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

Tomorrow is April Fools’ Day - time to celebrate the everyday fools in Radioland who sing the wrong lyrics to popular songs. Honestly now, how could someone possibly think that Bachman Turner Overdrive would rock a four-minute opus about “Baking Carrot Biscuits (and working overtime)?”

Get more than a few laughs by visiting www.kissthisguy.com. The site is packed with thousands of misconstrued song lyrics. Shake your head in disbelief at the simple minds that thought….

Jim Morrison opened the classic “L.A. Woman” by noting that “It’s been about an hour since an hour ago.”

Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty proposed trading body parts in “Leather & Lace,” suggesting: “Give to me your liver. Take from me, my legs.”

The Rolling Stones’ “Beast of Burden” centered around Mick’s obsession over becoming an overweight woman. “I’ll never be - Obese Roberta.”

Surf letter-by-letter, but pace yourself. KissThisGuy.com is a huge site. And while there are plenty of groaners, the gems are worth the time spent sifting. Here are a few more:

The Four Seasons (from “Let’s Hang On”)
Actual: “That little chip of diamond on your hand”
Misheard: “That little chipmunk dining on your hand”

The Beach Boys (from “Help Me, Rhonda”)
Actual: “Well since she put me down, I’ve been out doin’ in my head”
Misheard: “Well since you put me down, I’ve got owls pukin’ in my bed”

The Bee Gees (from “How Deep Is Your Love?”)
Actual: “Then you come to me on a summer breeze”
Misheard: “Then you come to me on a submarine”

Deep Purple (from “Smoke on the Water”)
Actual: “Smoke on the water, a fire in the sky.”
Misheard: “Slow cousin Walter, the fire engine guy”

And just in case you’re wondering why the site is named what it’s named, you’ll have to excuse Jimi Hendrix while he kisses the sky. At least I think that’s what he said.

Mark Lipsky, President & CEO

Plan ahead! (Your mother was right!)

Anyone can pick up Chase’s Calendar of Events and see what annual events, anniversaries or birthdays happen in any given month.

So, why isn’t your marketing team capitalizing on these special occasions every quarter, creating in-programming radio promotions that can drive retail or web traffic?  Too busy?  We can help.

For example, knowing June is just a couple of months away, plan to celebrate Marilyn Monroe’s birthday (June 1^st) by having a “blonde” shopping event, hosting a Marilyn look-alike contest or rewarding customers with a drawn-on beauty mark with a special discount.

Flag Day holds special meaning these days, so create a promotion where patriotism is rewarded on June 14^th and marry your brand to the pride of America.  Give free flags with each purchase.  Ride along with a radio station’s prize patrol or street team and reward drivers who proudly display the red-white-and-blue on their car.  Send a lucky winner to New York to see the world’s greatest flag collection at the United Nations.

Curious as to how your brand could tie in to these events or create your own to drive business?  Send me an e-mail to ponder the possibilities.

Barbra Tabnick, Senior Account Manager

It’s taken more than a year, but the Department of Justice yesterday ruled it would not block the proposed merger of XM and Sirius Satellite Radio.  Antitrust officials determined there were no reasons to halt the merger or impose conditions, as it did not see the merged XM/Sirius entity as one that would result in higher costs or decreased service to the consumer.

Now, it’s up to the Federal Communications Commission.  The FCC has never voted against a DOJ ruling.  Yet terrestrial broadcasters have been throwing everything they’ve got at lobbying the FCC to block the merger, first proposed in February 2007.

Dennis Wharton, Executive Vice President of the National Association of Broadcasters says, “This monopoly will lead to higher prices, less innovation and lousy service.”

With due respect to Mr. Wharton’s ability to forecast the future, the proposed merger includes plans to offer a la carte programming, allowing subscribers to pick and choose their channels of choice and pay only for those services.  Unless someone chooses everything both services currently offer, that will lower prices.

As for “lousy service,” changes on the AM/FM bands over the past 20 years make this sound like the pot calling the kettle “black.”  Just give a listen to the cookie-cutter sounds of terrestrial radio, where FCC deregulation has resulted in radio stations, coast to coast, sounding homogenized and interchangeable, save for the top-of-the-hour call letter IDs.

I’ll give Mr. Wharton a “pass” on his concerns that the merger will lead to less innovation. I can’t predict the future.  But with the surface of HD Radio and WiFi technology scarcely scratched by FCC license owners, I’d suggest that the surest way to spur the continued innovation by XM and Sirius would be to force their hand in a competitive marketplace.

This is America, a capitalistic society where ingenuity and innovation reap rewards with 300+ million consumers in a supply-and-demand marketplace.  When more energy goes in to restricting innovation than inspiring it, we lose status on the world stage by shifting our most valuable resources into infighting.

Kept separate, XM and/or Sirius will fail. Both are burning through cash too fast to survive.  A merged entity, with the economics of scale and freedom to focus on providing what the public will voluntarily pay for, is the only hope for the medium of satellite radio to remain a medium of choice for the America public.

And that, most certainly, is in the public interest.

Mark Lipsky, President & CEO

The old adage states there’s a right way and a wrong way to do things.  I’d argue that time and experience has proven that statement false.  Usually, there are many “right” and “wrong” ways to complete any given task.

Our parents and teachers taught us the “right” way to cross a street is at the corner, in the pedestrian guide path and while the “WALK” sign is flashing.  Yet we’ve all crossed streets in different ways and lived long enough to read this sentence.  Still, we’re smart enough not to cross the street backwards, blindfolded, wearing dark clothing at midnight.

When it comes to crafting an effective radio commercial, many cooks tend to offer advice in the creative kitchen.  Some overpower the process and create a dish that looks great on the plate but tastes poorly on the palate.

We respect that our clients know their businesses far better then we do. And we trust them to tell us which – of the 101 reasons a consumer might become a customer – is most likely lead to that conversion if properly expressed in a radio commercial.  The tricky part is convincing the client that their star “print” copywriter may not be the best copywriter to get results on radio.

Sometimes, ego trumps sensibility.  The desire to be creative and clever can and will sacrifice results.  There’s a fine line an ad agency must walk, especially with a new client, to express when and why a proposed script seems destined to under perform.  Yet, we have a duty to speak our minds and share our experience.

After all, that’s why you hired us.  As a direct response agency, our goal is the same as yours: to get results that justify sustaining and increasing your investment in radio.  If the campaign fails, you’ll go away.  The stakes couldn’t be any clearer.

And while we welcome and encourage our clients to share their input and even script commercials if the spirit moves them, we urge them to check their egos at the door and test multiple creative approaches in a sensible, testing matrix.

There are countless ways to craft a powerful radio script.  But there are rules of thumb, unique to radio, that will increase your odds of success.  Keep that in mind the next time an in-house writer claims that only he or she – and his or her script – will get the job done.  After all, we all have the same finish line in sight.  And in the systematic world of radio direct response, the slow-and-steady tortoise beats the hare nearly every time.

Mark Lipsky, President & CEO

In January 2008, the Media Ratings Council denied accreditation of Arbitron’s PPM local ratings in the test markets of New York and Philadelphia.  However, Houston was given the “green light.”  Arbitron released the news weeks later on Thursday, February 29^th, when they had to make an SEC filing.  Why is transparency so difficult?  All they had to say was:

“Arbitron will not appeal the denials. Instead we will focus on the re-audits of New York and Philadelphia and get this straightened out ASAP.  We’re still perfecting the methodology in the field.”

They didn’t.  Broadcasters would have been unhappy with that statement and conclusion.  However, since they’re already unhappy with the PPM methodology and results, how much angrier can they get?

The folks who run Arbitron are acting like they really have something to hide by not being forthcoming with bad news about PPM methodology.  And, when they chose to tell the story, it was with a “Clintonian” press release delivered on a Friday in hopes that the revelation would be buried in the weekend news stories when fewer people pay attention.

“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.”
- Benjamin Disraeli

The major complaints about PPM center around three elements: accuracy, accuracy and accuracy.

1. PPM measures active listening, passive listening and non-listening…it’s the non-listening part of the equation that irritates broadcasters.  If a radio station is piped into a mall and somebody happens to be wearing a people meter, the “meter” part of the people meter could receive the encoded signal without the “people” part of the people meter hearing the radio station.  The radio station STILL gets credit for a person who isn’t listening.  That’s just wrong.
2. Suddenly radio is a “Reach” medium instead of a “Frequency” medium, according to PPM.  PPM methodology has redefined how listeners use radio, opining that more people listen to the radio for shorter periods of time.  Prior to PPM, less people listened for longer periods of time.  So, for the last 65 years, all of the statistics Arbitron showed broadcasters and advertisers about radio being a “Frequency medium” was wrong!  If the new PPM findings are “right,” then the 1,000+ diary-based surveys Arbitron currently releases annually are “wrong.”
3. PPM is biased.  It’s an unintentional flaw, but a HUGE flaw none the less.  The African-American and Hispanic sample size in Philly, New York and Houston, especially the 18-54 year-old male target, has been substantially and consistently below the proportion of the population.  The introduction of PPM in New York caused a tidal wave of outrage from minority broadcasters who saw ratings and station rankings sink like dead whales.  Short sample sizes have been an Arbitron headache for years.  Knowing that sample size challenges still existed with PPM, especially in minority measurement, Arbitron probably should have delayed the test until a solution was found.  But noooooo…

Oddly enough, the media buying community lined up with Arbitron, and psychologically strong-armed the broadcasting company holdouts that questioned the PPM system to sign on for the service.  Media buyers will do most anything to get an edge in media negotiations.  Many figured that the move to PPM was inevitable, and still is…flaws and all.

The move to PPM couldn’t come at a worse time for radio.  Radio revenues are hemorrhaging and operators can’t seem to find a tourniquet.  They cling to the hope that reliable electronic measurement, combined with voice-tracking, automation, job consolidation (job elimination) and the “Jack” format will give them a much-needed revenue boost.  I don’t think so…

Vince Raimondo, Vice President of Marketing

They say, “On Saint Patty’s Day, everyone’s Irish!” And sure’n that may be true. But rather than post a list of classic Irish drinking songs, someone suggested that we post a list of songs that contain the word “Green” in their title (for those of us who didn’t plan to spend our afternoon recycling green beer). And so we are.

• A Little Bit of Green – Elvis Presley
• A Little Green – Joni Mitchell
• A Little Green Rosetta – Frank Zappa
• Another Kind of Green – John Mayer Trio
• Green – Edie Brickell
• Green – The Dandy Warhols
• Green Bay – Charlie Christian
• Green Chimneys – Charles Mingus
• Green Earrings – Steely Dan
• Green-Eyed Lady – Sugarloaf
• Green Eyes – Coldplay
• Green Eyes – Erykah Badu
• Green Flash at Sunset – Jimmy Buffett
• Green Grass – Gary Lewis & The Playboys
• Green Grass – Tom Waits
• Green Grass and High Tides – The Outlaws
• Green is the Colour – Pink Floyd
• Green Light – Equals
• Green Onions – Booker T & The MGs
• Green River – Creedence Clearwater Revival
• Green Shirt – Elvis Costello
• Green Tambourine – The Lemon Pipers
• Greener – Tally Hall
• It’s Not Easy Being Green – Kermit the Frog
• On Green Dolphin Street – Bill Evans
• Out of Blue Comes Green – A-Ha
• Pale Green Stars - Everclear
• The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine – Simon & Garfunkel
• The Green, Green Grass of Home – Tom Jones
• The Jolly Green Giant – The Royal Guardsman
• The Village Green Preservation Society – Kinks
• When the Wind Was Green – Frank Sinatra

Feel free to comment on those that we missed!

America’s demographic profile is becoming more diverse everyday. Hispanic, Asian, and the Black population are the major minorities in the United States.

Hispanic population is the largest minority in the United States. As of 2006, there are 44.3 million Hispanics. That is 14.8% of the total population. Their growth rate (24.3%) was more than three times the growth rate of the total population (6.1%)¹. The US Census Bureau projects that their population will be 47.8 million in 2010 (15.5% of the total population) and 102.6 million in 2050 (24.4% of the entire US population)².

How can you not target them directly? Especially when the current buying power of the Hispanic popular is more than $500 Billion according to MBDA³. Their radio listening habits are very similar to their English-speaking counterparts. There are five Hispanic different generations defined:

1. Los Bebes / Los Ninos (0-9) 18%
2. Generation N (10-19) 17%
3. Latinos-Latinas (20-39) 38%
4. Latin Boomers (40-59) 24%
5. Los Grandes (60+) 9%³

The most popular US radio formats among Hispanic listeners are nine Spanish Language and five General Market Station Formats.

Spanish Language Formats are Mexican Regional, Spanish Contemporary, Tropical, Spanish News/Talk, Variety, Spanish Religious, Tejano, Spanish Oldies and Spanish Adult Hits⁴.

The General Market Stations include Adult Contemporary, Pop CHR, Rhythmic CHR, Country and News/Talk/Information.

Just as English language stations deliver specific demographics by format, the same holds true in Spanish language programming.

The Latinos-Latinas heavily listen to the Mexican Regional, Spanish Contemporary, Spanish Adult Hits, Spanish Tropical, Spanish Variety. Tejano is heavily listened among Latin Boomers. Spanish Oldies and Spanish New Talk are very popular among Los Grandes. 

Radio is one of the best ways in American mass media to reach the Hispanic market. Although general listenership is declining in America, both radio listenership and revenues are rising for Hispanics.

If you’re not actively marketing to this fast-growing segment of Americans, you’re missing out on a great opportunity – one that your competitors won’t likely miss.

[1]Source:www.fns.usda.gov
[2]Source: US Census Bureau www.census.gov
[3]Source: Marketing to American Latinos, The In-Culture Approach, Part 2, PMP, 2002
[4] Source: Arbitron Hispanic Radio Today 2007 Edition

Askin Emir, Media Director
Radio Direct Response

“I use Product X and it’s changed my life.”

Imagine how those words would sound spoken by a 78-year old man.  Or a 16-year old Valley Girl.  Or a grizzled dock worker.  Or a SUV-driving soccer mom.

Same words, four different reads.  And each of those four reads will resonate perfectly among a group of their peers.

On the other hand, can you imagine how that “feeble old grandpa” might sound on a Hip-Hop station?  Or how the “perfectly polite soccer mom” would play on a trash-talking sports talk show?

Once you craft and test the right words for your radio commercial, one of the best investments you can make is to record different versions of the commercial to air on different radio formats, making a word change here-and-there to compensate for speech patterns and idioms.

Radio is such an intimate medium.  The air personalities we hear on a daily basis become our friends, even if they don’t know our names.  We relate to them.  And, in that same way, we relate to actors on radio commercials who are, well, relatable! 

We’ve seen campaigns spike with triple the sales volume, simply by changing the announcer’s voice.  Sure, it’s only one variable, but it’s one that’s all-too-often overlooked in perfecting the puzzle of building the ultimate, lead-generating radio commercial.

Mark Lipsky, President & CEO