Ace Hardware has launched an advertising campaign that puts a twist on its familiar “Ace Is The Place” theme song. While the melody’s lyrics typically say “Ace is the place with the helpful hardware folks,” the new ad campaign changes the line to include customized endings that reflect the in-store experience Ace provides its shoppers. The retail cooperative solicited input from store owners, employees and customers to sharpen the specific messages in the ads.
For example, a recent ad makes an amusing suggestion to consumers looking to purchase paint at an Ace store, stating: “Ace is the place for a taste before you buy the whole meal. That’s a metaphor. Don’t eat paint.”
The retail cooperative partnered with Chicago-based advertising agency O’Keefe Reinhard & Paul to craft the campaign. The agency surveyed more than 100 Ace retail owners and employees to get a better grasp of the customer requests they were receiving, as well as the ways that Ace associates go the extra mile to help their customers.
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“Our brand team and our agency also did surveys among our most loyal customers, our merchandising team and retailers to find out what the most common problems are that people come to Ace to get solved,” said Jeff Gooding, Senior Director of Marketing and Advertising at Ace Hardware. “We wanted to showcase the interactions that take place in Ace stores everywhere, so we filmed these scenarios in real stores with real associates, to make sure that authenticity comes through.”
The combined team selected a variety of examples to demonstrate Ace’s role in helping customers tackle numerous projects. With this information in hand, the retailer could customize the song in humorous ways to highlight its:
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Areas of exceptional service and expertise;
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Best brands available; and
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Product selection, all with the goal of helping consumers purchase the right home maintenance and repair projects.
The ads were then narrowed down and developed to support seasonal offerings and sales across focus categories including paint, lighting and lawn and garden, while also showcasing Ace’s brands, such as Craftsman, Scotts, Valspar and Weber.
Using Authenticity To Broaden Reach
The campaign, which launched in March, is expected to continue throughout 2016. The ads appear on television, audio and digital channels nationwide, and feature more videos filmed at three Ace stores in Houston, Orlando and Chicago, using a cast of 25 actual Ace owners and associates and 40 real customers.
“Every Ace store is unique and customized to meet the needs of its neighborhood,” Gooding explained in an interview with Retail TouchPoints. “Houston, Orlando and Chicago are all strong Ace markets that allowed us to showcase a variety of Ace stores. We wanted to be as authentic as possible, so the exterior Ace store shots you see in beginning of the commercials are the actual stores owned by the retailers featured in the spots.”
The campaign includes more than 25 unique 15- and 30-second national television spots airing on networks such as CBS, ESPN and Food Network, and also includes 15 distinctive 30-second national radio spots that air on both terrestrial and streaming radio platforms such as Spotify and Pandora.
Beyond its reach through television and radio, the campaign also is extended across multiple consumer touch points including social media, the Ace Hardware e-Commerce site, store signage, email, direct mail and display templates.
“We wanted to build on our helpful heritage and utilize our three biggest differentiators — our jingle, our brand and our people,” said Gooding. The goal is “to communicate to consumers in an ‘Ace-ownable’ way that the brand has exactly what they need to complete their projects, from best brands to helpful associates.”
The debut commercials appear on the Ace Hardware YouTube page.
