A Behind the Scenes Look at
Service Sanitation's Holiday Video
Festive and fun – what's not to like?
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On November 11, 2014, Service Sanitation filmed the video that gave the nation a peek into
a playful side of the portable restroom industry. Stevie "Dee" Dykstra (right) is Service
Sanitation's Marketing Manager and led the project. He provides some insight below:
Q. Why does Service Sanitation undertake this project each year?
STEVIE: "Like many companies, we wanted to say Merry Christmas to our large customers base. Unlike an
expensive and traditional holiday card, we wanted to create a measurable piece of content that was completely
unique and memorable. After much planning, it was determined that a holiday lights display with portable
restrooms may be our ticket to success. We received such a great response from our video last year that we
wanted to repli cate it, but with a new twist. We're always cha llenging ourselves to be better. "
Q. What wa s the r eturn on investment (ROI) it had for your company with customers and/or the public?
STEVIE: "This year's holiday video has been viewed more than 60,000 times on YouT ube. It also sent more than
30,000 unique viewers to our blog post where they had an opportunity to learn more about ho w the display was
made and pick up a few informational tidbits about the portable restroom industry. The holiday lights video has
also aired in every large metropolitan area across the United States including Chicago, LA, New York,
Philadelphia, Houston and Denver. It was also featured on CNN."
Q. What was the most fun about the project?
STEVIE: " Watchin g this video spread across t he I nternet in a viral sense was probably one of the most exciti ng
parts of the project. For two weeks our marketing department transformed into a public relations firm, answering
phone calls and performing interviews with media outlets across the United States. We also received not able
recognition from the group Straight No Chaser, whose song we utilized in our video. The singers not only shared
the video on their Facebook pages, but they also gave a verbal shot out to an audience of more than 20,000
peop le while on tour in Chicago. "
Q. What was the most challenging part of the project?
STEVIE: " S etting the display up was undoubtedly one of the most difficult challenges we faced. We originally
hoped to film this when the weather was nice; however, M o th er Nature had a different plan. One of our company
values is "Whatever it Takes , " and we definitely took tha t approach to shoot this video! Temperatures fell into the
lower teens the night before , making working tem peratures quite uncomfortable. In fact, several of the cables and
lights froze while we were setting up , allowing us to do only one t ake before tearing it all down."
The response was overwhelmingly positive! Click on the links to read all the comments:
Chicago: https://www.facebook.com/abc7chicago/posts/10152953325871162
Philadelphia: https://www.facebook.com/6abc.ActionNews/posts/101525741 84251378:0
Indianapolis: https://www.facebook.com/WTHR13/posts/10152690770216144
Straight No Chaser (group ): https://www.facebook.com/StraightNoChaser/posts/10152895322817359
