Hartford Business Journal

16 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | MARCH 4, 2024 Attorney Brooke Goff, a personal injury lawyer whose Goff Law Group is based in West Hartford, has 30 to 35 billboards across Connecticut at any given time. HBJ PHOTO | STEVE LASCHEVER Brand Awareness From Super Bowl ads to billboards, CT attorneys are in an advertising 'arms race' and another during the third quarter. She picked the time slots based on when she thought most people would be paying attention, and she also negotiated exclusivity so she'd be the only Connecticut attorney on the air. The commercial shows her in front of a football field, asking potential clients to call Goff Law Group and "finish with a touchdown." She declined to say how much she paid, and CBS doesn't release the price of local ad spots. According to the Wall Street Journal, a national ad during this year's Super Bowl cost about $7 million for a 30-second spot. An average of 123 million people watched Super Bowl LVIII, up from about 115 million in 2023, according to the NFL. The increase was attributed, in part, to attention the game received from Taylor Swift fans. Goff said she has already secured spots for next year's Super Bowl, when she'll debut a new ad. Goff's business strategy involves a high volume of cases, which makes the most-watched TV program in the world a prime venue for her advertising. "You can't educate people if you don't have their attention," she said. Intense competition Goff isn't alone. Marketing among law firms, particularly ones that specialize in personal injury, is ultra-competitive. "What we're seeing, especially here in Greater Hartford, is an arms race," said Eric Cavoli, creative director at CashmanKatz, a marketing firm based in Glastonbury. "It's who can By Andrew Larson alarson@hartfordbusiness.com O ne billboard shows a photo of a pregnant Attorney Brooke Goff with the catchy phrase, "Eating for two, fighting for you." Another features a cut-out photo of Vanilla Ice – yes, the actual American rapper, actor and television host – falling to the ground next to a smiling Goff, clad in a red business suit, and the question, "Slip and fall on ice, ice baby?" These are two of the West Hart- ford-based attorney's billboards, among dozens on which she appears throughout the state. And that's just the beginning. Goff ran three Super Bowl adver- tisements this year. She has a YouTube cooking show, "Bake & Sip," where she combines her love of cooking with her legal acumen. She has contracts with all the major TV networks and is even on TikTok. If her ads seem a little bit outra- geous or cloyingly omnipresent — that's the point. As the face of Goff Law Group, she's a brand and wants to be seen and remembered. She wants her name to be in the back of people's minds, so when they need a personal injury lawyer, they'll think of her. Goff is as passionate about marketing as she is the law. She was working toward her MBA when she was accepted into law school and decided to change career paths. "I feel like a lot of lawyers are great lawyers, but they don't know how to run a business," Goff said in a recent interview with the Hartford Business Journal. "And you have to be equally great at both to be able to be a pres- ence to be reckoned with." She views advertising as an invest- ment to help her business grow and attract new clients. She also sees it as an investment "in the people that allow me to practice law." "I take the advertising side of it very seriously," Goff said. "I try to use the airtime to educate people, more so than telling everybody how great I am. I really try to use that time to let people know what the laws are, and what their options are, so that if they get in an accident, or whatever happens to them, that they're aware." Expansion-minded Goff is expanding her main office in West Hartford, doubling her 15,000-square-foot space in an office complex at 433 South Main St. Goff, who writes and designs her own ads, is building a recording studio in a space adjacent to her current office. The new area features a state-of-the-art kitchen and recording studio, where she will film her cooking show and commercials. It will have a floor-to-ceiling, 20-foot- long glass viewing room, green screen and control room. Her business footprint covers the whole state, and extends into Massachusetts. She currently has 12 attorneys with five satellite offices in Connecticut, and one in Boston. Goff declined to say what percentage of her revenue she spends on marketing, but said it totals "millions and millions and millions of dollars over the last several years." She bought three, 30-second Super Bowl ads this year, which played in all of Connecticut — ones before and after the halftime show,

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