Television advertising is the only way to go!

Nice! Congrats. Not sure when I'll be in your neck of the woods but when I
do I know where I"m visiting. Blessings on your success and thanks again for
commenting.

Absolutely we did & haven't looked back since ;)

Nice! Congrats. Not sure when I'll be in your neck of the woods but when I
do I know where I"m visiting. Blessings on your success and thanks again for
commenting.

Absolutely we did & haven't looked back since ;)

Me too...I definitely skip more than I watch but I rewatch the good ones.

I am surprised at the number of commercials I will skip with my DVR and then see something that catches my eye and reverse to see the entire ad. However, the number of times I actually do that compared to the number of ads on TV is so small/insignificant.

Traci, that's really interesting. Do you feel like you were able to REPLACE
the tv ads with that strategy?

We replaced the tv ads with direct mail marketing and I built a website for the restaurant that included an opt in for the email newsletter. The response from customers was tremendous. We basically took our website from a static 5 page brochure site to a site that could work for us by increasing profits & cultivating relationships. (at a fraction of the cost)

Winnie, great point about the fact that there are a LOT of great ads out
there today. I actually rewind commercials I find amusing and watch them
more than once vs. the others that I just skip over all together. There's
an Evian commercial that's been viewed over 22 MILLION times -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQcVllWpwGs - Now that's a good ad!

Traci, thanks for the kind words. What do you attribute your great year of
business to if you STOPPED advertising on television? Did you replace it
with something or was it simply an extra expense that wasn't giving you a
return on your investment?

I love some of the ads out these days, like the Real Men Wear Old Spice, guy on a horse. But it's of course not for everyone! There is a music store in the region here that surely must be feeling the economy these days, and as far as I'm concerned they're getting theirs because their customer service is the worst! So when I heard their radio/tv spots, it did have me wondering if these expensive efforts will work for a cruddy company like theirs. But no tv spot will fix internal probs, that's for sure...

I just love your sense of humor :) This post hit home for my husband and I, owning a restaurant on the Outer Banks, NC my DH had advertised on the local tv cable channels for years. Our decision to take our ads off of TV was about 5yrs ago saving us $10K/yr, coincidentally (or not?) that was the BEST YEAR the restaurant had ever had up until then & thankfully we have been doing just as well every year since.
Keep up the great work!

Thanks Hank! That's really kind of you to say. I hope all I did was state some facts that show just how stuck you are if you buy TV advertising vs. the viral nature of on-line promotion. Thanks for reading.

EPIC POST! I think the mindset is that you need the big money so you can spread your message on television. You've just tipped the conventional thought process upside down with this compelling post. You make some very interesting and valid points that I never really put much thought into.

Thanks for another great post.