Jun 28

Written by: Jeremy Glowacki
6/28/2010 9:10 AM 

ELAN’s Eric Harper is convinced that doing the same thing over and over again while expecting a different result borders on insanity. That old adage is what inspired the director of marketing and communications for the Lexington, Kentucky-based manufacturer to launch an aggressive new promotional campaign, called “See G! Run,” meant to drive consumer interest in its new g! residential control platform.

ELAN is thinking outside the box when it comes to marketing its new "g" platform.

The campaign proved to be a success for three chosen dealers in the Atlanta “pilot” market, with Dallas already under way and as many as six more cities to follow using the same model. Tentative plans include Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Scottsdale, Chicago, Washington DC, plus one western point TBD (with Portland, San Diego or Denver most likely, according to Harper).

Harper said that before launching its campaign in Atlanta, the company recruited a handful of key dealers in that market, eventually selecting three that best fit the intended profile. ELAN then launched a special website, paid for an infomercial-style interview on a Sunday-morning home improvement show, and began running the first of 1,300 ad spots over four weeks on cable systems serving the Atlanta suburbs.

Eric Harper says that ELAN is getting more aggressive with the "last three feet of the sale."

Complementing the consumer-friendly message of ELAN’s TV commercials and website, were print ads in two local lifestyles magazines, an email blast and printed postcard mailings to the dealers’ existing clients, and grand finale open house events in the dealers’ showrooms or luxury car dealerships around the city.

“We wanted to get more aggressive when it comes to getting to the last three feet of the sale and not only helping our dealers tell the benefits story but in trying to ultimately drive some more traffic to them,” Harper explained.

Realizing that dollars are tight for everyone, ELAN asked for no cash out of pocket from participating dealers. Instead, each firm signed a contract agreeing to give back some of their earned rebates and future potential rebates to offset costs. According to Harper, ELAN took the cost of the ads and amortized it across all of the planned events so that no one area was being stuck with the brunt of the expense. Thus a quarter of a million dollar campaign became affordable across the six or eight cities and 30 or 40 dealer participants that ELAN expects to include in the program.

Check out ELAN's g! spot, so to speak, right here: