Sterling Needed to Reintroduce Itself After Years Off the Air
Sterling, part of Kohler, launched its first mass-market campaign in 2022 after five years of minimal advertising. It needed to reintroduce itself to professional plumbers and DIYers as the reliable brand that is easy to install and built to last.
With Alli, PMG defined the audience from how plumbers actually spend their time, then turned seven hero videos into 63 ad versions for addressable TV, CTV, and trade social. Alli Creative Insights scored every version, and Alli Alerts flagged pacing issues so spend could move to what worked.
Within weeks, the campaign ran 34% more cost-effectively than benchmark, with video completion rates up to 84% on skippable placements.
In 2022, Sterling launched the brand's first-ever mass-market campaign after five years of minimal advertising. The Kohler company turned to PMG to design a fully integrated full-funnel strategy to build awareness and reach among Sterling's core professional audience, connect with them through meaningful, culturally relevant messaging, and propel the brand's growth.
Positioning Sterling for the Pros
Knowing how hard it is to break through when advertising home products to professionals, we decided to lean into the legacy home and bath brand's reputation for being easy to install, built to last, and backed by Kohler. The campaign would be about more than sinks and showers. By combining data-driven strategy and insights, creative, and media together, we would make Sterling the reliable brand of choice for professional plumbers and DIYers by celebrating all the ways plumbers get the job done.
Professional plumbers and DIYers approach a job very differently, so the team used Alli, PMG's operating system, to understand each of them. Alli Audience Planner built personas from how professional plumbers and DIYers actually spend their time, on the job and off it. With both audiences mapped, the team could plan Sterling's reintroduction around the people who actually install and choose it.
Celebrating the Grit and Pride of Plumbers
Our strategy and insights team translated the professional target into an addressable media audience by identifying key media consumption behaviors and the right places and right times to drive engagement. Our creative team then undertook an intensive production plan that involved selecting the best director and shoot locations, casting and wardrobe, developing set renders, content capture photoshoots, and end-to-end video production.
From seven hero videos, the team sliced 63 ad versions built for the specific formats, contexts, and audiences the plan called for. Alli Creative Insights scored each version against real performance signals, so the team could double down on what was resonating and cut what wasn't within days of launch.
Our media team executed across addressable TV and CTV, targeting popular programming on networks as well as social ads targeting professional trade communities. Inside Alli, the team ran a unified real-time dashboard that connected media pacing, creative performance, and audience response in one live view. Ask Alli let planners interrogate the data in plain English throughout the campaign, and Alli Alerts flagged pacing and delivery issues before they became problems, so investment could shift toward what was actually working.
At the center of the campaign were spots honoring the people behind the modern plumbing trade and their growing diversity, demonstrating the pride today's plumbers take in their work ethic, and what it looks like when a master plumber works with Sterling.
Plumbers praised Sterling for showing up authentically while PMG delivered standout results.
34% Higher Cost Effectiveness 84% Video Completion Rate 63 Ad Versions Sliced from 7 Videos
The campaign immediately resonated strongly with plumbing professionals, who lauded Sterling for coming out of the shadows in ways it hadn't ever done before, and also for doing it empathically, as seeing the plumbers twisting their bodies around a toilet and under the sink made it clear that Sterling innately understands their commitment and the value they bring to their jobs.
Within weeks of launch, Alli-powered refinements resulted in 34% higher cost-effectiveness than benchmark, and video completion rates as high as 84% on skippable placements reinforced the strength of our targeting.
