When Arch Rock Fish opened it’s doors in Santa Barbara a couple of years ago, the restaurant already had nearly 1,800 Facebook fans as well as lots of coverage in the local media and blogs. And they had spent only $13,000 on pre-opening marketing.

Rather than follow traditional strategies and dropping tens of thousands of dollars, Jeremiah Higgins and his partners Scott Liebfried and Cobi Jones creatively used fun videos (produced for free by local film students) and social media tools to create buzz and build an audience of fans.

Click here to listen to Jeremiah discuss how they did it.

I LOVE stories about people bucking conventional means to an end, especially when they involve trading out large expenses for simple, thoughtful (and in this case…fun) solutions.

Wil