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

May has many great reasons to celebrate, thanks to the return of the warm Spring weather. Depending on your product or service, National Photo Month, National Barbecue Month, National Bike Month or National Hamburger Month could create 31 days of exposure for you.

If your budget doesn’t allow for a month-long promotion, try a one-week campaign starting May 3^rd that highlights National Pet Week. Radio listeners can send in pictures of their pets to qualify for a Pet Pageant, where the winner receives a year supply of your pet-related product or service.

Perhaps a local radio station can get behind Military Spouse Appreciation Day (May 8^th), where listeners and local businesses come together at various events, donating goods and services to a family in need or just showing their support for those waiting at home.

Three music greats are celebrating May birthdays. Billy Joel turns 60 on May 9^th. Bono celebrates his 49^th birthday on the 10^th and Bob Dylan rolls into his 68^th year on the 24^th. Depending on the radio station format, listeners could receive CD collections, iTunes gift cards or cash to buy their favorite Billy, Bono or Dylan music, concert tickets or memorabilia.

Lastly, if your brand is looking to tie into something funny, May 31^st marks the anniversary of the “Seinfeld” TV premiere. Radio stations can give away your product, service or cash in exchange for answering quirky Seinfeld trivia questions.

Additional opportunities for May promotions can focus on the following:

• May 1 – No Pants Day
• May 5 – National Teacher Day
• May 6 – No Diet Day
• May 15 – National Pizza Party Day
• May 21 – “I Need A Patch For That” Day
• May 24 – Neighbor Day

Call RDR Promotions today so we can help you plan your radio promotions for May.

Barbra Tabnick, Senior Account Manager

Format Description:
Classic rock is defined as rock and roll music from the mid 60s to early 90s, with on-air playlists customized to specific market favorites. The music focuses on most if not all of the biggest names in the rock era performing their greatest hits.

Audience:
Men with equal appeal across 18-49, 25-54 and 35-64 demos (depending upon how the music mix is shaded and how market competition is programmed)

Core Artists:
Led Zeppelin, The Eagles, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones

Key Radio Stations:
WAQX/New York
KLOS/Los Angeles
WDVE/Pittsburgh
WCSX/Detroit
WMGK/Philadelphia

DR Factor:
For DR marketers targeting men, Classic Rock provides a good outlet to reach a male audience with very little “waste.” As a music intensive format, strong, compelling offers and ear-grabbing production values will enhance ROI, as well as radio personality endorsements, when available and affordable.

For more information, visit:
All Access
FMQB
Wikipedia

Oops, we branded again.

So many marketers predetermine that an advertising message will either be a branding message or direct response. This preconception that it’s either one or the other is, surprisingly, the only thing that keeps the message from being both.

In direct response, the numbers are cut and dry. Either you generate the predetermined ROI or you don’t. Crossing that finish line triggers the next round of funding. And the campaign continues. But as consumers hear your key benefits over time, something unexpected happens.

Your direct response message performs an act of branding.

The compelling reasons to make a purchase becomes married to your brand with repetition. As the campaign self-funds, your brand gains and retains a national presence. The general population becomes aware of your brand and what it has to offer. So when the day comes that someone needs what you have, they’ll likely make contact via phone, via web or via retail. But the direct response advertising message that causes this action won’t be credited with the lead or the sale.

Right now, we’ve got a campaign airing for a dot-com retailer where the client tells us that their overall web traffic and web sales have spiked significantly, well above the number of customers who enter a radio “coupon code” to source the sale. The specific items we’re promoting are selling especially well, even though media source codes can only attribute a portion of this incremental revenue to radio.

Coincidence? Magic? More than likely, it’s typical consumer behavior. Coupon codes and sourcing data mean the world to direct response marketers, but the typical consumer couldn’t care less. Online buyers have become smart enough to realize that they can type the word “Radio” or “XM” to get the super secret discount at checkout. This makes it critical for DR advertisers to look at results in the aggregate as well as drilling down to the details.

Apparently, our DR marketing messages are generating more sales than pure, empirical sourcing will let us measure. More people are becoming aware of direct response brands and choosing to purchase them when they’re ready, rather than when the radio commercial tells them to.

We call it accidental branding. Our clients call it higher revenues and profits. Let’s just be sure to give credit where credit’s due.

Mark Lipsky, President & CEO

Tough economic times often camouflage remarkable opportunities.

We’re in the middle of a national housing slump.  However, mortgage rates and housing prices are lower than they’ve ever been. If you have the money, it’s a great time to buy real estate!

As corporate managers panic under a ton of pressure to cut costs, advertising budgets are among the first line items to get slashed.  When a company is hemorrhaging money, drastic measures are often taken without any thought of future ramifications. Current economic conditions have caused a large number of radio advertisers to drastically cut back or suspend their ad campaigns.  As a result commercial demand decreases…but hard times also create opportunistic situations for aggressive advertisers and marketers.  We’re in an advertising slump and media rates are lower than they’re been in many years.

National radio networks and local radio stations are accepting extremely low rates and pursuing more DR advertisers than ever to compensate for the current lack of traditional demand for their inventory.  Advertising categories that drove business have been disappearing at and alarming rate.  However, aggressive players are filling the void and taking advantage of bargain pricing.

Throughout these challenging market conditions, aggressive marketers like Wal-Mart, AT&T, McDonald’s and GEICO (among others) have maintained and in some cases increased their ad budgets for radio. Historically low pricing allows their radio buys to out pace the competition and helps them increase their market share and revenue.

With less competition advertising on the radio, “share of mind increases” for those who stay put. Being the one brand potential customers continue to hear puts a company in position to benefit tremendously when the economic conditions recover and consumer spending gets back to normal. In the 30+ years that I’ve been in radio, this is the best time I’ve ever seen for buying radio commercials.  The listeners are still there.  Why aren’t you?

Vince Raimondo, Vice President of Marketing

Our friends at Esquire have published a compact hardcover book of The Rules, a compilation of their best monthly observations. Just in time for Valentine’s Day romance, we’ve plucked the best “relationship rules” to share here, with our hearty recommendation that you pick up a copy of The Rules at your local bookstore.

Rule No. 4 – Do not trust a man who calls the bathroom “the little boy’s room.”

Rule No. 33 – If a girl breaks up with you because you called her crazy, you were probably right in the first place.

Rule No. 66 – Women named after a month of the year are usually frisky.

Rule No. 104 – A man may own exactly one pair of holiday-themed boxers.

Rule No. 116 – The best blind dates are with girls named Kelly or Samantha.

Rule No. 159 – Never date a woman whose father calls her “princess.”

Rule No. 196 – No woman over the age the 17 has ever been thrilled by the gift of carnations.

Rule No. 212 – Waiters who sit at your table when they take your order usually get it wrong.

Rule No. 282 – It is always unacceptable to refuse a woman’s invitation to dance.

Rule No. 299 – If you are uncertain how much cologne is enough, you are not allowed to use cologne.

Rule No. 346 – High-fiving another man in a restaurant could very well be the reason you are still single.

Rule No. 393 – The only thing more important than saying, “No, you don’t look fat in that outfit” when she asks you the first time is the deep sincerity with which you must say “Really” when she asks you the second time.

Rule No. 425 - Asking her to come up “just to use your bathroom” is the Hail Mary pass of romantic moves.

Rule No. 430 – At the checkout counter on your third date, if she says, “Oh wait, we’re gonna need chocolate syrup,” don’t ask what for, just go get it.

Greetings from the studio. People ask me all the time… “How’d you do that?” (Ok, no one asks me. They just want to know when their spot is ready for air.)

Seeing as how no one asked, I thought I’d offer up, for the first time ever, a few of my own tips to get the most out of your production. (I’ll save the technical stuff for those that ask.)

1. Kenny Rogers was right. Know when to walk away. You just spent 30 minutes recording the talent. Now you’re ready to edit and produce your latest masterpiece. Before doing anything, it already sounds GREAT in your head. Fast forward five or six hours later and you HATE the voice, the right piece of music doesn’t exist and the sound effects that were so clever now make you want to stab your ear drum with a spork. Yes, I said spork. Now’s the time to walk away. Shut everything off and forget everything that you did. You’ll be surprised at how ‘not bad’ it all sounds tomorrow.
2. Four ears are better than two. And six may be too many. So you have the production sounding perfect. Now’s the time to get a fresh perspective. Bring in another person or two and have them hear what you just created. At this point they may pick up on some things you’re missing because you’re too close to the piece. Getting a fresh set of ears will give you a fresh perspective. And a fresh perspective is always good.
3. Let music set the mood. You’d be surprised how music can alter a voice talent’s read. The read could sound down or depressed with somber music behind it. The same read could sound excited or energetic with happy, up music underneath it. Different portions of the same read can evoke different emotions from the listener. So before calling the talent back into the studio to recut some lines, try using different music under those sections that aren’t creating the emotions you’re looking for.
4. Change it up for emphasis. Are the most important copy points just not having the payoff they deserve? What to do. What to do. Change it up. If there’s music under the spot, take it out for those lines. If there’s no music, add a sound effect BEFORE those lines to jolt the listener into paying attention. Or add music under those lines. It doesn’t matter what you do… just do something that says, “Hey, you, listener, pay attention these next few seconds.”

There are four non-technical tips straight from the production department. If you’re interested in more ideas or in getting technical tips, feel free to shoot me an email.

Ian Cohen, Production Director

The newly-released January auto sales figures delivered more bad news to automakers, both foreign and domestic. Compared to last January, Chrysler sales were down 55%. GM dropped 49%. Ford posted a 40% loss. Even Toyota, Nissan and Honda recorded double-digit dips.

Hyundai? Up 14%.

In these troubled economic times, Hyundai found the right words to deliver the right offer to steal market share from its rivals.

“If you lose your source of income in the next 12 months, you can return the car.”

In recent weeks, they’ve amended this wording to enhance communication of this benefit by stating that you can “return the car without damaging your credit.”

Now there’s a brand listening to what consumers are thinking and channeling those thoughts into words that make an alluring offer to the American public.

In virtually every product category on radio and television, I hear countless commercials parroting one another, shuffling the same words and announcer cadence to sound precisely like their competition, save for their brand name.

And then comes that rare ad that delivers so stark, so simple a message that it breaks through the haze of white noise we called broadcast advertising.

It might be a clever, traffic-stopping grabber up front. Or an unexpected voice delivering the key brand promise. Or the real words of a real customer channeling my exact thoughts and concerns, giving me comfort that their brand can solve my problem.

And when that message hits, boy does it resonate. I remember the brand. I remember the offer. And if I’m in the market for what they’re offering, I take action. Just like the thousands of Americans who purchased a Hyundai during the month of January.

With 26 letters and 10 numbers to shuffle in endless combination, there’s no excuse for carbon copy copy and recycled offers that stopped having meaning for consumers long before any of us on the other side took notice.

Let’s celebrate Hyundai’s success and model the initiative they took to make the message meaningful for their intended audience. In today’s uncertain economy, that’s one sure way to keep clients happy and secure our survival.

Mark Lipsky, President & CEO

Most radio stations want to do promotions, but they have to be relevant to THEIR listeners and make for “good radio.” April has some fun ways for radio stations to both engage their listeners and promote the heck out of your brand.

April is National Humor Month and April 1^st is National Fun Day (as well as April Fool’s Day). In the vein of good humor and fun, your brand can sponsor an amateur comedian contest at a radio station client location with winners receiving your brand’s products/services. It almost doesn’t matter what your brand is, as long as it can be associated with fun.

April 2^nd is Reconciliation Day, so imagine what radio stations - along with your brand - could do for rivaling siblings, co-workers or couples.

Some stations already do the “I hate it when…” bits, so having your brand partner with stations for Hate Week (the week of April 4^th) is a natural extension of existing programming. Let listeners vent about their co-workers, the man who had 25 items in the 10-items-or-less line, the price of oranges, etc. Brighten up a daily winner’s day by giving them something about which they have no complaints.

April 16^th is High Five Day. You are either a fan of the high five, or it drives you insane. Either way, have some fun by challenging radio listeners to keep a record of how many high fives they can convince people to give them in a set amount of time or at a really inappropriate place. Invite them to e-mail videos for posting on the radio station’s web site. Winners can receive FIVE of whatever you are promoting, within budget of course.

Here are some other promotion-friendly dates to play off in April. Let us know how we can help get your brand into the spotlight this Spring.

• 7: No Housework Day
• 10: The Beatles Break Up Anniversary
• 10: National Siblings Day
• 12: Walk On Your Wildside Day
• 15: National That Sucks Day
• 16: National Wear Your Pajamas To Work Day
• 22: Earth Day

Barbra Tabnick, Senior Account Manager