Marketing: An ad sales idea for any community

An ad sales idea for any community
– SDNA eBulletin, June 10, 2009
Here’s a novel advertising idea that apparently originated in South Carolina and came to us via the Arkansas Press Association newsletter. It seems like a great idea that could be sold anywhere.

It was called “$20 on the 20th” and it was initiated by the The Aiken Standard in Aiken, S.C. The idea was to promote everyone in Aiken County to spend $20 on April 20, somewhere in the county, of course.

The newspaper sold ads for $20 that ran on Sunday and for an additional $10 they’d echo it on Monday. They sold more than 50 ads.

The ad department distributed “I spent $20 on the 20th” stickers, like the “I Voted” stickers, to the merchants to use for their customers participating.

This is just the sort of thing small communities can really get into, and it’s a great way for newspapers to take a leadership role in jump-starting the local economy and once again demonstrate the effectiveness of newspaper advertising.

You could have some fun with this. Pick a number and a day. It could be $10 on the 10th, or $25 on the 25th.

You’re not going to get rich on selling $20 ads, but the residual benefits of generating some interest in the community while spurring some local shopping and reinforcing the newspaper’s position as a community leader is invaluable.

The promotion was so successful The Standard repeated it the next month.