For its latest marketing efforts, Louisiana-based Hargrove Roofing followed an unconventional rule for making roofing commercials: don’t talk about roofing.
“People care more about smiling and being real than they do about taking a picture of a roof that looks real nice,” CEO Billy Hargrove said. “You’re going to get more attention from a scene inside of your office of people smiling and building morale.”
The Top 100 roofing contractor took that idea and ran with it, combining the silly style of commercials used by everything from insurance companies to body care products with the humor found in the insanely popular TV series “The Office.” Throw some celebrates into the mix, and Hargrove Roofing created a formula to stand out from the crowd.
In each minute-long commercial, Hargrove himself plays the role of a well-meaning but slightly oblivious manager (a la Steve Carell’s Michael Scott) who brings in local celebrities to improve Hargrove’s operations. Like “The Office,” they’re shot with plenty of close-ups of employees reacting to their new celebrity co-workers.
“They kind of remind me of the old ESPN commercials too,” Hargrove said. “ESPN commercials are never trying to tell people to watch SportsCenter, they’re basically just making fun of themselves.”
Despite their goofy tones, there is a method to the madness. Each of the three commercials features a local celebrity from Hargrove Roofing’s markets. For the Texas, Hargrove employs Stevie Lee, former defensive tackle for the Texas Longhorns, to help with strategizing. For the Louisiana market, Hargrove brings in musician Wayne Toups to boost the morale of employees.
The most recent commercial has rodeo and barrel racing champion Hailey Kinsel visiting the Hargrove Roofing office to inspire employees. Hargrove said featuring the local celebrities helps establish credibility, something the roofing industry struggles with due to bad players.
"If they see [the celebrities] with us, [they know] we’re not going to take their first check and run,” he said. “It’s about building a brand and trust while making it funny.”
This isn’t the first time Hargrove Roofing has turned to comedy for its marketing. A Christmas-themed commercial features Santa Claus speaking with a Hargrove employee, and the topic of Santa causing damage to roofs with his reindeer surfaces.
In an example of life imitating art, the commercials actually raised morale in the company. Hargrove said once they started filming and employees saw the end result, they grew excited to shoot the next one.
“We got to get everyone involved and we had a blast,” he said. “When we filmed the first one we didn’t know what was going to happen, and the first one was hilarious, so everyone started asking me if they could be in the next commercial.”
The commercials are available on YouTube and Hargrove Roofing's social media. View the Hailey Kinsel commercial here:
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