1. Founded in Columbus, Ohio in 1947, Stanley Steemer has shown
progressive growth over 60 years, highlighted by their first
National Advertising campaign in 2000, and the introduction of
the popular 1-800-STEEMER phone number and jingle in 2002.
Stanley Steemer, the largest residential cleaning service in the US
competes against other National/Regional brands including Sears,
ZEROREZ®, COIT and SERVPRO. Stanley Steemer is the category
leader in spending nationally as well (Source: Kantar) .
But as we all know, being Goliath has it’s challenges. On a local
level, Stanley Steemer also competes with a cast of thousand
“Mom & Pop” local cleaning services across the country. And
while Stanley Steemer has built high brand awareness, they tend
to be a more expensive service operating in an intensely price-
driven category.
DINGY GROWTH IN TOUGH TIMES
The economic recession in 2008 had a major impact on
consumers and Americans cut back on their discretionary
spending. Stanley Steemer experienced their first significant drop
in sales. Sales fluxed through the next two years and were under
goals in the first half of 2012 before the agency became AOR for
media strategy/placement.
A CLEAN SWEEP BECOMES NECESSARY
Although Stanley Steemer outspent their immediate competitors
nationally in 2012, this did not translate into positive sales growth
over the course of the first half of the year.
SPOTLESS PLAN INVIGORATES BRAND
MEDIAPLANOFTHEYEAR
STANLEY STEEMER: INTEGRATED CAMPAIGNS SPENDING $10 MILLION - $25 MILLION
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The company needed to re-tool its marketing investments to re-
gain their sales momentum. The agency recognized that
awareness has never been a challenge for the brand, but
Steemer’s marketing needed to motivate consumers to take an
action..
Our objective was simple -- drive bookings to and grow sales
across the system. Monthly YOY sales lifts would be the
measurement of overall plan effectiveness. Performance driven
channels were optimized on Cost Per Acquisition, with acquisition
being defined as a booked cleaning appointment, either by
phone, or on Stanley Steemer’s website.
INSIGHTS MAKE MEDIA EXECUTIONS SPARKLE
Stanley Steemer’s growth and awareness stemmed from heavy
investments in TV over decades. Times change though and their
customers’ media habits shifted with the increasing
fractionalization of media available to them.
The agency utilized proprietary media relevance tool to
understand not only how current customers consumed media,
but also which channels were most relevant to them when it
came to making decisions about home cleaning services. We had
to identify when and where our target consumer would give us
permission to reach her.
Tapping into Stanley Steemer’s database, our study learned
valuable insights from key customer segments. This group,
women aged 35-64, called “Home Proud”, still watched TV, but
was most receptive to hearing about home cleaning services in
News environments and crimetime primetime programs. They
were also receptive while watching videos, using social networks,
and consuming content online, as well as on her mobile phone.
permission
Year
YOY Change in
Revenue
2006 16.5%
2007 8.5%
2008 -6.8%
2009 -15.8%
2010 6.6%
2011 -1.5%
1st Half 2012 -4.7%
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OUROBJECTIVEWASSIMPLE--
DRIVE BOOKINGS

2. TV still represented a powerful tool for Stanley Steemer, but it
needed to be planned and executed in a smarter, more targeted
fashion. They were also missing an opportunity to engage
customers in different media channels they used throughout the
day. In short, Stanley Steemer had been selling vanilla ice cream
for 60 years. It was time to add rocky road and praline crunch to
the menu.
The agency performed two additional analyses to determine if
ROI could be increased under current spending circumstance:
1) We analyzed their spending by month relative to three years
monthly sales to determine if they were deploying dollars
optimally. Our analysis revealed there were months during the
year that were under/over-invested relative to the sales
performance. We re-flighted their spending to align with sales
and give them a year-round presence.
2) We also critiqued their past TV investments to understand
pricing, programming, network quality and spending by
daypart, as well as by network. We concluded their they
needed to streamline their spending on fewer networks to
increase their presence and upgrade their programming
selection.
EVOLVING AN ICONIC BRAND FOR A DIGITAL AGE
We took 3 critical steps to enhance their mix:
CAPITALIZE ON THE AGENCY’S DIGITAL LEADERSHIP
Our proprietary study revealed that “Home Proud” was using
digital channels to research cleaning services, compare pricing,
and talk to friends for council and advice. Interestingly enough,
their competitors were not utilizing digital channels in their
marketing mix, creating a huge opportunity for Stanley Steemer.
The agency created a powerful mix of display, mobile and social
tactics to reach consumers online, and drive them to the Stanley
Steemer website to book appointments. After adding digital
elements to the mix, their website traffic is up +40% (Source:
Stanley Steemer Int’l Inc.) and almost 38,000 booked
appointments online have been attributed to our digital
campaign (Source: MediaMind 3rd Party Conversion Reporting.)
PSYCHOGRAPHICS FUEL A TARGETED PLAN
Another proprietary tool, which marries ratings with
Steemers’ psychographic target profiles, allowed us to re-
prioritize the balance between broadcast networks, identify a
more targeted mix of cable network programs.
Our TV analysis also highlighted a huge opportunity to build
out a separate Direct Response TV Cable effort to generate
efficient call volume to their call centers.
The combination of these change made their overall TV buys
smarter, more targeted, and efficient in reaching consumers.
They resulted in over $1MM in value to Stanley Steemer
CLEAN-UP FLIGHTING, ALIGN INVESTMENTS WITH SALES
We re-flighted their investments using a pulsing strategy that
provided them with year-round support and adjusted media
pressure for seasonal sales peaks. This change ensured their
would be national marketing support during times when
there was little or no local marketing activity from their
franchisees. Stanley Steemers’ previous national plans were
focused heavily around key seasonal times of the year.
MOPPING THE FLOOR WITH THE COMPETITION
Having implemented our changes in October 2012, we
incorporated small scale digital and direct response TV efforts
prior to rolling them out on a larger scale.
More than 28,000 booked appointments on Stanley Steemer’s
website have been attributed to our digital efforts. And while
there has been a cautious attitude about evolving a mix that
has worked in the past, Stanley Steemer began to see positive
YOY sales growth in October, and for every quarter since then.
MEDIAPLANOFTHEYEAR
STANLEY STEEMER: INTEGRATED CAMPAIGNS SPENDING $10 MILLION - $25 MILLION
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SPOTLESS PLAN INVIGORATES BRAND
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-Justin Bates, President, Stanley Steemer International,inc.
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