Radio Direct Response: Direct Response Radio Advertising Agency | Blog Zone

Imagine a world where you place the commercials and forget about them.  Oh, that’s a branding campaign.  Let’s go back to real world where we need to track the results and make sure we do everything in our power to make this campaign work.

Most of the buys we place on the radio are driven to an outsourced call center, but there are some exceptions with an in-house call center.

We always encourage our clients to pick a call center where they focus on radio.

Why?  Because radio is different than TV or Direct Mail. Sales representatives should have experience with radio.  When people hear a commercial on the radio, most of the time they make the call, but they don’t know much about the product.  It’s not as if they saw the product on the TV or even saw a picture in the paper.  They are going to need more information before they can make a buying decision.

It also helps if sales representatives are commissioned.  Let’s be honest, they will work harder.  Plus you want to work with a call center where the sales representatives are trained for hard sales.  Their job is about giving as much information as possible about the service or the product, but their main job is to make sure they sell the product on the phone.

Another important point to consider when it comes to the call center issue is the call center hours.  The best and most desirable call center is the one that is open 24/7.  If you work with a call center that is open 24/7, you don’t limit your buy based on the call center hours.  Nor do you miss potential sales from listeners who hear your ad at noon, but make the call at midnight.

You can’t just place the buy and be done with it.  You need to make sure people who hear your commercial will respond.  Not only that but you also need to make sure that the people who call also purchase the product.  Otherwise, it would be a total waste of your client’s money…and no one wants to do that.

Askin Emir, Media Director
Radio Direct Response

“Call right now and we’ll double the offer!”  Is there a better combination of words in the English language?  Of course, “Have you lost weight?” and “Wow, you don’t look your age!” also ring my bell, but they don’t propel me to the phone at the speed of light.

Direct marketers are always looking for the perfect trigger that gets a potential consumer to go from “that’s cool” to “I must own it now.”  Based on my January credit card bills, doubling the offer is definitely my trigger.  Crafting the best offer and coupling it with a sense of urgency is the key to any successful DR campaign.  Doubling the offer works best for DRTV marketers because the price point on DRTV items is usually so low that twice the offer is still a moneymaker (especially when you collect additional shipping and handling charges).

DR radio is a whole other story.  Most DR radio products or services are priced at $100 or more, which most listeners won’t discover until they pick up the phone to order. Radio marketers rely on the power of the spoken word.  Listeners can’t see before-and-after pictures or an awesome “Honeymooners Chef-of-the-Future” demonstration.  The offer must be strong enough to cut through the clutter because everybody wants a deal.

“Free”, the other four-letter word, wields a lot of power in the consumer mindset.  There may be no such thing as a free lunch, but a free shipping offer can make the phone ring loud and often.

Once listeners think they are getting a great deal, you have to get them to act on it.  Conveying a sense of urgency can be done several ways.  Phrases like “this is a limited time offer” or “quantities are limited” work well, as do phrases like “the next 20 orders today receive a month supply free” or “the first 50 callers lock in today’s introductory price for all future orders.”

Present an irresistible offer and be ready to handle the lead volume.

Monica Caraffa, Senior Account Manager
Radio Direct Response

For DR marketers like Geico, Oreck Vacuums and Avacor, radio advertising is a powerful and profitable marketing tool. Like any advertising medium, the sales process begins with generating a qualified lead. And to do that, you must grab the listener’s attention and never let go.

Unlike the 1940s, when families literally sat around the living room and watched the radio, today’s listener is doing some other primary activity (driving, working, jogging) rather than staring at the radio dial. That means you have three-to-five seconds to break through the clutter with a compelling reason to continue listening.

“Do you know what women find most sexy in a man?”

“I lost 220 pounds and now I’m invisible!”

“And now, a word from the late Dr. Milton Connelly.”

Any of these ice-breakers would be enough to make you sit up and take notice. For without a strong grabber, the listener will either mentally – or physically – tune out.

Challenge.  Shock.  Inform.  Question.

And follow that grabber with a simple presentation of the single benefit most likely to make a consumer drop everything and take action. Make a list of the 50 most compelling benefits of your product or service. Then add another 30. Trim the list down to the most essential 20 or 30 benefits and then let your customers tell you which of those benefits are the ones that triggered their desire to buy.

Then embrace that benefit. Find a dozen ways to word it. How would an announcer present it? What might a consumer say? Then craft the most powerful way to convey that benefit.

Grab their attention. Tell them why to buy. And close the sale.

Mark Lipsky, President & CEO

Tucked away in a creative corner of Radio Direct Response is RDR Promotions, the radio promotions division of our agency. For years, we’ve been creating exciting, foreground radio promotions on top stations and networks across the country for clients like Food Network, Sony Music and Jones Apparel Group.

Then, about four years ago, we accidentally started working with outside advertising agencies on behalf of their clients. Now clients of ours today, these agencies range in size from huge international to mid-sized, but incredibly industry-specific.

Either we met with a brand that politely said, “talk to our agency,” or we worked directly with a brand and were told to communicate with their creative and/or media planning AOR to make sure we were all on the same page. To our surprise and delight, this often led us to getting hired by the agency for other clients of theirs.

In both cases, the agencies decided that it was in their clients’ best interest to hire RDR Promotions to do what they were not capable of doing themselves – create radio promotions that generate an excellent ROI and break through the clutter.

Sadly, there are still many agencies that see a company like RDR as a threat to their client relationship and not a friendly, specialized addition to their team; a “partner” or a “vendor” that can take $1 and turn it into $4 or $5 in media exposure.

RDR Promotions knows that the lead agency is the “keeper of the brand” and whatever they say goes.

So, to the agencies, I’d like to say that we are here to make your job easier and ensure that your client knows you are using every resource the budget allows to generate the results they need. To the brands I’d like to say, if you have a designated person who can be our day-to-day during a campaign, contact us directly. Or, call us in to meet with you and your agency to see if we fit in with your current team. You never know. This can be the start of a beautiful relationship.

Barbra Tabnick, Senior Account Manager

You’ve finally done it. Crafted the perfect piece of radio copy. It hits all your key copy points, speaks “to” your target demo not “at” them, and has the most compelling offer this side of super size it for just 39 cents more.

Now what?

How do you find the right voice to breathe life into this perfect piece of copy?

First, you need an idea of the sound of the voice. Typical booming voiced male announcer that drinks fire and spits brimstone? Fun, friendly, guy next door who you hang with on weekends watching the game and barbequing? Or is it the blonde hottie at the end of the bar that oozes sex appeal and has you at hello?

After spending some real quality time with that perfect piece of copy, you can finally hear it in your head. But how do you get it out of your head and on “tape” with that voice you hear?

Two great resources when casting talent are http://www.voices.com/ and http://voice123.com/. They both have HUGE, searchable databases of thousands of voice actors. You can hear demos, contact the talent and even post your perfect piece of copy for a free audition from any talent that elects to do so.

The wrong voice can kill great copy. And the right voice can rescue bad copy. The bottom line when casting is to get a sound in your head and match it as close as you can in the execution.

There really is no great mystery when it comes to casting voice talent. There’s a reason why the talent’s best work is on their demo so pay close attention to the styles they chose as their best. There’s a lot of hit and miss. Don’t fall in love with a voice then ask him/her to do a style you have in mind, yet he/she isn’t capable of doing. You’ll only end up having a finished product you’re less than thrilled having and wondering if there’s enough time to get it redone by someone else who is capable of doing it the way you really want it done.

The only real challenge in casting is finding enough good, quality people that can consistently deliver good, quality work time and time again. Trusting what’s in your head – and using these online resources – take you two steps closer to the perfect radio commercial.

Ian Cohen, Production Director
Radio Direct Response

Rumors of radio’s death have been greatly exaggerated since the day our grandfathers brought home their first black-and-white TVs and families gathered ‘round to eat Swanson frozen dinners in front of Uncle Miltie.

Since then, one marvel of technology after another has paraded through pop culture as the next assassin of AM and FM.

Consider the cassette player. 8-Track tapes. The Sony Walkman. Pong. Atari. Nintendo. Cable TV. HBO. MTV, where video killed the radio star. CB radio. Compact Discs and the Sony Discman. 100-Disc CD changers. Sony PlayStation. Game Boy. Followed by the ultimate grim reaper: The Internet. And Chat Rooms. And Internet radio stations. And cell phones. And MP3 players. And Podcasts. XM. Sirius. HD Radio. WiFi.

So many innovations, so many funerals for poor terrestrial radio which STILL commands weekly listenership from more than 9 out of 10 Americans. AM/FM Radio’s been killed so many times, cats line up to ask, “Hey, how come radio gets so many lives?”

Here’s my two-part theory on why most new technologies are christened as the latest radio slayer, rather than the next gizmo to replace the can opener.

Radio beat writers are bored. Bored, bored, bored. How many times can you write about the wacky morning man who called the Mayor’s office to ask if his refrigerator was running? So when there’s something NEW to write about, that’s what gets the writer’s attention and a disproportionate share of ink. Just compare the disproportionate tonnage of stories written about XM and Sirius, when only 16 million (of 300 million) Americans subscribe to satellite radio.

So when the next MTV or Wii or iPod comes along, writers have to justify how America will make time for these new toys. So they poke their voodoo pins in radio.

Secondly, radio is often the forgotten stepchild of media buyers. It lacks the glamour of slick fashion magazines or the game day excitement of a glitzy TV shoot. Placing an effective radio buy can be highly labor-intensive and requires great passion and dedication to manage a successful campaign across 10,000+ commercial stations.

So the path of least resistance (and easiest payday) keeps many brands from discovering the wonders – and the results – of good old, dependable AM/FM radio.

I just wish that the next time someone refers to radio in the past tense they’d cite their own apathy and laziness as the likely cause of death. Because the numbers certainly say otherwise.

Mark Lipsky, President & CEO
Radio Direct Response

What is the future of HD Radio? Will it become a part of the mainstream media like Satellite radio and Cable TV before it? Or will it be hyped at traditional radio’s expense as planned by the HD Digital Alliance in their 2008 radio advertising campaign which positions HD radio as the new, hipper choice, characterizing traditional AM-FM radio as stale, lame and un-hip.

Today’s consumers are bombarded with thousands of messages about new products daily. HD radio, for all intents and purposes, is still a new product. Most people have no idea what it is and how it works. So how can HD radio infiltrate an already crowded market with so many choices and, if they can, will people care?

Apple seems to think so. The iPod could go from a threat to radio to a revenue generator with its plans to unveil HD radio equipped boom boxes with iPod docking stations. These units will feature iTunes tagging, allowing users to turn songs they hear on the radio into purchases at the iTunes store. Sound far-fetched? Not to broadcasters at CBS, Clear Channel, Cumulus, Cox, Entercom and Greater Media that have started encoding their stations for iTunes Tagging.

Still, HD radio will need a solid advertising campaign to educate people about what HD radio is and what it offers. Right now HD units are still priced too high for the average consumer to really consider it for purchase, when free radio sounds perfectly fine.

Why doesn’t HD radio take aim at pay services like XM and Sirius Satellite radio? They could easily position themselves positively by focusing on the variety and free advantages that they offer to the consumer with no monthly fee attached.

If HD radio is to succeed it will have to do so with a deep variety of programming that rivals or surpasses the choices of satellite, coupled with a clear marketing campaign that touts its benefits without denigrating its current AM/FM Programming base.

Whether or not the industry can achieve this remains one of the great marketing mysteries of 2008.

Danny Ocean, Vice President/Director of Operations
Radio Direct Response

Our agency often works with successful DR marketers making their first foray into radio. To ease the transition, we point out the similarities in the DR radio process to those that make a direct mail campaign profitable.

In direct mail, everything begins with the creative and the offer. Usually, you test multiple versions of the mailer. Then, you forever tinker with the headline, body copy, offer, font, colors and envelope size to beat the results of the control piece.

The same holds true in radio. There are dos and don’ts for how to properly structure a radio commercial. And a thousand different ways to creatively deliver the message. And tweak the offer. And test against your “control.”

Next, comes the media. With direct mail, choosing the “right” list can make all the difference between success and failure. Knowing which of the 10 available “Kentucky Republicans” mailing lists will deliver the best ROI can help you to turn a profit and take steps to replicate your success.

Likewise in radio. There are “good” radio stations and there are “bad” ones. The “good” stations and networks are those that historically deliver results for DR advertisers. The “bad” ones often look great on paper, but fail to deliver qualified leads and sales.

A strong DR radio agency can help you past the perplexing guesswork, so that you’re using proven media, enabling you to focus on testing only your message and your offer.

Like direct mail or any medium new to your marketing mix, it’s rare that you’ll hit a home run with the first swing of the bat. Just as you’ll test different headlines and fonts and offers in direct mail, making DR radio work requires the same patience and diligent foresight in planning.

Those who under fund their radio campaign – or pull the plug prematurely – often spend the rest of the year hearing their competition up and down the dial and scratching their heads wondering what the heck they did wrong.

More often than not, the turning point in a successful DR radio campaign comes before the first ad ever airs.

Those who commit to the medium, temper their expectations and manage the test to learn from each phase will make the right “game day decisions” to boost results and achieve profitability. Then, they’ll reach that glorious day when they can virtually throw money at the medium, having mastered the formula to get back their investment with interest.

Just like direct mail.

Mark Lipsky, President & CEO
Radio Direct Response

I just finished reading a recent article in ADWEEK about how CBS plans to grow revenue for their radio division in 2008. It left me scratching my head in disbelief. Dan Mason, who runs the CBS radio division said “that grabbing a greater share of political advertising….would be key to achieving growth next year for CBS radio.” The radio division is hiring political consultants to communicate with candidates and parties in its pursuit of political ads. It wasn’t very long ago that accepting political advertising by radio stations was considered an obligatory nuisance that every general sales manager tried to avoid. When I was a sales manager at a major Philadelphia radio station, I prayed that the political ad agencies would never call me. Why? By law, radio stations have to make available the lowest possible unit rates by day-part for political candidates. Political advertising for presidential, senatorial and congressional races must be accepted and take precedence over existing accounts paying higher rates. Even when a radio station is sold out, it must move sponsors who are paying more per spot and make room for the politicos who are paying nickels on the dollar. One October a few years ago, after I had already made my monthly budget, I had to move a 100 spots out of prime inventory to make room for political advertising. Not only did it create a traffic nightmare, but my quarterly revenue dropped and I missed budget. Now, Dan Mason wants to load up on political advertising because radio has unsold inventory due to lack of demand.

Radio station inventory is priced like airline tickets. Very few customers pay the same price for a ticket. Annual accounts often get the benefit of low rates by making long term commitments. If these clients run during the political window and they’re the lowest rates on the radio station, their rates must be offered to the politicos. If Dan Mason is willing to troll for political dollars, you think he should seriously consider focusing on making radio a formidable Direct Response channel. Radio stations turn their noses up at DR. As a DR agency, we negotiate the lowest rates, we’re flexible, we purchase unsold inventory, and we bring NEW clients (and NEW dollars) to radio. If radio helps us achieve an acceptable cost per lead, cost per sale or cost per acquisition, we will continue advertising long after the last hanging chad is counted and the general election is a distant memory. DR radio is a 52-week-a-year opportunity, not once every leap year.

Vince Raimondo, Vice President of Marketing
Radio Direct Response