How To Sell More Suits In The "New TV" Era: The Super Bowl Ad Thought Experiment...

Whether you're reading this on your phone, tablet, or computer, you're holding the most powerful advertising medium in human history. And if you're still thinking about marketing like it's 1995, you're missing the biggest opportunity of your business lifetime.

Let me offer you a thought experiment that will change how you think about customer acquisition in suit industry forever.

The $500,000 "Bargain" That Isn't

Imagine the Super Bowl - the most-watched TV event in history - calls you tomorrow with an incredible offer. Instead of the usual $7 million price tag for a 30-second commercial slot, they're offering you a "super bargain deal" at just $500,000.

If you're familiar with marketing at all, you know the Super Bowl is the holy grail of advertising. Your first instinct is probably pure excitement - millions of eyeballs on your business! But before you start scrambling for that loan, let's break down what results you'd actually be getting for your money.

Using last year's numbers, the Super Bowl had 150 million viewers. But here's the reality of what your $500,000 actually buys you:

• Starting viewers: 150 million people

• Actually watching your ad (not getting snacks, using the bathroom, or scrolling their phones during commercial breaks): ~80 million people

• Can actually afford what you offer (top 10% income bracket for custom suits): ~8 million people

• Actually wear suits regularly: ~2 million people

• Actually need a new suit (upcoming events, wardrobe updates): ~500,000 people

• Within your serviceable area: ~25,000 people

The bottom line: You just paid $20 per person to show a 30-second commercial to someone who might be interested in your suits.

And here's the kicker - of those qualified people, only a fraction will actually remember your ad since they're primarily focused on the game, not shopping for suits.

The Alternative That Gives You Superpowers

While traditional, outdated sartorial businesses are throwing money at mass-market advertising - leaflets in fancy places, street banners, radio placements, magazine ads, Yellow Pages, and newspaper spreads - the smart ones have realized this thought experiment and are leveraging the power of social media to their benefit.

Here's what we accomplish on social media for our clients, and what you can achieve too:

Instead of a 30-second slot, you can create videos that are significantly longer. In the past few years, we were primarily using up to 6-minute-long videos, where a full view of the ad cost from $0.50 to $1.00.

And I want to highlight this crucial point - that's not per view (a few seconds), but per 100% watched video, meaning the consumer watched the entire video from beginning to end.

Instead of being shown all over the place to random people, your content is only shown to people who match your perfect client description:

• Couples getting married soon

• People getting new jobs or promotions

• Career indicators showing they work in industries with a high likelihood of frequent suit purchases

• People in wealthy areas who are flying business class

On top of that, you're getting more than 12X longer watchtime with your customer compared to the Super Bowl ad.

The Game-Changing Difference

Here's another massive benefit compared to our Super Bowl thought experiment: when the Super Bowl ad is over, that's it. You're never getting in front of that customer ever again.

But with social media advertising done right (emphasis on done right instead of just boosting posts), you get the chance to retarget viewers - basically reach out to people who watched all of your video content.

Maybe they forgot to act, maybe they didn't have time, maybe they didn't need an immediate solution at that moment. You get the opportunity to re-approach people who consumed your content with follow-ups, reminders, or additional information to help them make a decision.

What actually happens when you understand the full power of social media is this: when the time is appropriate, you can make them an offer. And by targeting people who watched your entire videos, you're reaching people who have already indicated genuine interest. Or even better - they come to you at their own pace.

Why This Approach Is Exponentially More Effective

First: Precise Targeting. You're as efficient as possible. You're not wasting your marketing budget being seen by people outside your service area chasing virality or vanity metrics. You're only being seen by people most likely to become clients or who have an immediate need for what you offer.

Second: Superior Brand Building. Build your brand in a far more efficient way since you spend significantly more time with potential customers compared to a 30-second Super Bowl ad. In that time, you have the luxury of not only announcing that you exist but explaining how you're different, what makes you special, your process, your offering, and your end goal. You get to engage potential customers on both practical and emotional levels simultaneously (which is crucial with suits since they are "considered purchase" not an impulse purchased commodity)

Third: Building Your List You're actually building a list you can re-engage later. People who consume all of your content - spending 6 minutes with you - are admitting they're either in need of what you offer or genuinely interested in what you do. They'll keep you in mind for future needs.

How We Help Our Clients Leverage This Opportunity

The first thing we do is help clients stop burning their advertising budgets, time, and efforts on the old-school "spray and pray" marketing approaches - radio ads, newspapers, magazines, banners, cold outreach, and similar outdated methods.

We reallocate that budget toward strategic video advertising, which we've been perfecting for years. Recently, we've discovered that 3-minute videos actually perform better than our previous 6-minute format since they can be shown in Stories, Reels, and discovery sections, ensuring you get seen by more eyeballs that are a perfect fit to become your customers. Times change, and so do best performing lengths.

In these 3-minute videos, we create the perfect balance of information, sales appeal, and engagement for potential customers.

Here's what typically goes into these videos:

• Introduction: Letting people know you exist and who you are

• Venue showcase: Since you have the luxury of time compared to conventional TV ads

• Process demonstration: Your fitting process and next steps

• Expertise display: Showing your knowledge and craftsmanship

• Transformations: Before/after results you've achieved

• Social proof: Customer testimonials, when possible

• Soft call-to-action: "Ready to look your best? Visit our showroom," or "Questions about fit? Our experts are here to help," or "Book your consultation" - whatever fits your business best.

Trust me on this one - while marketing isn't something that rarely works with predictability and guarantees, I can safely guarantee you that this type of video, with a marketing budget similar to what you're already spending or have spent in the past, will yield multiple times higher returns than your past efforts.

The Bottom Line

If you're advertising in any capacity - offline, online, or through conventional marketing methods to generate leads - do not discount social media as something your clients aren't using, or assume social media is only for posting random content.

Social media gives you the power to get the perfect message in front of the perfect people who are most likely to become your customers. And you'll be paying pennies for the level of precision, engagement, and performance that conventional marketing methods could never deliver.

What we've also discovered is that this approach helps fight the unpredictable seasonality of our industry. Over time, the cost per lead and per appointment far outperforms conventional marketing methods while building brand recognition simultaneously.

You become the most well-known, go-to option in your local market, and it transforms one-time buyers into lifetime returning customers.

The suit industry is ready for this transformation. The only question is whether you'll implement it before your competition does.

Shameless self promo

Ready to turn social media into your most profitable customer acquisition channel?

We help suit retailers implement these exact strategies to build predictable appointment flow and transform their marketing from expense to investment.

Schedule your Free Discovery call here:

https://calendly.com/sartorialdigital/discovery-call

to see if you're a fit to implement our over a decade tested and developed system for the suit industry, and discover how we can help you dominate your local market through strategic social media advertising.

To your success,

Andris