How AAON Scaled Its Brand Through Integrated Marketing

Introduction

AAON builds high-performance HVAC systems for the kinds of places that can’t afford to fail: universities, hospitals and other large-scale facilities where reliability and efficiency matter most. Their products are known for their quality and innovation, delivering comfort and control in some of the most demanding environments.

When AAON first came to Kuno Creative, the ask was simple: bring their newly designed website to life on HubSpot. As the teams began working together, though, it became clear there was potential for more. AAON saw how Kuno could help connect the dots across strategy, design and digital execution and how that partnership could shape their marketing approach.

The initial project grew into an ongoing partnership focused on building a stronger, smarter and more connected brand presence.

The Challenge

In just a few years, AAON had acquired new businesses, expanded its product lines, and watched its employee base grow dramatically. With the excitement of that growth naturally came questions. How do you keep your brand cohesive when you’re expanding so quickly? How do you manage a website that needs to serve engineers, investors, and employees all at once? And how do you make sure your marketing keeps up with the pace of your business?

AAON needed help shaping a strong digital foundation and then building on it. That meant leaning into paid advertising, optimizing for traditional search engines and AI platforms, and making sure every effort worked together to bring more qualified traffic and conversions to the website.

To achieve that, AAON needed a partner who could see the strategy and the execution clearly.

The Partnership

From the beginning, Kuno’s approach was collaborative and flexible. After developing AAON’s new website on HubSpot, the work expanded to include a dedicated investor site and an intranet to support their growing workforce. Each addition was guided by a growth-driven design approach, staying true to AAON’s brand while elevating its visual identity and user experience.

When AAON launched its Alpha Class product line, Kuno developed a set of sleek, conversion-focused landing pages and supported the rollout with a full mix of paid media that included Google, PMAX, YouTube, StackAdapt and programmatic ads. The campaign quickly gained traction, delivering a strong stream of leads and setting the stage for how future launches would be handled.

Next came Delta Class, another product line launch that built on the success of Alpha. With refined creative and smarter targeting, the campaign drove even more engagement—proof that the formula was working.

Then came something entirely different.

AAON produced a cinematic short through a third-party partner that dramatized a prison escape gone wrong: an inmate’s breakout attempt foiled by AAON’s secure HVAC system. With a short runway to promote the film’s debut at a major industry trade show, Kuno moved quickly from concept to execution, demonstrating true speed to market.

Over the course of eight days, Kuno developed a movie-style teaser landing page, complete with shareable calls to action and themed creative that carried through email, social and programmatic ads. Even the conference materials tied into the concept, creating a buzz that spread well beyond the show floor.

While the campaigns drove wins, Kuno also helped AAON focus on long-term SEO growth. Our team worked behind the scenes to strengthen the company’s topical authority, building out glossary-style resource pages and optimizing its YouTube channel to capture more visibility.

Key Wins

Kuno was able to clearly demonstrate return on ad spend and use those results to gradually earn more budget over time. Paid campaigns, particularly the Delta Class PMAX ads, delivered an impressive number of new contacts at a lower cost per lead than traditional search ads. In total, Delta Class PMAX campaign has driven 1,071 new contacts at a cost per contact of $21.83.

The “Prison Break” campaign was another standout moment. The cinematic ad concept drove strong brand awareness and engagement, generating significant reach across digital channels. There were nearly 29,000 interactions with the video and over 6,900 clicks via Google Ads on the teaser landing page’s social share button.

On the organic side, AAON has seen steady, year-over-year increases in website traffic thanks to a consistent SEO strategy focused on topical authority and resource-driven content. Kuno illustrated the true value of that organic growth by showing what it would cost to replicate those SEO successes through paid ads alone. Over the course of six months, the equivalent media spend would have exceeded $140,000, and that number is only continuing to grow.

The momentum continues to build, with AAON now earning 90+ AI overviews in search results, further proving their ongoing investment in SEO is paying off in visibility and authority.