By Patrick Avenell
MOREE, NORTHERN NSW: Steve O’Hara, the owner and proprietor of Moree Retravision, has come up with a novel way of promoting his business in the community, and the results have so far been encouraging.
Four years ago, Dragons fan O’Hara teamed up with the local Rural Press paper, the Moree Champion, to co-sponsor the city’s footy tipping competition. Each week, the township’s best punter wins a $20 voucher to the local Retravision, with O’Hara ready each Monday to upsell the winner to a more considered purchase.
“We’ve been doing this for four years and it absolutely has been a success,” said O’Hara. “We get advertising out of it and we give away a $20 voucher that we hope they put towards something more expensive.”
Each week during the NRL rugby league season, Moree punters select their tips from the weekend’s matches. You have to get the newspaper and fill in the form to compete, so O’Hara knows that every entrant in the competition will see his ad and have his Retravision store on the brain.
One tipster each week wins the $20 voucher; then it’s up to the staff at the store to sell him or her up to a more expensive product.
Asked whether he thought this form of co-operative advertising represented value for money, O’Hara answered in the affirmative.
“It’s great value for money. They put it in the sports sections at the back of the paper, so you get the advertising, and we get the winners into the store every week for 26 weeks.
“Hopefully, some of them are new customers coming into the store.”
One objective of this campaign is to keep Moree locals shopping locally. Unfortunately for the town’s small business owner, not all residents are as passionate.
“There are always the people that think they can duck out of town to get something cheaper. These promotions are about trying to keep people shopping in the town.”
Have you come up with an interesting promotion or advertising campaign for your store? Tell me about it.