In essential service branding, wordmarks and logos serve different jobs: a wordmark, like Instagram's recent typography refresh, carries the full business name for instant recognition, while a logo mark builds shorthand recall. Home service brands need consistent wordmark-logo pairing across trucks, ads, and digital touchpoints so households recognize the name before competitors even enter the search.

Why Did Instagram Just Change Its Font?

Instagram updated its wordmark for the first time in nearly a decade, breaking almost ten years of visual consistency. The platform's designers rebuilt the lettering after hundreds of iterations, testing curves, spacing, and ligatures until the mark felt tied to the creative energy of its users. Nothing about that process was accidental. This Instagram wordmark rebrand shows what disciplined brand evolution looks like at scale. It holds a lesson for local service businesses too.

Is the New Instagram Logo That Different From the Old One?

Not much, and that's the point. Despite months of refinement, the word "Instagram" stays instantly recognizable to anyone scrolling their feed. That balance between fresh and familiar is the real skill: change enough to signal growth, keep enough to protect recall.

What Can Contractors Learn From a Tech Giant's Font Change?

Few HVAC or plumbing companies will ever spend hundreds of design rounds on lettering, but the principle transfers directly. A wordmark vs logo decision isn't cosmetic. It's the front door to brand recall for contractors who need a name to surface first when a furnace dies at midnight.

Service businesses building service business visual identity should borrow Instagram's discipline:

• Refine deliberately, not impulsively. Sudden identity swaps confuse existing customers.
• Protect recognizability while modernizing details.
• Treat typography as strategy, not decoration.

Wizard of Ads for Essential Services applies this same rigour when turning small service operators into household-name branding stories, proof that even a font choice can carry strategic weight.

What's the Difference Between a Wordmark and Logo?

A wordmark vs logo distinction comes down to typography versus symbol. A wordmark spells out a brand name in custom lettering. A logo often relies on an icon, mark, or abstract shape standing apart from the text. Instagram's recent overhaul makes this distinction concrete: the Instagram wordmark rebrand left the app's familiar camera icon largely untouched and rebuilt the lettering itself instead. Typography, not a symbol, became the most noticeable change in the entire redesign.

Instagram's design team abandoned straightforward, generic lettering. Handwriting-inspired strokes and craft-lettering details replaced the old, plain type. That shift matters for contractors: letterforms alone carry enough weight to signal a brand's personality, without needing a new icon at all.

Why does this matter for a plumbing or HVAC company?

Service trucks, uniforms, invoices, and yard signs display a company name far more often than any icon does. Strong service business visual identity starts with lettering that reads instantly from a moving vehicle or a stapled invoice. A distinctive wordmark builds brand recall for contractors faster than a generic symbol ever could. Prospects register the name, not an abstract mark, at the exact moment they need help.

Wizard of Ads for Essential Services treats typography as strategy, never as decoration. Core competencies span brand-forward marketing, creative storytelling, and media planning, and every wordmark decision flows from that same discipline. Strategy dictates the creative and every channel it touches, keeping call centers, digital content, and mass media visually consistent under one name.

That consistency compounds into household name branding over years of repeated exposure, turning a contractor's truck lettering into a memory trigger long before a competitor's logo registers at all. Wizard of Ads Essential Services builds that consistency on purpose, treating the name itself, not just the icon beside it, as the asset worth protecting.

Why Did Instagram Choose a Wordmark Refresh?

Instagram redesigned its lettering to feel closer to the people who actually use the platform, not to chase a trend. This Instagram wordmark rebrand proves a point that home service owners often miss: identity work isn't decoration, it's strategy. Skip that distinction and a brand blends into the noise of every other contractor truck on the street.

The changes look subtle at first glance. Curves in the letters s, r, and g shifted. Spacing tightened. The way letters connect changed, too. Small moves, but together they gave the wordmark a more personal, crafted feel. Proof that a wordmark vs logo decision carries real emotional weight, even at the level of a single letterform.

Why Does This Matter for a Local Service Business?

Contractors rarely invest this kind of scrutiny into their own service business visual identity. Trucks, uniforms, and signage often get treated as afterthoughts rather than strategic assets.

That gap costs market share. Consider what separates a forgettable local vendor from a name homeowners recall the moment the furnace dies:

• Consistency across trucks, uniforms, digital, and radio builds brand recall for contractors over months, not days.
• Distinctiveness, not just difference, creates the mental shortcut that turns a business into a household name.
• Craft-level detail, the kind Instagram applied to single letters, signals professionalism before a single word gets spoken.

Household name branding starts exactly where Instagram started: at the level of how the brand looks and feels, refined with intention rather than left to chance. Wizard of Ads Essential Services applies that same discipline to the trades.

What Can Contractors Learn From This Rebrand?

A social media platform's typography overhaul carries a lesson far bigger than font choice: distinctiveness protects memory. Home service business owners who skip this lesson risk blending into a sea of identical logos, trucks, and slogans. And losing the next emergency call to a competitor who looks and sounds different. The rebrand itself matters less than the discipline behind it: refining an identity so it feels unmistakably owned.

For HVAC, plumbing, and electrical contractors, the takeaway is not "redesign the logo." It's understanding wordmark vs logo as a strategic choice, then building every touchpoint. Trucks, uniforms, radio spots, phone scripts, around one unforgettable identity. This is where service business visual identity and sound work together, not apart. Ads written to entertain a busy public, while anchoring memory, turn a routine furnace repair into a moment the customer remembers at 2 a.m. when the heat fails again.

Why does brand consistency matter more than a logo redesign?

Consistency compounds. A distinctive identity applied across every customer touchpoint builds brand recall for contractors faster than a one-time visual refresh ever could. Neuroscience-informed messaging, paired with durable mass media reach, keeps a brand from fading into the same generic noise every competitor produces.

How does sound reinforce visual branding for contractors?

Auditory cues, a jingle, a signature phone greeting, a radio voice, lock identity into memory alongside visuals. Aligning that auditory messaging with brand identity captures leads before rivals even register in the customer's mind.

Contractors chasing household name branding need both dimensions working in concert. Wizard of Ads for Essential Services builds that alignment for essential service brands, proving the same principle Instagram just relearned: distinctiveness, not mere difference, is what makes a name unforgettable.

Why Does Brand Recall Matter for Contractors?

Emotional resonance decides which HVAC or plumbing company a homeowner calls at 2 a.m. when the furnace dies. Contractors who build lasting brand recall for contractors win that moment before a competitor even shows up in a search result. Without that recognition, service businesses fight for scraps in a crowded market where price becomes the only differentiator.

Strategic brand-building produces results that outlast any single ad campaign. One HVAC brand grew its revenue substantially after owning its local airwaves through a strategic rebrand paired with memorable radio creative. That growth came from consistent presence in the customer's mind, not from a lucky lead-gen month.

Does Brand Recall Actually Drive Revenue?

Recall works because familiarity shortcuts decision-making under stress, and a broken water heater is stressful. A track record spanning 211 happy clients, 109,033 ads produced, and pricing that varies by billions in media buys demonstrates that recall-driven strategy scales across markets and trade categories, not just isolated wins.

Which Trades Benefit Most From Recall-Based Branding?

Home service and essential service categories, HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and related trades. Depend on recall more than most industries because purchases happen infrequently and urgently. Homeowners rarely comparison-shop a burst pipe; they call the name they already trust. Wizard of Ads Essential Services built its entire practice around this reality, treating recall as the core growth lever for contractors rather than a branding afterthought.

The math favors owners who invest early. Contractors chasing pay-per-click leads pay repeatedly for the same prospect's attention. Contractors who build durable recall get remembered for free, appearing first in the customer's mind long before any search box opens.

How Do You Build a Household Name Brand?

Trusted local names earn their status through consistent strategy, not one flashy redesign. Service business owners who chase quick-fix taglines or seasonal promotions rarely outlast competitors who invest in household name branding year after year. The strongest local brands share one trait: they commit to long-term recognition instead of short-term gimmicks, becoming the trusted name their market reaches for first.

Wizard of Ads for Essential Services builds this kind of recognition by converting service-based companies- HVAC, plumbing, electrical- into household-name brands. The approach relies on brand-forward strategy paired with neuroscience principles that lodge a company's identity into memory through sound, story, and repetition. That combination drives stronger brand recall for contractors than a logo swap or a cheaper price point ever could.

Does a Logo Redesign Build Brand Recall?

A logo change alone rarely moves the needle. Even a high-profile Instagram wordmark rebrand proves the point: refining letterforms improves aesthetics, but recognition depends on far more than typography. Contractors need a full-service business visual identity. Consistent voice, media presence, and customer experience work together, not a single visual update in isolation.

What Does the Brand-Building Process Involve?

Building recognition follows a defined sequence rather than guesswork. The engagement moves through six phases:

1. Uncover — on-site discovery of the brand's true position
2. Research — market and audience analysis
3. Write — strategic creative development
4. Buy — media planning and negotiation
5. Approve — client sign-off before launch
6. Launch — full campaign rollout across channels

Ryan Chute leads the team executing every phase, aligning creative, media buying, and daily operations so recall gets embedded into each campaign. That distinction: wordmark vs logo thinking versus full brand-system thinking. Separates contractors who fade into the directory listings from those who become the name everyone remembers first.

Why Ditch Yellow Pages Thinking for Modern Branding?

Printed directories once served as the only map to local trust. For decades, homeowners flipped through thick books to find restaurants, plumbers, and other household services. That model collapsed the moment search engines entered the picture. Print directories vanished from homes almost overnight once Google became the default tool for the Yellow Pages. Contractors clinging to the old playbook, hoping a listing alone builds trust, are fighting a battle that ended years ago.

Search behavior tells the real story. A homeowner with a broken furnace no longer digs through a dusty book. The reflex now is a phone in hand and a quick Google search for a nearby solution. That shift changes what actually earns a callback. A business survives on brand recall for contractors. The instant recognition that surfaces in a customer's mind before the search bar even opens.

What replaced the Yellow Pages for finding local services?

The internet now covers the entire customer journey, not just emergency lookups. Homeowners use it for routine maintenance tips, seasonal reminders, and locating an HVAC contractor during a true crisis. This broader role means a company's online presence must work harder than a single directory listing ever did.

Does a logo alone build that recognition?

A logo marks a business; a wordmark vs logo distinction matters because full brand identity spans messaging, tone, and consistency across every touchpoint. Modern service business visual identity requires:

• Consistent visual and verbal identity across web, radio, and truck signage
• Messaging that sticks in memory before a need arises
• A distinctive story, not a generic listing

Directory thinking treats visibility as a checkbox. Household name branding treats it as the entire business strategy.

Why does distinctive branding matter for contractors specifically?

Homeowners used to dig through thick, dusty directory books when a furnace failed at 2 a.m. That search behavior is gone. Today's homeowner searches digitally and picks the name already lodged in memory. Proof that brand recall for contractors now decides who gets the call before the competition even shows up.

The building blocks work together, not in isolation:

• Media strategy that bypasses volatile PPC costs
• A compact, accountable team executing without bureaucratic drag
• Post-launch refinement that keeps mass media campaigns aligned
• Digital-era visibility replacing obsolete directory-based discovery

Each element reinforces the next, turning a regional contractor into the name homeowners remember first.

The wordmark versus logo decision ultimately hinges on your essential service brand's commitment to memorability and market presence. Whether you choose a refined wordmark that anchors your name or a distinctive logo that transcends language, the strategic imperative remains constant: your visual identity must align with your positioning, resonate with your audience at the moment of need, and sustain recognition across every customer touchpoint. The strongest rebrand strategy treats this choice not as a design preference. As a foundational element of your brand architecture—one that supports long-term equity and competitive advantage in your market.

FAQ

What is the difference between a wordmark and a logo?

A wordmark spells out the brand name in custom lettering. A logo typically uses an icon or abstract shape apart from the text. Instagram's rebrand kept its camera icon untouched and redesigned only the lettering.

Why did Instagram change its wordmark?

Instagram refreshed its typography for the first time in nearly a decade, testing hundreds of iterations of curves, spacing, and ligatures. The goal was to reflect the platform's creative energy while keeping the name instantly recognizable.

What can home service businesses learn from Instagram's rebrand?

Contractors should refine branding deliberately rather than impulsively, protecting recognizability while modernizing details. Wizard of Ads for Essential Services applies this same discipline to turn service operators into household names.

Google Business Profile Optimization: The Complete Guide for Business Owners to Maximize Local Visibility and Lead Generation

In an increasingly digital world, establishing a strong online presence is essential for businesses to attract local customers effectively. A Google Business Profile (GBP) serves as a vital tool, enhancing visibility on search engines and maps, thus allowing potential customers to find essential information quickly. This comprehensive guide outlines everything business owners need to know about setting up, optimizing, and managing their Google Business Profile to drive lead generation and local engagement. Many businesses often fail to take full advantage of their GBP, missing out on significant opportunities for attracting clients. By leveraging the insights in this article, you'll understand how to enhance your GBP effectively and create a robust online presence that converts inquiries into leads. We will dive into topics including the setup and verification process, optimization strategies, local SEO, and best practices for maintaining your profile.

What is Google Business Profile and Why Does It Matter for Business Owners?

Google Business Profile is a free tool offered by Google that allows businesses to manage their online presence across Google, including Search and Maps. Business owners can create a profile that displays essential information such as location, hours, and services. By utilizing GBP, businesses enhance their local visibility, making it easier for customers to discover them when searching for relevant services nearby. This increased visibility plays a crucial role in customer engagement, driving traffic to websites, and ultimately boosting lead generation through local outreach.

Managing a GBP provides business owners with an opportunity to connect directly with customers. It allows them to respond to reviews, post updates, and upload photos that showcase their offerings. A well-managed Google Business Profile not only builds consumer trust but also increases the likelihood that potential customers will choose your services over competitors.

The profound impact of Google Business Profile on local businesses cannot be overstated, as it directly influences how potential customers discover and engage with services in their vicinity.

How Does Google Business Profile Enhance Local Business Listings?

Google Business Profile enhances local business listings by ensuring that search results reflect accurate and updated information. With GBP, businesses can optimize their visibility in local searches through relevant categories and by providing comprehensive details about their services. Local SEO techniques integrated within GBP, such as utilizing keywords specific to services offered, directly contribute to higher rankings in search engine results.

Additionally, GBP enables businesses to manage their information actively, ensuring that potential customers have access to the latest updates regarding services, special offers, or changes in operations. The integration of customer reviews into search results further enhances a business's profile, impacting reputation and engagement. By responding to reviews promptly, businesses signal their commitment to customer service and satisfaction, creating a favorable impression on prospective clients.

The strategic implementation of Local SEO through Google Maps significantly boosts a business's digital presence and helps convert online visibility into actual customer visits.

Local SEO on Google Maps for Increased Business Visibility

In today’s digital era, consumer behavior in searching for building materials and home renovation services has shifted to digital platforms, especially Google Maps. Traditional building material businesses still lag behind in digital visibility and often lose competitiveness against modern building depots. This community service activity aims to help traditional MSMEs survive and grow through digitalization by increasing business visibility and customer footfall conversion. This study applied a local Search Engine Optimization (SEO) approach through a case study of a building material MSME. The research stages included initial observation of the business profile and customer visits, implementation of Local SEO optimization strategies, and final observation to evaluate the resulting changes. Optimization strategies included completing business information, applying local keywords, adding visual content, and actively managing customer reviews. The novelty of this researcImplementation of local seo on google maps for increasing footfall conversion in building store business, 2026

What Are the Key Benefits of Managing Your Google Business Profile?

Managing a Google Business Profile comes with several key benefits, including:

1. Increased Visibility: Regularly updating your GBP ensures that your business appears in relevant local searches, making it easier for potential customers to find you.
2. Enhanced Customer Trust: Engaging with customer reviews and posting updates demonstrates your commitment to being transparent and responsive, fostering trust.
3. Improved Lead Generation: With an optimized GBP, the chances of attracting local leads significantly increase as potential customers find the information they need readily available.

The management of your Google Business Profile plays a crucial role in ensuring your business is represented accurately online. Moreover, it opens the door to analytics and insights that help you understand customer interactions and preferences, which can inform future business decisions.

How Do Business Owners Set Up and Verify Their Google Business Profile?

Setting up a Google Business Profile is straightforward and requires several key steps.

1. Create a Google Account: If you do not already have a Google account, you need to create one.
2. Set Up Your Business Information: Enter essential details such as your business name, address, phone number, and website URL.
3. Verification: Google requires verification to ensure that business information is accurate. Verification can occur via postcards, phone, email, or instant verification for eligible businesses.

Step-by-Step Guide to Set Up Google Business Profile

To further clarify, here’s a detailed look at how to set up your GBP:

1. Go to the Google Business Profile page and click on “Manage now.”
2. Sign in with your Google account or create a new one if necessary.
3. Enter your business information, including business name, address, and service area.
4. Choose the correct categories that best represent your business for customers to find you more easily.
5. Add contact details and a website link to improve connections with potential customers.
6. Complete the profile with images and business hours, providing a comprehensive view of what you offer.
7. Verify your listing using one of the methods mentioned above to activate your profile for public view.

Successful verification confirms that you are the owner of the listed business and allows management of your profile effectively.

Getting your business listed on Google Maps is a crucial, mostly free, and straightforward process that can determine whether potential customers find you in their immediate search.

Getting Your Business on Google Maps for Local Customers I pulled up my phone last week to find a coffee shop in an unfamiliar neighborhood. Within seconds, I had four options with ratings, photos, hours, and directions. The whole process took maybe 15 seconds.That’s the reality of how people find local businesses now. Nobody’s flipping through phone books or asking random strangers for directions. They search, they tap, they arrive. If you want to get your business on Google Maps and show up in that 15-second window, the work is mostly free, mostly one-time, and more straightforward than most owners assume. Skip it and you don’t exist to that potential customer.

How Can Business Owners Optimize Their Google Business Profile to Drive More Leads?

Optimizing your Google Business Profile involves several strategies to ensure that your listing stands out and effectively attracts local customers.

1. Complete Your Profile: Ensure all fields are filled out, including business hours, contact information, and a description of services. The more complete your profile, the more trustworthy it appears.
2. Utilize Local Keywords: Integrate relevant local SEO keywords into your business description and posts to improve search engine visibility and attract targeted traffic.
3. Engage Customers with Updates: Regularly post updates about services, special promotions, and business announcements to maintain engagement with your audience.

These strategies can significantly enhance your GBP's performance, ultimately leading to increased inquiries and business growth.

Which Profile Elements Should Be Enhanced: Photos, Attributes, and Posts?

Visual elements of your GBP play a vital role in attracting potential customers. High-quality photos of your business, products, or services enable visual storytelling that engages visitors. Additionally, it is essential to regularly update your profile with relevant posts about special offerings or events. Engaging visual content leads to improved customer interactions and can motivate users to visit your business.

• Photos: Upload diverse and high-quality images that represent your brand.
• Attributes: Specify attributes that describe your business, such as "women-owned" or "free Wi-Fi," enhancing appeal to specific customer segments.
• Posts: Share news or promotions directly on your profile to keep customers informed and engaged.

How to Effectively Manage and Respond to Online Reviews for Reputation Growth?

Online reviews are a critical component of managing your Google Business Profile. They influence potential customers’ perceptions and can impact search rankings.

• Soliciting Reviews: Encouraging satisfied customers to leave positive reviews can improve your business's visibility and reputation.
• Responding Promptly: Actively respond to both positive and negative feedback to show customers you value their input, fostering goodwill.
• Using Reviews for Social Proof: Highlighting favorable reviews in your marketing and on your website reinforces consumer trust and credibility.

Proactive management of online reviews underscores your commitment to customer satisfaction and can lead to sustained business growth.

What Local SEO Strategies Leverage Google Business Profile for Market Advantage?

Implementing effective local SEO strategies alongside GBP can significantly enhance market presence. Key strategies include:

• Citations and Consistent NAP: Ensure your business name, address, and phone number (NAP) are consistent across all online platforms to boost local search performance.
• Building Backlinks: Develop backlinks from reputable local websites or blogs to strengthen authority and improve search rankings.
• Engagement Through Social Media: Promote your Google Business Profile on social media platforms to drive traffic and improve visibility.

Integrating local SEO strategies with your GBP maximizes its potential to attract relevant clients and grow your customer base.

Which Contractor-Specific Case Studies Demonstrate Successful GBP Use?

Several contractors have successfully leveraged Google Business Profile through strategic optimization and management. For instance, one contractor saw a 40% increase in inquiries after optimizing their GBP with local keywords and high-quality images. Another company experienced improved customer engagement and trust levels by consistently responding to reviews and maintaining an active profile. These examples illustrate that businesses that commit to managing and optimizing their Google Business Profile can generate notable results in attracting and converting local leads.

How Do Business Owners Monitor, Update, and Measure the Impact of Their Google Business Profile?

Monitoring and measuring the effectiveness of your Google Business Profile involves utilizing various tools and metrics to analyze performance.

1. Google Analytics: Leverage insights from Google Analytics to track traffic and user behavior stemming from your GBP.
2. Monitoring Reviews: Keep an eye on online reviews to gauge customer sentiment about your business and identify areas for improvement.
3. Reviewing Business Insights: Regularly check GBP insights to understand how customers find your listing, engaging with various profile elements.

What Tools and Metrics Track GBP Performance and Local Visibility?

To effectively track GBP performance, consider the following tools and metrics:

These tools provide insight into the performance of your GBP, enabling continuous improvement and effective engagement strategies with local customers.

How Often Should GBP Content and Structured Data Be Updated for Optimal Results?

Regular updates are critical to maintaining the effectiveness of your Google Business Profile. Frequent updates to essential information, such as hours of operation or promotions, ensure that potential customers have access to the latest offerings.

• Updating Crucial Business Information: Whenever there is a change in hours or services, these should be reflected immediately on your GBP.
• Seasonal Promotions: Regularly refresh your GBP with seasonal offers that can attract customer interest based on current trends.
• Engagement Strategies: Regularly engage with customers through posts and responses, creating a dynamic, interactive profile.

Consistent updates not only benefit customer engagement but can also influence local search rankings positively, driving more traffic to your business.

Start by Reviewing Your Own Profile's Completeness

A well-optimized Google Business Profile, backed by complete business information, high-quality photos, active review management, and consistent local SEO citations, remains the most direct way for business owners to appear in local search results and turn nearby searchers into leads. From setup and verification through profile optimization, local SEO strategy, and ongoing performance monitoring via GBP Insights, each element reinforces the trust and visibility that convert a search into an inquiry. Business owners who manage their Google Business Profile as an active, evolving marketing asset, rather than a one-time listing, see the strongest gains in engagement, local visibility, and lead generation. Start by reviewing your own profile's completeness and activity today, and build from there.

Every terrible ad that's ever hit the airwaves was approved by someone.

Think about that. The HVAC commercial with the handsome technician and the voice-over about years of experience. The radio spot that lists quality, service, and low prices and nothing else. Every stinker. Every tune-out moment. Every ad that sounds exactly like every other ad in the category. Someone reviewed it, said yes, and unleashed it on the world.

That person might be you. Not because you're bad at your job because nobody ever taught you how to do this one.

In this episode of Advertising in America, Chris, Mick, and Ryan dismantle the most overlooked skill in marketing: the approval. Chris makes the case for hiring great people and getting completely out of the way, and what it actually means to be the person who says yes to the brave idea. Mick follows with four concrete questions that separate great advertising from forgettable garbage. And the discussion goes deep on the forces working against you: the built-in psychological bias against creative ideas, the committee effect that only knows one word, and why your gut reaction to something scary is almost never the right guide.

If you've ever stared at a script and felt completely unqualified to judge whether it would work, you weren't wrong. But you don't have to guess anymore.

Episode Highlights:

• The Approval Paradox: Why the person who says yes to the brave idea gets credit for everything and why the ones who said no are never remembered at all.
• The Get Out of the Chair Rule: What hiring Ridley Scott to direct a commercial actually teaches you about restraint as a professional skill.
• The Four-Step Filter: Mick's framework for knowing exactly what to reject, what to approve, and how to explain why to the team.
• The Bias Built Into Your Brain: Research shows that people who say they value creativity unconsciously associate it with vomit, poison, and agony before they've read a single line of the script.
• The Committee Trap: Every person added to an approval committee is structurally incentivized to say no. Here's why they can't help it.
• The Apple 1984 Lesson: The board voted to kill it. One executive overruled them. The rest is the most famous ad in advertising history.
• The Rick Rubin Model: The most successful music producer of the last 20 years doesn't play an instrument or write a single note, and what that teaches you about enabling greatness without authoring it.
• The Approver's Real Job: You are not the co-writer. You are the person who creates the conditions for a great ad to exist. That distinction is everything.

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🎧 Hit play to learn why the approval is the most powerful and most misunderstood job in the entire marketing operation.

👉 When was the last time you approved something that actually scared you?

📱 Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts

💥 Brought to you by Wizard of Ads for Essential Services

📞 Book your complimentary 45-minute strategy session with Ryan Chute

On this episode of Advertising in America, we’re talking about how to approve great ads. 

Knowing how to approve ads is not something that is taught. I mean, other than at the course that I teach at Wizard Academy. For the most part, clients are not well trained at providing useful feedback. They typically just tell us if they like it or not.

Here’s the most powerful thing you can do to approve great work. Hire people who are really good at what they do. Get the heck out of the way. Let them do, what they do. 

I can’t help but notice but you fellas are always saying the same thing from like two different doors. Chris says, “Hire well and get out of the way.”  And Mick says, “Know how to reject the right stuff.” I’m starting to question if you two lied on your resumes about being master debaters. 

I’m going to give you some ways you can guide your ad people to greatness. Step one…

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RYAN: On this episode of Advertising in America, we're talking about how to approve great ads. I'm gonna be honest — I let these two pick this week's topic, and I'm a little concerned. I always thought approving an ad was pretty easy. Somebody else does the work, they show it to you, you say Micks’ favorite word "approved," and you go home. Done. Turns out, no. Apparently, the approving part is the hard part. Evidently, there's a whole skill set involved. Seemingly, I've been doing it wrong for all of these years myself. Up first, Chris is here to explain why if you ever hire  Ridley Scott you’re not allowed to talk to Ridley Scott. 

CHRIS: When something great is created, there's plenty of glory to go around to everyone involved. Some of that glory can go to you.

Everyone knows that Craig Allen and Eric Coleman, the two guys at Wieden+Kennedy who wrote "The Man Your Man Can Smell Like" for Old Spice, are the two guys who wrote "The Man Your Man Can Smell Like" for Old Spice. But when that ad became a runaway success and changed the fortunes of the brand and cleaned up at all the award shows, you can bet there were dozens of people who took credit for their part in getting it made. The creative director, the executive creative director, the head of the agency, the brand manager at Procter & Gamble, the director of marketing, the VP of marketing, the CEO of P&G, all kinds of people probably went on to stellar careers because they got to tell the story this way: "I'm the guy who approved that."

And to be fair, they're not wrong. Good on you.

We've talked before about what it's like to stare down a truly innovative idea and actually say yes. The men and women who do say yes deserve some credit. You don't have to be the person who comes up with the great idea. You just have to be the person who says, "Yeah, I'm in."

Everybody thinks George Lucas is a genius who made Star Wars, but somewhere there's an executive at 20th Century Fox who said, "Alright, I'll pay for it," even though everyone else thought it was going to be a turkey. So how can you be that guy? How can you set yourself up for success by saying yes to the right thing?

Here's the most powerful thing you can do to approve great work: hire people who are really good at what they do. Then get the heck out of the way. Let them do what they do. Resist the temptation to always think the idea needs your brain power to make it work.

When I worked on the Gatorade business a million years ago, we hired Ridley Scott to direct some commercials with Michael Jordan. And when you work with Ridley Scott, you're allowed to come to the shoot, but you have to sit over there, eat M&Ms from the craft service table, and not talk to Ridley Scott. Because you hired him to be Ridley Scott. Don't try to teach him how to be Ridley Scott.

Nobody hired Andy Warhol to do a painting and then said, "I don't know, man, do you think Campbell's Soup cans are the right subject? What about bowls of fruit like all the old masters used to do?"

If you sell diamonds for a living, you know the worst customer is the one who thinks he knows more about diamonds than you, even though you have a gemologist certificate on the wall. If you sell air conditioners, the best customers are the ones who listen to your explanation of what's required to get the airflow and cooling capacity right for the house, and take your advice from years of experience. The ones who say, "I don't know, I think we can just do it this other way" don't hire me!

Hire someone you think is great at this, and let them do their thing. Sure, ask questions. You don't have to roll over and approve everything they put in front of you without explanation. But start with the assumption that this weird new idea wouldn't be in front of you if the experts in this area didn't think it was great.

Ask yourself what it says about your brand. Ask yourself if it's inimitable and distinct from all the middle-ground competitors' messages. Ask yourself if you'd rather be the person who took a leap on something that might change the world, or the person who played it safe and never made a mistake, other than never making a difference.

RYAN: Chris said, "Everyone knows Craig Allen and Eric Coleman, everyone knows." Nobody knows these guys. Their kids barely recognize them. I have not heard of either of those names in my life. If Craig and Eric walked into the studio right now, I'd assume they were looking for the bathroom. But sure, everyone knows. Mick, mail us you.

MICK: Okay. My brother Chris makes some pretty good points. If you're going to hire someone like Ridley Scott, he's probably going to make some pretty good choices as a director. But let's face it, you probably don't have a Gatorade budget. So how are you going to get good work if you can't afford to literally hire the best people on the planet?

Luckily, I will be more helpful than Chris.

Knowing how to approve ads is not something that's taught. Other than through a course I teach at the Wizard Academy, for the most part, clients are not well-trained at providing useful feedback. They typically just tell us if they like it or not. Sadly, that's not actually relevant. We don't write for the client. We write for the consumer. And "I don't like this one" doesn't get us any closer to a solution. So I'm going to give you some ways you can guide your ad people to greatness.

• ‍Step one. Be ready to reject stuff. But it's really important what you reject. What you're rejecting is boilerplate. Table stakes. If you're an HVAC company and your ad guy suggests a TV commercial where a truck pulls up to a beautifully landscaped house, the incredibly handsome technician walks up to the door, the attractive homeowner answers, close-up on him slipping on the booties, and there's a voice-over going on the whole time about their years of experience and quality of workmanship, and we watch as he turns a wrench and polishes the condenser unit before shaking hands with the homeowner and waving goodbye. Yeah, reject that. We've seen it before. Explain why you're rejecting it.
  ‍
• ‍Step two. Ask yourself: could this ad be for any other company in my category? Yes? Into the binit goes. Explain why you're rejecting it.
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• ‍Step three. What about this ad is entertaining? Remember, no one is listening to radio or watching TV to experience your commercials. What are you doing to entertain your audience? Is it all about you? That's no good. And crowbarring a joke into an ad filled with "quality, service, selection, price" does not count. I mean actual entertainment. The audience should want to turn the volume up, not down,  when your ad comes on. Have you achieved that goal? No? Keep working on it.
  ‍
• ‍Step four. What about your ad is part of a series? Is it clear that this is the next segment of an ongoing campaign? That's how you get the volume turned up, they liked the last one, they want to hear the next one. But that means it can't be a standalone. "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" was a great ad, but it wasn't part of a campaign. You want people to react to the next one. It has to be clear that there's another one coming, and it's even better than the last one. You need to think three or four steps ahead. Are you doing that? Where does this one fit in?

Providing good feedback to your ad people is one of the most difficult skills in the world. But when you know the path to greatness, you can be part of the team that helps achieve it. If you're not part of the solution, then you're just the person who yells and swears all the time.

RYAN: Mick gave us four steps. Numbered. In order. With instructions on each one. Mick is a creative. Creatives do not number steps. He drives a self-driving car, for goodness' sake. He literally wears two wristwatches. Creatives navigate by feelings and the moon's gravitational pull. That's his entire system. We'll be right back after this commercial break.

RYAN: Okay, we're back. So I can't help but notice that you fellows are always saying the same thing from two different doors. Chris says "hire well and get out of the way," and Mick says "know what to reject, and reject the right stuff." I'm starting to question if you two lied on your résumés about being masterful debaters. Typo, I suppose. Let's pull this all apart, shall we? There are three things I want to dig into here with the lads. Mick, you said approving is a skill that most folks are very bad at. You're really not out here making friends in this area.

MICK: I never am. That's not why I'm here ever, under any circumstances. I think probably the first time a business owner is asked to approve an ad, there's likely a bit of a shock, "Oh crap, I have to approve this." There might even be some imposter syndrome kicking in, “I'm the one who has to make the final call on this”. And with no preparation and no training on how to actually do that, you're stuck with one of a couple of possible ways of doing it. One is to say "sounds okay to me, I guess I like it, it's fine." Another is that they might compare the script to the brief. Did the ad match what I asked for? If it checks the boxes — quality, service, life, price, community, just like a pre-barking checklist, then I guess this must be approved. But that doesn't mean it's a good ad.

I agonized over that enough that, with two other Wizard of Ads partners, we created a course, it was basically an academy that helps teach you how to approve good ads. Not a course on how to write, it's a course on how to say "this will succeed, this one will not," and how to know in advance. Most people, they don’t teach you that in business school, they don’t teach you how to listen.

CHRIS: Until that moment when they're charged with approving their first ad, the only was to evaluate ads was one way: as an audience member going "that was good" or "that sucked." Entirely superficial. Emotional. Based on your taste, based on what you think is a good ad as a viewer. Because you've just seen ads on TV or heard them on the radio and liked them or not as a person. As opposed to now, you have to decide is this the right thing for our brand to be doing.

MICK: And neither of those things, “I think it's great” or “I think it's rubbish,” neither of those things are helpful. 

CHRIS: That's the only criteria you've ever had, and now it's the one criteria that doesn't matter.

RYAN: Well, and like you said, none of this is taught in business school. I think we've run into a few natural cognitive biases that humans have, innate desire to edit. They want to put their stamp on it.

MICK: Justify their own existence, 

RYAN: Bring their own layers of flavor. Or ego. There's also the other side of the fence. Ryan's fun fact: Kumar and Goncalo, Psychological Science, 2012, the bias against creativity. People who explicitly say they value creative ideas unconsciously associate the word "creative" with: vomit, poison, and agony. I mean it, these are literal words that came out of the research, on an implicit association test. So they associate "creative" with those feelings before they've even read the page.

Calling back from a couple of episodes ago, the bias is built in. If a brave idea is in front of you, your brain is already gagging before you read it on the page.  It's absolutely astounding how we have this visceral reaction from the approving side that has to be recognized when we're thinking about what we're asking our clients to do when we ask them to approve an ad. And it gets worse in groups. Anyone who's sat through a marketing committee knows this. The committee has only got one job, and Mick, you've said this better than anyone.

MICK: The job of the committee is to make itself look good to the rest of the committee. The committee is there to prevent you from doing yourself harm. So if someone on the committee thinks there might be something wrong with this ad, that person is going to stand up and say "I think you should not approve this." 

CHRIS: They've been brought in to be helpful, 

MICK: But in being helpful, all they can do is say no. The only thing a committee member can say is no. That's the trouble. The committee never says "here's the way to make it better." What they'll say is "you shouldn't run this ad because X." That's the inherent problem with the committee. But even if you've got just one person making the decision, the first time you approve an ad, what is the basis of that decision? Maybe you'd think, "Well, I've heard a lot of ads in my category, so... that sounds kind of like an ad in my category. I guess I should approve it." Well,  we've discussed that's not a good reason. That's actually a reason to send it back: "This sounds like an ad in my category."

There's no training for business owners to guide their ad people to greatness. And especially when you start advertising, there usually isn't an ad guy,  you're talking directly to the radio station, the TV station, or your digital ad person, who will simply do what you ask them to do. There's nothing evil there either, they're trying to keep you happy. They ask what you want and they do it. And what you want and what your competitor wants is the same thing. That's why all ads look the same, sound the same, and are almost interchangeable.

So you start doing it wrong, you spend most of your career doing it wrong, then you start working with good creative people, and you've spent your whole life just saying "well, I'll just approve what I think is good because I have no actual criteria on how to do it." And you perpetuate mediocrity.

RYAN: And the only reference you have without training is the authority figures around you. The people you defer to, the people you trust.

Ryan's fun fact: Solomon Asch, 1951, followed by Irving Janis in 1972 — groupthink and the conformity experiments run around committee-type thinking. If even one person says "I don't think so," they can get conformity from the rest of the group because they are following the leader; in spots where there is no leader, up to 35 percent of a room going one direction will bring the rest of the room along because they're not sure, so they follow the majority.

CHRIS: As a big agency guy, who spent way too much time in focus groups behind the glass, this is the problem with focus groups. You just need one guy in the room, you've got 12 people on a Thursday night, nothing better to do for 35 bucks than evaluate your ad ideas, and you just need one person to go, "Oh no, I think this is a little stupid," and then suddenly there are other people: "Well, if he thinks it's stupid, then..." The groupthink starts to really play.

"I thought it was fine, but if he thinks it's stupid, maybe I should agree it's stupid. And I'm also offended now, because I wasn't, but when he said it's offensive maybe I should vote..." 

MICK: And remember, the easiest thing to say is no. Saying yes is hard. If I say yes, I'm putting my name on the line: "Torbay said yes." So when this thing crashes and burns, it's his fault. As soon as you say no, you're safe. "Hey, I didn't even want to run that." 

CHRIS: No one will know whether you were right or wrong, it never got made. It never succeeded or failed. 

MICK: And if it succeeds, no one will remember that you didn't want to run it. Nobody talks about the stupid board of directors at Apple who turned it down. 

CHRIS: You talked about one aspect of it is that they instinctively go toward caution on everyone's behalf so they can be seen as contributing. The other thing is that people try to contribute to make a better idea: "What if you did this to it? What if you did that?" It really feels natural, especially when something's looking like a great idea, or starts to look really exciting  "Well, you know what else we could do? We could put a penguin in there." They all want to contribute; they all want to put their stamp on it, say they were part of the team, that they contributed.

What is very interesting about successful things is that it is not a zero-sum game. It’s not when it got super successful, for the five people who are in charge divide it up to 20% each, and decide who gets credit for making this thing awesome. When something great hits the market, everybody who touched it gets love for it. There's a million percent more credit to go around. The camera operator gets to take credit. Everybody who's attached to it, you don't have to put your fingerprints on it in order to say, "I was in the room when we made that." So maybe that's a piece of advice on approving: you don't have to change it and then say yes in order to take credit for the success. You can just say "I think it's great, let's go for it." And there will be love that comes to you when it succeeds.

RYAN: And ultimately, that's where the ultimate courage is: being vulnerable enough to take the risk. The people who say no aren't necessarily operating from a place of courage. They're operating from a place of fear, defensiveness, and insecurity, we have to recognize that. 

Now, if you're handed rubbish and expected to run it, that's one thing. There are certainly advertising agencies out there handing you a big pile of steaming crap and calling it magical. That's a risk you have to navigate by working with  people who aren’t going to be handing you shit.

This goes back to the 1984 Apple reference. Around the Super Bowl ad in December 1983, the majority of the board said no. They went into groupthink; they voted against it. The idea would be terrible,

CHRIS: Why are there not shots of the computer? 

RYAN: Exactly. Nobody saw the computer, we didn’t describe 100 features about the motherboard. They all voted to kill the ad. It was Steve Jobs and a small handful of executives who overturned the decision and ran it anyway, making it quite literally the most famous ad in the history of advertising.

MICK: On the topic of risk, though — if it had tanked… They would all have been on top of it.

CHRIS: Yeah, interestingly enough. Remember that? When I say hire somebody really good and let them do their thing, what's interesting is you will learn one thing for sure: whether that person is good at their job. The problem is when you hire somebody to write a good ad, then you change the script, then you make the ad. Now, if that ad performs at a mediocre level,  was that a great idea that you wrecked? Or was that a crappy idea, and thank God you made that little change that made it mediocre? You don't know.

Whereas if you say to Ridley Scott, "Make this ad — off you go, do your thing." If it tanks, you know what to do, which is never hire Ridley Scott again. And that's true with us. If we come in and say we have a campaign idea and it's going to scare the bejeebers out of you,  if it doesn't work, you can solve that problem. You just have to fire us and hire somebody you think is better. Whereas if you change it and you end up somewhere in the middle, you haven't learned anything. You don't know if I'm good and you ruined it, or if I'm mediocre and you saved it.

MICK: Well, and our jobs are always on the chopping block. Whenever we start working for a client, we know that if we don't deliver what we say we're going to do in year one, we will absolutely get fired. 

CHRIS: But also, you see this with big agencies all the time, they pander more and more to what the client's asking for. Two or three years go by, nothing really happens. And then the agency review comes in. And no one says, "No, no, don't do a review — you gave me good ideas. I always bought the mediocre one from your presentation because it felt safe, and you kept buying it." It's the client's fault,  but they always take it out on the agency.

So if you're going to make the agency the scapegoat anyway, at least let them do what they do. And if it's a brilliant idea,  the one Steve Jobs forced down your throat,  and it ends up being the greatest thing ever, you win. If not, you can fire them,

RYAN: I think that in itself is the fault of the agency. If you didn't hire a top-tier agency that gave you a safe option, that by default becomes mediocrity. So your agency also has to be courageous and step up to the line of vulnerability. Both for the writers themselves, who are dancing on the edge of creativity's knife's edge anyway because we're playing with emotions and people's feelings.

CHRIS: And there’s where smart agencies will not bring the safe idea. There was a tradition where you'd also always bring the "straw dog" the first ad you present, just to get the presentation going and the ego fed. And then you go, “If you like that, here's some really interesting ads.”  A saying evolved: "Don't bring anything to the meeting that you're not prepared to sell." Because the client might go, "I don’t know about those crazy ones. But I like that first one where you talked about service and selection."

So the agency has to be brave enough to not bring a safe one. To only bring ideas they think are going to make a difference.

And if all three ads you present, if you're one of those agencies that comes with three different ideas, you can't make one the easy one. Because inevitably, that's the one they're going to buy. And then it's on you. Then you go back and say, "Yeah, typical client — they didn't go for the good one." Well, why did you give them that option? You brought it with full endorsement of your creative directors. Don't bring three ideas if you think it's stupid to buy the first two.

MICK: We at Wizard of Ads, we can't do that because we're paid on performance. So we will not present an idea we know is not going to move the needle, because then we will get fired, and we know it. I would rather get fired now than get fired in a year because in year one, we actually lose money considering how much work we put in, compared to what we get paid in year one —we need to get to year three before we break even. So we would never bring an idea to a client if we did not believe it could absolutely move the needle.

In the larger agency world, they bill by the hour. They'll bring a couple of ideas because they're billing for all of it. There's no downside to bringing them. And if they run the ad for a year and a half and it doesn't build the brand, they don't care; they're not paid on performance, they’re paid by the hour. 

CHRIS: They’ll try again next year. 

RYAN: And that leads back to this: if you don't trust the people you've hired, fire them. Don't edit them. It's a complete mistake to start putting your own little flavor on things. If you have to, you've got the wrong people. 

CHRIS: If you feel like you're the only one who can fix this, then why are you hiring somebody to give you broken ideas? Do it yourself.

RYAN: And if you are going to speak up,  to Mick's point, what are you speaking up about? "I like it," "it's good," "it's bad," "I don't know, it doesn't feel right" those are useless commentary. 

CHRIS: You're a focus group of one person; that’s not relevant. And second of all, you may not be the target. 

MICK: You are absolutely not the target.  You are, by definition, not the target. If you're the client, you have to buy your products and services from this brand. So don’t tell me you’re the client, you are the one person I do not have to convince this is the brand for you. By definition, you are not thinking like a customer in this category because you’re not a customer. 

CHRIS: You already know way more about diamonds, or whatever else it is, than the buyer. 

RYAN: Certainly one aspect is taste, and the other is strategy. So this conversation is really about: what are we trying to achieve? How are we moving the emotional middle here to get a person to take an action or, at the very least, store you in memory because they know, like, and trust you until such time as they need what you have to sell?

MICK: The feedback is very often more along the lines of "you didn't mention enough features or benefits." And less often: "You really didn't make me feel much. You weren't reaching me on a deeper level. Can you dig in a little bit more."

CHRIS: The interesting thing that you said in your piece, was the number of times you came back to can I explain that to them, explain that to them, right? The feedback is helpful in the discussion. For example, if you say "there's not enough features and benefits" well, that's a conversation we can have now about whether we should be talking about features and benefits. We've done a previous podcast about whether you should fill an ad full of features and benefits or make an emotional ad that makes me like you as a service provider. That's a conversation I can have, and I can explain why I left features and benefits out. But that's because you said something concrete. You had an explanation to your feedback as opposed to "I don't know, I don't like it." That doesn't help. I can't debate it, I can't explain it, I can't rationalize why, even though you don't like it, it's the right thing.

MICK: But you could ask your ad person: "What is it about this ad that would make me want to listen to it, and maybe listen to it more than once even if I don't want to make a purchase in this category?" That's the entertainment question. And there should be an answer for that. If your ad person can't answer why someone should listen to or watch this ad even if they're not in the market for what you sell, you need to go back and answer that question. Give me some entertainment.

Imagine this: we're making a little sitcom, or we're telling a story, or we're doing a little vignette, and we're going to want to follow this, and we're going to want to hear the next one. We're going to want to hear the next one. It’s a story. It has a continuing story arc. Are we going to buy a water heater this week? No. But I still want to hear what these people have to say.

CHRIS: That's useful for Geico insurance. If I'm currently not in the market for insurance, why would I want to hear their ad? Well, because the gecko is funny every time. He's got a quirky little British accent; he says what he thinks, and he takes snide pot shots at people. There's an answer. 

MICK: At least there’s something there. 

CHRIS: And then maybe I will grow to love this brand, and when my insurance comes up for renewal, I'll switch providers. But there's an answer to the question: I can tell you what's entertaining about that.

RYAN: Well, this is all backed up by another one of Ryan's fun facts. Teresa Amabile, Harvard Business School, her 30-plus years of peer-reviewed research on creativity in the workplace, most famously The Progress Principle with Steve Kramer, 2011, shows that the single biggest predictor of creative output is whether the creator's manager protects their forward motion or interferes with it. Vague, taste-based feedback like "I don't like it" is the most destructive form of management input she has ever documented.

CHRIS: Absolutely. Yeah, that's a subtle point. It's like she's loving me. Which is not helpful.

RYAN: Roy certainly, you know, has been saying this for years. This is obviously the precipice of Mick's famous committee and leadership video that's out on the interweb. That brings us to Mick's four big questions, distilling down the questions you should be asking reflectively about the creative in front of you.

MICK: And sending it back until those things happen. One of the things I'm always reminded of when we're talking about approving great ads: every great ad you've ever seen on TV or heard on the radio, someone approved that. Some courageous person said, "Yeah, we're going with this. It's crazy, but we're doing it."

We've also discussed the fact that most advertising is terrible. In every category, in every world, in every market, most commercials are absolute garbage. 

RYAN: Statistically speaking, it's +99%. 

MICK: A crazy amount. Every one of those ads was approved. Let that sink in. When you see a terrible ad, a real stinker, where it's just "service, quality, benefits,” there’s nothing there. It’s all about me-me-me-me. Here's who I am, here's where I sell." It’s just that crap. Someone approved that. Someone said, "Yep, put that on TV. 

CHRIS: I like the part where they hold up the package and go 'now 2 for $14.99.' Yeah, that's great. I love that you put that in there."

MICK: Let that bother you. The next time you hear an ad and think, "This is a complete waste of 30 seconds of my time," think to yourself: somebody approved that. Someone gave it a big thumbs-up, used my favorite word, wrote a giant telethon-sized check, and said, "Blast this at humanity. Make people hear it over and over and over again." This super crap ad.

Everything is approved. So how important is it to approve great ads? Really freaking important.

RYAN: And it comes down to these four questions: Is it an ad that can only be unique to us? Does it entertain? Does it set us up for a campaign? And does it make the customer feel something? If we can answer or explain those with a yes in each category, we know we're walking down the right path. Whether it's your taste is inconsequential. What matters is that it's true to your brand, and that those four things drive this forward and make something happen in the listening audience.

MICK: Most really good ads have all four. Most ads have none of them. So start with one. Dammit. Just for goodness' sake, start with one. Build up to four. It would be lovely to get up to four. 

CHRIS: It’s like Everest’s base camps. You go up, you come back, you go up, you come back. 

RYAN: If I were to look at these four, which one would I start with? I would start with the one that makes them feel. Then I would certainly go to "make it unique to us." By making it feel, by virtue of that fact, it's likely to entertain. You're always going to offend somebody, and that's okay. Entertain the masses and don't expect to be universally perceived well.

And then setting up for the next one, not every single one is about the campaign. There are an awful lot of people who are about the cute and clever of the moment, the killer ad, the one-stop-shop or the one-hit-wonder. And look, if that's all you have, that's better than 80% of ads out there. But to mature into a properly done campaign, you're going to deepen into those other questions.

MICK: If you can get a couple of those things into your ad, you're already going to be in the top 10%.

RYAN: This is a bonus. I think this is probably one of the biggest things that encapsulates what we've talked about today: the job of the approver is to enable. It's not to author. That's probably the big takeaway. You're not co-writing this ad. You're trusting people who know how to write to write ads. You're steering and approving. And the approval itself, by virtue of the fact that you've approved it, you've created the ad.

MICK: Your job is to call balls and strikes, not play the game.

CHRIS: Or to create the environment. I always come back to the fact that one of the best music producers of the last 20 years is Rick Rubin. Rick Rubin does not play an instrument. He was the head of Def Jam Records. He's produced a lot of great artists. He's not an engineer. not sitting there working the faders. He doesn’t play any instruments; he doesn't write any songs. He works with artists to draw out the best of their careers. And somehow he gets them to think about things differently. "Have you thought about... what else could you do to accomplish this?" 

He doesn’t say, “Can you put more notes into the guitar solo? I think more notes is better than few.” He doesn't get into the granularity. He just makes people want to be better. And he makes people dig into themselves to bring out the best creative, and that’s what you can do as the business owner or as the marketing director. How do you create an inspired environment where people want to do a great ad for you? Want to do a great campaign? A great marketing idea?

RYAN: That's awesome. I feel like I'm the Rick Rubin of Wizard of Ads.

CHRIS: He has a ridiculous beard. 

RYAN: Yeah, maybe that's what it is. I think it certainly has a part to play. 

‍Gentlemen, this has been a treat. Another great conversation around what we can do to make people's lives easier and have more clarity on how to get the great stuff out into the universe.

RYAN: So look. If you're running a business in America and you're the one who has to approve the marketing, the ads, the campaigns, the next direction, here are the three things I'd want you to walk out the door with.

• ‍One: Hire well, then get out of the way. Find the people who are great at this and let them be great at it. You didn't hire a copywriter to give you the chance to be a copywriter on the weekends. You hired them because you cannot do this job yourself. Pay them. Trust them. Then physically remove yourself from the meeting if you have to.
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• Two: When you do speak up, speak about the criteria. Not the execution. "I don't like it" isn't feedback. It's a feeling. Try this instead: "This could be any competitor's ad." Or: "This doesn't make me feel anything." Or: "I don't see how this becomes the next chapter." Those are real notes. Those give the team somewhere to go. The other ones just make them quit.
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• Three: Remember, the approver enables. The approver does not author. Your job is to create the conditions for a great ad to exist. Not to rewrite the great ad somebody else brought you. The names we still remember in advertising history aren't the ones who fixed the commas. They're the ones who looked at something scary and said, "Yeah. Run it."

‍

If you don't hear anything else, hear this:

Every great ad in the history of advertising was approved by someone who said yes when their gut was screaming no. That's the move. That's the whole skill. Saying yes to the things that scare you,  after you've made sure they're scary for the right reasons.

Hire the right people. Trust the right people. Get out of the way. And when it works — take the credit. They won't mind. They'll hand it to you.

Until next time. This is Advertising in America. Thanks for tuning in.

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Thank you for joining us on Advertising in America. We hope you enjoyed the show and captured a nugget of marketing magic. Wanna hear more? Subscribe, leave a review and share this podcast with your friends.

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Until next time, keep your ads enchanting and your audience captivated.

Are you running direct response ads? No? Well, you should and I'll explain why below. Whenever you do advertising for your business, you should have one goal in mind: conversions. This includes all the people who need your thing today, and all those who will eventually need your thing, someday. You want to elicit responses and prompt your market to take action on your offer, whatever it is. However, how many times have you run an advertising campaign only to receive a few clicks and one depressing lead? Chances are, the principles of direct response marketing don't emanate in your advertisements. In direct response advertising, the entire point is to get potential customers to respond to your ad immediately. This means including a call-to-action (CTA) that's impossible to say no to with an offer that's too good to refuse. The truth is that you can riddle your advertising with as many CTAs as you want. However, this will not necessarily translate into conversions. Crafting direct response ads is both an art and a science. The art comes from direct response copywriting which is the use of persuasive, powerful words and mind-blowing angles. Conversely, It is a science because you need to know the intricacies of human psychology and neuroscience to actually persuade people. Unless you have both in your direct response ads, you're bound to a result of poor engagement and measly returns. You can't afford that as a growing business in the residential home service industry. Wizard of Ads™ is here to prevent that from happening. Here, we'll share with you everything there is to know about writing direct response ads. Keep reading.

What are Direct Response Ads?

Direct response ads are a form of advertising that aims to elicit a quick, specific response or action from users. Take note of the keyword "specific". By publishing direct response ads, you want readers, viewers, or listeners to take the action that you want, immediately. This could be to purchase your products, book a call, or sign up for a service, etc. That said, direct response marketing is the polar opposite of traditional marketing. The normative system of marketing focuses on building relationships and establishing brand recognition. In direct response marketing, businesses focus on driving conversions through ads to acquire customers, generate sales and a quick ROI. The key is in the immediacy of the response. Ads are direct, to the point and focused on a specific CTA. Nonetheless, I believe that striking the right balance between direct response marketing and traditional marketing is key. In their groundbreaking book, the Long and the Short of It, Binet and Field teach us you must invest 60% to 70% of the budget on branded endeavors and 30% to 40% of the budget to entice the “today” sale. Allow me to explain. Say, you bagged an HVAC installation gig through your direct response ads. Anyone who had their HVAC installed will have the unit maintained and repaired eventually. You want to be the business that gets both the installation and maintenance service. Only a healthy mix of direct response and traditional marketing will enable you to do this. Why? Because you didn't skedaddle after you got their coveted yes. You built a long-lasting relationship that got them committed and invested in your business. In other words, you can't have one or the other. This is especially true in a tightly competitive landscape like the residential home services industry. Your lifeblood is your club memberships, and only both traditional and direct response marketing can give you that. If you're struggling to craft killer direct response ads for your business, Ryan Chute from Wizard of Ads for Essential Services can help. Book a call.

Recruitment Ads

To some degree, recruitment ads are a form of direct-response ads. No other comes close to explaining their similarities than Roy H. Williams, in one of his Monday morning memos. In April 2018, Roy published a 60-second recruitment ad from Morris-Jenkins Plumbing and Air Conditioning from Charlotte, NC. The ad reached a staggering 19 percent of the entire Charlotte population in a span of three days. Listeners heard it an average of 6.3 times and cost only seven-tenths of a penny for every repetition per person. These are incredible feats and all, but the most important component of the ad is their wonderful copy. I won't mention it here so as to avoid plagiarism. My point is that Roy H. Williams hit the trifecta that broke the science of direct response ads. The advertising message he crafted had these three elements: remarkability, credibility, and urgency. We'll dig deeper into why these characteristics are important in a bit. Here are the tidbits that made the recruitment ad a head-turner:

"Would you like to make one hundred thousand dollars a year?"

This a truly remarkable message, considering the median salary of plumbers in 2021 was $59,880. Plumbers get immediately hooked when they hear these numbers.

"You hear Morris-Jenkins on TV and radio all the time."

Everyone in Charlotte knows who Morris-Jenkins is very well and they have a wonderful reputation. This line reminded listeners who was talking. Morris-Jenkins’ immense credibility wiped away the skepticism that plumbers may have from the previous promise.

"Be at Morris-Jenkins this Saturday at 8 a.m. for a confidential interview."

While their CTA is not to be at Morris-Jenkins within five minutes, they still displayed a sense of urgency. The interview was one-time. If a plumber missed their chance, they'll have to wait for another announcement.

Now then, what's with these three elements? Let's discover below.

Remarkable, Credible, and Urgent Ads

Again, direct response advertising is anchored on offering immediate specific actions. This is a quality absent from non-direct response advertising. "If that's the case," says plumber Joe, "let's just add a CTA button in all our advertisements." A respectable attempt, but a heartbreaking one when he realizes his ads yield little to no conversions. His strategy overlooked one problem: what makes him think his ads are persuasive enough to actually drive that action? Remember that sales happen when an alignment of principles occurs. Similarly, you can only persuade someone when you know what makes them tick and attack from that angle. It is basic science, and it tells us there are three things: remarkability, credibility, and urgency. These three are the combined secret sauce of successful direct response ads. Let's explore them further below.

Remarkable

Let me ask you something. Which is the more interesting news?

1. "Elon Musk spotted driving around town with the newest unreleased Tesla model."
2. "Elon Musk's newest unreleased Tesla model was stolen."

Okay, I agree, it sounds harsh but anyone would probably say B, right? But why? Because it's more remarkable. It tickles the right spot and piques our interest better. After all, so what if he drives around town with a new Tesla concept model? That's normal and quite frankly, no fun. You only truly access the realm of remarkability when your ads go against the grain. Adding a story that shatters the system and a fact that breaks the status quo is what people want. Saying that plumbers can earn $100 thousand is interesting, and truth be told, mouth-watering, especially for plumbers who earn half. What remarkable value do you offer that makes you stand 600 ft. above your competition? Do you have a perfectly fair competitive advantage that elevates you above the Sea of Sameness? That's your “remarkable.”

Credible

Another pillar in the success of direct response ads is their sense of credibility, particularly, of the one speaking. In the case of Morris-Jenkins, their many successful services and commercials have cemented them atop the industry. One mention of their brand name and every plumber is all ears. Here's the thing. For businesses that are only starting out, your credibility may be nowhere to be found. Does that mean you can't produce successful direct response ads without being a household name? No, not at all. However, you do need something to show for when people begin wondering about your credibility. This could include but is not limited to:

• A website with an appealing user interface and a smooth user experience
• An optimized local listing in Google Business Profile
• Optimized, authoritative, and value-dense content throughout your website
• Good and positive reviews
• An active social media page
• Desirable company culture and work ethics

With these elements, your business can rival even more popular brands in the direct response marketing scene.

Urgent

Finally, what makes direct response an action-driven approach is the pinch of urgency garnished throughout the ad. In Roy H. Williams' ads, he indicated a clear time, date, and place for the plumber and HVAC tech interview. Naturally, anyone who missed the date loses their spot among the Morris-Jenkins ranks. That's the sense of urgency the ad creates. With a desirable offer, you reclaim the power of decision-making away from your customers. You back them into a corner where their only choice is to take action now or miss the chance forever. One of the biggest drivers of urgency is having a sale. While I'm not all for lowering prices, I do believe in its power when done strategically. In the residential home service industry, you could try a limited-time offer for your club membership. Of course, list down the advantages of your value proposition.

What if a Direct Response Ad is Not Working?

The success of direct response ads is anchored on the presence of those three elements. Conversely, the absence of either one or two means your ad may flop.

1. If the ad is not remarkable or does not have a remarkable offer, people will not talk about it.
2. If the ad or you are not credible, your words, like static noise, will go over your listeners.
3. If the ad is not urgent, people take away the purchasing power from your business. They will decide when they want to buy. Sooner or later, they'll forget they ever came across your ad.

Direct Response Marketing vs Customer Bonding

Direct response marketing is distinct compared to customer bonding. When you bond with someone, you aim to build bridges and break barriers with someone. You're not after a quick buck. You want to be friends with them. You can only do this through constant association, hence the term "customer bonding." Customer bonding can be done in a variety of ways like through content or newsletters. They're not after your customer's cash, rather they simply want to introduce your company to prospects. Messaging that bonds with customers are the building blocks that make your direct response ads successful. You want to focus more on customer bonding ads, content, emails and social media posts than exploit direct response ads. As Roy H. Williams puts it:

"Customer bonding ads build long-term reputation and relationship. Direct-response ads erode it."

In other words, use direct response ads sparingly in your business and focus more on customer bonding fronts. Newsflash, Wizard Ryan Chute of Wizard of Ads for Essential Services can do both for your company. If you need an advertising expert to make your ads for you, book a call.

Bryan Huddleston has had plenty of experience with rebrands.

As a product manager and tech council executive in Nashville, he’d watched companies shed old identities and emerge with new logos, color palettes, and signage that looked great on a business card.

So when he sat down with Ryan Chute and the team at Wizard of Ads to begin reimagining his newly merged garage door company, he came in with his guard lowered.

“I can deal with anything,” he told himself.

And he meant it. After 30 years in technology — Microsoft, Dell subsidiaries, startup ventures — Huddleston had learned to lead with curiosity and follow the data. Whatever the agency brought back, he was ready.

At least he thought he was.

Cornerstone of success

The story of Dad & Daughter Garage Door Service actually begins with a man named Jim Mulholland.

For 30 years, Mulholland, his wife Jo Lynn and daughter Christy ran Cornerstone Garage Door in middle Tennessee. Jim handled the technical side, including dispatch; Christy was responsible for the back office – the call center, accounts receivable, purchasing, inventory, ordering, customer care and fleet management. Jim developed his own system.  He had no software and no dispatch board, just a whiteboard in his head.

He could track 50 jobs a day on his own, routing seven to nine technicians by zip code alone. When an emergency call came in, Mulholland would hear the address, picture the grid, and know exactly which technician was close enough to help.

Together, the Mulholland family built a multi-million dollar business with that approach.

“Amazing,” Huddleston said.

Mulholland also is a man of faith. He’d chosen the name Cornerstone because he wanted a name that would reflect his belief systems. Some 17 years before the merger, Mulholland’s business had grown too big for one person. So he asked his daughter Christy to help. She remains with the business, now a teammate of Huddleston.

When Huddleston came to Mulholland in 2024 — he calls himself “the accidental tourist” because he more or less stumbled into home services after a career in enterprise software — Mulholland didn’t just sell him a business.

Mulholland wanted someone who would protect the customers, protect the team, and honor Cornerstone’s guiding principles.

“He wanted someone who would carry on that tradition because of his value set,” Huddleston said.

‘Melt your brain’

The merger closed in October 2024. Within 45 days, the entire operation had moved from paper and whiteboard to ServiceTitan, the cloud-based software for the trades. Technicians turned to iPads. The team grew. And Huddleston began thinking about what would come next.

He had already seen what most marketing agencies sold. Logo packages dressed up in the language of strategy. Visual identities built around what looked good on a truck wrap, with no story to anchor them. In his years as a product manager, he’d gone through product marketing training and come out the other side with a conviction that would now shape everything: story first, visuals second.

“The story you have is way more important than features and functions,” he said. “You have to attach problem, solution, and for the customer, there’s always an emotion.”

He’d already befriended Chute at Wizard of Ads, and when the two spoke Huddleston made his feelings clear: He wanted a story that exemplified the brand, so build around the story, then build a visual identity.

It was hand-in-glove with the way Chute works.

“Feelings are the cornerstone of our strategy,” Chute said. “If we can’t make people laugh or cry or feel something about what they’re facing, we haven’t done our job.”

The only way to do that, he said, is to learn as much as he can about the business and the team.

So Chute spent about two days with Huddleston, tapping into his history and beliefs. His tech background. His upbringing in rural West Tennessee, where he’d hauled hay and cut tobacco and learned what hard work felt like. His marriage. His three daughters, 19, 16, and 14. And one of the reasons he’d gotten into the garage door business in the first place: To give them somewhere to learn, to grow, to contribute.

The team at Wizard of Ads then spent another 45 days working with its team in development to create the right brand, image, logo and marketing to fit the story, centered around a basic human connection.

Chute and his team had found two natural stories – the connection between Mulholland and Christy, and the connection between Huddleston and his daughters.

“We try to make people feel something special about something they already feel,” Chute said.

It took 47 more days for Wizard of Ads to get the brand approved, and another two months to firm up the visual and editorial production. In a little under four months, Chute was ready.

He called Huddleston and conveyed a simple message: “You need to sit back; we’ve got a concept that’s going to melt your brain.”

Huddleston’s response to himself: Whatever.

A brand you can feel

The Wizard of Ads team was not pitching a new logo. They were pitching a world — two characters, a dad and a daughter standing back to back to become the living embodiment of the business.

Dad represented the technical side. The trained technician who understood the difference between an insulated and non-insulated door, who cared that homeowners were safe, worry-free, and proud of their home..

Daughter represented the business side: accounts payable, scheduling, customer calls, inventory. Together, they didn’t just split duties — they created something. A family. A partnership. A story that anyone could feel.

“We tried to represent Dad in an upright, and honorable manner,” Chute said. “And to respect women in so much as we respect their diverse perspectives in the trades, their attention to detail and their ability to run a solid operation.”

Wizard of Ads had written radio scripts. Sitcom-style, serialized, the two characters bantering back and forth about the business, about homeowners, about their life. The ads would run like episodes, not commercials.

Then came the last script.

In it, the Dad looks at his daughter and tells her she’ll be running things. And then he says they’re changing the name. To Dad & Daughter Garage Door Service.

The script ends expressing with the two expressing the most important of words to each other: I love you.

Huddleston wasn’t ready for that.

“I suspect we might have made him cry,” Chute said. “We have a win when we do that.”

Huddleston sat with it. He talked to his wife. He talked to Christy. What he heard confirmed what he was feeling.

This wasn’t a brand strategy. This was truth expressed in fictional form. It was Mulholland and Christy. It was Huddleston and his own girls. It was every ‘girl Dad’ sharing the future with his daughter. It was also every family that had ever called in because their garage door was broken and felt, for a moment, a little vulnerable.

He said yes.

Value and validation

The rebrand launched in March of 2026. Two vans rolled out wrapped in the new identity — the dad and daughter characters bold against the paint — and the radio ads began airing across middle Tennessee.

The results were immediate, and the reactions not something Huddleston had planned for.

One evening, one of his technicians stopped at a grocery store. When he exited, there was a man standing in front of the van, holding his newborn daughter while his wife photographed them.

“I was just blown away by that,” Huddleston said.

Then came the call from Mulholland.

Mulholland doesn’t listen to the radio, so he hadn’t heard the ads. But some of the men he goes to church with had pulled him aside to say they’d heard the commercials and that they were awesome.

Mulholland went online and read the About Us page Huddleston had written — the careful, honest account of what Cornerstone had been and what Dad & Daughter now was.

He called Huddleston.

“I really like what you wrote there,” Mulholland said.

Huddleston said he felt that was Mulholland saying, ‘Hey everything is OK.’

Huddleston had made the name change not on impulse but after prayer, reflection, and long consultation. He had carried Mulholland’s legacy into it, and Mulholland’s legacy would carry forward.

“I promised him I would do that … ” Huddleston said. “My responsibility is to provide, which means providing the way for everybody on the team to be better than what they were while I honor what Jim has built. That they have opportunity for the future. I'm just more pumped about that than anything else because I love every person on the team.”

There’s even more to the story

Dad & Daughter’s approach has led to success. The goal for 2026 is to double the $3 million it reached in 2025, with hopes to reach $20 million by 2028.

“Then we’ll figure out if we need to go to $100 million,” Huddleston said.

That matters, obviously. But to him what matters more is the story.

Huddleston is thinking about dad-daughter safety pamphlets. He’s thinking about how to teach his AI voice agents to speak with the warmth and banter of the two characters his brand is built around. He’s open-minded about any way he can help the connection between any parent and any child.

Underneath the strategy and the technology and the growth targets, there is that human element.

“If we can help one family and just one family have a better connection between a father and a daughter or anyone inside of the family, a mother and a son, whatever that is,” Huddleston said, “then all of that's worth it.”

Matt Pozda sits in a wing chair in his self-proclaimed 'zen den,’ left leg crossed over his knee.

He looks into a camera and deadpans: “I read a book on anti-gravity the other day. It was impossible to put down.”

In another Instagram video, Pozda asks: “What makes pirates such good singers? They can hit the high Cs.”

Both videos conclude with the musical jingle: “All you gotta do is Call Dad … dot-coooom.”

Pozda is the CEO of (you guessed it) Call Dad, an HVAC and plumbing business founded in 2013 in Charlotte, N.C., that now has eight locations in the Carolinas.

Originally called Sky HVAC, the business rebranded itself to Call Dad in late 2023 -- which led to Call Dad’s social media marketing featuring “dad jokes.”

With help from Ryan Chute, Partner and Strategist at Wizard of Ads for Essential Services, Call Dad rebranded itself with a better story to tell.

“The first thing we try to accommodate with any rebrand is to tell a story that is true to the values of the company that we’re representing,” Chute said. “There’s nothing worse than creating a truck wrap and titling a company without a true story behind it. We like to do the opposite. Find something the people would voraciously stand behind. Create a brand you can recognize from the moon.”

A 14-Hour Deep Dive Uncovered the Brand That Was Already There

The process started with Chute and others from Wizard of Ads sitting around a conference table with Pozda, who had left investment banking to buy the HVAC and plumbing business, as well as others on his team.

But Chute didn’t want to just understand the business. He wanted to understand the people at the business and find the best way to tell their story.

He knew that Pozda owned a respected HVAC company, but quickly recognized that the Sky branding was not unique to the people it represented.

“When we look at a brand, we’re aiming for fame,” Chute said on a video produced about the rebrand by Wizard of Ads. “We’re aiming for that ability to be larger than life. Don’t tell people a story; be the story.”

Much like he did with Dad & Daughter Garage Door Service, Chute and his team dove into the story of Pozda and his team.

“I thought it would be a four-hour marketing meeting,” Call Dad Chief Operating Officer Mathew Stewart said. “It ended up being a 14-hour Dr. Phil therapy session.”

“They wanted to dig deeper than I ever possibly imagined,” Pozda said. “Not necessarily [about] why the business, but why I had any interest in doing anything in life.”

“Yes, it got intense, and we got deep,” Chute said. “We love doing that. That’s our happy day when we can do that with clients, especially with people who are open and forthright. These are good people doing good work.

“It was really the stories of their childhood, their wives, their parents, their kids, and it was so abundantly clear that these guys were the Dads of all Dads.”

That determination came from the personal stories Pozda, Stewart, and others shared. They talked of their Dads, of their children, of the experience of being a Dad, what it meant and why it matters. And of Pozda leaving the financial world because he wanted to spend more time with his children. Chute sensed something.

“I’ve been doing this for 30-plus years, and I’ve lived a life of reading people,” Chute said. “There’s only so much surface-level stuff that you go through until you realize people have something very significant or they don’t. My experience is really what’s given me the ability to realize we’re working with the real McCoy. Matt is definitely one of those folks. He’s genuine, and he’s not afraid to talk about things he’s not good at.

“Then together they all had a humility about them that allowed them to get past pomp and circumstance of a bunch of smart dudes in the room together trying to show everyone who’s the smartest guy. None of that happened. They were kind, funny, with a willingness to be vulnerable. Also very clear. All their answers were robust.”

Call Dad’s Brand Resulted from a Search for a Feeling

The more the discussion continued, the more Chute believed he was onto something. As he sat in the room, he checked to see if the domain name CallDad.com was available. When it was, he presented the idea.

“I’m built to look for things that make you feel,” he said.

Everyone in the room felt the bigger idea of Call Dad. Who can say they’ve never thought of calling their Dad in a time of trouble, or of wishing they could? The promise of Call Dad is fundamental on the most human level: Dad is on the way to help.

“I can’t tell you how many times someone has stopped us, and they’re like, ‘Hey, I love the name. When I have a problem, I call Dad,’” said Bryan Southers, Call Dad’s Head of Sales.

Pozda said he’s received letters from customers describing how Call Dad’s service filled the expectations they had for their own father.

Katie Biddle, head of Customer Experience and Marketing, said one woman shared how she did one last Google search and found Call Dad.

“She had just lost her Dad,” Biddle said, “and she said it was like someone was speaking to (her) and she thought, ‘I need to call them.’ Which is really special.”

A memorable anecdote in the meeting came from Pozda, who, after hearing a quip about dad jokes, related that at his home, the family held a contest every Sunday. Whoever told the “best dad joke” was freed from dish duty.

Dad Jokes Aren't Just Funny — They're a Marketing Strategy

Those Dad jokes now are a facet of the social media marketing campaign around Call Dad. The jokes drive the hits on the company’s Instagram page, with Chute saying the dad jokes are “killing it.”

Social media was just one part of the overall marketing approach, though, an approach tailored to the business and its story.

“Many don’t understand how marketing works,” Chute said. “People believe it’s a matter of using pay-per-click (PPC) ads, getting the truck wrapped, doing community work, and the job is done.

“I developed a relational advertising framework a few years ago. It considers all of the information that’s been researched for the last 20 years. The concept is straightforward and focused on two key factors: Brand-building and sales activation for lead generation, and the infrastructure, online and offline, to capture leads.”

Lead generation means branding and sales activation, Chute said, and includes call to actions, offers, and promotions. Lead capture is the infrastructure a business uses to capture said leads, like PPC and form fills.

“People go to a place and choose to walk down the road because you compel them to,” Chute said. “So we ask: ‘What is the most efficient way for us to build that with the highest impact message?’ This means we build a marketing structure that is different from what you usually see.”

That structure includes all media channels. Radio is typically the most economical way to talk to an entire trade area in most situations, and Chute said he tries to “really leverage the theatre of the mind to get people engaged.”

Radio, Billboards, and Truck Wraps: Building Fame Before Chasing Leads

With Call Dad, the initial impetus was radio with high-repetition, high-impact messages, supported by billboards strategically placed across the market, giving the company greater reach with  a  strong and memorable message repeated in key ways. This allowed the company to focus much of its initial rebranding costs on truck wraps and uniforms.

Two years later, TV was added, with a roster of billboards in all of Call Dad’s eight locations. Social media is focused on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram, with the emphasis on deepening the brand from different angles. Entertaining social media posts spread the message that Call Dad is likeable and trustworthy.

“Advertising for home services is hard,” Chute said. “You are dealing with an externally triggered, grudge purchase. People come to you in a negative headspace. Nobody is excited to buy a new hot water tank or HVAC repair.

“If we can resolve their problem with a positive disposition or positioning over and over again, we’ve succeeded. People are going to pick the things that make them feel happiest in an unhappy situation.”

$38 Million and 67% Growth — The Payoff of a Brand Built on Truth

Pozda said in April 2026 that Call Dad had seen 67% year-over-year growth, and would finish the year with 210 employees and revenue of $38 million.

“That experience was something I never imagined, that someone would dig as far as they would to understand how to position a business around that individual’s values,” Pozda said. “The connectivity and the growth were well beyond anything we ever imagined.”

Back in the zen den, Pozda is bringing that zeitgeist with yet another dad joke.

“What do you call an alligator in a vest?” he asked.

“An investigator.”