Ace's awareness mantra

Las Vegas -- Ace executives announced at the General Session of the 2016 Ace Hardware Spring Dealer Market that holiday shopping awareness is about to get a lot of attention in 2016.

"Corporate hasn't been helping you enough in this regard," said president and CEO John Venhuizen. "National television advertising in December over the past 89 years has come to a grand total of $0. We intend to fix that."

This year, Ace will spend an excess of $13 million in November and December to drive home the following message to consumers: that when it comes to Christmas lights and gifts, Ace is the place.

Currently, the co-op is operating with a $60 million spend on TV and digital, but the most recent national campaign unveiled at the General Session is vastly more comprehensive than anything Ace has done in the past.

According to Jeff Gooding, senior director consumer marketing, there will be up to 30 unique spots over the course of the year. Each of them will be specific to the season they air in, but all of them will feature the same level of snark that defines the commercials we've seen so far. ("Ace is the place with the stuff for squeaking hinges that's called WD40, not 10w40, which is motor oil that we also sell," quipped one of the spots).

"We used to have 3 or 4 spots as part of a general campaign, and we would just attach the back end," said Gooding. "Now, the front end will match the back end, and that's the first time we've been able to do that. Whatever we promote in the front end, we promote in the back end, and that's why we're going to come up with 30 spots."

[Watch the televsion spots here.]

According to Gooding, these 30 spots will run the gamut from lawn and garden (what's currently airing) to Christmas lights, power tool accessories, and gifts in the fourth quarter. The renewed energy behind this push? O'Keefe Reinhard & Paul (OKRP), the new creative advertising agency Ace signed on with last year.

"One of the reasons we selected them is they are bent on retail," said Gooding. "Everything they do and think about and create is with selling in mind."