Tulsa World, QT and the sandwich

[RecycleMichael]

Today's Tulsa World had a coupon for a free QT sandwich or wrap stuck on the top of the front page. I stopped by the store to pick up a fountain drink and saw the coupon on a stack of papers on the rack.

I bought the Tulsa World for fifty cents and had a $3.59 sandwich for free.

I tried the Triple Stack sandwich. It was cut diagonally into two wedges (the best foods are triangular in shape). The package was hard plastic (terrible environmental packaging) and the label said that the sandwich contained Ham, Turkey and Beef.

Some religions prohibit eating of cows and others prohibit consumption of pigs..I don't know any that prohibit eating turkeys, but it does seem rare to have all three in the same sandwich.

It was on wheat bread and it seemed healthy enough. I don't eat a lot of health food, (in fact health food makes me sick). I am sure that the meat had the proper amount of preservatives which is probably better for me anyway.

I also didn't like that the newspaper had a sticky coupon. Newspaper recycling revenue is the backbone of my recycling program and the sticker and glue are contaminants to normally clean newsprint. The glue they used was very light, but I have seen other times when it would potentially mess up the recyclability of the paper.

Overall, the value of a good sandwich made the transaction worthwhile. I hope they do the same promotion tomorrow so I can try wrap next time.

[Steve]

I saved that coupon from my World today.  I wondered if it applied to any sandwich or wrap, regardless of price, but apparently so.  Not bad.

I figure that I save enough money from the Sunday coupon inserts and offers like the QT coupon to at least pay for my annual World subscription.  Always a spendthrift, I am a big user and believer in coupons!  Seems to be getting more difficult though.  When I renewed my annual World subscription last October, it was $200, plus carrier gratuity.  I love my daily local paper, even if it is the Tulsa World, and would feel big void without it.

[citizen72]

quote:Originally posted by Steve

I saved that coupon from my World today.  I wondered if it applied to any sandwich or wrap, regardless of price, but apparently so.  Not bad.

I figure that I save enough money from the Sunday coupon inserts and offers like the QT coupon to at least pay for my annual World subscription.  Always a spendthrift, I am a big user and believer in coupons!  Seems to be getting more difficult though.  When I renewed my annual World subscription last October, it was $200, plus carrier gratuity.  I love my daily local paper, even if it is the Tulsa World, and would feel big void without it.

I took mine to the QT at 81st and Memorial and received their cheapest sandwich that was mostly all bread. Not much of a deal.

[AMP]

I wish I had the same response to our promotions in 9 smaller newspapers. We printed 432,000 coupons Wednesday and last Sunday and only one came through our gate Saturday night.  

It was a $10 Value.  

I have almost given up on Newspaper advertising as I cannot quantify the costs versus the response.  

Just hate to not include print in our media mix.

[Steve]

quote:Originally posted by AMP

I wish I had the same response to our promotions in 9 smaller newspapers. We printed 432,000 coupons Wednesday and last Sunday and only one came through our gate Saturday night.  

It was a $10 Value.  

I have almost given up on Newspaper advertising as I cannot quantify the costs versus the response.  

Just hate to not include print in our media mix.

What is your business and what was the coupon for AMP?  1 out of 432,000 is a pretty dismal response.

I always clip coupons and always will, they are just like cash money to me.  Newspaper circulation has been on a downward dive for many years, especially since the rise of the internet, but I still subscribe daily.  I would feel a big void without my daily local paper in hand.  Must be a generational/age thing, as I suspect the younger you are, the less likely you are to read a printed newspaper.

You can print coupons youself from the internet for many items, although I have never done it.  I mainly use coupons for things I buy regularly such as pet foods, cleaning and household products and some food items.  I use restaurant coupons sometimes too if the savings is significant, but I rarely eat out.

[TURobY]

quote:Originally posted by AMP

I wish I had the same response to our promotions in 9 smaller newspapers. We printed 432,000 coupons Wednesday and last Sunday and only one came through our gate Saturday night.  

It was a $10 Value.  

I have almost given up on Newspaper advertising as I cannot quantify the costs versus the response.  

Just hate to not include print in our media mix.

Just because you only received one coupon doesn't necessarily mean it was a bust. After all, I rarely clip coupons. But I still take note of events and restraunts that offer them.

Typically, I forget to bring the coupon. Or don't have time/energy (it sounds silly, I know) to clip coupons. But they still can point me towards interesting things.

[AMP]

Coupon was $10 off price of General Admission or $5, regular priceis $15 to the Outlaw Winter Nationals Indoor Dirt Track Races. Motorcycles, Hot Road Mowers, Champ Karts and ATV Pro Quads.

We publish in Daily Oklahoman zone 6 which covers south east OKC, Midwest City, Harrah, Shawnee, Luther, Jones and others surrounding the venue we use.  

We also publish in these newspapers along with an editorial article describing the event and local participants if any: Midwest City, Shawnee, Seminole, Stillwater, Wewoka, Norman, New Castle and Mcloud papers Wednesday and Sunday papers. Plus we pay for a 500 word artlcle with a color photo in 5 of the papers in the sports section.

Coupon is 4"x4" reverse Black/White with line drawing of race vehicles, checker flags and the name address of the venue, title of the event, date/time of event and pricing of tickets with discount. Kids 6-16 are always "Just Five Bucks" under 6 Free.  


 

[RecycleMichael]

Maybe five bucks is still too much to watch Hot Rod Mowers. Next time just give away a sandwich.

You could promote it as the world's biggest drive through restaurant.

[AMP]

Print may be really good for some marketing to specific demos.  Apparently our ticket buyers use Print or Internet much.  

With 150 entries we average a very small 75 hits on our web site monthly.  Those are unique daily IP hits, not page reloads.

Out of 150 that complete our entry forms most events less than 30 people indicate they have access to the Internet or have used the Internet in the past year.  

Among this group of people it appears that Internet is not a priority.

I believe marketing has a lot to do with knowing the demographics of a particular audience.  Television seems to be our best buy for attracting fans and participants with Radio a distant 2nd and Print barely on the chart.  

In Tulsa, a single interview of AMA National Rider #52 Gary Rogers in front of his big Transport with two of his Harley Davidson motorcycles during a 5 minute slot on the KOTV Morning Show generated 560 ticket sales at area O'Reilly Parts Stores in one day.  We could quantify the immediate results of that time slot.  

That event was held near Pryor, Oklahoma and  generated 90% of the available tickets sold.

[AMP]

Not sure about the $5 being too high, we still get 350 at $15 at each event and 200 in the Pits at $20.  

Bleachers in that building only hold 450 so we are near capacity at $15, just looking for the other 100.  

I am going to follow the Casinos lead with a Ladies Night later this month with our Print Ad Promotion.  All Ladies just $5 and all 18 or over are eligible to win up to $25,000 during the 1/2 time special drawing of the Ladies Night general admission ticket numbers.

[AMP]

When our announcer asks those in attendance at the opening of the show who came to see which divisions the Hot Rod Mowers are by far the crowd favorite.  Motorcycles are second, Quads a distant third and the karts are normally last on the applause meter response.  

When he asks how did you hear about the event? All paid advertising TV, Radio, Newspaper may get a 20% response with TV or Radio getting the largest response.  The overall largest response is, "  I heard about it from and/or I came to see a friend that races"

That answer is around 80%.

I call it an Inlaw show and not an Outlaw show.

[YoungTulsan]

Apparently your market doesn't read. But that is indicative of your market, not of the viability of print ads.  Having an ad stuck to the outside of the Sunday Tulsa World is not only expensive, but effective if the target was properly chosen.

[sgrizzle]

The coupon works for QT because QT sells a gross of newspapers every day. While print advertising may not yield many results, it was still getting the word out and may have complimented other forms of advertisement. Mainly you need to make sure you have ads at every ATV, motorcycle and lawnmower store and maybe hand out fliers at other (even unrelated) racing events.

Also, please get a better website.

quote:
March 3rd - Location TBA

Hopefully by now you've figured out where...

[AMP]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I have used the Yahoo Free web site since 2003, prior to that I used Freeyellow for several years. The Yahoo site has links from several other motorsports sites to it.  Would it not be a major pain to change all those listings? Is that worse than a physical address or phone number change?

Do you mean the content the host or both on the web site?  I have never been totally happy with the style, but it is free and seems to work as we do not have many people participating with us that own computers or have access to the internet according to their response to those questions.  So I guess you get what you pay for.  

We have promotional videos on You Tube and pictures of the evenets listed on photo sites that directs to the other.  

We distribute over 10,000 flyers during the Tulsa Shootout and the Chili Bowl, plus at other races in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas and I am the track announcer at two racetracks in Oklahoma plus I announce select events at four racetracks in Texas  and one in Louisianna. I always plug other events during intermission.  

We print and distribute 2,000 $5 discount coupons that we place one week prior to the race date at cash register counters of convienence stores and local cafes and restaurants in the surrounding areas where the events occur.

We are fortunate in the OKC area to have 7 Power Sports dealers that are co-sponsors of the event and pay for trophies, plus provide a portion of the Cash Purse in the Pro-Am divisions.  They have our information at or near the counter and are responsible for helping to increase our participant counts each event.  Of course keeping in mind our events are in the Winter may contribute to why the Power Sports dealers do not send us much spectator traffic, as their business is typically slow during cold and bad weather.

We also have a dozen local merchants that advertise with our program.  Most are firms that directly benefit from the traffic we bring into the area.  Types of these businesses include Fuel Stations, Restaurants, Auto Parts, Machine Shops, Trailer Sales, Auto/Truck Sales, Power Sports Dealers, Motels.  

This Winter has been a struggle for us as our opening round saw 12" of snow, and up to last weekend we have had 12" of Snow, 6" of Ice, Freezing Rain and sub-freezing temps for every race date.  

Even Saturday night kept up to par so far for the series with the temps below the freezing mark once again.  

Perhaps the next three rounds will see improved weather for us.  

Thanks for you input.  I was unaware our web person had not changed that TBA on the schedule. It was scheduled for Texas, however the rural road by the venue began construction so we moved it.   I updated the schedule this morning.

[AMP]

The print ad we run in OKC runs $1,200 for a weekday and $1,800 for a weekend if we run all of OKC. In one zone we run it runs around $250 for weekday and $400 for Sunday.  

Tulsa World is run by the OKC paper now I believe as we have to send all our sports press releases to OKC for publication in the Tulsa World now.

Majority of the time it seems to be just a trade off with advertising costs vrs returns.  Feels like you are giving the radio stations and papers a couple of grand for equal ticket sales.  

Few times I have done zero advertising and had about the same numbers through both gates, and did not spend additional funds making the bottom line come up.  

I just feel like we did not do our jobs to 100% potential if we have any empty seats or any empty spots on the starting grids.