Social Media

Eye Spy the Orange Truck – Applewood Plumbing Heating & Electric

Applewood is the largest family-owned service company in the Denver metro area and has thrived as a successful business for decades. Applewood management quickly embraced the opportunity to incorporate the emerging smartphone/iApp technology into their marketing and communications efforts. They realized they would have to complement traditional outreach methods to grow the new/first-time homeowner (25-40 age group) sector for its residential plumbing, heating and electrical services. In addition to the iApp, the company had never used social media to promote their services. The coupling of these two elements was a natural fit for the campaign.

Harkening back to the old childhood “I Spy” game, Applewood created the “Eye-Spy the Orange Truck Contest” to leverage the more than 60 trucks canvassing the metro area on service calls. The rationale being Applewood's trucks are easily identified and the contest adds an element of fun to the iApp launch.

Stepping out of its traditional marketing public relations mode, Applewood took an engaging, innovative approach to highlight its business services to a new target audience. New customer and service call goals were realized and competitors called asking for information on how to use an iApp/Smartphone technology to drive new business. The campaign goals were exceeded by 150%, with 50% of those being in the targeted 25-40 segment and more than 1800 downloads of the iApp were coupled with 500+ contest entries (double the goal) and a 400% explosion in Applewood’s social networks led to ongoing conversations; development of specialized service promotions and furthered the reach of the Eye-Spy Contest with tweets and posts from contest entrants.

This campaign resulted in the public relations industry’s highest award, a Silver Anvil.