Duracell Spot Leads To Sales Spurt For Featured Product

  • by July 24, 2008
Duracell spot for the innovative tracking deviceBrickHouse Security expects to have its Child Locator back in stock today. The innovative tracking device had sold out -- four months worth of inventory -- less than 48 hours after its first appearance two weeks ago in a Duracell "Trusted Everywhere" commercial. 

"I'd much rather be shipping product than taking backorders," says Todd Morris, president of the five-year-old BrickHouse Security. He says he had prepared for sales to double due to the Duracell commercial, but "the reaction has been much more than we expected." For one thing, the spot includes no info on where to buy the Child Locator, let alone any call for action. "Vast numbers of people have been hunting us down," Morris explains. "They have to Google us to find us."

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BrickHouse Security sells directly via the Internet, and its own marketing efforts have mainly been of the "niche" variety, according to Jason Lazarus, director of marketing. In fact, he notes, when Duracell first called BrickHouse about including the Child Locator in its six-year-old series of cause-related spots, "we weren't necessarily sure it was really them until they showed up here with their presentation."

Duracell conducts research "looking at devices that include Duracell batteries and depend on them for critical applications," says spokesman Kurt Iverson. "We became interested [in BrickHouse] because they pack Duracell with every Child Locator they sell."

In the spot from ACME Idea Company, a parent, on a visit to the park with her son, starts to panic when she can't find him. After retrieving the Child Locator from her purse, she locates her son and all ends happily.

The Child Locator works by tracking small chips that can be clipped to a child's clothing, shoe or stroller. Other products included in the "Trusted Everywhere" campaign, which now numbers 16 commercials, have included defibrillators and the communications units worn by firefighters.

While the Child Locator spot is the only new "Trusted Everywhere" entry this year, BrickHouse Security might be advised to have a good supply of the devices on hand for years to come. That's because its Duracell guest appearance may be around a while. The firefighter ad and others are back in rotation, for example, as "these dramatic little stories have a longer shelf life than typical TV spots," according to Iverson.

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