PPMA continues to champion the reputation of PMPs

PHOTO: iStock.com/fstop123

As the unifying voice and advocate for the professional pest management industry, the Professional Pest Management Alliance (PPMA) works tirelessly to elevate to consumer audiences the important role pest management professionals (PMPs) have in protecting our quality of life. We recently had a chance to share some consumer marketing wins with the industry in a packed room at the National Pest Management Association’s (NPMA’s) Legislative Day meeting in Washington, D.C., and we want to also share them with you.

One of the broadest ways we connect with consumer audiences is through our media relations program. It’s the engine that fuels much of our work. In 2019, we were able to secure more than 2,400 placements and garner more than 475 million impressions — that’s almost five times the number of people that tuned into Super Bowl LIII last year.

Our national media relations efforts helped secure six segments on The Weather Channel and 14 articles on Reader’s Digest online. Our messaging also made its way across the country, appearing in prominent outlets such as the Chicago Tribune, the Boston Herald and The Baltimore Sun, among hundreds of other local news outlets.

2019 also saw the launch of new large-scale video campaigns such as “Will They Eat It?” and Mosquito Multiplier, which drew a significant amount of consumer attention with more than 1.2 million video views. PPMA’s proprietary Bug Barometer forecasts and Vector Sectors reports, awareness week initiatives and pest prevention tips also worked to educate consumers about important pest issues and the valuable services you provide each and every day.

SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGNS

PPMA also is working to harness the power of social media, using bigger and bolder tactics to cut through clutter and stand out with consumer audiences. We do this by prioritizing highly engaging visual content, such as our “Who Knew?” photo series and custom designed tips, and social media advertising campaigns to help amplify our organic content to better compete with ever-changing social media algorithms.

To help generate additional buzz on Facebook, PPMA teamed up with actor Richard Karn — most famously known for his role as Al Borland on the hit ABC sitcom, “Home Improvement” — for a consumer-focused video that offered tips for homeowners to help pest-proof their properties. Karn also called attention to the importance of working with a PMP and his message received over 95,000 video views.

Informing consumers about the health risks posed by pests also is critical. Our long-standing public service announcement (PSA) program continues to compete in a cluttered broadcast environment. With help from our ongoing partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), our 2019 campaigns achieved 130,366 airings — that’s a 9 percent year-over-year increase and conservatively 3.9 million seconds of donated airtime.

To help further connect with consumer audiences, PPMA also embraced an emerging research technique in 2019 utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) to better understand consumer engagement around pests and pest control topics. We’ve been able to collect invaluable data, such as which pests are most troublesome on a state-by-state level, to not only inform our consumer marketing efforts, but to help identify market opportunities and potential areas of investment for the industry.

All of these tactics harken back to our central message of partnering with a PMP and are aimed at growing the pest control industry. This programming benefits all companies working in this industry, and it is funded 100 percent by voluntary contributions from generous pest control companies and members of the supplier community.

What’s more, PPMA makes all of these great assets and additional marketing solutions available to investor companies to use through our digital marketing service, Mainframe. By subscribing to Mainframe, companies not only are supporting PPMA’s marketing programs, they also have access to an incredible library of ready-to-use marketing materials.

With April being National Pest Management Month, now is the perfect time to get involved, as PPMA needs your help amplifying the vital role PMPs play as protectors of public health, food and property from the dangers associated with pests. Through your support, you’ll help PPMA further our mission to grow, promote, protect and defend the professional pest management industry to both residential and commercial audiences, and help safeguard the quality of life for American’s nationwide.

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MANNES is VP of Public Affairs for the NPMA and executive director of the PPMA. She may be reached at cmannes@pestworld.org.

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from Pest Management Professional https://www.mypmp.net/2020/04/12/ppma-continues-to-champion-the-reputation-of-pmps/
Sacramento CA