Over the past few weeks I have noticed a peculiar trend in the commercials that I have seen. There have been an unusually high proportion of Sonic commercials shown on my local (non-cable) networks. I live in the tri-state (NY, NJ, CT not PA, WV, OH 
) area and there are no Sonics near my home. In fact, the nearest Sonic is about 200 miles from my house.
Why would Sonic pay to air so many commercials if they do not have any businesses nearby? Has anyone seen any other companies taking similar actions? Are there any Dopers in advertising out there that know of a range that is used for determining potential consumer markets? As always, thanks in advance for your time and consideration.
If you’re talking about over the air television stations, each is assigned to an “Area of Dominant Influence” (ADI) market. There are more than 200 ADI’s in the United States, ranging in size from one or two counties to entire states.
Since you say there are no Sonic locations within 200 miles (for the sake of simplicity, let’s just stipulate there are no Sonic locations anywhere in the New York City ADI) there are only a hanful of possibilities:
A) Sonic has bought time on ABC,CBS, NBC, Fox or UPN. While network buys can be hideously expensive, they actually can cost less than buying individual stations in many different markets, and you’re guaranteed that your commercial runs at the same time on every station in the network.
B) Sonic has bought time on a syndicated show, like Oprah. Syndication works like an ad hoc network for individual shows. Again, it might have been cheaper just to buy the entire syndication pacakge than to try and put together an a la carte package.
C) Sonic has made a deal with an advertising broker. Advertising brokers scrounge individual stations for unsold commercial spots which they buy at a huge discount, then turn around and resell parts of the package to advertisers. In that case, the New York City station may have just fallen into the mix by accident.
D) Sonic is softening up the New York City market prior to expanding into it. If that’s the case, you’ll know it in a few weeks - certainly no longer than a few months.
Sonic has been advertising on some of the San Francisco stations for a few months. Closest Sonic to SF is over 50 miles - a bit far for a hamburger. Either this is a really long-term plan to get the name into our heads, or their ad agency’s been sniffing the mustard bottles.
I see Sonic ads on TV around here quite often (and for well over a year) and going by the “Find A Sonic” map on their website, the only one near me is 65 miles away - and that’s if I asked it to find one within a 200 radius. There just aren’t any at all in Maryland - why do they bother advertising so heavily in here?
When The Brick furniture chain first moved into Southern Ontario, we had the opposite situation. Their first commercials were almost unchanged from California, complete with maps of the state: “This week only! Blow the doors off furniture sale! Midnite Madness at all our locations in Fremont, Sepulveda, Pasadena, Sacramento, [sub]and Toronto[/sub]! Limited-time offer!”
That was in 1985. The sale is still on. But at least we have our own commercials now. 
I see those damn sonic commercials here in Wisconsin also. Too bad that there isn’t a Sonic in Wisconsin. I’m in the lower part of the state and the closest one is 192 miles away. Everything they advertise looks so good though…