Launch Local Creating a BUZZ in Ohio

March 1, 2013 - PRLog -- In the last year and a half, Launch Local Inc has a lot of buzz about their business. Not only have they been recognized as leaders in the advertising community locally, but Launch Local ranked 4th in the national statistics last week amongst its affiliates. They have added 51 clients to their portfolio in the last 12 months and plan to “Launch” 3 new locations by the end of 2013. What is even more impressive; all of this is happening in a receding economy.

We spoke with Launch Local Inc marketing director of operations, Linda Barton, about the keys to Launch Local Inc marketing group's success over the last year. “In all honesty, it's common sense. Instead of Companies spending money in traditional forms of advertising like Radio, TV and Newspaper, that only creates awareness; our package recycles unused inventory, creating a word of mouth buzz in the community. Word of Mouth statistically is more effective than paid advertising.”

When we took an inside look at the company's day-to-day operations, we got a firsthand scoop at what Ms Barton was talking about. Launch Local Inc designs and distributes promotional packages for companies in the entertainment fields like Professional Sports Teams, and many more. The Launch concept is a “No Cost Advertising” which means there is no out of pocket cost to the client. Launch simply takes unused inventory, recycles it and pumps it into a target marketed business district, giving consumers 70%-90% off the “time sensitive” services. Essentially, it is what Ms. Barton calls a "win, win, win" strategy. "for example, a sports team knows it won't fill all of its seats at the stadium, rather than let them sit empty, they give us access to an allotted amount of tickets for certain games throughout the year. We take those tickets and develop a package that we can market to the community. The client wins by filling their unused seats and getting free exposure, the customer wins because they get unbeatable deals that they can't get anywhere else, and Launch wins, because we are creating revenue off of something that would have normally been a waste at sundown.” explains Ms Barton.

When seeing Launch Local operate in person, it is easy to see how they have had so much growth over the last year. We asked Ms Barton why she thinks they are having so much success when places like groupon and living social are starting to struggle. "Person to person marketing is, always was, and always will be the most effective marketing strategy. Before there were malls, radio and television people relied on word of mouth. We are just taking things back to our roots.”

With every success come struggles, so we asked Ms Barton what Launch Locals problems are. She went on to explain. “Well, our positive is our negative. Being that we are experts in our industry we are expanding rapidly. We have a great clients, and awesome team of people that we work with day in and day out. The negative is that we are growing too fast. Being that this is a no cost advertising program, companies are eager for us to start their campaigns and it’s a struggle to keep up. In order to keep up with our client’s demands, we need more people qualified to run campaigns, more account managers to maintain our clients and more managers to open up new branches. Unfortunately, this is not the type of industry that people typically have experience in that we can cross-train for these positions. We have to groom them internally and that takes time.” The closest industry to Launch Locals concept is political campaigning getting out there being the face and shaking hands. The success of every campaign comes always come from the staff.  Ms. Barton goes on to explain, “If a person is going to be successful in this field, they have to have an unbelievable work ethic, be quick on their feet, creative, have problem solving skills, and the ability to work in a team environment without constant managerial supervision. That’s a pretty large order in today's world; work ethic is a characteristic that is slowly disappearing."  

After the Inside look at Launch Local; this concept truly incentivizes individuals to support locally owned and operated business keeping revenue within the community supporting local jobs. Discounting services makes it affordable for families to go out and spend money to stimulate the economy. Their concept is not just about offering discounts and promoting local business, but really branding their clients and helping them to operate at full capacity. The image of a company giving back to the community really makes them look like the hero in end.  Any business that is not operating at full capacity can benefit from this approach.

About Launch Local
Launch is a leading marketing company that helps fortune 1000 companies generate new customers using word of mouth marketing. Led by a team of experts Launch uses a hands-on management style to hit return on investment goals. Launch Local was founded in 2008 and is based in Girard, Ohio. For more information, please Visit www.launchlocal.net, or call 1.800.487.3394.