What is white noise? If you were watching Jeopardy, the answer from Alex Trebek would be, “It’s what viewers hear when a typical auto dealer ad runs on television.”
“White noise”, as defined by Merriam-Webster’s dictionary is: Meaningless or distracting commotion, hubbub, or chatter.
While it’s certainly not your intention, many of you have successfully created white noise with your TV or radio commercials. Your ad copy and TV spots probably sound great to you, but you’re not trying to sell a vehicle to yourself or someone from an auto dealership. How do you react to the furniture or department store’s Big One Day Only Sale commercials in your market? Do you really believe the advertised date is the only day you will ever get a good price? Sure it is, until next week! You’re not stupid, you know the game…and your customers do too.
Ok, enough with the barbs and jabs at your marketing efforts. How do we fix this?
Let’s look at ad campaigns that have been wildly successful over the years. I’m sure you all know about the legendary Cal Worthington, the West Coast’s wacky auto dealer who made a name for himself as his own TV ad pitchman. Cal jumped out of airplanes, rode and ran with (and on) wild animals often with a circus-like tune frantically telling consumers, “If you want a great deal, go see Cal” over and over again. It was unbelievably entertaining, memorable, and most importantly, effective.
More recently, you’ve probably seen the “Badger” and “Trunk Monkey” ad campaigns and got a chuckle. Again, these have been a huge hit with the consumers which translated into a win for the dealers who have run with something other than the typical in-your-face, wham-bam, we’ve got a sale going on, white noise campaigns.
You are probably thinking you don’t want to sky dive or ride an elephant and you certainly don’t have any actor monkeys sitting around waiting to appear in your next spot. Enter David Turnbull, better known as the trash talking “Shapoopi” guy in the irreverent Northwest, iconic Vern Fonk Insurance commercials that air only in Washington and Oregon. Turnbull’s ads have a huge following on TV stations across the region and have garnered an enormous following with the all important online community, generating millions of Website visits.
Vern Fonk’s pre-Turnbull era commercials, starring brothers Rob and Joel Thielke are also legendary in the Northwest. Turnbull worshipped the long running series of Vern Fonk TV spots for years and when he met Rob, he begged him relentlessly to get involved. Ultimately, Turnbull wrote a script, got a location, and spoofed Napoleon Dynamite’s character with his heroes Rob and Joel playing Pedro and Uncle Rico.
The follow up to that spot, with Turnbull wearing a beige leisure suit and a cowboy hat, flanked by seductive cow gals and a dancing Rob Thielke on the roof of a car was nothing short of amazing. The number one TV newscast in Portland, Oregon spoofed the commercial because its anchors were such huge fans of it, even going as far as to say meeting the Fonk crew was more fun than meeting multiple U.S. presidents, not bad for free PR!
If you are looking to permanently eliminate white noise from your TV commercials, Turnbull is now making himself available to you, with market-wide exclusivity for his trademark Shapoopi character. There will be a year’s worth of pre-made Shapoopi spots available for you to tag for your dealership. He is also making himself available for customized campaigns including on-site filming at your dealership.
This is not an unprecedented concept either. You may recall Dave Varney, whose “Ernest” character did exactly the same thing. He offered market exclusivity to a variety of products, making each campaign seem unique to each local market he aired in.
Any further description of Turnbull’s character will not do it justice. So go to www.youtube.com and search “Vern Fonk Shapoopi”. See for yourself just how many people have viewed these hysterical yet incredibly effective commercials.
People watch TV to be informed and entertained, not bored. It has been proven time and again that if you put a message on television that is entertaining, you will get noticed. Even better, this form of advertising allows you to avoid getting into price wars with your competitors and giving away your product for little or no profit, while creating a lasting impression that isn’t always focused on the deal.
You will also recreate yourself and become a brand that consumers will be happy to be associated with. Ever see the TV program King of Cars that aired for a few years on A&E? I’ve never seen people get so excited about locking themselves into five years of payments at 20 percent interest! Much of it is because they’ve created a memorable buying experience. By poking fun at themselves and by showing the consumer they’re not just another big scary car dealer guy, they’ve become human. Turnbull’s character can do the same for your dealership.
Tim Grand is the vice president of sales and media for Stevenson Advertising. If you want to become something more than “white noise” to your customers, using the Shapoopi character to drive business to your dealership, contact Tim Grand at 425-787-9686.