Free TV ads awarded to 'underserved' Long Island businesses

Helene Delince and Stephanie Vincent used to hope that “someday” they’d be able to afford to buy a TV commercial to advertise their Rockville Centre lingerie store.

“Due to the cost of running an ad, we thought it would come much later in our journey,” Delince explained.

But not only did the opportunity for a TV ad present itself much sooner than expected, the duo got a 30-second professionally produced spot for free that ran more than 3,500 times during a total of three months in the spring and summer of last year within Spectrum’s New York City market. 

Delince and Vincent applied for and won the opportunity to promote their shop, The Fitting Curve, in a TV commercial created just for them through the “Pay It Forward” program started by Spectrum Reach.

The Fitting Curve specializes in bras for women of all ages, shapes and sizes and is the first Long Island business to be awarded one of the ads.

Spectrum Reach is the advertising sales business of Charter Communications Inc. and launched Pay It Forward in 2021 to help “underserved” businesses — including small minority and women-owned enterprises — with marketing. It is seeking new prospects for this year.

Since the start of the program, Spectrum Reach has invested more than $50 million in advertising and resources to help more than 2,000 underserved businesses in 36 states, from coffee shops and childcare facilities to restaurants and law firms.

Delince, 45, and Vincent, 34, both of Baldwin, founded The Fitting Curve in 2016 with Kelly Saintus, of Boston, who they later bought out.

“Responses to the ad took about a week,“ Delince said. Then suddenly their store was getting wide attention. “A major influx of phone calls and email inquiries started taking place."

Vincent noted the ad drove their sales and social media numbers up too. Delince said sales increased 6.5%.

“We saw our metrics go up in many areas, Vincent said. “Traffic to our website and Google searches for our business increased by more than 50%, booked appointments from the ad directly increased by 30%; and even our newsletter subscriptions and social media follower count went up.”

Delince and Vincent were treated like celebrities too — their photos appeared in the commercial.

“When anyone came into the store the assumption was that we wouldn’t be there working, so clients were pleasantly surprised when they recognized we would be the ones helping them,” Delince said.

In addition to a free 30-second commercial that will run in April, May and June in the areas of the participating Pay It Forward winners, businesses selected this year will also receive free advertising, mentoring and marketing support to help them build and grow a successful brand.

Each ad will have a format that can display on air, stream and be used on the business' social channels and websites.

Some of the criteria for applicants include having a business that is legally registered and has been in operation for at least one year at the time of the application, and the business must be a for-profit organization.

Preference will be given to any business that is 51% owned, operated and controlled by an ethnic/racial minority.

For application and other information on Pay It Forward, visit spectrumreachpayitforward.com