Advertising in America

You can't beat the giant at his game. So quit trying. Guerrilla marketing isn't about being clever on the cheap. It's a survival strategy for the outnumbered: the two-truck shop going up against a competitor with 10,000 Google reviews and a blimp. You can't match their budget. But you can change the terrain. In this episode, Ryan Chute and the Torbay brothers break down what guerrilla marketing actually is (and what it absolutely isn't), why an apology letter beats a branded door hanger every...

Cute and clever gets you watched. A campaign gets you remembered. And in a business where they don't need you until the day they really need you—remembered is the only one that pays the light bill. Most businesses think they have an advertising problem. They don't. They have a memory problem. They ran a funny ad. People laughed. Nothing stuck. Six months later, nobody can name the company—or worse, they're confusing it with the competitor down the street. In this episode, Ryan Chute, Chris To...

Somewhere in the back of your operation, there's supposed to be a machine. You plug it in. It hums. Out come the customers, like a gumball machine, but for people who need a new water heater. That machine doesn't exist. In Episode 36 of Advertising in America, Ryan Chute, Chris Torbay, and Mick Torbay take apart one of the most expensive myths in modern marketing: that leads can be generated on demand. They can't. The weather makes the lead. The broken furnace makes the lead. Your only job, t...

You're sick of your ads. Your audience hasn't seen them yet. That is the entire problem, and it's costing businesses millions in prematurely abandoned campaigns, reset brand signals, and marketing energy aimed at the wrong target entirely. In this episode of Advertising in America, Mick Torbay and Chris Torbay take different doors to the same room. Mick's argument: your good ads need to run longer than you're comfortable with. Chris's argument: the individual ads should stay fresh, but the ad...

Every terrible ad that's ever hit the airwaves was approved by someone. Think about that. The HVAC commercial with the handsome technician and the voice-over about years of experience. The radio spot that lists quality, service, and low prices and nothing else. Every stinker. Every tune-out moment. Every ad that sounds exactly like every other ad in the category. Someone reviewed it, said yes, and unleashed it on the world. That person might be you. Not because you're bad at your job because ...