WeatherTech founder bets big on Super Bowl ads

When Super Bowl LI kicks off Sunday night on Fox, David MacNeil, the founder and CEO of WeatherTech, will once again have some skin in the game.

WeatherTech, a formerly obscure Bolingbrook floor mat manufacturer, is running a spot in its fourth consecutive Super Bowl, entering the rarefied air of perennial big game advertiser in a real-life David and Goliath story.

This year’s commercial, produced by Pinnacle, a small Schaumburg ad agency, expands upon WeatherTech’s "Made in America" theme, with a leather-clad woman jumping into a moving vehicle to lay down a mat just in time to catch a coffee spill.

While a decided underdog to win the annual Super Bowl postgame ad rankings, it might be unwise to bet against WeatherTech’s passionate CEO.

MacNeil has built a business with more than 1,100 employees and $500 million in annual sales — an American manufacturing success he trumpeted with even more gusto than his commercials during a visit this week to his sprawling southwest suburban empire along Interstate 55.

"I build my factories right here in America," said MacNeil, 57. "I purchase as much American machinery as I possibly can. I use American raw materials, I use American suppliers, and I hire the great American workers."

MacNeil started WeatherTech out of his Clarendon Hills home in 1989 after returning from England with an agreement to import car mats, eventually bringing production in-house and moving operations to Bolingbrook in 2009.

Today, WeatherTech makes everything from floor mats to boxes to lattes served at its factory showroom, the centerpiece of a 10-building campus comprising gleaming production facilities and a hodgepodge of acquired sites spread out over a mile of highway frontage.

WeatherTech Super Bowl ad

WeatherTech is the only Chicago-area company with an ad airing during Super Bowl LI.

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A pilot and vintage auto racing enthusiast, MacNeil sat down with the Tribune to discuss the Super Bowl, manufacturing and his driving passion — turning black rubber pellets into custom-fitted floor mats, bed liners and mud flaps. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: You did your first Super Bowl ad in 2014, a big leap for a smaller advertiser. What drove that decision?

A: Brand names in America mean a lot, especially good brand names. Why can’t somebody do that for floor mats? Where do the big boys advertise? They go to the Super Bowl, because it gives them a level of stature and credibility, and that name starts to become a household name.

Q: Ads this year cost a reported $5 million for a 30-second commercial. Is it worth it?

A: I’m a businessman. I try not to do things without a benefit to the company, my community, myself. If we’re throwing money down a hole, that’s not something I’m going to do twice. I feel there is a good return on our investment. You’re exposing your products and your company and how you do business to an awful lot of people.

WeatherTech founder focuses on American-made products

WeatherTech founder and CEO David MacNeil discusses his company and its focus on American-made products on Feb. 1, 2017, at one of his factories in Bolingbrook. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)

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Q: How deeply are you involved in the creative process for the commercials?

A: Neck deep. The creative has to be approved by me. Very often I’ve had input into things or how things are written. Pinnacle has done a fantastic job with creative, but it’s a collaborative effort by all of us. One of my very, very strong feelings is that I have to be involved in the Super Bowl creative.

Q: Super Bowl ads are graded, ranked and analyzed ad nauseam. How much pressure is that as an advertiser?

A: There’s some really big advertising production budgets that you’re competing against. You’re really trying to get out there and play with the biggest boys on the planet, and you better get it right. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that it’s going to be a great commercial and well-rated and well-regarded.

Q: You voice your own radio commercials. Why not appear in your TV commercials as well?

A: It’s not whether I really want to do it or not. It’s just that you’re sitting at the gas station filling your tank up with gas and people recognize you from the TV, and do you really want that? That’s the question in my mind. The voice doesn’t come with a face on radio — they don’t recognize me.

Q: You’ve been preaching the value of "American made" in your commercials for years. Now it’s a presidential mandate and the rallying cry of Donald Trump’s election. Is the country catching up to you?

A: I knew I was right. I knew it was the right thing to do. I’ve always felt that the leadership in this country should be saying this. I’m all about "Made in America," and if at all possible, that’s where we should be buying our products from. There’s nothing to be ashamed about in supporting your own country.

David MacNeil, WeatherTech founder and CEO, is running a commercial in the Super Bowl for the fourth year in a row. He likes to talk up his company and its “made in America” emphasis.

Q: Why is American manufacturing so important to you?

A: First and foremost, if my neighbor doesn’t have a job, sooner or later, I won’t have a job. I think of my neighbors as the 300-plus million people here in America — that’s our family.

You have to have an industrial infrastructure. It’s part of our national defense to have steel mills and machine shops. Peace is through strength. Strength comes from an industrial infrastructure that can ramp up instantly. If you’re a society with no industry, you have a problem.

Q: What kind of environment do you provide for your employees?

A: We certainly try to create a very clean and very safe workplace, and we try to follow all the laws for manufacturing companies in America. The facilities are air-conditioned; they’re clean. If it’s hot, we’re providing pallets of Gatorade. We cook our own food here for our employees. So a lot of the employees, their best and most healthy meal of the day happens to be at work. I think working here is really good for a lot of people.

Q: What’s the deal with having your own baristas in the factory showroom?

A: You come out to the store and people are kind of astonished that they come into a nice place. It’s clean. There’s kind of a Starbucks experience there, but it’s free. It might take 10 minutes to fill your order, so you can have a break, you can use the Wi-Fi, you can have a coffee and get some things done while your order is being filled.

rchannick@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @RobertChannick

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