When Jim Beck, the founder and creator of TinRoof, announced to the team we would be focusing on local businesses and not soliciting franchise restaurants nor big corporations, I have to admit, I was terrified, mortified, petrified, stupefied. “But what if… And what about…”

Wait. Let’s seriously think about this.

Locals perform and Corporate makes you conform

If everybody chases the large corporate businesses, the competition only increases and the revenue spent on the sales force is lost. The sales force masses cater to these buyers in the hopes that one of these giants will bring instant recognition. The puppet master then moves the strings to left and the followers, ever wanting to please, sway to the left.

 Imagine this. McDonald’s is looking for an advertiser to promote a new drink. They lay out the criteria, the prerequisites. We begin to fit in this mold they make. We have to; we couldn’t be considered if we didn’t. If all the runners meet the same standards, created by the corporate giant, they’re all in the running. But there is only one winner. Time, effort, and resources spent dancing, running, chasing after a huge prize is to be shared by one.

When you’re a local, you’re in

With all this time, effort, and resources chasing big franchised corporation, who gets forgotten? Local businesses are constantly left out, missed, and flat out ignored. Focusing on locals businesses is truly a smart idea. Concentrate on them on a national level, you have a truly original idea. Local businesses need that extra edge in competing with national chains and franchises. There service is friendlier, the products last longer, the food tastes better, and you just get an overall experience that is unrivaled. We’re getting back to locals and we love it.

I have to admit; I’m now pacified, purified, and satisfied we’re going simplified by focusing on the classified. We found a truly original idea. It is the only way we will ever distinguish TinRoof. It is the only way it will ever matter.

Locals only!!

Nothing compares to the sound of rain drops falling on a tinroof. As a storm moves in you begin to hear the pitter pat of the rain on the soil. Then the drops begin to fall on the tin. The sound increases as the storm builds. You can immediately, from only the sound, conclude the power of the storm. If the storm calms you then hear the softness of the rain. Being under that tin roof  provides you a means to measure the vastness of the storm or the fading of it as the clouds depart.

I personally have run several ad campaigns. Newspapers, Yellowpages, The Coupon Clipper, Radio, and I have worked in the studio creating a commercial. After each ad released I was anxious  to collect the benefits of not only my creativity and time but my money. Return on investment (ROI) is what I was after. I didn’t just want people to say my name, think it about my product, admire my graphics and logos.  I was after real, live people entering my store.  Unfortunately I didn’t receive the results I hoped for.

Conventional advertising doesn’t work anymore. And measuring the results of those avenues wasn’t possible. So why do we continue with the same method? Because everybody has been doing it for years.  To think outside the box we need to remove it and say, “what box?” Because things have changed. To reach 100 million people by radio took 53 years, TV 13 years, internet 10 years and FaceBook 3 years. Did I get what I paid for?

“Mobile phone is the fourth screen”

You only pay when customers enter your store

We created the name TinRoof to illustrate the sound of customers entering your store. As the rain pours down you know that your advertising works for you. You can measure the results of your advertising. If you don’t hear any rain, create a new drop or change the one you created. The power to control your advertising and measure the results on the nations fourth largest screen owned by over 70% of the population is smart.  Paying only when customers enter your store…….

……brilliant!  Sounds great being under the TinRoof.

Using mobile coupons saves 200,000 tons of paper. That’s 45 acres of trees.

TinRoof is green and green is good.

With more cafes comes the growing number of possibilities that the perfect cup of coffee is closer than you think. How would you find that little local entrepreneur eager to please those morning java buds? Yellow pages? Never.

With location aware GPS you can find the closet cafe in your immediate vicinity. In only 1 minute and 4clicks. Open TinRoof. View categories. Click coffee. Viola. The closet cafes and little niche shops in 5 miles. Starbucks, Peets, or that local hangout that has the current pulse on the town. Perfect for traveling to new areas or maybe just finding that unknown barista with a special roast in you.

Searching for that morning java just got easier. Thanks TinRoof!