The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

-d -h -min -sec

Author

By Minda Smiley, Reporter

June 8, 2017 | 4 min read

Window and door manufacturer Pella has launched a campaign called ‘Perfectly Beautiful’ that positions the brand as one whose products are both resilient and stylish.

The campaign marks the Iowa-based company’s first major marketing push in years as it strives to differentiate itself from competitors by focusing on the rigorous engineering and testing that goes into creating Pella windows. In a 30-second spot, Pella employees are seen working to ensure that the brand’s windows can withstand everything from extreme temperature drops to wind-driven rain and hurricane debris.

The brand’s latest push, which is running across TV, digital, social and print, was created by San Francisco agency Eleven. The independent shop was named agency of record for Pella after the manufacturer’s chief marketing officer Emily Videtto, who joined late last year, conducted an agency review.

According to Videtto, Pella handed creative duties to Eleven because the agency “really understood who we were as a brand and what we stood for.” Despite having “strong brand awareness and preference,” Videtto said that the 92-year-old company was looking for an “innovative partner that was cutting-edge” to help Pella refocus and revamp its brand platform. The brand previously worked with a number of Midwestern agencies.

Pella is hoping its new ‘Perfectly Beautiful’ positioning and campaign will not only give consumers a clear idea of what the brand stands for, but also convince them that its products are a cut above those of competitors like Andersen Corporation and Jeld-Wen.

“Capturing the essence and juxtaposition of functionality, high quality performance and durability with inspired design is something that our industry just hasn't done at all,” she said. “You look at window ads today and all of them are about the views from the window, not about the actual product itself. Based on our core competitive advantages, this campaign is really emblematic of both the inspired design of the product itself and the functionality, which is very atypical in our industry.”

Videtto also said that even though it’s important for Pella to market in the B2B space to make its products attractive to contractors and builders, this particular campaign is primarily targeted towards the end consumer.

“In the building materials industry, B2B is important because contractors and builders really need to embrace and love your brand so that they recommend it. They are powerful in the industry, but ultimately, especially given the empowerment of today’s consumer, we really needed to build the brand with our consumer directly,” she said.

Jarett Hausske, chief strategy officer at Eleven, said that the agency spent a lot of time at Pella getting to know the employees and going through their labs to get a better idea of how the business actually operates on a day-to-day basis.

“What we found with their culture and all of their people is just that real earnestness and pride in doing things the right way and going well beyond what any customer would ever expect. They do an incredible amount of testing well beyond industry standards. We thought that was a story that was worthy of sharing,” he said.

For an agency that’s accustomed to working with clients like Apple, Lyft and home robot Kuri, Hausske said that having the opportunity to work with a brand that’s been around since the 1920s has been a nice change of pace for Eleven.

“It’s interesting to work with a company that has a 90-year history. Working in Silicon Valley, you work with a lot of companies that are a year old, five years old. It’s refreshing for our teams to work with a company that’s part of the fabric of the country. The people of Iowa bring a lot of integrity to their work, and so for us, an agency in San Francisco, we’ve had a lot of emotional connection to the people of Pella and we really want to tell their story,” he said.

Pella spent $10.3m on advertising last year, according to Kantar Media, whose figures include traditional media, online display and paid search. The company spent $9.3m in 2015.

B2B Marketing Marketing

More from B2B Marketing

View all