How Advertising Built a Legal Empire in Small-Town Minnesota

Read Time: 9 minutes

A St. Cloud injury law firm's commitment to traditional media offers lessons for newspapers, TV, outdoor advertising, and magazines seeking to prove their enduring value.

In an era where digital advertising dominates marketing budgets and captures headlines, a small-town Minnesota law firm is proving that traditional radio remains one of the most powerful tools for building lasting brand recognition and driving business growth. The story of Bradshaw Bryant, an injury law practice based in St. Cloud, offers compelling evidence that patient, consistent investment in radio advertising can create market dominance—and provides a roadmap for other traditional media channels seeking to demonstrate their continued relevance.

The firm's success challenges the conventional wisdom that has swept through Madison Avenue over the past decade, where marketers have increasingly shifted resources toward digital platforms promising immediate, measurable results. Instead, Bradshaw Bryant has built its reputation and client base through a methodical approach to radio advertising that prioritizes long-term brand building over short-term performance metrics—a strategy that offers valuable lessons for newspapers, television stations, outdoor advertising companies, and magazines fighting for their share of shrinking advertising budgets.

The Power of Consistent Investment
According to Chuck Mefford, founding partner of marketing firm BrandsFormation, Bradshaw Bryant's approach represents a return to fundamental marketing principles that many agencies have abandoned. "Bradshaw Bryant practices every day what Madison Avenue has forgotten: to generate substantial sales and profit, a business or even a law firm needs to create future demand rather than just obsessing over converting existing demand," Mefford observed in a recent analysis of the firm's marketing strategy.

The firm's journey began modestly, with advertising on a single radio station in the St. Cloud market. As results materialized, the partners gradually expanded their reach, adding three more stations to their media mix. The results were dramatic: after the first year, they tripled the size of their practice. This early success validated their approach and justified continued investment in radio advertising.

"After the first year, they tripled the practice," Mefford notes. "As they grew, they bought more ads on more radio stations and soon became one of the largest advertisers on St. Cloud radio, buying only 52-week contracts." Today, radio advertising consumes nearly 70% of the firm's marketing budget, with digital advertising accounting for just 15% and cable television receiving 5%.

This allocation flies in the face of industry trends. According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau, digital advertising spending in the United States reached $189.3 billion in 2023, while traditional media—radio, television, newspapers, outdoor, and magazines combined—struggled to maintain their collective share. Yet for Bradshaw Bryant, this contrarian approach has yielded exceptional results that other traditional media can study and emulate.

The Science of Brand Recognition: Lessons for All Traditional Media
A recent study conducted by Quantilope in May 2025, surveying 120 consumers in the St. Cloud market, provides quantitative evidence of Bradshaw Bryant's market dominance that offers insights for every traditional medium. When asked to name personal injury lawyers and criminal defense attorneys without being shown a list of firms—a measure known as unaided brand awareness—Bradshaw Bryant captured 28% of responses, 133% higher than the second-place competitor, which managed only 12% recall.
These numbers reflect what marketing experts have long understood about the power of consistent, repeated exposure through traditional media. As advertising legend David Ogilvy once observed, "The consumer isn't a moron; she is your wife. You insult her intelligence if you assume that a mere slogan and a few vapid adjectives will persuade her to buy anything." Bradshaw Bryant's approach demonstrates respect for consumer intelligence while building genuine familiarity and trust—principles that apply whether the medium is radio waves, newsprint, television screens, billboards, or magazine pages.

For newspapers, this suggests that consistent, storytelling-focused advertising campaigns can build deeper brand connections than sporadic digital banner ads. Magazine publishers can point to radio's success in creating emotional narratives as evidence of print's similar storytelling advantages. Television stations can leverage the audio success story to demonstrate how combining visual and audio elements creates even more powerful brand memories. Outdoor advertising companies can emphasize how repeated exposure during daily commutes mirrors radio's ability to become part of consumers' routines.

The firm's advertising recall rate of 40% was more than one and a half times that of its nearest competitor, while its purchase intent measured more than twice as large as the next brand. Perhaps most tellingly, among AM/FM radio listeners specifically, Bradshaw Bryant's awareness was 19% greater than in the overall market, with 54% of respondents indicating they had heard the firm's advertisements on AM/FM radio.

Strategic Implications for Traditional Media Sales Teams
For Radio Stations: Bradshaw Bryant's success provides powerful ammunition for radio advertising sales teams. The case demonstrates that radio's unique ability to create "theater of the mind" experiences, combined with consistent scheduling, can dominate local markets. Radio sales professionals can use this data to justify premium pricing for annual contracts and to argue against the fragmented, short-term campaigns that many advertisers prefer.

For Newspapers: Print media can draw parallels between radio's storytelling success and newspapers' deep-dive reporting and feature capabilities. The Bradshaw Bryant case shows that consumers respond to authentic narratives about real people—exactly what newspapers excel at providing. Newspaper advertising sales teams can position their medium as the ideal platform for businesses wanting to tell complex stories that build trust over time, much like the firm's client success stories.

For Television Stations: TV sales teams can argue that adding visual elements to radio's proven audio formula creates even more powerful branding opportunities. The emotional connection that Bradshaw Bryant creates through voice and sound could be amplified through visual storytelling, testimonials from real clients, and the credibility that comes from appearing on trusted local news platforms.

For Outdoor Advertising: Billboard and transit advertising companies can emphasize how outdoor media serves as the perfect complement to radio's success. While radio creates emotional connections during private moments, outdoor advertising reinforces brand messages during public moments—creating a comprehensive "surround sound" of brand awareness that mirrors Bradshaw Bryant's market saturation strategy.

For Magazines: Publishers can highlight how magazine advertising offers the deep, contemplative engagement that complements radio's immediate emotional impact. While radio reaches consumers during active moments, magazines capture attention during focused reading time, allowing for more detailed storytelling and complex messaging that builds on the foundation of audio awareness.

The Emotional Connection Advantage Across All Traditional Media
Managing Partner Michael Bryant attributes much of the firm's success to radio's unique ability to create personal connections with potential clients. The firm's radio advertisements feature Bryant himself telling stories about clients, followed by the memorable "Justice for the injured… Bradshaw Bryant" jingle. This approach leverages what neuroscientists call the "theater of the mind"—radio's ability to engage listeners' imagination and create emotional connections.

"Making my business 'top of mind' has made a big, big difference," Bryant explains. "It's not something that happens right away. It's not something that happens fast. But you start seeing results when you hear people start quoting your commercial, word for word, singing your jingle. They know who you are! When they trust you, they tend to like you and do business with you."

This observation provides a blueprint for other traditional media to emphasize their unique emotional advantages:

Newspapers can highlight how in-depth articles and advertorials create lasting impressions that consumers reference and return to, unlike fleeting digital content. The physical nature of print creates a tangible connection that digital cannot replicate.

Television can emphasize how combining visual and audio elements creates the strongest possible emotional connections, allowing advertisers to demonstrate products in action while building personal relationships through on-camera testimonials.

Outdoor advertising can stress how large-format displays create unavoidable moments of brand interaction during daily routines, building familiarity through repeated exposure in high-traffic locations.

Magazines can promote how the targeted, interested readership creates an environment where advertising messages are welcomed rather than avoided, leading to deeper engagement with brand stories.

Lessons for Modern Media Sales Strategies
The success of Bradshaw Bryant offers several key insights for traditional media companies seeking to win back advertising dollars from digital platforms. First, it demonstrates the enduring value of consistency in advertising. In an age of quarterly earnings pressure and monthly performance reviews, the firm's commitment to 52-week advertising contracts represents a level of patience that traditional media must help clients embrace.

As marketing guru Seth Godin has noted, "Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make, but about the stories you tell." Bradshaw Bryant's radio advertisements tell compelling stories about real clients, creating narratives that potential customers can relate to and remember. This storytelling approach builds trust and familiarity in ways that purely informational digital advertising cannot achieve—an advantage that all traditional media share.

Media companies should emphasize these shared advantages:

• Trusted Environment: Traditional media brands have spent decades building credibility with their audiences. Advertising that appears alongside trusted content benefits from that credibility transfer.
• Undivided Attention: Unlike digital environments where users actively try to avoid advertising, traditional media creates moments of focused attention where advertising messages are more likely to be absorbed.
• Local Market Expertise: Traditional media understands local markets in ways that national digital platforms cannot match, allowing for more relevant and effective messaging.
• Professional Production Support: Traditional media companies typically offer creative services and production support that help advertisers create more effective campaigns.

The Economics of Trust: Revenue Opportunities for All Traditional Media
The financial implications of Bradshaw Bryant's approach extend beyond simple advertising return on investment, offering revenue models that all traditional media can explore. By establishing themselves as the dominant brand in their market, the firm has created what economists call a "moat"—sustainable competitive advantages that protect market position over time. Traditional media can help other local businesses achieve similar market dominance while building their own revenue streams.

This creates opportunities for traditional media companies to position themselves as strategic marketing partners rather than simple advertising vendors. Instead of selling individual ads or short-term campaigns, media companies can offer comprehensive branding packages that mirror Bradshaw Bryant's long-term approach:

Annual Partnership Programs: Following Bradshaw Bryant's 52-week contract model, media companies can offer annual partnerships that guarantee consistent exposure across multiple touchpoints, potentially at premium pricing that reflects the increased effectiveness.

Cross-Media Integration: The success of radio advertising suggests that traditional media companies should explore partnerships with each other, creating integrated campaigns that might include newspaper feature stories, radio sponsorships, television testimonials, outdoor advertising, and magazine placements.

Performance Guarantees: Armed with data like the Quantilope study, traditional media can offer performance guarantees based on awareness, recall, and preference metrics rather than just reach and frequency numbers.

As Warren Buffett has observed about successful businesses, "The most important thing we do is find a business with a wide moat around it protecting a terrific economic castle with an honest lord in charge of the castle." Traditional media companies can position themselves as the architects of these protective moats for local and regional businesses.

Competitive Positioning Against Digital Platforms
While digital advertising continues to grow and evolve, the success of Bradshaw Bryant provides traditional media with powerful competitive arguments. Radio advertising offers several characteristics that remain valuable in today's marketing environment, and other traditional media share many of these advantages:

Quality of Attention: Traditional media typically captures more focused attention than digital platforms, where users are often multitasking or actively trying to skip advertising content.

Emotional Engagement: The intimate, trusted relationships that traditional media have built with their audiences create environments where advertising messages are more likely to create emotional connections.

Local Market Integration: Traditional media is embedded in local communities in ways that national digital platforms cannot replicate, offering advertisers authentic local credibility.

Professional Standards: Traditional media maintains editorial and production standards that create premium environments for advertising messages, unlike the often chaotic digital advertising ecosystem.

Moreover, traditional media may become more valuable as digital channels become increasingly crowded and expensive. As Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen noted, "Disruption is a process, not an event." While digital advertising has disrupted many traditional media channels, it has not eliminated the fundamental human need for trust, familiarity, and emotional connection that traditional media can provide.

Building Industry-Wide Collaboration
The Bradshaw Bryant case suggests that traditional media companies should consider collaborative approaches to compete more effectively against digital platforms. Rather than viewing each other as competitors for limited advertising budgets, traditional media can position themselves as complementary elements of comprehensive marketing strategies.

Shared Research Initiatives: Traditional media companies can pool resources to conduct studies similar to the Quantilope research, demonstrating the collective power of integrated traditional media campaigns.

Cross-Promotion Opportunities: Radio stations can promote newspaper advertisers during traffic reports, newspapers can highlight television sponsors in entertainment listings, and magazines can feature outdoor advertising campaigns in their photography.

Joint Sales Presentations: Media companies can present integrated packages that leverage each medium's unique strengths while demonstrating how traditional media can work together to create the kind of market dominance that Bradshaw Bryant achieved.

Practical Implementation Strategies
For traditional media companies looking to apply Bradshaw Bryant's lessons, several practical strategies emerge:

Develop Case Study Libraries: Every traditional media company should document and analyze their most successful advertiser relationships, creating compelling case studies that demonstrate long-term brand building success.

Invest in Market Research: Regular studies measuring advertiser awareness, preference, and market share provide the quantitative evidence that modern marketers require to justify traditional media investments.

Create Educational Content: Traditional media companies should position themselves as marketing consultants, offering workshops, webinars, and resources that help local businesses understand the principles behind Bradshaw Bryant's success.

Build Long-Term Partnerships: Instead of focusing on individual ad sales, traditional media should develop annual partnership programs that mirror the 52-week commitment model that proved so successful for the law firm.

The Future of Traditional Media Revenue
Mefford summarizes the broader implications of Bradshaw Bryant's success: "By patiently investing in brand building advertising to create future demand, Bradshaw Bryant has made his service 'easy to think of and easy to buy.' Bradshaw Bryant's lesson for Madison Avenue is that advertising is not just about manically measuring short-term performance. It's about 'being known before you're needed.'"

This philosophy offers traditional media a clear value proposition in an increasingly digital world. While digital platforms excel at reaching consumers who are actively searching for solutions, traditional media excels at creating the awareness and preference that drives future demand. The most successful businesses need both capabilities, but many have forgotten the importance of long-term brand building that traditional media provides.

The story of Bradshaw Bryant ultimately represents more than just successful radio advertising. It demonstrates the enduring power of fundamental marketing principles that all traditional media can leverage: consistency, patience, emotional connection, and commitment to long-term brand building. For newspapers fighting declining circulation, television stations competing with streaming services, outdoor companies challenged by digital billboards, and magazines facing digital transformation, this small-town law firm has provided a blueprint for proving continued relevance and value.

In an industry and era obsessed with immediate results and digital metrics, Bradshaw Bryant has built lasting market dominance through traditional relationship building. Their success offers every traditional media company both inspiration and practical strategies for winning back advertising dollars and demonstrating irreplaceable value in the modern marketing landscape.