GaraDry targets US growth with award-winning ad campaign

An Ormskirk-based business specialising in garage seals and flood defence is gearing up operations in the USA ahead of hurricane season.

GaraDry opened a stateside subsidiary in 2017 and is now eyeing growth after launching a new advertising campaign, which has already won an industry award.

The company designs, manufactures and sells the world’s largest range of threshold seals for residential garage doors and commercial doors to protect homes from storms and floods. 

Dramatic growth in sales both at home and abroad over the last three years saw it win the Kings Award for Enterprise.

Now the company has commissioned a California-based ad agency to launch a campaign - Meet Dave - to run across major cities ahead of the stormy hurricane season including Atlanta, Miami, Orlando and Dallas.

The commercial was trialled to positive feedback and won Gold in the 45th annual Telly Awards 2024 in the online video commercials category. Other winners at the awards included Adobe, Calvin Klein, ESPN, LinkedIn, MTV Entertainment Studios and PlayStation Studios.

Ashley Smith, founder and managing director of GaraDry, said: “We are delighted to expand our new television campaign in several core areas across the USA. We know  that television is a hugely influential channel for our brand and enables us to reach our target demographic.

“Our ‘Meet Dave’ campaign tells the story of our core product in a humorous way that resonates with real people. Ultimately, we’ve designed a product for the people, we’re a brand for the people and The Sparkhouse has done a fantastic job in executing it for us.

“This is the second television campaign we’ve launched in the USA and we’ve learned the lessons of how to do things stateside with regards to reach, volume and creative. With ‘Meet Dave’ we think we’ve got a campaign which hits the sweet spot of the American consumer at the point where they will be actively looking at ways to protect their home from damage caused by extreme weather during the hurricane season. By focusing on key locations we know we’ll get the reach and frequency we need to create brand recall and allow us to scale up our marketing to other markets in the United States."

GaraDry is also planning to create a UK version of the campaign and welcomes input from Lancashire agencies about production and media buying.