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Cleaning Up

When severe weather kicks in, ServiceMaster Clean schedules special commercial flights to make consumers aware of its services.

During the winter of 2003, February proved the cruelest month. Record-breaking amounts of snow and rain whipped the east coast from Florida to New England on President's Day weekend. Home and business owners, already weary from previous storms, resigned themselves to more cleanup.

For ServiceMaster Clean, the huge storm offered a unique opportunity to offer outside rescue from within the TV set. Using "weather-conditioned" technology available at the Weather Channel, ServiceMaster Clean, a brand providing residential and commercial "disaster restoration" for burst pipes or water-logged basements, ran special weather-triggered spots offering a quick 800 number for disaster services. "The February 17 storm ended up being a once in a century event," says Jim Wassell, vice president of marketing at ServiceMaster Clean, "and it was very beneficial to us to be ready to go." That day, ServiceMaster Clean ran additional 15-second spots on top of its regular schedule on The Weather Channel. As the network's ratings rose, ServiceMaster Clean got to target its message about how to get help for disaster-related plumbing needs to a burgeoning number of homeowners.

President's Day storms offered an unusual opportunity to market cleanup and fix-up services

"We want to match consumer need and product awareness in a unique way," says Diane Johnson, corporate media director. "Severe weather triggers those needs and we've worked with The Weather Channel for years to create a way to increase consumer awareness. We wanted impact." Each morning, The Weather Channel's ad sales team checks weather conditions, which are rated on a scale of one to four. They also check the network's list of advertisers that have bought weather-triggered schedules. Advertisers can choose to run their weather-specific spots in advance of, during, or just after high intensity weather events.

"With The Weather Channel's weather trigger, we had a dual opportunity: Home Owners tuning in to get the latest update and adjusters tuning in to predict where they're going to need additional claims reps."

— Jim Wassell, vice president, marketing, ServiceMaster/Clean

ServiceMaster Clean scheduled the heavy-up during the storm's peak. "Our marketing goal was to reach home owners right when they have the greatest awareness of severe weather affecting their homes and businesses," Wassell says. "With The Weather Channel's weather trigger, we had a dual opportunity: Home owners tuning in to get the latest weather update and adjusters tuning in to predict where they're going to need additional claims reps." ServiceMaster Clean had appropriate creative, dealing specifically with water and snow damage, already stored at The Weather Channel. Its extra spots aired on February 17 during the day and in primetime. The commercials let consumers know there are professionals who can help a family or business should severe weather cause a problem. "What's unique is that we can heavy up at a moment's notice," Wassell says.

Spots aired during severe storms reached home owners and insurance adjusters right when they were thinking about possible damage

All told, ServiceMaster Clean aired weather-related spots for six weeks during February and March, peak snow months. Needy clients, digging out from repeated dumping of the white stuff, got the message." We ran an 800 number with each weather-triggered spot," says Wassell, "and we can point to an 80-percent increase in phone calls during those times.

That's fairly solid evidence that advertising on The Weather Channel gave us a significant increase in caller response." According to Johnson, ServiceMaster Clean helped The Weather Channel create its weather-triggered advertising program back in 1997 when she met with the network to discuss how best to utilize its highly-advanced weather-reporting technology. Today, The Weather Channel and its Weather.com site are major stops for consumers and business viewers, as well as for advertising executives with weather-triggered spots in their portfolio. ServiceMaster Clean plans to begin another cycle of severe storm-triggered spots next Fall.

Meanwhile, when the weather gets just right for termites to swarm, it will run its pest control service spots as well. Exact media plans for the campaign are still in development with Optimedia, Service Master Clean's media agency. While creative also remains to be designed, Wassell and Johnson can't say enough about the extra effort that went into getting ServiceMaster Clean spots on the air once unimaginable snowfalls made getting to work especially difficult. "Marc Shrank, our sales rep in New York at The Weather Channel, couldn't get into the office because of that President's Day storm," notes Johnson, "but he managed to call Atlanta to make sure our additional spots ran. "That's the type of personal service The Weather Channel is noted for and we appreciate it."

Reprinted with the permission of Adweek Magazines.

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