News at Cinderella
Successful “Backyard Vacation” Ad Campaign Continues for a Third Year
As pool professionals, our real competition is not other pool distributors or the pool dealer across town, but the R.V. or boat dealership down the street that is competing for the same disposable dollars from consumers that we want to capture. Two years ago, Cinderella introduced an advertising campaign to combat the effective “go boating” and “go RV-ing ” campaigns these other industries have used for years. We need to remind consumers why they should want to own a swimming pool or spa by highlighting the benefits of vacationing in their own backyard, without the costs of gas, the inconvenience of travel, and the annoyance of big crowds. Greater awareness of the benefits of owning a pool or spa will lead to greater sales.
For the past two years, Cinderella has purchased billboards throughout the region. These billboards have been strategically purchased to appear on major North—South and East—West highways. In 2007, nearly 260,000 vehicles each day passed these billboards. The billboards were purchased during the Spring, primarily April through June, to coincide with the time most people are thinking about the upcoming warm weather. We also decaled our route trailers with the campaign artwork. Cinderella's vehicles travel over 144,000 miles annually and are viewed by hundreds of thousands of motorists each year.
In 2007, Cinderella purchased advertising in fourteen newspapers throughout Michigan and Ohio, including the Detroit Free Press Sunday edition. The total circulation of these newspapers is in excess of 1.7 million. Cinderella also purchased 365,000 impressions on mlive.com. This website, the combined on-line edition of nine different Michigan newspapers, is one of the most visited in the state for news and information. The on-line ad appeared 365,000 different times when a visitor came to the site, and allowed consumers to find a pool dealer in their area right from the mlive website. The billboards, trucks, newspaper ads, and on-line ads were all designed to provide exposure throughout the region.
The second goal of the campaign was to draw consumers to our dealers' stores with local impact. To do this, Cinderella developed a website, "yourbackyardvacation.com," which provides a way for consumers to find the pool and spa professional closest to their zip code through a dealer locator. The website also highlights why someone would use a pool or spa professional rather than making their purchase from one of the "big box" stores. This website is featured on the billboards, on the trucks, and in the newspaper and on-line ads.
Wherever a consumer is when they see an element of the ad campaign, the website is visible to give that individual a way to find the dealer closest to them. If someone from Toledo sees a billboard while traveling up to Traverse City, they can find a dealer in either place by using the dealer locator on the website.
After two years, the campaign without a doubt has raised awareness of the benefits of owning a pool or spa. In total, nearly 35,000 people have visited the website as a result of seeing it in some form of advertising. That is nearly 35,000 opportunities to find a new customer.
In 2006, 39 dealers and 18 manufacturers participated in the campaign. Over $100,000 was spent by dealers, manufacturers, and Cinderella to get the campaign off the ground. In 2007, 56 dealers and 21 manufacturers participated, and $86,500 was spent on advertising. We said from the very beginning that Cinderella was coordinating this campaign to benefit our dealers, and every dollar raised so far has been spent on the campaign.
For 2008, the focus of the campaign is going to be billboards and on-line ads. Along with our vehicles, which will again travel hundreds of thousands of miles while serving as moving billboards, the roadside billboards provide the most effective way to reach our target market. We have also found that on-line advertising is much less expensive than purchasing ads in newspapers.
The cost to participate in the campaign this year will be the same for or dealers as last year--$500 if you participated in the first year of the campaign and $800 if you did not. Those dealers that participated in the first year paid $2,000 in order to get the campaign going, and they deserve a price break as additional dealers continue to come on board who did not incur that initial expense.
Whether you are a dealer or a manufacturer, participating in this ad campaign is a good business decision. By participating, you are:
- Supporting the industry,
- Promoting swimming pool and spa ownership,
- Promoting an inexpensive vacation alternative in a bad economy,
- Incurring a small expense in your overall advertising budget,
- Building awareness over time (multiple impressions needed to get desired result),
- Not conceding anything to the boating, RV, and motor home industries, which are our real competition.
