Check out ServiceWhale’s full-blown marketing campaign

Don’t be surprised if ServiceWhale suddenly starts popping up everywhere.
We noticed the home improvement startup’s billboard on I-95 while we were outside The Fillmore last week (shoutout to Marc E. Bassy) and hit up VP of business development Aaron Rovner to find out where else they were advertising.
Rovner said the Trevose-based company is using its most recent round of funding to try a bunch of different marketing tactics, including ads on radio stations WHYY, WMGK and WMMR, direct mailers to both contractors and homeowners (they purchased names and addresses from a company in Chicago) and even wrapped cars. Founder Dmitri Saveliev drives one, as does marketing and biz-dev staffer Alex Rubinchik. One of their board members drives a BMW decked out in ServiceWhale regalia.

For the consumer-facing startup, brand recognition and clarity is important, Rovner said.

Since we offer such a new and unique service, we feel it’s really important for us to be everywhere to keep our brand message and value props well established and abundantly clear (instant prices on home improvement!). It’s one thing for homeowners and contractors to find us in a Google search, but it’s another thing for them to see and hear us in multiple places outside of their computers/phones/tablets. It’s our opinion that every viable method of driving traffic and branding should be at least tested to some extent, especially traditional mediums that have withstood the test of time.

He declined to share how much each program cost but said they weren’t cheap. Still, they’re seeing a return on their investment (“Direct and organic traffic have increased by over 20 percent,” he said), so they’re pleased with the investment.
Here’s how some other Philly startups have executed old-fashioned marketing campaigns.