I traveled a long way to get to
IRE this year. I left Tokyo on Monday night at 5:50 pm and landed in
Nashville at 9:30 pm Monday night. I never knew that Tokyo and Nashville
were so close.
I was at the show for the day on Tuesday and I saw the following:
- It looked like a great show for exhibitors, with lots of contractors walking the show floor and spending time in the booths
- There are too many companies selling underlayment with few demonstrable differences.
- There were more companies selling leads and marketing services to contractors. Many of them were focused on helping the contractor become a better storm chaser. Is the idea of “Get their first, do it fast and move on”, a good future for the industry?
- A number of companies correctly focused their message on the labor saving benefits of their products.
Atlas Roofing Got It Right
I’m starting to see more companies using sweepstakes again as a promotional tool. Many of these companies give away items that are not very exciting.
A
good sweepstakes prize is something that the customer really wants but
probably wouldn’t buy for themselves. Atlas nailed it by giving away
this classic pick up truck.
What
I really liked about the Atlas booth was their singular focus on how
the contractor will save labor and be more productive with Atlas
Roofing. Labor savings today means the contractor can do more projects
with the same number of installers. A powerful message to contractors
today who can’t find enough good installers.
The Best Messaging at IRE From Atlas Roofing
More Strong Labor Saving Messages
New GAF Branding is a Winner
I have never thought that using Facebook to promote roofing made any sense. GAF proved me wrong by developing a promotion on Facebook asking contractors to share what the roofs they installed were protecting. It was a huge success. They have now taken that idea of protection, extended it to include more types of customers and used it to update their branding.
This quote tells the story.
“We are driven by a desire to protect what matters most for all our stakeholders at GAF. For contractors and distributors, what matters most is protecting their reputations and growing their businesses. For building owners, it’s about protecting their investment and the critical operations happening inside. For homeowners, it’s protecting their families and livelihoods,” said Jim Schnepper, president, GAF.”
I Got to Meet Many of You
Brunno Batista, Brand Ambassador for Tropical Roofing has been a friend on LinkedIn for a long time. I named Brunno one of my LinkedIn Rockstars last fall, because of how well he uses LinkedIn to engage customers. It was great to finally meet him in person.
I also got to see Dave Dalton and the team from CeDUR in the photo at the top of this post.
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