Great Read

Lessons from Roto-Rooter's inventive publicity campaign

Problem: When it came time for Roto-Rooter, the largest provider of plumbing and drain cleaning services in North America, to consider its annual outreach campaign in 2009, the company knew it wanted to use multiple marketing channels to reinforce its brand identity. Roto-Rooter hoped to increase one-to-one outreach between its franchisees and customers, while ensuring a consistent, trusted brand image across the board.

Solution: Roto-Rooter teamed with the SyFy cable channel's popular reality show Ghost Hunters. Two of the show's stars own a Roto-Rooter franchise in New England, which presented a great opportunity for the brand. Together, Roto-Rooter and SyFy created a kitschy bathroom reader called Chilling Tales from the Porcelain Seat. The reader details plumbing horrors and tales from Roto-Rooter plumbers, such as the retrieval of a $5,000 prosthetic eyeball that a man dropped down a sink drain. The company envisioned that franchisees would give copies of the reader to customers, who would then place it on the backs of their toilets, keeping the Roto-Rooter name top of mind.

The release of Chilling Tales from the Porcelain Seat was accompanied by a national publicity campaign. Roto-Rooter promoted the reader on satellite radio, through frequent mentions on its company blog and the one for Ghost Hunters, and at a book signing at its headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio, featuring the stars from the show. Roto-Rooter even gave fans of Ghost Hunters a chance to win a trip to the hotel where The Shining was filmed. According to Rodger Roeser, who manages the Roto-Rooter account for the Eisen Agency, the integrated marketing campaign has successfully boosted Roto-Rooter's brand image.

Key lesson: "Create something that somebody can dwell on and look at," Roeser says. "You want to create a brand engagement that gives something back to your customers." Most of all, he says, keep your integrated marketing communication plans fun and engaging. "In a business like ours, you can't take yourself too seriously. It's important to have some fun and encourage your customers to have fun as well."