Winter - Classical Mileend Alpacas

smiling face. The AOBA infomercial
worked well but the real benefi t of
the tape was that it stimulated Jerry’s
imagination and he conceived of
using television to market alpacas in
a new and revolutionary way. Jerry
simplifi ed the infomercial process
and began running one-minute AOBA
commercials on TV. The commercials
were placed on the satellite dish
networks that included a high number
of rural subscribers. The response was
instantaneous. The ads displayed an
800 number and invited people to call
AOBA; and they did.
WWW.I LOVE ALPACAS.COM
Jerry Forstner is responsible for a
number of remarkable successes in
the alpaca business. He created the
AOBA auction, pioneered the use
of the sixty-second commercial by
AOBA and his Breeder’s Choice Alpaca
Auction, held at Magical Farms each
year, is the premier farm event of the
year. He also brought Jerry Miller,
of Brown and Miller advertising into
head AOBA’s media campaign. But,
ILoveAlpacas.com has to be Jerry’s
most spectacular idea.
Jerry’s big idea came close to
crashing before it soared into
AOBA spends more than $1 million per year on alpaca
marketing. I Love Alpacas adds another $500,000. Alpacas
are seen on television, in magazines, and over the internet.
No promotional stone goes unturned.
cyberspace. Rick Evans, the newly
appointed president of AOBA, asked
Jerry to serve as chair of AOBA’s
marketing committee. Rick wanted to
increase AOBA’s television budget from
$400,000 to $1,000,000: No small task.
Jerry’s committee went to work
analysing the revenues and looking
for ways to add marketing income.
After carefully considering all the
alternatives, they proposed that AOBA
raise the cost of advertising in the
Farm and Ranch Guide from $650 to
$1150. (The current price of advertising
in the Farm and Ranch Guide, $650,
has to be one of the best marketing
values on the planet.) This would have
doubled the revenue available for TV
and accomplished the major part of the
committee’s goal. Rick Evans vetoed the
committee’s initiative. Here is Jerry’s
reaction to the arbitrary veto.
‘Rick vetoed the idea. I was upset,
in that it did not make sense to have
a committee of experts and do a lot of
work and then have one person veto all
of the work. I felt it was a waste of my
time, so I resigned from the committee.
After resigning, I was still fretting
about the fact that we needed more
money spent on television work.’
After ‘fretting’ for a while, Jerry
decided to organise an initiative that
would create the cash to promote
alpacas on television. In one stroke of
creative genius, he came up with the,
ILoveAlpacas.com, name for the new
co-op. Jerry could not believe his good
fortune when he found that the website
address was available. Here is Jerry’s
account of how the co-op came together:
‘I just felt if I could not do it through
AOBA, I would do it myself. I thought
that I could come up with 100 breeders
that would put in $5,000.00 and
devised the formula to give them very
exclusive coverage in their state. The
fi rst year we signed up 94. Not quite my
one hundred, but I was pleased. I did
not know for sure that it would work for
them and neither did they. They trusted
me and that felt real good.’
‘The rest is history. Each year I have
around 96, to 99 members. I have
never hit the 100 mark; however, I
don’t doubt that should I do some
advertising, I would be able to reach it
without trouble. The members have had
spectacular success. The industry as a
whole has benefi ted as so many more
people have heard of alpacas. I get
several e-mails a year that say I don’t
even belong to I love alpacas and I have
sold animals because of it.”
ILoveAlpacas.com has added one
signifi cant refi nement to the advertising
co-op concept that began with Western
Alpaca Associates – it is all electronic.
The co-op does not spend any money
on fulfi llment, which involves mailing a
print piece such as the Farm and Ranch
Guide to people who inquire by phone
or email and are very expensive, about
$12.50 a copy, and the fulfi llment budget
bleeds money from the media budget.
The I Love Alpacas TV campaign is
managed by Jerry Miller and he only
buys spots when the price is right: At
the last minute. The secret or ‘guerilla’
element of this marketing effort is to
buy the TV time at deeply discounted
prices, which usually means the
commercials are run at odd hours or
when the networks have unsold space.
Alpaca World Magazine Autumn 2004/05 53