<FONT color=blue>Video</FONT>: Modern Hits its Mark With Fun-Filled TV Ad

BRUNSWICK, Maine — It’s a quiet, blue suburban house. Then, you zoom in to the foundation, where a carpenter ant saws through the wall to reveal his spacious new home. He’s brought with him a cozy red armchair, a welcome mat and a “Home Sweet Home” sign above the door. (Click here to view this commercial.)

A woman’s voice can be heard speaking with a representative from Modern Pest Services, who tells her he “can be out that same day.” The ant gets a scared look in his eyes, and runs off. The image zooms out to show Modern’s trademark Volkswagen pull up in front.

“We just wanted to do something more fun,” said Wesley Hamel, marketing manager, of the Brunswick, Maine-based company’s new commercial. “We want to keep everything consistent with the Modern brand.”

The commercial is the latest for Modern, an update on their last foray into TV advertising in 2004, and an effort to further brand its Homecare Advantage program for residential pest control.

Modern’s latest commercial ties together its other advertising and marketing efforts in the Yellow Pages, on its Web site and even the music it plays for customers on hold by using the same songs and images of the company’s Volkswagen Beetle service vehicle.

“They’re going to get the same impression about Modern and their services in each way they view us,” said Hamel, who helped design the ad with Scott Stevenson, Modern’s director of operations. “It’s something cute that our target market would enjoy, but is short enough that they would remember us and the services we provide. There is only a small window of opportunity to keep people interested in what their watching with commercials.  Keeping the brand consistant with our other advertising insures that they be more likely to remember us everytime they have a pest issue.

The commercial started running in mid-May on local TV and cable stations in Maine during the morning and evening news, and such targeted shows as Oprah, Hamel said, focusing on the target market of women ages 30 to 55.

“TV is definitely a driving source for our market,” Hamel said. “It’s a great way to draw the public in viewing what Modern has to offer to familes and their homes.