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meetings —it was funny. When we asked the people how did you hear about the ad, I
<br />mean about the meeting —oh, Mr. Cardoza told us, you know, and so they didn't even see
<br />the ad that we ran. And by the way, there was only five people at that meeting. The only
<br />reason Mr. Cardoza was there was I called him and 1 said hey, don't forget to come to
<br />the meeting. But the point I want to make is that it was very poorly attended. So what I
<br />did was I told Steven —I said, you know, we're spending public money. And I don't want
<br />to spend money just to spend money, to say I advertised. If you don't get the impact of it,
<br />then you're doing it for nothing. It's money down the drain. So I said, Steve, we need to
<br />find a way to spruce up the ad, you know. See what you can do. So what Steve did is —he
<br />did what he always does —he goes, he does a good job. The first thing he did was, he
<br />contacted the Tribune - Herald advertising department, and he said, what can we do to
<br />make sure that Mr. Yagong's ads are read? Do your magic, help us out. Here's the text
<br />of the next meeting, okay, and do your magic. In fact, those were the exact words that
<br />Steve utilized to the expert in the advertising — Kelly —in the advertising department. I
<br />remember exactly where I was. It was ten to twelve. I was in Malama Market in Pahoa,
<br />when Steve called me and says, I got the ad proof. The deadline is at twelve. Ten
<br />minutes before twelve, and he said I got the ad from Tribune —I need you to read it. I
<br />says fine, fax it over to me. The ad comes out on the fax. I pick it up, there's my picture
<br />on the ad. I call Steve up and 1 said Steve, what is this? It's my picture on this, did you
<br />do this? He says no, the Tribune - Herald did it. And I said, but there's my picture on the
<br />ad. And Steve said something to me that I will never forget. He says, Dom, if you want
<br />people to read your ad, if they see your picture, they'll read your ad. I'll never forget
<br />that. So there I was before the looming deadline of twelve o'clock, and I say it. Run it.
<br />Go and run it. We had 200 people show up at that meeting. I'm not saying it's because
<br />of my picture. What I'm saying is it's because people read the ad. I'm in business. We
<br />spend millions of dollars in advertising. The purpose of advertising is to get a response.
<br />That's why you do it. And what we found on this, whether it's by luck or by whatever you
<br />call it, or by hard luck —it worked. But I still wasn't comfortable. So what we did is - -the
<br />next ads after that, we ran again text ads. Very poor showing. Then I said, I know it's
<br />the image that people see that make them stop and read the ad. So we ran a picture of
<br />Akaka Falls, you know, Hamakua, Akaka Falls. Very poor showing. We went back to
<br />the —we went back to the pictures. And I haven't regretted it since, in terms of having the
<br />turnout. So 1 just wanted to let you know this was the background of how all that
<br />transpired. It transpired by ending up where we took the people that are experts in the
<br />field. They created an ad, because that's what they do, and the only way the Tribune -
<br />Herald does business is through advertising. That's how they stay afloat. So they know
<br />what to do, and certainly they created that —and that's how that worked out. I want to
<br />close with —and open up for questions —by saying just a couple more things. I want to
<br />say that people are very, very image- driven. You know, if you take a look —if you take a
<br />look at the West Hawai `i Today paper, I just happened to open up just the front page
<br />section. I went through that whole section, and I'm having my staff kind of cut all those
<br />ads out for you. You will notice, nearly every single ad in the West Hawai `i Today front
<br />section —in today's paper —is all image- driven. It's Les Nakamura, insurance. It's
<br />realtors. It's people selling furniture. It's people selling hotels. I think he's doing it
<br />right now, but I'll pass it out later. But it's very - -it's very image- driven. And I'll pass it
<br />out so you can take a look at what I'm talking about. And so it's a way to get the impact,
<br />the result that you're asking for. Now I would close by saying that for me, one of the
<br />things I do as habit is —every Sunday I read Carol Yurth's article. Carol Yurth writes
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