Wallaroo’s In-House Marketing Team: Making Cool Commercials

Having an in-house marketing team isn’t the industry standard for the furniture business. Luckily for all of us, Wallaroo’s is all about disrupting the industry standard to improve the lives of our customers. As the newest division at Wallaroo’s, our in-house marketing team frequently finds themselves faced with unpredictable challenges. From harsh weather–like rain or smoke–canceling shoots to keeping our content on schedule with our supply chain, we’re constantly on our toes, bouncing around, staying balanced like the Wallaroos we are. 

We’re stoked to announce that, despite setbacks like these, we just completed a beautiful, heartwarming, commercial for the Wallaroo’s Cool line of mattresses. While it won’t be released until mid-Winter, we wanted to give some insight into the project and why we’re so proud of it. The foundations for this project were laid back in February of 2020 and took months to come to fruition. Back in February, it would have been impossible to achieve this level of production. It’s truly humbling to see how our in-house marketing team has grown in under a year.

The origins of this project reach back to February, when we had an offer to work with a high-end, luxury brand of mattresses. They were looking for a West Coast distributor and we were in the running. To sweeten the deal, they offered a large sum for a marketing budget and our in-house marketing team fell in love with their marketing materials. However, after much debate, Nathan and Bailee decided the price point wasn’t right for our customers. Further, the brand wanted to take up space in our stores with dedicated displays for their products. That would harsh our vibes substantially. 

However, Bailee was artistically #inspired by one of their videos, which showcased their mattresses in a sexy, luxurious desert scene. She loved the visual aesthetic and wanted to make something that had a similar vibe, but was family and PNW focused. However, that wasn’t in the cards at the time, so the idea was left to stew in her head.

After a few months, our in-house marketing team evolved, as Taylor grew into his position as Head of Marketing and began developing our team of young professionals. Shortly after, Tiffany joined as our Social Media Manager, bringing along her impressive skills as a video producer. As the team grew and production became more important, we welcomed Wes, of Hyper-Tuna Productions to our team as our videographer. Paired with Bailee’s close friend and honorary Wallaroo, photographer Alicia Hauff, we’d grown into a fully realized in-house marketing team. With all these team members in place, we were ready to actualize Bailee’s vision for this product shoot.

In late July, we began to discuss producing content to support the return of the Wallaroo’s Cool and Black mattress. At the time, they were scheduled to return to us by October (more on that later!). Bailee brought the video that inspired her back to the table and we began planning the shoot. She knew of an ideal location from her conversations with a customer, so we started scheming. We realized quickly that the location was beautiful and would be a great place to double up on some beautiful Palouse product shoots.

First, we decided which products to include in the shoot. We knew our main focus was going to be the Wallaroo’s Cool and Wallaroo’s Black mattresses. But, we also wanted some great photos of items like the Pet-Friendly Yoko and our best-selling U-shaped sectional The Vincent. Once we had settled on 4-6 products to photograph, we were ready to get to the nitty-gritty. Our next planning phase was to figure out how to get these massive sofas to our shoot locations. We went 30 minutes up the Palouse, so this was no easy task! 

The in-house marketing team coordinated with our warehouse manager Bob and our moving team to figure out the logistics of when and where we needed certain products. However, the date and location did quite a bit of shifting around! First, we had to cancel because of rain, then because of the devastating wildfires in Northern California, Oregon, and Washington. In Spokane, we had 3-4 days of hazardous air quality in September 2020. Naturally, we had our shoot scheduled right in the middle.

Since we had a 5-7 hour shoot planned outdoors, complete with new furniture, an in-house marketing team, a moving crew, and a family with a baby, we had to pivot. Since no one knew when the smoke would clear, we came up with a contingency plan. We had a lot riding on this shoot and a lot of moving parts in the air. Bailee and Nathan are currently renovating their home, but had just enough space to set up two rooms to shoot the indoor scenes. When the smoke cleared, we could return to the Palouse for the outdoor shoots!

We really didn’t want to give up on the Palouse idea, because our good friend Jess of Jess Nichole Interiors graciously agreed to let us use her incredible property. She lives out on the Palouse in a gorgeous home overlooking 13 acres of black walnut trees and wheat. It was the dreamiest backdrop for encompassing the PNW aesthetic.

Finally, the day of our first shoot came and it couldn’t have gone better. We captured gorgeous content of our model family Juan, Isabel, and Leon Chona living it up on the Wallaroo’s Mattress. We are so excited to show you the footage, because it’s the cutest thing you’ve ever seen. The team brought our visions for the product and lifestyle shoots to life and the photos turned out amazing. Once the smoke cleared we were able to get everyone out on the Palouse to capture gorgeous footage of our furniture and the new mattresses.