To industry vets, Rheem had earned a reputation as a trusted leader in water heating for nearly 100 years. They thought it was time the public knew it, too.

The best kind of home appliance is the one you never have to think about. The one that just keep on doing its thing, chugging along year after year after year. Which, in an ironic twist, means that if the company making that appliance does its job right, you may never even know their name.

Such was the case with Rheem. The Atlanta-based company has been a leader in the water heating and air conditioning business for more than 100 years, consistently outperforming the competition with trusted and reliable high quality products. And while most lay folk might not be familiar with the name, contractors, plumbers, and others players in the trade were well aware that Rheem was one of the top go to brands in the space.

But then COVID hit, and everyone began spending more time at home and the use of hot water increased in housholds around the world. The once anonymous water heater started to get more and more attention as perhaps the most important appliance in the house, silently powering millions of homes behind the scenes. Which meant hot water prices started going up and emerging companies like GE and LG saw an opportunity to seriously compete in the water heater market.

So Rheem decided it was time to turn up the heat, so to speak, and came to Goods & Services to help them create their first consumer facing ad campaign in more than 50 years.

For Rheem, the story we wanted to focus on was threefold: First, we wanted to leverage the company’s 100 year history and heritage of quality and reliability. Next it was important to reinforce the idea that, whether people were aware of it or not, the water heater was vital to the lives of every family in the country, large or small, on a daily basis. And, finally, we needed a narrative construct that was interesting and relatable to today’s consumer.

So how do you make the unassuming water heater interesting and relatable? Working around the slogan “Comfort you can count on (since 1925)”, we developed a narrative that featured a very modern, multigenerational, mixed race family to help tell the story of how frequently, and in how many different ways, people use and enjoy hot water.

Through a handful of short video ads that we wrote, shot, directed, and produced all in house, the Goods team created an episodic, sitcom style campaign featuring the Robinsons, that shared snippets of normal everyday experiences of five members of a diverse family and how differently they used hot water.