AlarmForce is in the midst of launching a much-anticipated brand refresh that features new creative campaign, logo, website and updated jingle.
The publicly listed security and home detection company launched the campaign earlier this month with the help of new agency partner McCann. It includes two television spots as well as radio and digital advertising.
The flagship TV commercials include one with a lazy hound dog that is considered the current, but not very reliable security system. The other shows a texting teenager who may never know the house is flooding unless she gets an alert on her phone.
The ads highlight a new line of products such as flood detection and a doorbell camera with two-way voice. The company also beefed up its smartphone app that helps consumers monitor and control their homes while away. The spots end with the brand’s new “We’re always home” tagline and a toned down instrument-only version of the company’s recognizable jingle.
“We are very excited to work with AlarmForce on their relaunch,” McCann CEO David Leonard said in a release. “To be able to help refresh and evolve such an iconic Canadian company is a great honour and we are excited to be able to bring AlarmForce to new heights.”
The rebranding comes amid increased competition in the security and home monitoring space, driven in part by new technology and consumers’ growing use and reliance on their mobile phones.
Beth Robertson, vice-president of sales and marketing at AlarmForce, told Marketing the company made the creative changes based on industry research showing its previous adds were “tired and dated.” Research also suggested consumers were very familiar with the phone number by now, because of the old jingle.
“[The new campaign] is quite a departure from what we’ve done before, and that was by design,” said Robertson.
The digital side of the campaign includes display ads, spots on YouTube as well as the use of Google ad words for people searching for home security systems.
The AlarmForce brand refresh also includes a new mobile-first website, created by Toronto-based digital media agency DAC Group.
Localized landing pages for each of AlarmForce’s three major product categories will launch later this fall, with original content relevant to individual locations across Canada and the U.S.
“This strategy will help boost organic ranking and conversions, as well as paid search results,” AlarmForce said.
AlarmForce has been going through a number of changes over the past year or so, including to its management team. Robertson joined the company a year ago. AlarmForce also named a new CEO, Grahum Badun, in May 2015. He replaced Anthony Pizzonia, who held the job for a couple of years. (Earlier this year, AlarmForce founder and former CEO Joel Matlin settled a wrongful dismissal lawsuit filed against the company in 2013.)
