Yard Sale Sweeps City That Never Sleeps

New York, NY – August 21, 2006
When Bensenville, IL resident Jeff Norman mentioned to his neighbor Jay Goodman that he was having a yard sale in two weeks, he asked Jay to “spread the word.” Little did he know that word of his yard sale would end up being spread over 800 miles away to New York City.

Norman didn’t realize that Goodman was a hired gun for the advertising and creative services firm WordSlingers for Hire. Having been trained to come up with big ideas for even the smallest of clients, Goodman jumped at this creative challenge. “Initially I thought if we want reach the most people in the shortest amount of time, we should do a Super Bowl commercial,” recalled Goodman. He added, “But since that was over 5 months away, I figured our next best option was a billboard in Times Square.”

Goodman immediately consulted with WordSlingers art director Arnolfo Santoro. “I knew Goodman had tapped into something big here,” said Santoro. He then pointed out, “People in Times Square love to shop, and there’s not a store within 100 miles of New York that can beat Jeff Norman’s prices.” Santoro added that the biggest design challenge was finding room in his layout for a map and directions from 42nd Street and Broadway to Mr. Norman’s home on Maple Avenue in Bensenville.

Mr. Norman was predictably overwhelmed after the billboard’s unveiling on August 20th, 4 days before the yard sale. “I received about 200 calls in the first half hour. At first I thought it was because I was putting my collection of nutcrackers up for sale, but I guess the billboard had something to do with it,” recalled Mr. Norman.

Some might argue that a billboard situated halfway across the US in the country’s priciest media market might be overkill for a neighborhood yard sale, but not WordSlingers for Hire executive creative director Paul Maurer. “Whether we’re helping out a small local ad agency, a regional not-for-profit, or even a giant international pharmaceutical manufacturer, we give it all of our creative firepower,” said Maurer. He added, “The Times Square yard sale billboard was great, but the one we put outside Shinjuku Station in Tokyo was really impressive.”

WordSlingers for Hire
Chicago, IL
1.312.861.7101 x211