How the ‘Today’ show’s Sonoma County program boosted small businesses
One day last month, a Sonoma County business that makes whimsical bottlecaps experienced a 1,200% year-over-year increase in sales.
It was no coincidence sales soared on that particular day, April 21 to be exact. That morning, NBC featured Santa Rosa-based CapaBunga’s products on the first-ever Start “Today” event that brought the morning show’s production team to Sonoma County.
“It was really, really terrific,” said Maire Murphy, who co-owns the 11-year-old CapaBunga business with her husband, Walt Averill. “We had more than 1,000 orders on that day, and also close to 600 orders on Amazon. It was definitely a great day at the box office.”
The company had filled only about 20 orders the week before the show aired.
CapaBunga’s “Today” show appearance also proved to be good timing because April is its slowest month of the year, Murphy said.
A multilayered strategy
The timing of the program — just ahead of Earth Day — was part of the strategy for Sonoma County Tourism, which promotes the destination around wellness, destination stewardship (maintaining the cultural, environmental and aesthetic integrity of a region), sustainability and climate change, said Claudia Vecchio, Sonoma County Tourism’s president and CEO.
The partnership with NBC specifically for the third hour of “Today” also was important, Vecchio said, because it was the debut of the program’s Start “Today” event, focused on wellness and lifestyle.
“We approached this in a very methodical way. The “Today” show didn't come to us and say, ‘Hey, we have a great idea for you. Will you spend a ton of money on it and we can give it national exposure?’” Vecchio said. “No, it was a thought-out, multilayered strategy that made this all make good business sense.”
Sonoma County Tourism is already seeing returns on the $1.2 million it invested to sponsor the show.
The media value, which includes earned media — meaning news coverage that happened naturally and without any promotional spending — to date amounts to $6.7 million, said Todd O’Leary, Sonoma County Tourism’s vice president of marketing and communications. Digital and social impressions so far total nearly 645 million, he said.
That the small businesses that appeared on the show are benefiting was part of the master plan, O’Leary said, explaining he and Birgitt Vaughan, Sonoma County Tourism’s public relations director, pitched “hundreds” of the county’s small enterprises to NBC for consideration. Some that weren’t chosen are slated to air as individual segments on future editions of the morning program, he said.
CapaBunga was one of the five Sonoma County-based small businesses featured in the segment with Jill Martin, the “Today” show’s lifestyle and commerce contributor.
Social media exposure pays off
Sebastopol artist and entrepreneur Dominic Padua said his marbleized hats have been selling like hotcakes. But that was beginning to happen before the NBC morning show made its way to Sonoma County. Not long before the program aired, Padua, who founded Dom Chi Designs in 2007 and runs it with his wife, Brena Kennedy, posted a video on Instagram and TikTok that went viral, according to the couple.
That social media virality led to NBC’s producers selecting Dom Chi Designs during their research process as they were vetting Sonoma County small businesses to feature on the show, Padua said.
“I think that's been huge as opposed to Instagram and TikTok, where you get likes and follows and interest,” he said, pointing out that social media engagement doesn’t guarantee sales. But the “Today” show exposure did just that.
“It increased our sales tremendously,” Padua said, declining to state figures. The broadcast also brought in a demographic that, by and large, isn’t as active on his company’s social media platforms. “The show hit me with this whole other generation. There was a QR code on the TV that you could scan and go right to a page where it showed you to how to buy my product.”
The “Today” show has been the number one or number two morning show among adults 25-54, those considered with the most buying power, according to Adweek.com. The overall “Today” show audience averages 2.85 million viewers per day.
Diversity in the coffee business
Santa Rosa-based Big River Coffee, a Black-owned family business founded in 1991 by Harold Henderson and now led by his daughter, Naomi Henderson, saw a spike in online sales after its coffee blends were showcased during the show’s third hour.
“A lot of the (online) sales came from the South,” said Naomi Henderson, noting many of the orders she fulfilled post-broadcast came from states that included Texas, Virginia and Mississippi. “It’s kind of nice when you see a Black-owned family business, and I think that had a lot to do with it, and it was something that was great for us.”
