Recognizing excellence in results-driven marketing, the B2 Awards are one of the most prestigious awards programs dedicated solely to B2B marketing and communications.

MILWAUKEE – May 25, 2022 – Nelson Schmidt Inc., a leading independent full-service marketing agency, has won a silver award at the ANA B2 Awards, presented in Phoenix, Arizona. These honors are on behalf of Maytag Commercial Laundry in the category of product launch or relaunch for “The Replacement Brand” campaign.

Silver – Best Product Launch or Relaunch for the Maytag “The Replacement Brand” Campaign

The legendary Maytag residential brand doesn’t carry the same strength in the commercial laundry category. Maytag Commercial Laundry was struggling to differentiate itself in the saturated laundromat marketplace. To revitalize this venerable brand, we helped Maytag completely rethink their approach. We dug deep into the data of the category and uncovered an incredible insight. Nearly all manufacturers, including Maytag, were basing their sales strategies on the needs of the biggest laundromats in the nation. However, nearly 60% of laundromats were actually much smaller and had very different needs. This happened to align perfectly with Maytag’s product portfolio, which didn’t include the giant machines large laundromats require.

We commissioned sponsored research with the industry’s leading publication to identify the behaviors and trends of this ignored audience segment. We learned that the majority of these smaller laundromat owners kept aging washers and dryers much longer than what made financial sense. Data showed that if they replaced these machines sooner, the ROI far outweighed the purchase price. This idea of proactive replacement exposed a new category with a market opportunity worth $500 million. So we relaunched Maytag as the “replacement” brand, then built personas and buyer journeys to inform a full-funnel demand generation campaign – from brand advertising to channel sales enablement – that brought the revitalized brand to market.