“Inc. 5000 Applicant of the Week: AArrow Advertising” Inc.com

Release Date:

May 17, 2010

How an 18-year-old kid took $500 and built a guerilla marketing agency with franchises in 30 cities and $4.5 million in revenue.

As we process applications for the 2010 Inc. 500 | 5000, we thought it would be worthwhile to shine a spotlight on some of the companies that are vying to appear on our ranking of the fastest-growing private companies in the U.S. One that caught our eye was San Diego, California-based AArow Advertising. A lot of businesses shell out for high-priced consultants, but when Max Durovic started AArow Advertising in 2002, he had a wealth of free advice at his fingertips. That's because the San Diego native was still an undergraduate studying business at Georgetown in Washington D.C. "The professors acted like free consultants and I could go in there and ask them for strategies and recommendations," he recalls.

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Testimonials

"We had half of our restaurants increase in the number of lunch buffets purchased. This company has some awesome people."

Renae Scott

Round Table Pizza

“We had customers purposely driving into our stores to comment on the AArrow Sign Spinner’s level of energy and entertainment. It's not easy to impress me on the ability to provide exceptional customer service, but I thrive on being able to provide positive recognition when it's due.”

Armando Serrano

Cricket Communications

"AArrow Sign Spinners provided a great boost of traffic to all of our store locations and helped us get our foot in the door in the San Diego market."

Shannon Spisak

Cricket Communications

“AArrow Sign Spinners have the look of a more professional and respectable company to do business with. When we use spinners it helps people locate our events and also raises questions about the chamber and AArrow Advertising .I first saw AArrow Sign Spinning on the corner of 2nd and Beech and I was attracted by how motivated the sign spinner was and how he was enjoying his job, while advertising for a condo complex. Anyone looking to promote their business or event in a professional manner should use AArrow Advertising. AArrow Advertising does a lot of good for the community and the county by helping young kids with jobs and responsibility.”

Tony Petruzzelli

San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce

“I would happily recommend AArrow Advertising for any communities advertising needs. They offer prompt, courteous service with a smile and definitely help us increase our traffic, phone calls and occupancy rate above 96%. Their sign spinners are the best in the business and really give it all they’ve got come rain or shine!”

Christina C. Wagner

Gables Point Loma

“We ask on all of our guest surveys on a daily basis where they heard about us and usually about 60 to 70 percent is from our sign spinners. It just wouldn’t be the same without them.”

Jen Linderman and Cindy Cook

Century 21 Award

“Working with the AArrow Advertising Denver crew was streamlined, effective and reliable. In a crazy April blizzard, the sign spinner showed up 10 minutes early for his 7 a.m. shift. We were able to effectively increase our location's visibility and land a fairly sizable corporate account. All of this was based completely off the exposure the AArrow Sign Spinner created. We will continue to use the services of AArrow Advertising to draw attention to our retail locations.”

Jessica Reimer

Revolution Cleaners

“The L.A. D-Fenders were happy to have the world famous AArrow Spinners at our home game. The different spins, tosses and tricks were very entertaining to our fans.”

Duy Phan

Los Angeles D-Fenders

“We started with AArrow Advertising because I was impressed with the job they were doing for a nearby business. We even get compliments from traffic that comes by as a result of the sign spinners. Telling us that they have specifically come in because they saw the guy on the corner and they got a smile from him. I think that speaks volumes about them, their company and their employees. We’ve been happy to work with them and recommend them to anyone who is looking to draw traffic and attention to their business.”

Halé Richardson

San Elijo Hills

“It is pure entertainment and our customers commented about the AArrow Sign Spinner’s talent all day long. They were great and our traffic definitely increased the days we used them to promote our event. I would highly recommend their services.”

Shawn Pensinger

Ashley Furniture

“The AArrow Sign Spinners are 100% Kultivate and their way of super interactive marketing helped us showcase our brand concept: conformity kills. When the sign spinners were in Barcelona for Kultivate, they created a lot of exposure that helped get the attention of potential buyers at the fair, when we didn’t even have a booth there. AArrow has a unique way of grabbing attention in front of large crowds, being infinitely more effective than traditional 'static' advertising!”

Jeffrey Heerkens

Kultivate Clothing

“The AArrow Sign Spinners more than doubled our weekend walk-ins! They were extremely reliable and talented. Without them, we would not have sold out as fast as we did. We would highly recommend them to anyone thinking about using outdoor advertising and we intend to keep using them on other projects.”

Kami Knopf

Ten Ten One Grosvenor

“We were delighted to work with the team of AArrow Sign Spinners for Cojean’s operation: let's get physical. The idea was to put forward our fresh fruit juice manufactured in our juice bar. With the help of the AArrow Sign Spinners, the operation was a success and Cojean's overall sales increased by more than 21 percent. The total sale of fruit juices jumped to 50,000 ; an increase of more than 75 percent from the previous year. Our customer traffic and sales success this year is attributed to using the AArrow Sign Spinners. ”

Frederic Maquiar

Cojean Restaraunts

“I continually use the word effective because being effective is so important to us. We are not on a busy street, we are tucked away off the busy street so what AArrow sign spinners do is basically create a stir and we use the term ‘drive the train’. Basically AArrow drives the train of people to our property. People spend millions of dollars on TV advertising and you really hope that certain type of clientele is watching. But when you are in a car at a stop light and you see someone point in the direction of the product, you think, I’m in my car right now; I’ll go take a look. It’s amazing, that’s what we really wanted and that’s what we are getting.”

Rich Castro

Sovereign Capital

“AArrow Sign Spinners are helping us save lives and end breast cancer forever! AArrow is a company that cares about San Diego and is first to give back to the community.”

Laura Farmer

Susan G. Komen Foundation for the Cure

“Sign spinning has become a cost-effective, successful and fun way to advertise.”

Louise Pennell

Fox Business

In our first week using the sign spinners, we received 35 phone calls with an average call length of 3.5 minutes. We also signed a 12 month lease for an apartment that first weekend.

Amy Earp

The Donaldson Group

“AArrow Advertising has provided professional, interactive and engaging sign spinning services to our locations throughout San Diego. Their sign spinners have consistently provided their best effort to attract passersby to our stores and dealer locations and raise overall awareness of our store presence within communities and neighborhoods around town. The services they provide help bring our brand to the forefront of people’s mind and also help indicate the physical location of our stores and dealer locations."

Milica Pugh

Cricket Communications

“AArrow Advertising’s employees donate valuable time to provide a Work Readiness Training Program to students at Point Loma High School and University City High School.The training provided is a valuable resource to our high school students to help them prepare for future employment opportunities with AArrow Advertising or other employers.AArrow Advertising has provided a valuable and affordable service to businesses by providing them with a mechanism for advertising and has made a significant difference in the lives of many youth and adult job seekers in our region."

Desiree Romero

San Diego City Unified School District

“Having volunteer AArrow Sign Spinners at our blood drive increases the number of blood donors we get and helps us save lives. The sign spinners are energetic, friendly and we love having them around.”

Mary Walter Brown

San Diego Blood Bank

“We built an entire concept around the sign spinners for our recent McDonald’s campaign. We thought we would have to go out of town to find the kind of talent we were searching for. The personality, energy, and spirit exhibited by the AArrow Sign Spinners brought our campaign to life. They were so much a part of the campaign that it allowed us to utilize them for additional PR as well. I wouldn’t hesitate to use them for future projects.”

Ronda Farthing

The Lavidge Company/McDonald’s

“Some of the things that set AArrow Advertising apart from other companies is there training methods, new trick list and the professionalism of their employees. You don’t see that with any other company. The interaction and the energy that these guys create is just amazing.”

Diana Radestock

D.R. Horton

“I am amazed by the attention the talented individuals from AArrow Advertising bring to our stores. They are true professionals from their field of work and we have witnessed an increase in revenue and customer traffic at stores where the sign spinners have been located.”

Walter Kinzie

Mattress Firm Inc.

“AArrow Advertising, through Mike Kenny’s leadership and commitment, has hired many job seekers by offering youth employment, an attractive wage and the desire to succeed.”

David Eder

Los Angeles Workforce Investment Board

“Thank you AArrow Advertising of the Tri-Cities for helping Real-to-Reel Cinemas with our Kick Ass Movie Campaign. I can't believe how quickly the AArrow Sign Spinners were able to get our campaign on the streets and directly in front of the people. The exposure was fabulous, the lead time remarkable and the effect was both interactive and fun! Sign spinning is a new, exciting and affordable way to advertise and I will absolutely recommend AArrow Advertising!”

Vickie Harrison

Real-to-Reel Cinemas

“In more than 13 years of business, the sign spinners from AArrow Advertising have been the most effective type of advertising we’ve ever used. They bring more customers into the store and we make more sales. They’re fantastic.”

Paul Heller

Sundown Sunglasses

“It was a record turnout! Shawn the spinner was great. The sign looks perfect and I am one happy camper. It was the first weekend the home was on the market and by Monday morning we were entertaining offers! I thought the real estate market was supposed to be slow. Thank you for a job well done!”

Keith Woolgar

Century 21 Award

“The sign spinner was something totally foreign to marketing efforts at State Farm and CA became the first Zone in the Enterprise to use this tactic to reach consumers. Not only did it help increase the awareness of our rate reduction campaign, it became such a huge hit with our Good Neighbor State Farm Agents, many of them wanted to create their own signs and have their staff "spinning" messages. Along with the billboards and aerial signage we bought over the 4th of July weekend, the sign spinners fit perfectly into our plans.”

Bobby Wilkinson

State Farm Insurance

“Typically we use spinners near our locations to attract business. We’re targeting both blue and white collar clientele. On days we use them we see a drastic improvement in sales. Up to $600 a day.We use AArrow Sign Spinners to direct traffic to our stores first thing in the morning. It’s perfect for us because we are able to reach our target market on their way to work and help them start their day out with a smile. Stores that use AArrow Sign Spinners have had a 30-40% increase in sales whenever the spinners are out there. Not only do the spinners attract tons of attention, but AArrow’s staff is polite and responsive to company needs.”

Dave Vickers

Dunkin’ Donuts

“Because of AArrow Advertising’s amazing commitment to the non-profit sector and the community, our participants easily found the location and enjoyed watching the exciting talents of the sign spinners. Their staff was involved through the entire process and helped to coordinate everything. The day of the event she helped to make everything as seamless as possible!”

Leslie Dykstra

Best Buddies California

“Inc. 5000 Applicant of the Week: AArrow Advertising” Inc.com

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