Wrench Group CMO on navigating the AI era

Headquartered in Marietta, Georgia, Wrench Group operates a network of residential HVAC, plumbing, and electrical brands in 27 markets across 14 states, serving more than 2.5 million customers with budgeted revenue of over $1.5 billion this year.

In a recent conversation, CMO Meghann McNally dug into Google’s staying power amid ChatGPT’s rise, evaluating marketing channels, where Wrench is placing its bets next year, and more. Below is our conversation, lightly edited for clarity.

What are some of the big questions on your mind right now, technology-wise?

AI is the buzzword of the moment, even though AI could mean a hundred different things. Our focus is on how to lean into technology to do more, better. Are there ways for us to reach more people faster? To convert more people?

We’ve always had a very local-focused approach where we don’t want to whitewash all the brands — they’re local. So how do we use technology at scale to create more meaningful local presence? 

Speaking of AI, talk to me about Google. There’s a lot of chatter about how it might be impacted long-term. 

Two years ago — even a year ago — lots of people in our industry were saying, Forget Google. They want to take over the world. Of course they do. 

Yes, people are on social media. Yes, old school might still be watching broadcast news. Yes, people are listening to radio. Yes, they’re on YouTube. But when someone’s AC isn’t working, they go on Google and search. 

For us to say, We’ve got to do something completely different is just not realistic. The way customers are engaging hasn’t changed enough yet.

So what does that mean for you, tactically?

Consumers are consumers. How I shop for a new water heater might be different than how I shop for shoes, because my need is different. However, my expectations are the same. I want it to be super simple. I want it to be fast. 

So, we also really focus on the relationship between marketing and operations: Does a call center understand that when the phone rings, we’ve paid $150 for that call? Are the leads that are coming through of good quality? Whether it costs $10 or $110, that should be at the core — quality, amazing customer experience.

How does Wrench think about allocating marketing spend across channels?

We don’t say, We should be X percent in top-of-funnel, Y percent in middle, and Z percent in bottom. We kind of back into it: This is our revenue goal. What are our conversion rates, our tickets, etcetera? What’s the lead volume we have to deliver to get that? And then how do we complement that with really strong brand awareness activity? 

One thing we’ve seen as necessary is improving the channels we choose based on the segments we’re going after… and not staying married to traditional channels — broadcast, radio — because that’s what has worked. We’re starting to be more comfortable with testing.

Are those traditional channels still performing?

Even though everybody has 45 streaming subscriptions, TV continues to show a return — it’s still a strong channel for us. 

I’ve got mixed thoughts on radio. The argument is ‘drive time.’ [But] I think it has to continue to be evaluated.

There’s always nuance around measuring brand spend. What’s your take on that?

Every TV station wants to put pixels on your site to track website visitors after a commercial airs. It’s not going to hurt, but to me, is somebody looking at your water heater ad on TV and then Googling you? I think it’s so few and far between that it’s not super meaningful. So I don’t put a ton of stock in that. 

If you’re able to track something, all the better. See what it delivers. Can we directly say my TV ad delivered X number of leads? No. And I think we’re seeing this conversation with social. 

Can you elaborate?

When people see that paid social advertising isn’t delivering measurable leads, they want to throw it out. My point of view is that social is a mid- to top-of-funnel activity in our space. It’s not a lead driver.
To me, it’s brand awareness. You’re reaching a digital customer. They’re scrolling through Facebook. They’re on Instagram. You’re planting a seed just like you’re planting a seed as they drive by a billboard. It just so happens to be digital delivery.

What’s your take on creative formats across the industry right now?

Everybody has a plumber who comes to the house, and everybody’s happy — it’s a family, and they’re like, this is awesome. And the idea is ‘credible techs, we’re going to do the job right, we go above and beyond.’ Those are all wonderful, important messages. But I think creatively, we’ve seen a tech shake the homeowner’s hand. Like, great. 

So what does good look like, in your opinion?

A competitor in one of our markets just launched a social campaign, and it’s really smart. 

They did this whole concept related to if your AC is as old as the Wii, or if your AC has been around since you’ve had a Walkman, ‘it’s time to get a new one.’

It was targeting a sweet demographic, connected something memorable, and tied it to your AC.

What about one of your brands?

Plumbline in Denver… They re-did a bunch of their brand material and commercials, all focused on this message of service at home, servants at heart. 

They take the idea of a happy tech, happy customer, but do something a little differently to create an emotional impact… One of the funny things they’ve done is where a customer lost her earring down a drain. And the way they cut it, there’s an emotional tug, which I think is hard to get done. 

Is there an area you’re leaning into for next year?

Content that takes advantage of AI chat. We have to be better at creating and delivering more rapid content. Back in the day, it was all about blogs, blogs, blogs. That was the pride and joy. But not so much anymore. 

Back to our conversation with TV, before, you did a couple of ads a year, and you didn’t have to look at them. You can’t do that with digital content. So just being better and faster about content that’s resonating is going to help feed those AI engines.

ChatGPT’s growth is crazy, but Google still owns over 90 percent of the search market. How do you balance that?

Yeah, I think the risk is to say that it’s not happening, so we’ll just deal with it when it comes. 

One thing I was reading, for instance, was about the role Yelp is playing. Historically, we don’t really think about Yelp because, for the most part, it’s a bunch of people complaining.
But if information on Yelp is feeding what ChatGPT is providing, that may change how we use it as a channel. Maybe we need to generate more reviews there, not just on Google.

So our approach is to make sure that we’re saturating Google and also have a proactive plan for what’s coming up. We can’t neglect it because six months from now, if you do, you look up and you’re like, Shoot, a bunch of my competitors focused on Bing and Yelp, and now we’re missing out. Not to be bleeding edge, but we’ve got to be proactive.