Many of you have been reading this blog for over 2 years now. In all that time we have not formally introduced ourselves. How rude! Seriously, knowing who we are, what we do, and why we do it can help put everything in perspective. Introducing…Metro Valley Advertising.

Metro Valley was formed in February of 2011 by John Sadowski (your author). Our mission is to drive revenue growth for our clients through Lead Generation. We help businesses who are not growing as fast as they would like; or have increased competition and fear losing market share or have a new product or service that they believe can increase sales.

I started in the business selling advertising. Ad sales followed a career in home building/real estate. I was in the midst of building a sub-division of low-income housing when the Savings and Loan Crises hit. I had a couple of spec homes up, a road built and lots of prospective buyers. But, no one could get a mortgage. With lots of bills and no income I decided to go into ad sales. Why ad sales? As a small business owner, advertising sales made sense. If I sold advertising to a business owner and it worked, they would prosper. Successful businesses would renew their advertising. A win-win relationship. I started by selling print advertising in the Bronx, working my way up to sales manager.

Media Sales

I then went to work for Time Warner cable in Manhattan. A great education. My first media job working with ratings, schedules and six and seven figure budgets. Working in Manhattan was high-energy. While I learned a lot I knew I could not call on the big clients, agencies, because I had no agency experience. So, I went into radio sales at WNEW-FM. That was the station I listened to growing up, with legendary broadcasters like Scott Munie, Carol Miller, Pat St. John etc. We had an incredible sales team and great managers. I learned from the best about ratings, statistics and how to construct a media plan. After 2 years at the station I was offered a job at an internet-based start-up and left to chase my Internet dream.

Next Generation Network was a good concept but ahead of its time. A place-based media that used television screens controlled digitally to serve advertising. Not much different from today’s digital out-of-home. I was with them for a year and a half before they went out of business. From there I went to an Outdoor advertising company which also went out of business in less than a year and a half. I had so much fun selling radio the first time that I went back to radio, working for Clear Channel. However, in the space of a little more than 3 years the industry had changed. Clear Channel was buying every station it could, and radio was now a commodity. We were moved into offices in NYC with the sales staff from other Clear Channel stations. We rarely saw the DJ’s, Marketing or Support teams. It was just sell, sell, sell.

Advertising Agency Life

I started looking for another job and asked one of the agency’s I called on for advice. The owner said that since I had sold print, TV, Radio and Outdoor I really should work for him. Then I could be media agnostic and just work in the best interest of the client. Sadly, that was a novel concept. The longer I stayed in corporate media sales the less concern there was for the client, all that mattered was that the media company grew. To do that, we churned clients faster and faster. The whole idea that advertising was a win-win had gone out the window. Now it was back.

Besides working in my client’s best interest, I also began working in digital marketing. I managed my first Google Adwords campaign in 2005 and ran banner campaigns with Yahoo, as behavioral targeting was first being explored.

Metro Valley Advertising’s Mission

Fast forward a bit to a time where change, growth and new adventures seemed to be the move.  I embarked on a new venture and started Metro Valley Advertising.  The mission was clear to me – increase our clients’ revenue through Lead Generation.  We continue to use a combination of digital and traditional media that drive leads and sales with a positive ROI. Our clients generally have one or more of the following desires: a need to maximize their leads and sales; fend off competitors to maintain market share or they are launching a new product or service and want to leverage the opportunity for growth. We continue to be there to help businesses reach new levels of success.  So if you know a business owner who may need to solve one of those problems, please have them reach out to us. Contact info below.

john@metrovalleyadv.com

(845) 547-2463