This year is perhaps the most aggressive in our company’s history in terms of public exposure, advertising and promotional investments. With 2010 marking our 25th anniversary, we made a big leap into television advertising by partnering with HGTV as the exclusive hardwood flooring sponsor for a giveaway sweepstakes, the HGTV Urban Oasis Giveaway.

Mullican Flooring provided 800 square feet of hardwood flooring for a 900-square-foot New York City apartment decorated by noted interior designer Vern Yip and developed by HGTV house planner Jack Thomasson, both major celebrities ( FCNews, Aug. 16/23).

Our HGTV partnership has resulted in national exposure through media events about the sweepstakes and HGTV-developed advertising about the sponsors. We also posted our own web ads about Mullican products on HGTV.com. Because of the venture’s success, we also plan to do a follow-up print ad campaign related to the partnership.

In addition, our marketing department produced a video ad featuring the company’s solid prefinished floors. The ad is currently airing on two popular home improvement television networks, HGTV and DIY, and is also posted on YouTube.

While it’s too soon to have hard numbers, we believe our investments have generated significant national attention for Mullican based on the increase of quality traffic to our website.

During 2010, we also revamped our branding by developing new logos—both a general and 25th anniversary logo—and by developing a new website that offers multiple access points for consumers. Our motivation was for this redesigned website to provide an opportunity for consumers to educate themselves about our products and then be directed to one of our trusted retail partners.