I was stuck in traffic behind a pickup truck from a local HVAC company. The reason I could tell was a green vinyl banner stuck on the tailgate. The cell phone picture through my windshield is a little blurry, but the sign read “Winter Furnace Sale” with copy beneath it telling of available rebates when switching from a gas furnace to a heat pump. 

When I got back to the office I called the company and asked if they had gotten any response – the girl answering the phone said, “oh yeah!” in a tone of voice that let me know this was really something.

What makes this worthy of a blog is here was a company that would never see a return using traditional broadcasting. Whether it was a stroke of luck or genius I don’t know, but they caught my eye on a cold, rainy day.

Our industry is experiencing some cold, rainy days. The question is: Are we using every available resource to attract the eyes of our market? Maybe you could put vinyl signs on demo Corollas saying, “You can drive this car for 50% of MSRP at Hometown Toyota” (Total of lease payments vs. MSRP). Minimal cost, and what a return on ‘around the block thinking’ with just one deal! 

Who knows, it might have your people saying, ‘ooooh yeah!’