Roofing & Exteriors is the official digital media brand of the International Roofing Expo—and the new site was formally launched to the audience at IRE 2021 during an opening day 9 a.m. session “Industry Solutions, Connections, Community & Intelligence.”

Show Director Ray Giovine opened the session and thanked the attendees.

“We’re happy to be back in person and we’re excited to have a show,” he said.

As we’ve navigated through the pandemic, Giovine noted, “we’ve been working on how IRE communicates with its audience.”

There’s been an investment in data in digital platforms, which has led to the birth of Roofing & Exteriors.

“The brand, is very well-positioned to serve the needs of our audience and, of course, our customers,” said Rick Strachan, VP of Business Development-Construction.

Giovine introduced Chief Editor Rachel Williams and Associate Editor Anthony Locicero who are “leading our content efforts and how we communicate with our audience.”

A New Brand From a Trusted Voice
Roofing & Exteriors is “a new brand from a trusted voice,” Williams said.

“R&E leverages industry partnerships, speakers and thought leaders seen at [IRE] but goes beyond that to be a 24/7, 365 resource for the industry,” she continued. “Its mission is to empower the roofing and exterior professionals with news, market data and industry resources that can grow their revenues and expand their businesses."

“By bringing together experienced, insightful industry voices, RoofingExteriors.com will offer resources for all those in the residential and commercial sectors, including construction managers, contractors, manufacturers and more,” Williams added. “The brand’s vision is to create a go-to news and content resource for motivated roofing, exterior and construction professionals.”

As part of this site re-launch the "IRE Business Update Newsletter" will be re-branded to the "Roofing & Exteriors Buisness Update Newsletter" starting on the Aug. 17 issue. 

Customer Data Platform

A significant investment is being made for enhanced first-party data, including a customer data platform, which Strachan noted, is “connected to everything we do.

“Every way that we engage with our audience—whether it’s through our website, our newsletters, people that register for the show, what sessions they attend, [if] they go to our social media channels—we’ll be understanding everything that they touch on and track that down to the individual level,” he said. “We’ll be able to understand what’s resonating with our audience so that we can serve up more content like that.”

Lead generation is also a high priority, Strachan said.

“We know that in this marketplace, generating high-quality sales leads is a key objective,” the VP said. 

There will be a whole suite of lead generation services—including, but not limited to targeted email marketing campaigns—tailored to company needs and interests, Strachan emphasized. 

All of the services we provide to customers will be measurable and include full reporting.

Diving Into Market Research
Grant Farnsworth, president of The Farnsworth Group, closed the session with data regarding housing starts, inventory and information from a recent brand use study commissioned by the International Roofing Expo and Roofing & Exteriors. 

For the first time in history, the average sales prices of new and existing homes are the same, Farnsworth revealed.

Farnsworth also discussed data regarding product selection. Product quality tends to be No. 1 in terms of top customer characteristics when deciding on suppliers, with availability falling somewhere in the middle of the top 10. 

However, when roofing and exterior professionals were surveyed, the results showed that currently, product availability is just as important to them as quality. This speaks to the supply chain issues pressuring the market right now.

A brand awareness study covering 32 product categories showed, among other things, the correlations between name recognition and usage, as well as the correlations between recognition and quality—which weren’t all uniform.

To find out more about the study, please contact Rick Strachan at [email protected].

For editorial opportunities, please contact Rachel Williams at [email protected] or Anthony Locicero at [email protected].