An attention getter
I’ve never seen a local woodshop ad on TV before, but I’d like to see more.
I’ve never seen a local woodshop ad on TV before, but I’d like to see more.
I enjoy watching the news on our small kitchen TV while preparing dinner. Admittedly, I typically pay more attention to the knife I’m using than the TV, especially during commercials. But one commercial break with a brief glimpse of a woodshop and a guy making furniture caught my eye.
The commercial was almost over when I started paying attention, but I caught the maker’s name and looked him up. Sure enough, the spot was for a professional furniture shop in our area operated by Enrico Bartolini, and his website had the video used in the TV spot. His furniture is fantastic.
I’m so used to ads for car dealers, lawyers and a litany of “ask your doctor” drug ads that I always tune them out. With a background in broadcasting before I turned to writing about and doing woodworking, I understand how advertising works. Probably too much, as evidenced by the fact that I ignore them. But seeing a woodworking ad on TV really made my day and introduced me to a local pro maker I otherwise might not have known about and I’m glad it did.
So is Enrico, who plans to produce three more ads later in the year, each focusing on a different aspect of what he does. The ads haven’t been running long enough to get an accurate sample size of their effectiveness, but he has begun to get feedback from people seeing them.
Why did he run the ads? Enrico said that he frequently bumps into people who’ve made recent furniture purchases, but would have preferred his pieces if only they’d known about him. He’s hopeful that as the ads continue to get in front of more and more people, his shop will get more traction from them.
Personally, I’d like to see a lot more ads for woodworkers and custom furniture. Perhaps it’s something just now being embraced by makers, or perhaps the shifts in economy in the wake of Covid play a part. Whatever the reason, I’ll happily watch a woodworking commercial any day over the usual flood of car dealers and injury attorneys.
A.J. Hamler is the former editor of Woodshop News and Woodcraft Magazine. He's currently a freelance woodworking writer/editor, which is another way of stating self-employed. When he's not writing or in the shop, he enjoys science fiction, gourmet cooking and Civil War reenacting, but not at the same time.
