Newspapers Canada spotlights newspaper innovation by inviting representatives from across the country to contribute to our Innovative Advertising Blog. In this edition, Abby Oliver, account manager at The Guardian in PEI, highlights the success of a local advertiser with their newspaper-distributed G! Magazine.
About a year ago, I had the opportunity to meet with Matt Eye, owner of MBEye Electrical. At that time, he was running his business out of his house and was very open to trying new and innovative forms of marketing. Using everything from radio advertising spots to wraps around garbage cans at the Charlottetown Mall, he found that he was getting some response from these methods of marketing, but not getting the response that he desired.
We discussed the issues that he was having and what outcomes he was looking for and we came to some great conclusions. I started him off with advertising in G! as he really liked the idea of using color in his ads and already was very familiar with, and enjoyed greatly, the magazine – but had limited budget to work with.
Within the first few months of being in G! he noticed that he was already starting to get great response, but was still wanting something that would make him stand out amongst the rest. I came to him with the idea of doing something completely different for his ads – still showing who his staff were, but doing it in a way that would stand out and that people would remember. And the ads certainly did that! Within a few weeks of his first ad running with the cartoon versions of his staff, he was quickly receiving great feedback and his client base started to grow.
Since then, all of his G! ads have had these cartoon components in them and month after month he tells me he has new clients coming in that have seen – and remembered – his advertising. He started with using ¼ page ads in the magazine and now does either half or full page ads.
He has now moved out of his “home office” and now has his own location in Charlottetown. I firmly believe these ads have had a tremendous impact on the awareness of his business and he wishes to use the format of these ads with their entire marketing plan.
