to, on behalf of our dealers, go out and create some consumer awareness and preference for this technology delivered by a professional dealer, because that's the best solution in the market," Kenny said.
Alarm.com launched the new campaign in August and will run it though early November.
The home security product has changed and the core concept behind the new campaign is that people adopt new things more readily when they understand how they work, Kenny explained to SDM.
"We tried to create a really simple presentation of how these new interactive services actually help somebody, how they work, how a person would benefit and interact with the services, and more," Kenny described.
Alarm.com has taken that same concept and applied it to its marketing program for its dealers, working to create an end-to-end marketing program for its dealers that spans the customer acquisition life cycle from awareness to interest to activation and retention.
"From a marketing perspective, we are focused on creating multiple services, content, and programs to help make our dealers successful selling interactive services and these connected home solutions in the market," Kenny described. "We use market research and focus groups and put that learning into our consumer messaging and into our dealer marketing program that provides all the tools for our dealers to be effective and successful," Kenny added.
For more insight on how to effectively utilize the marketing collateral manufacturers like Alarm.com provide, read Kenny's article, "5 Tips for Tapping into Marketing Success."