Ugly Float's A Marketing Winner

Visual exposure in parade a winner for franchisee By Gregg Stengel In mid-September, the people of Arnold, MO. look forward to their annual Arnold Days celebration, which includes a parade. Arnold is the office home of St. Louis franchisee Bob DeClue, and where there's a crowd of people you're likely to find Bob. In this case, more than 10,000 people turned out to watch the parade, which included a HomeVestors float. “Putting our float in the parade turned out to be great exposure for us and HomeVestors,” said Bob, whose float was cleverly disguised as his yellow HomeVestors pickup truck that had a makeshift Ugly house with sale signs in the truck’s bed. With throngs of well-wishers lining the Arnold streets, Bob didn’t miss the chance to distribute HVA adorned items, including UG buttons with office phone number and referral program information on the back, plus a few dozen UG bobbleheads and candy for more than 3,300 children. “We are in the running for one of the best float categories for a local business,” said Bob. “We received so much exposure and had so much fun that we plan to do more of these next year. We envision building a bigger house, half pretty, half ugly on a larger trailer.”