October 15, 2007
Car guys | Biddeford's Creative Broadcast Concepts has one job, and one job only: to sell cars, cars, cars
By Douglas Rooks
There's a story Jim Boldebook likes to tell about the early days of Biddeford advertising agency Creative Broadcast Concepts. CBC, founded in 1982, was originally a partnership between Boldebook, then a downtown restaurant owner, and John Pulsifer, the flamboyant car dealer now universally known as "Jolly John." As Boldebook told it in a 2001 trade magazine story, a family came into Pulsifer's Saco Ford dealership, led by their toddler, a little girl "whose eyes grew as big as sugar cookies." The girl had spotted Pulsifer and immediately shouted, "Jolly John, Jolly John!" Her father, who happened to live 35 miles away, explained why they were there. As soon as he had mentioned truck shopping, his daughter broke into peals of "Jolly John!" He said to his wife, "I guess I know where we're going to look for a truck."
Advertising and marketing that gets results is still the name of the game for a product like cars and trucks that everyone knows ˆ and, particularly today, everyone knows a lot about.
One of CBC's current partners, Frank Drigotas, likes to tell a story about another way to look at marketing.
Around a summer barbecue, he'll hear friends and relatives talking about a car ad they thought was particularly funny. He listens, and then asks, "Who was the ad for? What was the dealer's name?" As often as not, they can't tell him. "That's not an effective ad," he says. "It won't bring the customer in the door."
CBC is an unusual agency in that, from the beginning, it has had only car dealers as clients. In the ad world, even large agencies tend to take all kinds of clients.
Pulsifer explains why the focus has remained on cars. "Jim used to talk to me about signing up other clients ˆ banks, lumber yards, real estate," he says. "I said, 'You'd have to know as much about their business as we do about cars. Why not stick to what we know?'"
And so it has been ever since. Perhaps because of Pulsifer's initial involvement, the firm has relatively few other clients in Maine (currently, only Van Syckle, a Lincoln-Mercury, Kia and Suzuki dealer in Bangor), but it has prospered in the national market. Its client list includes the nation's largest Ford dealer, Gilpin Motors in Los Angeles, which grew to its current position as a result of CBC's work, according to Gilpin owner Bert Boeckmann.
CBC offers a full line of video and audio production services as well as market research, media buys, budgeting and auditing ˆ making sure ads run when and where they're supposed to.
Meanwhile, longevity has been a hallmark at the firm. Most of CBC's 60 clients, representing 400 dealerships, have been with the agency 15 years or more, and they extend across the country to Hawaii, with concentrations all along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and the upper Midwest, along with Texas and Arizona.
The agency also boasts steady growth, with sales rising between five percent and 10% a year. CBC, which booked more than $6 million in revenue last year, also has never had a bad year and has never laid anyone off due to lack of business, says Drigotas. This remarkable record comes from a simple reason: "We choose our clients carefully," Drigotas says. "These are people who know they need promotion in good times and bad. You can't stop advertising just because sales are down."
Slow and steady
CBC has enjoyed such stability for a few reasons. One is the company's national reach, which allows it to weather regional recessions. "Imagine if you were a car dealer in New Orleans right after Hurricane Katrina," he says. (CBC in fact does have clients in Louisiana.) "You wouldn't want to be dependent on just the Gulf Coast to stay in business."
Drigotas' emphasis on steady, disciplined growth is a product of his business philosophy. "If you're growing too fast, you tend to lose your edge," he says. "We owe it to our customers to manage our own growth, too."
That corporate conservatism also has a basis in personal experience. Drigotas started his career at what was then the largest advertising agency in Portland ˆ Chellis, Conwell & Gale ˆ only to find himself out of a job when the agency went out of business in the late 1980s. He then landed at CBC as a salesman, and climbed the ranks until purchasing the company with Barry Morgan, a former salesman for Portland radio station WMGX and a 12-year CBC veteran. (And though Drigotas and Morgan bought out Boldebrook in 1998, the company's founder still works with clients and drums up business for CBC. For more on Pulsifer's role in the company, see "Staying Jolly" on page 42.)
So what is it that makes CBC successful? Frank Drigotas says it's the people. "I really do believe there's a work ethic in Maine that's stronger than other parts of the country. We offer a level of service and commitment to the client's business that they appreciate."
In addition to a six-member sales team, CBC maintains extensive art and video departments. Barry Morgan emphasizes the point by saying, "These are more than clients for us. They become personal friends. When we're traveling on business, they'll often insist that we stay at [their] houses."
Morgan says the sales model CBC uses ˆ each person has individual responsibilities, but also covers calls for the rest of the team ˆ is another way to get naturally competitive people working together. "There's a saying I like to go by: The harder you work, the luckier you get," he says.
Drigotas says that CBC follows trends in the industry buts doesn't become captive to them. "It's our job to provide an overall direction that makes sense, rather than just suggest particular ads," he says.
The special knowledge CBC provides is partly detailed, reliable, time-tested market information. "It isn't enough to know that a particular radio station is number one in a certain market," he said. "Anyone can do that. You have to know which station is more attractive to women below 40, and which cars they're looking for."
Morgan says his partnership with Drigotas continues to work because each brings particular strengths to the business. Morgan focuses more on building the sales team and creating ads for clients; Drigotas handles the research and keeps the numbers in line. "I was good at math in school," Morgan says, "but I hate to keep track of sales figures. Frank does that."
The partnership also remains amicable, Morgan says, because "we agreed a long time ago if one of us was adamant about something, the other would acquiesce. There's no point is trying to settle every difference. You really don't have to."
Closing the deal
The advertising techniques CBC pioneered is implicit in the name, "Creative Broadcasting." Back in the 1980s, and to an extent still today, car dealers feel more comfortable in newspapers, a medium they can see and touch and show to their salespeople.
Pulsifer says that Boldebook first showed him alternatives when he pointed to a full-page ad he'd run in a local paper. "How much did you pay for that?" he remembers being asked. "Do you know what else that would buy?
Before long, Pulsifer was dressing up in a banana suit for his "We've Gone Bananas" sales. Coloring books for kids and Easter Bunny outfits are some of the other ploys he used in broadcast advertising that nonetheless meets Frank Drigotas' standard ˆ the ads were funny and viewers remembered the business behind them.
Today, some advertising has migrated to the Internet but the basics remain the same. Customers come "armed with a lot of information about what they want," Drigotas says. "They're going to make their choice based on who they feel comfortable with."
However outrageous some of the original Jolly John commercials might have seemed, they represented a real person customers then got to meet. "John was John before there was ever a Jolly John commercial," Drigotas says. "What CBC figured out was how to present him to the public. When people went to the store, they found it was just like what they had heard on television. It wouldn't have worked otherwise."
There has to be a reality behind the image, or customers will figure out the illusion quickly. As Morgan puts it, "If you're mean and nasty to your customers, you're going to be out of business."
The emphasis on results is the CBC mantra, and what Drigotas himself believes in. "Don't get me wrong; I love a creative ad as much as anyone else," he says. "But in our business there's sometimes too much emphasis on winning awards, and not enough on what really works for the customer."
He says "knowing more about the business than the client does himself" is what helps CBC maintain an edge, and the long-time loyalty of clients. "We really are blessed with the level of clients we have," Drigotas said. "They're a handful of the very best in the industry. And because they view marketing as an investment rather than an expense, they're very consistent in their approach."
Bob Lewis, chief operating officer of the Faulkner Group in southeastern Pennsylvania, which operates 27 dealerships from all the major manufacturers, has been a client since 1993. "They keep us structured, they keep us accountable, they keep us in line," Lewis says of CBC.
The CBC approach, Lewis says, is very disciplined. For the most creative ads that will boost sales overnight, find another firm. Instead, CBC offers a better long-term bet. "They're in it for the long haul, looking at market share over time, not just today," says Lewis. "We treat them as part of our organization, not as a vendor."
Lewis says sees a CBC representative at least once every 60 days, "and we must talk weekly, at least."
Barry Morgan characterizes the intensive relationships that CBC cultivates as a willingness to drop everything else to focus on a particular client. "We're not afraid to go into the ditch and use a shovel," he says. "Everyone pitches in. We service people to death."
Advertising and marketing that gets results is still the name of the game for a product like cars and trucks that everyone knows ˆ and, particularly today, everyone knows a lot about.
One of CBC's current partners, Frank Drigotas, likes to tell a story about another way to look at marketing.
Around a summer barbecue, he'll hear friends and relatives talking about a car ad they thought was particularly funny. He listens, and then asks, "Who was the ad for? What was the dealer's name?" As often as not, they can't tell him. "That's not an effective ad," he says. "It won't bring the customer in the door."
CBC is an unusual agency in that, from the beginning, it has had only car dealers as clients. In the ad world, even large agencies tend to take all kinds of clients.
Pulsifer explains why the focus has remained on cars. "Jim used to talk to me about signing up other clients ˆ banks, lumber yards, real estate," he says. "I said, 'You'd have to know as much about their business as we do about cars. Why not stick to what we know?'"
And so it has been ever since. Perhaps because of Pulsifer's initial involvement, the firm has relatively few other clients in Maine (currently, only Van Syckle, a Lincoln-Mercury, Kia and Suzuki dealer in Bangor), but it has prospered in the national market. Its client list includes the nation's largest Ford dealer, Gilpin Motors in Los Angeles, which grew to its current position as a result of CBC's work, according to Gilpin owner Bert Boeckmann.
CBC offers a full line of video and audio production services as well as market research, media buys, budgeting and auditing ˆ making sure ads run when and where they're supposed to.
Meanwhile, longevity has been a hallmark at the firm. Most of CBC's 60 clients, representing 400 dealerships, have been with the agency 15 years or more, and they extend across the country to Hawaii, with concentrations all along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and the upper Midwest, along with Texas and Arizona.
The agency also boasts steady growth, with sales rising between five percent and 10% a year. CBC, which booked more than $6 million in revenue last year, also has never had a bad year and has never laid anyone off due to lack of business, says Drigotas. This remarkable record comes from a simple reason: "We choose our clients carefully," Drigotas says. "These are people who know they need promotion in good times and bad. You can't stop advertising just because sales are down."
Slow and steady
CBC has enjoyed such stability for a few reasons. One is the company's national reach, which allows it to weather regional recessions. "Imagine if you were a car dealer in New Orleans right after Hurricane Katrina," he says. (CBC in fact does have clients in Louisiana.) "You wouldn't want to be dependent on just the Gulf Coast to stay in business."
Drigotas' emphasis on steady, disciplined growth is a product of his business philosophy. "If you're growing too fast, you tend to lose your edge," he says. "We owe it to our customers to manage our own growth, too."
That corporate conservatism also has a basis in personal experience. Drigotas started his career at what was then the largest advertising agency in Portland ˆ Chellis, Conwell & Gale ˆ only to find himself out of a job when the agency went out of business in the late 1980s. He then landed at CBC as a salesman, and climbed the ranks until purchasing the company with Barry Morgan, a former salesman for Portland radio station WMGX and a 12-year CBC veteran. (And though Drigotas and Morgan bought out Boldebrook in 1998, the company's founder still works with clients and drums up business for CBC. For more on Pulsifer's role in the company, see "Staying Jolly" on page 42.)
So what is it that makes CBC successful? Frank Drigotas says it's the people. "I really do believe there's a work ethic in Maine that's stronger than other parts of the country. We offer a level of service and commitment to the client's business that they appreciate."
In addition to a six-member sales team, CBC maintains extensive art and video departments. Barry Morgan emphasizes the point by saying, "These are more than clients for us. They become personal friends. When we're traveling on business, they'll often insist that we stay at [their] houses."
Morgan says the sales model CBC uses ˆ each person has individual responsibilities, but also covers calls for the rest of the team ˆ is another way to get naturally competitive people working together. "There's a saying I like to go by: The harder you work, the luckier you get," he says.
Drigotas says that CBC follows trends in the industry buts doesn't become captive to them. "It's our job to provide an overall direction that makes sense, rather than just suggest particular ads," he says.
The special knowledge CBC provides is partly detailed, reliable, time-tested market information. "It isn't enough to know that a particular radio station is number one in a certain market," he said. "Anyone can do that. You have to know which station is more attractive to women below 40, and which cars they're looking for."
Morgan says his partnership with Drigotas continues to work because each brings particular strengths to the business. Morgan focuses more on building the sales team and creating ads for clients; Drigotas handles the research and keeps the numbers in line. "I was good at math in school," Morgan says, "but I hate to keep track of sales figures. Frank does that."
The partnership also remains amicable, Morgan says, because "we agreed a long time ago if one of us was adamant about something, the other would acquiesce. There's no point is trying to settle every difference. You really don't have to."
Closing the deal
The advertising techniques CBC pioneered is implicit in the name, "Creative Broadcasting." Back in the 1980s, and to an extent still today, car dealers feel more comfortable in newspapers, a medium they can see and touch and show to their salespeople.
Pulsifer says that Boldebook first showed him alternatives when he pointed to a full-page ad he'd run in a local paper. "How much did you pay for that?" he remembers being asked. "Do you know what else that would buy?
Before long, Pulsifer was dressing up in a banana suit for his "We've Gone Bananas" sales. Coloring books for kids and Easter Bunny outfits are some of the other ploys he used in broadcast advertising that nonetheless meets Frank Drigotas' standard ˆ the ads were funny and viewers remembered the business behind them.
Today, some advertising has migrated to the Internet but the basics remain the same. Customers come "armed with a lot of information about what they want," Drigotas says. "They're going to make their choice based on who they feel comfortable with."
However outrageous some of the original Jolly John commercials might have seemed, they represented a real person customers then got to meet. "John was John before there was ever a Jolly John commercial," Drigotas says. "What CBC figured out was how to present him to the public. When people went to the store, they found it was just like what they had heard on television. It wouldn't have worked otherwise."
There has to be a reality behind the image, or customers will figure out the illusion quickly. As Morgan puts it, "If you're mean and nasty to your customers, you're going to be out of business."
The emphasis on results is the CBC mantra, and what Drigotas himself believes in. "Don't get me wrong; I love a creative ad as much as anyone else," he says. "But in our business there's sometimes too much emphasis on winning awards, and not enough on what really works for the customer."
He says "knowing more about the business than the client does himself" is what helps CBC maintain an edge, and the long-time loyalty of clients. "We really are blessed with the level of clients we have," Drigotas said. "They're a handful of the very best in the industry. And because they view marketing as an investment rather than an expense, they're very consistent in their approach."
Bob Lewis, chief operating officer of the Faulkner Group in southeastern Pennsylvania, which operates 27 dealerships from all the major manufacturers, has been a client since 1993. "They keep us structured, they keep us accountable, they keep us in line," Lewis says of CBC.
The CBC approach, Lewis says, is very disciplined. For the most creative ads that will boost sales overnight, find another firm. Instead, CBC offers a better long-term bet. "They're in it for the long haul, looking at market share over time, not just today," says Lewis. "We treat them as part of our organization, not as a vendor."
Lewis says sees a CBC representative at least once every 60 days, "and we must talk weekly, at least."
Barry Morgan characterizes the intensive relationships that CBC cultivates as a willingness to drop everything else to focus on a particular client. "We're not afraid to go into the ditch and use a shovel," he says. "Everyone pitches in. We service people to death."
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