I had to share this story with you: A couple of weeks ago the wife and I were purchasing a new sofa from a small local furniture store.
While the 20-something sales guy was writing up the order, we got into a conversation about advertising with him, and his father, the store owner, who was sitting at the front counter.
My wife rolled her eyes and walked away (she hates it when I talk work with anyone). I also never let on that I work in radio.
The young guy was the son of the store owner and had spent every weekend in store with his folks, for years, and now he was Assistant Manager. The store owner seemed very proud of this.
I mentioned to the both of them that I’d recalled they used to do quite a few weekend outside broadcasts with the local radio station, but weren’t doing it any more… why?
It turns out that this young gun had convinced his father to move ALL of their ad budget to “digital”, including social media like Facebook and Instagram.
The goal was to increase their reach for less money than what they had been spending with local radio.
So, sensing blood in the water (especially because there was NO-ONE IN THE STORE on a Saturday morning) I asked:
1. When you did radio (OB’s/Remotes), how much foot traffic into the store was directly attributed to the radio ads?
2. …and how much of that foot traffic converted to actual sales?
The owner said to me, they made on average 15-22 sales per weekend with a radio remote from an average 50-60 people through the door that were called to action by advertising with the station. That was about right for every-time they did a remote broadcast, which was about 4 times a year, then they pulled their advertising a year ago.
Yet the young guy kept on pointing out to his father how much it had cost them to do radio.
My next question was ready to go before they both even finished talking: “So how many sales have converted from foot traffic that was directly attributable (since moving your ad budget) to all digital and social?”
Answer: ‘None’. They both looked at each other, scratching their heads… They had no way of knowing at all. “We have had maybe 50 click throughs to the website, but I don’t think we’ve had any sales that happened on or through our site at all, have we Dad?”
As we were wrapping up our business, the young guy justified the decision to move all their ads away from radio by stating: “All my friends and family are on Instagram, so that’s where the store needs to be too.”
As we were heading for the door, the ‘Assistant Manager’ shook my hand thanking me for buying from them, and I said to him and his father… “Oh, just one more question… Tell me, how many of your friends and family have come into the store and purchased any furniture from you in the past year?”
The young guy just smiled and wished us a good day.
Then on Monday at 9am, we got a call from his father wanting the cost of outside broadcasts and advertising packages. They were a lapsed client, no more.
It just made me smile!
