WGN: You’ve heard this commercial on our radio station many times. We kind of like it here. Maybe you do too.
SARAH: Thanks for calling 1-800-GOT-JUNK. This is Sarah. How can I help?
CUSTOMER: If we toss our junk out the door, can you pick it up from wherever it lands?
SARAH: Sure, we can do that.
CUSTOMER: But if I want you to come inside and get my junk, you’re not going to touch anything are you?
SARAH: We touch only what you want to make disappear. We never get closer than six feet away and we’ll be gone in the blink of an eye.
CUSTOMER: If I send you photos of my junk, can you text me a removal price?
WGN: And that’s where some of us lose it, right about there. And when I say “some of us” I mean Lou Manfredini. Our Mr. Fix-It has communicated to Steve Bertrand and I … Was it a text or something? And he said, “Holy cow. Boy, that’s pretty funny, right?”
WGN 2: There were no pictures in the text, by the way.
WGN: “If I send you pictures of my junk, will that be okay? Will you touch my junk?” I know a lot of you are thinking about this. You go, “Every time I hear that commercial, I think, do they know?” Right? So, as a radio station that more than any radio station in America doesn’t run advertising … We partner with advertisers to make them successful. We thought we would reach out to the 1-800-GOT-JUNK? people and just red flag that for them. The president of that company is Brian Scudamore, and he’s on line seven. Brian, this is John and you’re on WGN in Chicago. How are you? Welcome to the show.”
Brian Scudamore: I’m good. Thank you for having me. I’m getting a chuckle myself. Sometimes you put a radio ad on national radio and you’re not 100% aware of how it’s going to land, but glad you guys are smiling, as I am.
WGN: Brian, you knew about that, right?
Brian Scudamore: Yeah. We’ve got the guy that does our radio creative, the Wizard of Ads, he’s awesome, and he likes to make people laugh. He thinks that humor sells, and so we trust him. When he wrote the ads we had a good laugh and we said, “Okay. Let’s give it a shot.”
Now, as one of the radio voices on the, “Hi, I’m Brian Scudamore, the founder and CEO of 1-800-GOT-JUNK?” That’s me on the beginning of the ads, but I’m not the one thankfully talking about touching junk or not touching junk.
WGN 2: So have you gotten any pictures?
Brian Scudamore: You know what? I haven’t heard any stories of that yet. I sure hope not.
WGN: I could send you pictures of my junk.
Brian Scudamore: And we’re asking for it, so I mean it wouldn’t be out of line, would it? We just hope it’s your large refrigerators and your old pile of yard debris, the kind of junk we want to haul away.
WGN 2: Prove that’s harassment. You asked for it!
Brian Scudamore: Exactly.
WGN: But by the way, what are the number one things that people ask 1-800-GOT-JUNK? to pick up? You said lawn debris. I didn’t even think about that. I thought of sofas.
Brian Scudamore: Sure. So it’s a lot of furniture, appliances, renovation debris. Now, maybe not a lot of people are doing big remodels right now, but what we’re seeing is people are cleaning out attics, basements, garages, all over the country. People want storage for supplies for the pandemic. People want extra space for working from home.
Our business is actually getting really busy. We have over 20 trucks in the Chicago area. Alberto Mijarez is our general manager there, and they’re actually reaching new goals. Yesterday they had a new revenue goal achieved. During the time of COVID when many businesses are down, it’s nice that ours is starting to pick up.
WGN: Well, I believe some of that success is due to your brilliant radio campaign here on WGN, sir.
Brian Scudamore: Well, we’re grateful that you guys are airing it. It certainly helps get the word out there. 1-800-GOT-JUNK? has been considered an essential service, so we’ve been making sure we’re safe. We’re wearing masks. We’re one person per truck. If it takes two people to load the junk, obviously we’re pulling up in two trucks, but each driver is in their own separate truck. So there’s some inefficiencies, but it’s about keeping customers safe and doing the right thing, and we’re proud of our truck teams.
WGN: Some of us are in the habit of donating stuff to Goodwill or Salvation Army, but I know the Army isn’t picking stuff up right now. So maybe folks say, “Oh, I’ve got to get rid of this stuff. I’ll hire 1-800-GOT-JUNK?” I’m familiar with your rates. I think they’re certainly reasonable. But then do you donate any of that stuff, or recycle that stuff? What happens to that stuff?
Brian Scudamore: Yeah. We did a national audit years ago, and our number was 61.3% of what we haul away gets recycled, reused, donated, so it really depends on the items. We love when customers say, “Hey, listen, the Salvation Army will take it.” We would prefer it to go to get donated, and we welcome customers to make that call.
Now, even pre-COVID, there’s situations where people are calling the Salvation Army, and they just get too much stuff. So it has to be really good junk, so to speak, and saleable, otherwise they won’t take it. So mattresses with stains or couches with the odd rip and … They’re just very selective, because they don’t want to be stuck with big landfill fees themselves.
WGN: Yeah, all right.
Brian Scudamore: So we’ll take anything two people can lift, and off we go, but we definitely don’t want to always be the first point of contact if someone can give it away.
WGN: Yeah. Well, I’m glad to hear that too. Okay. We’re looking out for you here in Chicago, and I know you’ve got a going concern. It does really well, and I’m not surprised, especially right now. But when I heard the commercial, I just thought, boy, I ought to just make sure that Brian knows that, A, we’re getting the message, but we’re also getting another message. I just wanted to make sure you were on page with that, Brian.
Brian Scudamore: Yeah. No, we’re giving another message, and even another message on that, and that’s all you’ve got to do when you want your junk to disappear is point. We want people to know they don’t have to touch anything. And that was a pre-COVID message of ours, so we were leaders in that area, saying, “All you have to do is point.” So we want to keep customers safe and our people safe. And thank you so much for having me on your program.
WGN: Will that be a line in the next commercial? “You could just point at your junk. We’ll come out and take it.” I’m sorry. I …
Brian Scudamore: It’s good, right? The jokes could go on and on, so I’m glad people in Chicagoland are all entertained.
WGN: That is the brilliance of that … Not to get too deep in the weeds here, but that’s one of the smart things about the commercial, it doesn’t … the wink isn’t too hard. It’s very subtle. It’s so innocent you don’t know whether the ladies who are saying that appreciate the fact that people might be chuckling about it. I think if you guys had played that hand any more directly it would have failed, so I think the commercial works perfectly the way it’s written, right?
Brian Scudamore: I think it’s fun. The voice of Sarah … She’s our call center, and then you’ve got the customer who’s a little naïve. She doesn’t realize what she’s saying, so there is fun in that.