Matt Pozda sits in a wing chair in his self-proclaimed 'zen den,’ left leg crossed over his knee.
He looks into a camera and deadpans: “I read a book on anti-gravity the other day. It was impossible to put down.”
In another Instagram video, Pozda asks: “What makes pirates such good singers? They can hit the high Cs.”
Both videos conclude with the musical jingle: “All you gotta do is Call Dad … dot-coooom.”
Pozda is the CEO of (you guessed it) Call Dad, an HVAC and plumbing business founded in 2013 in Charlotte, N.C., that now has eight locations in the Carolinas.
Originally called Sky HVAC, the business rebranded itself to Call Dad in late 2023 -- which led to Call Dad’s social media marketing featuring “dad jokes.”
With help from Ryan Chute, Partner and Strategist at Wizard of Ads for Essential Services, Call Dad rebranded itself with a better story to tell.
“The first thing we try to accommodate with any rebrand is to tell a story that is true to the values of the company that we’re representing,” Chute said. “There’s nothing worse than creating a truck wrap and titling a company without a true story behind it. We like to do the opposite. Find something the people would voraciously stand behind. Create a brand you can recognize from the moon.”
A 14-Hour Deep Dive Uncovered the Brand That Was Already There
The process started with Chute and others from Wizard of Ads sitting around a conference table with Pozda, who had left investment banking to buy the HVAC and plumbing business, as well as others on his team.
But Chute didn’t want to just understand the business. He wanted to understand the people at the business and find the best way to tell their story.
He knew that Pozda owned a respected HVAC company, but quickly recognized that the Sky branding was not unique to the people it represented.
“When we look at a brand, we’re aiming for fame,” Chute said on a video produced about the rebrand by Wizard of Ads. “We’re aiming for that ability to be larger than life. Don’t tell people a story; be the story.”
Much like he did with Dad & Daughter Garage Door Service, Chute and his team dove into the story of Pozda and his team.
“I thought it would be a four-hour marketing meeting,” Call Dad Chief Operating Officer Mathew Stewart said. “It ended up being a 14-hour Dr. Phil therapy session.”
“They wanted to dig deeper than I ever possibly imagined,” Pozda said. “Not necessarily [about] why the business, but why I had any interest in doing anything in life.”
“Yes, it got intense, and we got deep,” Chute said. “We love doing that. That’s our happy day when we can do that with clients, especially with people who are open and forthright. These are good people doing good work.
“It was really the stories of their childhood, their wives, their parents, their kids, and it was so abundantly clear that these guys were the Dads of all Dads.”
That determination came from the personal stories Pozda, Stewart, and others shared. They talked of their Dads, of their children, of the experience of being a Dad, what it meant and why it matters. And of Pozda leaving the financial world because he wanted to spend more time with his children. Chute sensed something.
“I’ve been doing this for 30-plus years, and I’ve lived a life of reading people,” Chute said. “There’s only so much surface-level stuff that you go through until you realize people have something very significant or they don’t. My experience is really what’s given me the ability to realize we’re working with the real McCoy. Matt is definitely one of those folks. He’s genuine, and he’s not afraid to talk about things he’s not good at.
“Then together they all had a humility about them that allowed them to get past pomp and circumstance of a bunch of smart dudes in the room together trying to show everyone who’s the smartest guy. None of that happened. They were kind, funny, with a willingness to be vulnerable. Also very clear. All their answers were robust.”
Call Dad’s Brand Resulted from a Search for a Feeling
The more the discussion continued, the more Chute believed he was onto something. As he sat in the room, he checked to see if the domain name CallDad.com was available. When it was, he presented the idea.
“I’m built to look for things that make you feel,” he said.
Everyone in the room felt the bigger idea of Call Dad. Who can say they’ve never thought of calling their Dad in a time of trouble, or of wishing they could? The promise of Call Dad is fundamental on the most human level: Dad is on the way to help.
“I can’t tell you how many times someone has stopped us, and they’re like, ‘Hey, I love the name. When I have a problem, I call Dad,’” said Bryan Southers, Call Dad’s Head of Sales.
Pozda said he’s received letters from customers describing how Call Dad’s service filled the expectations they had for their own father.
Katie Biddle, head of Customer Experience and Marketing, said one woman shared how she did one last Google search and found Call Dad.
“She had just lost her Dad,” Biddle said, “and she said it was like someone was speaking to (her) and she thought, ‘I need to call them.’ Which is really special.”
A memorable anecdote in the meeting came from Pozda, who, after hearing a quip about dad jokes, related that at his home, the family held a contest every Sunday. Whoever told the “best dad joke” was freed from dish duty.
Dad Jokes Aren't Just Funny — They're a Marketing Strategy
Those Dad jokes now are a facet of the social media marketing campaign around Call Dad. The jokes drive the hits on the company’s Instagram page, with Chute saying the dad jokes are “killing it.”
Social media was just one part of the overall marketing approach, though, an approach tailored to the business and its story.
“Many don’t understand how marketing works,” Chute said. “People believe it’s a matter of using pay-per-click (PPC) ads, getting the truck wrapped, doing community work, and the job is done.
“I developed a relational advertising framework a few years ago. It considers all of the information that’s been researched for the last 20 years. The concept is straightforward and focused on two key factors: Brand-building and sales activation for lead generation, and the infrastructure, online and offline, to capture leads.”
Lead generation means branding and sales activation, Chute said, and includes call to actions, offers, and promotions. Lead capture is the infrastructure a business uses to capture said leads, like PPC and form fills.
“People go to a place and choose to walk down the road because you compel them to,” Chute said. “So we ask: ‘What is the most efficient way for us to build that with the highest impact message?’ This means we build a marketing structure that is different from what you usually see.”
That structure includes all media channels. Radio is typically the most economical way to talk to an entire trade area in most situations, and Chute said he tries to “really leverage the theatre of the mind to get people engaged.”
Radio, Billboards, and Truck Wraps: Building Fame Before Chasing Leads
With Call Dad, the initial impetus was radio with high-repetition, high-impact messages, supported by billboards strategically placed across the market, giving the company greater reach with a strong and memorable message repeated in key ways. This allowed the company to focus much of its initial rebranding costs on truck wraps and uniforms.
Two years later, TV was added, with a roster of billboards in all of Call Dad’s eight locations. Social media is focused on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram, with the emphasis on deepening the brand from different angles. Entertaining social media posts spread the message that Call Dad is likeable and trustworthy.
“Advertising for home services is hard,” Chute said. “You are dealing with an externally triggered, grudge purchase. People come to you in a negative headspace. Nobody is excited to buy a new hot water tank or HVAC repair.
“If we can resolve their problem with a positive disposition or positioning over and over again, we’ve succeeded. People are going to pick the things that make them feel happiest in an unhappy situation.”
$38 Million and 67% Growth — The Payoff of a Brand Built on Truth
Pozda said in April 2026 that Call Dad had seen 67% year-over-year growth, and would finish the year with 210 employees and revenue of $38 million.
“That experience was something I never imagined, that someone would dig as far as they would to understand how to position a business around that individual’s values,” Pozda said. “The connectivity and the growth were well beyond anything we ever imagined.”
Back in the zen den, Pozda is bringing that zeitgeist with yet another dad joke.
“What do you call an alligator in a vest?” he asked.
“An investigator.”
