Searchlights
Wow, it's been over a month without a blog article from your AZ Swagman. I guess you can tell that I'm no millennial - obviously I don't post enough! Of course, I've also been moving offices here at A-Z Office Resource. The new Swag-digs (yes, no?) are much larger, giving me lots of room to show off promotional products, as well as production space.
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. Your Swagman ate too much and got to have a nap on the couch - so all in all a good one! Also, Tottenham won on Saturday, moving to third place in the Premier League! Go Spurs!!
On to the subject line of this blog posting. Over the holiday, your Swagman, his wife and son got to go to the movies (Ralph Breaks the Internet - fun for kids of all ages). As we left the house, we noticed a pair of searchlights piercing the early evening darkness. For several blocks we speculated on where they were located and what was being advertised.
Could they be coming from City Hall? How about the park? No, it looks like they're on the way to the theater - maybe one of the stores nearby? Maybe there's an event going on and we're in for some traffic?
As we drove, the excitement grew and grew . . . well, it did for your Swagman anyway. Son is 13 and mostly interested in the electronic device in his hand. Wife is highly respected medical professional and often has to respond to inquiries via text. Regardless of the level of excitement, we all had a curiosity of where the lights originated.
Finally (after an excruciating 10 minutes of driving - we live fairly close to the theater), we approached our destination and we narrowed the source to either one of the surrounding shops or the Catholic church across the highway. A block later and we suddenly, and rather unexpectedly saw the lights just outside . . . a mattress store.
The others in the car quickly laughed and went back to electronic devices. Your Swagman however, felt there was a good potential marketing point to be made. Advertisements (web, television, print), promotional products, and yes, even searchlights, are tools to attract potential clients to a business. The effect of these searchlights definitely created some anticipation and interest initially, but that feeling quickly faded when the final product was revealed.
The bottom line? Always be sure the product or service you're advertising is in demand by the target audience. Had your Swagman been in the market for a mattress, this might have been more effective. If the mattress store tied the searchlights with another advertising medium, it was missed by yours truly. Let's have the conversation about goals and tie-in's before just launching into a campaign that may or may not yield results.
Thanks!