Ace
Hardware:

Colorado Helpful Place is a family of eight Ace Hardware stores across Colorado and Northern New Mexico. Brothers Kirby and Nick Kuklenski own and operate the business. They uphold the integrity of Ace Hardware’s national brand locally by offering convenience and top-notch customer service and quality products to the residents of each town where their stores are located. Helping customers is the most important task that their expert hardware employees have to do each day.

The biggest marketing challenge this growing family of stores faces is determining the appropriate advertising strategies and channels for each town where they operate. Since their stores geographically
spread out and range from bustling urban locations to micropolitan communities, each location is a vastly different market. Marketing strategies that work well in Denver don’t necessarily twork in Durango or Farmington.

Finding creative, engaging, and truly meaningful ways to give back to their communities is a priority for Colorado Helpful Place Ace Hardware stores. As a locally-owned business, Colorado Helpful Place Ace Hardware stores depend on their local consumers to survive. Returning that support to local causes and charities is important to them. Colorado Helpful Place’s Marketing Manager, Mason Schaefer, emphasized that local events and sponsorships are an important element of the company’s values. The company supports their communities through service in local Chambers of Commerce, and sponsoring important causes such as the Children’s Miracle Network, high school sports programs, and Little League, just to name a few.

“Connection to customers is key,” Schaefer says. “We’ve been working with the same people for years, know our customers personally and address them by name. They are a person, not a dollar sign.”

When Colorado Helpful Place Ace Hardware revisited their advertising and community relations strategies, they set aside a full day to meet with potential marketing partners in each store location. Deciding to host a Local NEWS Network digital display and advertise on the network was an easy choice, said Mason Schaefer, Marketing Manager. He said his team was delightfully surprised when LNN presented as a fresh, new, and engaging way to connect with locals. 

They believed that hosting the Durango and Farmington local news in their stores and advertising on the network could demonstrate how committed to local they are, that it would differentiate them from online and Big Box stores that were NOT supporting local news. And, it could help them stay top of-mind with customers who see their ads around town and on. personal devices. 

Plus, when Colorado Helpful Place discovered the two companies shared a mission to make a real difference in the community, and that their LNN advertising dollars would be reinvested back into keeping local news free, it was the alignment they were looking for.

The three part solution that Local NEWS Network delivered to Colorado Helpful Place Ace Hardware in Durango and Farmington included:

1. Animated video ad creation
2. A 50-inch digital news display in the store check-out areas
3. Daily video advertising on LNN’s proprietary digital displays around town

The solution was something fresh and different than the Colorado Helpful Place Ace Hardware operation had used before, That appealed to the company. Although some of our locations have been open for a long time — for example, the Durango location is 100 years old — we can’t get complacent,” said Schaefer. “We look for interesting new ways to reach customers. It’s imperative to show them that we’re here, we’re not going anywhere and we’ll always be there for them and the community,”

Colorado Helpful Place is excited about both the current existing partnership with Local News Network and the possibilities of growing together. First of all, Schaefer says he loves the animated ads. “The animated ADs are great and locally relevant, speaking to the local flair of the community.” He’s considering additional ads targeted at different seasons throughout the year.

As for hosting the display at their checkout, customers and staff enjoy it alike. He enjoys seeing customers stop to watch it. He has even heard about customers who stepped out of line to finish watching a story — which means he’s keeping customers in the store longer. And, he likes offering his customers a source for free, relevant local news because it plays into the idea of being truly local. When customers walk in and see local news playing, he hopes that it improves the customer experience — and perhaps even improves their day. Schaefer added, “With the general decline of print [news], Local NEWS Network’s video news allows people to see things that are going on locally as they shop
locally – and that feels good.”