“Local advertising is sold, not bought”
“Local advertising is sold, not bought” is a popular axiom of advertising. Many local businesses don’t have large advertising budgets—if any at all. A newspaper or a website, for example, must sell the concept and effectiveness of advertising to local businesses. The saying “Advertising is sold, not bought” has been cited in print since at least 1922, although use was infrequent. The saying “Local advertising is sold, not bought” has been popular in the 2000s (especially in new media), and has been used frequently by Gordon Borrell of Borrell Associates, Inc.
The “sold, not bought” expression has been used in many other fields. “Insurance is sold, not bought” has been cited in print since at least 1916.
Google Books
October 1922, The Pacific Printer and Publisher, pg. 229, col. 2:
“Advertising is sold, not bought. We do have to develop in the layman a desire to spend his money in advertising.”
Marksonland
The Origin of Advertising?
February 19, 2007 10:50 AM.
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I’ve always said that advertising is sold, not bought - and that advertisers will try anything once. It’s getting to buy a second time that is the real challenge.
ClickZ
What Drives Local Search Directories?
Brian Wool | June 21, 2007
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Advertising is sold, not bought. We can debate what’s more important, the content or technology, but it all comes down to selling advertising locally. To remain competitive on that front, local search directories must build strength in both content and technology.
Borrell Associates, Inc.
Local Advertising is Sold, Not Bought
by Gordon Borrell
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009
Yahoo announced Monday it was launching a self-serve system for small and medium-sized businesses to create and purchase banner ads. Yahoo is filled with bright people managing a viable product, but this isn’t one of their shining moments.
The effort miscalculates one important aspect of SMBs: They aren’t particularly savvy when it comes to advertising, nor do they have much time to devote to it. They’re too busy fixing leaks, preparing legal briefs, conducting LASIK surgery, cleaning houses, or running the cash register. Ask any of the 93,000 local ad reps out there.
The fact is, local advertising is sold, not bought. Every local advertiser suffers what I call the John Wannamaker Syndrome, which is the nagging belief that half of his advertising works, and half doesn’t, and he doesn’t know which is which. So the vulnerability of those expenditures is always high.
The Royal We Is Us
.Local Advertisement is Sold Not Bought.
July 16th, 2009 by Bradley.
It’s been said that local advertisement is “sold not bought.” And more often than not, when this happens, the point of purchasing marketing/advertising is defeated. Having seen this first hand, I could never put a word on it until recently. Part of this goes back to the local business not believing that marketing/advertising holds any value to its success. Some don’t even have a budget for such a thing, compared to a national brand that spends the majority of its budget on marketing/advertising and sees it as key to its success.
BIA/Kelsey Local Media Watch
DMS ’09: Krantz Reiterates Media Bundling as a Survival Imperative
By: Mike Boland
23 September 2009
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“Local advertising is sold, not bought,” he said. “You gotta sell the bundle and gotta be that local consultant.”
paidContent
Google Goes Local; Begins Limited Test Of Listings Ads
David Kaplan
Oct 6, 2009 3:02 PM ET
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Gordon Borrell, CEO of local ad researcher Borrell Associates, has some doubts about Google’s ability to quickly dominate the listings business. “Local advertising is sold, not bought,” Borrell told paidContent. “Which is only to say that local advertisers tend not to seek out advertising themselves. Opportunities are brought and pitched to them.
Burst Media Company Blog
Advertising is sold, not bought
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010 at 6:15 pm
The article in Advertising Age this week reliving some of the points that were made at the IAB Leadership conference in Carlsbad, CA, about erosion in the middle of the online advertising value chain ushers to mind the old maxim, “Advertising is sold, not bought.” We’ll get to that in a minute.
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Either way, more influence over the outcome of media planning and buying accrues to publishers, which is why the maxim “advertising is sold, not bought” elbows its way to the front. Even now, despite arguments about infinite supplies of inventory, there’s an argument afoot about supplier value. Publishers are whining because they feel pain. They will want advocates going forward.
Screenwerk
Will Google’s ‘Boost’ Be a Self-Service Breakthrough?
October 25 2010
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The conventional wisdom promoted at YPA and BIA events is that “advertising is sold, not bought.” That has historically been true . . . But if the offering simple enough (and it works — a big if) we might see fairly broad uptake. It does remain to be seen however. And so I don’t want to be too excited in my statements.
Yipit Blog
Is Groupon Stores Dead On Arrival?
by Jim Moran on January 25, 2011
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Possible reasons Groupon Stores isn’t taking off
1. Local Self-Serve is next to impossible. Even Google, which runs the largest, most successful self-serve local advertising platform in the world, is building call centers to support its upcoming daily deal product. As the old adage goes, local advertising is sold, not bought. Local merchants have tremendous constraints on their time and hundreds of sales pitches to fend off, many of which are hawking competitive daily deal products.