84 Lumber plans 90-second ad during Super Bowl
Even if the Steelers don’t make it to the Super Bowl, the Pittsburgh region will get notice during the Fox telecast of the Feb. 5 NFL championship game.
84 Lumber is working with Pittsburgh’s Brunner advertising agency on a commercial slated to run just prior to halftime, that will kick off a yearlong recruitment drive.
“We need to cast a wider net, and to let the world know that 84 Lumber is a place for people who don’t always fit nicely into a box,” said company owner and president Maggie Hardy Magerko in a mission statement. “We want people interested in creating their own path … for themselves and for 84 Lumber.”
It will be a 90-second invitation to young men seeking a career from the Washington County-based building supply chain with 250 outlets in 30 states, covering the nation’s 130 largest markets (including Houston where the Super Bowl will be played and three 84 Lumber outlets are located).
“When we looked at the inventory that was available, the story we were trying to tell, the tentpole we were trying to plant, it is not a story that can be told in 30 seconds,” said Steve Radick, Brunner vice president for public relations and content integration. “The 90-second spot allows us to tell a deeper and more impactful story.”
Just what will go into those 90 seconds is still under wraps, but 84 Lumber hopes it will be a boost to its plans, that includes expansion to approximately 20 more locations across the country.
“The primary goal of all this is absolutely more recruits, higher quality recruits, who are looking at 84 Lumber when they are looking for the next step in their careers,” Radick said.
It is Brunner’s first Super Bowl ad, 84 Lumber’s first and maybe the first ad ever created by a Pittsburgh ad agency, at least within the last 30 years.
“Various agencies have participated in Super Bowl ad campaigns,” Radick said. “They may have other roles such as public relations or social media, but have not been involved in a creative role.”
Brunner has worked off and on with 84 Lumber on projects for more than five years.
The director for the effort is Cole Webley, a young Los Angeles-based filmmaker whose past clients include Lexus, Adidas, Delta, Samsung and Johnson & Johnson.
“When we talked to him about what the message is, it really resonated with him,” Radick said. “So he has kind of a personal interest in this subject matter as well.”
The ad will target males ages 20-29 who aspire for a career rather than a job, with training and development that will help them achieve success.
“Our industry is going through a period of extreme disruption,” Magerko said. “And I’ve always preferred to be the one doing the disrupting, rather than the one being disrupted. But to do that, we need to hire and train people differently.”
The ad will be the latest national notice for the company Magerko’s father Joe Hardy founded in 1956 and has survived the ups and downs of the housing industry over those six decades.
“The bigger story is,” Radick said, “84 Lumber was into some down times. They’re doing some really big things now. This is their chance to say, ‘this is who we are, this is who we need to help build the next 60 years.'”
84 Lumber made two Forbes lists last year, as one of America’s Largest Private Companies with more than $2.5 billion in 2015 sales, and as one of America’s 250 Best Mid-Size Employers.
In April, 84 Lumber announced plans to ride the wave of a new phenomenon, with four “Tiny Living” lines of “custom tiny houses” built at its millwork facility near Canonsburg.
The company said the introduction of Tiny Living made it the first major retailer and only large building-materials firm to tap into a market and of competitively priced custom-built houses no bigger than 200 square feet.