audience

“On TV & Video” is a column exploring opportunities and challenges in advanced TV and video. 

Standing out in a category dominated by Google Nest and Amazon’s Ring isn’t easy.

Just ask security device manufacturer Arlo Technologies.

Arlo, which produces smart home security cameras, doorbells, lights and related accessories, was spun out of networking hardware maker Netgear as a separate public company in 2018.

As an independent entity, Arlo’s first order of business was to pour money into performance marketing to drum up sales, which is what it did for nearly three years. But there was a problem: A lot of people still don’t know what Arlo is.

In early August, Arlo launched its first-ever brand campaign, “Protect Your Everything,” spanning both national TV and streaming, with digital and social also in the mix.

“This is our first foray actually driving brand awareness and building the top of the funnel for our business,” Lily Knowles, Arlo’s SVP of sales, marketing and customer care, told AdExchanger.

Knowles joined Arlo in 2019 as its first hire focused on building and overseeing a brand-new marketing team. “We had to rethink both our investment and our media strategy to expand our audience,” she said.

Pre-TV

But TV wasn’t Arlo’s first move. Arlo started out by pumping money into the bottom of the funnel.

First, Arlo struck distribution deals with online retailer platforms, including Target, Best Buy and Amazon (despite the fact that Arlo competes directly with Amazon’s Ring). In 2019, Arlo launched its own DTC platform and started spending on search and social ads to drive traffic to its site.

But these efforts didn’t generate the sales volume Arlo was expecting.

Turns out, users weren’t completing transactions