A HUMBLE 50p advertisement in a Post Office window has landed a Hampshire firm with £250,000 of business.

The advertisement on the back of an envelope for Hamble's Stow Away Storage has proved so successful it's prompted bosses to axe a £10,000 marketing campaign as unnecessary.

The brainchild of former Saints footballer Gordon Hobson and business partner Paul Webb, the new firm had just spent more than half a million pounds to create 170 purposebuilt self-storage lockers to rent to boat owners.

Plans were under way for a big advertising campaign to launch the business but a chance conversation prompted them to place a post cardsized ad in their local post office.

Within days of it going in the window of Hamble Post Office most of the lockers were taken, generating sales of some £250,000 over a year.

"Perhaps I should have spent £1 and put the advertisement in for two weeks," quipped Paul. "We thought we would need a big campaign using the Web, e-mails and large posters, but a friend said we should try placing a card in the post office as he had sold his boat that way.

"We thought Why not?' but didn't expect it to work so only put it in for one week at a cost of 50p!

"The phone started to ring straight away and hasn't stopped.

"We knew there was a demand for yachtsmen to store their gear rather than have to bring it to their boat every time they used it, but we didn't expect it to take off like this.

"Almost all the 170 lock-ups are now let so we calculate that our 50 pence ad has generated some £250,000 of business this year alone!

"Everyone says that marketing has to be through hi-tech e-mail and Web - but we've learnt that you shouldn't forget the old fashioned methods."

It's not the first time an advertiser in a Hampshire shop window has struck lucky.

Jack Hammond's son advertised for a friend to accompany his 88- year-old dad to the pub. He received worldwide publicity as a result of the 25p slip of card and was deluged with applicants for the unusual £7 an hour job.