Sarasota's Clockwork Home Services Featured On 'The Pitch'

Businesses are looking for new ways to get their message across about their product and brands, and one Sarasota company will be featured in a new AMC series chronicaling that process.

Clockwork Home Services will be featured in AMC's The Pitch at 10 p.m. Monday where two international ad agencies, The Hive and FKM compete to create an ad campaign that Clockwork would use. 

The Sarasota-based Clockwork owns several brands, and in this episode, the agencies have to create a campaign that incorporates three of their brands: Benjamin Franklin: The Punctual Plumber, and One Hour Heating & Air Conditioning. As you can guess, punctuality is a core component to these businesses. But will these ad agencies meet the deadline and deliver a great product?  

You'll have to tune in and find out.

In the mean time, Clockwork's Vice President of Marketing Chris Buitron of Sarasota, spoke with Patch about the experience filming the show.

Q: How did you get approached to do this show?

A: We have an outside organization called Pitt Consultancy out of New York. That's what they do for a living. They do product placement. We were presented the opportunity from Pitt Consultancy.

Q: Was your company looking for a way to refresh its brand beforehand or did the show seem like a good opportunity to try something different?

A: We were absolutely looking for fresh creative. I wouldn't say we were looking for a way to refresh our brands. We're very comfortable with our brands, look, feel and positioning. What we're looking for is an opportunity to have a fresh campaign, fresh creative.

Q: What was your mindset going into the show knowing there would be cameras rolling, you'll have to make a decision and you may or may not use the product in the end? 

A: For us it was easy because we had the ability to have two top-notch ad agencies in North America present two to three ideas of how to put a campaign to market. It was very little risk for us, the only reward is if one of the campaigns would come to life. 

Q: The show really focuses on the two agencies and the battle of them going through to come up with an idea. But, did you feel any pressure?

A: No, not at all. I give a lot of credit to Studio Lambert and AMC for really from our perspective, it was painless. We put together a marketing creative brief that we presented to both agencies on Day One. Then we pretty much went on with our daily lives for a while then they come back with their pitches. For us, there was no pressure.

Q: For people not in the advertising or marketing business, how does the normal process of working with an ad agency compare to what we see on The Pitch? 

A: I've been in marketing my whole career, so you typically do a request for proposal for an agency if you're looking for a new agency. It's very close to real life.  

You typically pick several agencies that you want to bid on your business. You put something out there, you bid once on it and you come in, and they usually come in and give you their background, but you also have to say in almost every case, take a look at our business and ask what would you? It really gives you an idea of their capabilities. 

I know it's a long answer, but to me it's a very close if not could be the same as real life when you're looking for a new agency. 

Q: Was it refreshing that The Pitch is shot in a documentary style and not really a reality game show like The Apprentice or Shark?

A: The show's really not set up to do that, so I was happy with how they did it. It was really true to life, nothing was staged. We were happy with that. We listened to the pitch and we deliberated and made our decision.

Q: Did you have to pay for the marketing firms or was that arranged through the show?

A: I'll be honest with you, that's a bit confidential. I can't speak to that, but I'm not sure how the other organizations deals were.

Q: Have you seen a finished product of your episode?

A: No.

Q: Do you plan on watching it or having a viewing party? 

A: Absolutely. We're going through that now. We actually have a company meeting out on the West Coast, so the timing of it is tough. So we are looking at that right now, but there are no plans in the works to have a viewing party.

Q: When can we start seeing these ads? And was the winning campaign changed at all?

A: Our campaign will start on May 15. Although there will be a commercial that will air at the end of the show for our organization. But our campaign for us will start May 15.

Q: Where can we see the campaign? 

A: We'll be using most normal forms of marketing media — print, radio, TV and direct mail and digital. 

We have the option of executing the winning campaign or not and it sounds like we could be the first organization that executes the campaign that was pitched to us. From a consumer standpoint, they can watch the television show, see how a pitch and campaign really comes about and then walk out of their house and hear it in the radio or see it in a newspaper. 

Q: How much exposure do you think will come about for your company through appearing on The Pitch?

A: We didn't really capture that because it really wasn't our objective. Our objective wasn't really product placement. It was more about getting a quality campaign we could execute. We didn't really put together any measure about brand awareness being on the show.

Q: Anything else you'd like viewers to know?

A: It was a very, very positive experience. I have a lot of respect for Studio Lambert and AMC. Our franchisees are excited about it. I believe they'll be happy with the result. Locally, we have a couple of franchisees mentioned. We have a Mister Sparky — Patrick Kennedy. We have a Ben Franklin — Dave Dolquist. Our franchisees are excited and hope to benefit from this campaign.

LINKS

The Pitch official website 

Clockwork Home Services, Inc.