Best Ad Campaign: West Music of Coralville, Iowa

<p>West Music is out there every day breaking down the barriers that exist, not only for school music education but for music participation in general. Whether they are barriers like access and funding for school music education or eliminating perceived obstacles that exist for the 85 percent who wished they played a musical instrument, West Music tries to address them all.&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>An Eye-Catching Ad Campaign</strong></p> <p>West Music created the &quot;Centers of Influence&quot; campaign as part of the annual program advertising they do in various band, orchestra, and performing arts center programs in their communities. For the campaign, they hand-selected local business leaders, advocates, and musicians to share what music means to them and what an impact it has had on their lives. They had each of the leaders come into their local West Music store to share their story.&nbsp;</p> <p>Using these videos, they were able to piece together a testimonial about the power of making music and build print ads around that story. Those print ads ran in the local programs and were intended to spark interest in music, share the power of making music, and provide a strong local connection to potential musicians in the area. They built the ads in-house so the production cost was zero. However, they continued to budget their standard program ad spend and arts contribution, which was over $7,500 for all of our stores.&nbsp;</p> <p>Their goal was continued brand-growth, recognition and support of the goal to create more music makers. They didn't have a strong ROI measurement for this ad campaign, since it was more focused on brand recognition and advocacy, but had strong local feedback from the arts organizations as well anecdotal evidence from customer coming into the stores and referencing &nbsp;the ad or recognized their local center of influence.</p> <p>Watch the video to see more!</p> <div>&nbsp;</div> <p>&nbsp;</p>