Our last campaign was the most successful ever. Always worried about the cost, we were on a tight budget, but the results were fantastic. Research had shown our rivals' products were more attractive, but while the ad was running, one of them had some bad publicity about their products, and we picked up a lot of their trade. Sometimes, it's not how much you invest or who you use,but just being in the right place at the right time. Last year's TV campaign took the market by storm. In the past, we'd depended heavily on sending out samples to customers - it was a cheap and, we thought, effective way of targeting our core customer base. But last year, we had the good fortune to recruit a dynamic young Marketing Manager who brought with him a group of people who are changing the way we do things. We're looking to produce another even more successful series of TV commercials next year. Spend money to earn money! That's been the philosophy of our organisation for years. The directors liked expensive-looking TV commercials, which appealed to our core customers in the old age bracket. However, our last campaign proved that you don't always have to go over budget to win new customers. We thought of a new approach, which our agency developed, and it turned out to be cheaper and, to our delight, brought us to the attention of a new, younger market. Successful TV campaigns can be costly, and good market research is absolutely vital. We've always researched thoroughly before a campaign, but there's something else which was the key to last month's success. Although some people attribute it to our main rival's bankruptcy, it was the fact that we found a management group who we brought in to recommend ways of improving our marketing that really helped. A suggestion to use a TV campaign to advertise in-store promotions and mail-order facilities paid off handsomely. Consultants recommended hiring a whole new marketing team for the company, but I rejected this.We've got a good experienced team in the company. It would've been an unnecessary expense.We decided we should put more effort into the groundwork for the campaign. Our team carried out a more detailed customer survey, and on the basis of that, our production company was able to create a commercial that was more accurately targeted.