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

Just in time for April 1^st, here’s a list of fun things to help you keep your sanity and have a little fun on April Fools Day. Tell your friends.

1. At lunchtime, sit in your parked car with sunglasses on and point a hair dryer at passing cars. See if they slow down.
2. Page yourself over the intercom at work. Don’t disguise your voice.
3. Every time someone asks you to do something ask if they want fries with that.
4. Put decaf in the coffee maker for three weeks. Once everyone has gotten over their caffeine addictions, switch to Espresso.
5. Order a Diet Water whenever you go out to eat, with a serious face.
6. Five days in advance, tell your friends you can’t attend their party because you have a headache.
7. At the fast food drive-thru window, clearly specify that your order is To Go.
8. When the money comes out of the ATM, scream, “I won! I won!”
9. In the memo field of all your checks, write “For Sedatives.”
10. Over dinner, tell your children: “Due to the economy, we’re going to have to let one of you go….”

I came across an article that highlighted the impact the Internet is having on radio. According to AccuStream Research, online music radio’s listening hours have increased 38% since last year to a cumulative total of almost 6.67 billion hours.

Not happy with random statistics, I asked Matt Cutair, Account Executive with Dial Global Networks, to explain how these numbers could be true. “The simple fact is radio is more available than ever. The opportunity to increase the number of times a potential customer hears a client’s message is increased substantially via online stations and music services.” He went on to add that this increase comes in a surprisingly cost effective environment.

“People can now access their favorite music through the Internet, live streams and pod casts. Today’s advertisers have new opportunities to reach their potential customers in ways that didn’t exist 10 years ago.”

Advertisers and their agencies are tapping into an active audience in an area that was previously uncharted territory. Arbitron Inc. and Edison Media Research completed a study in January 2008 showing that online audiences now number an average of 31 million listeners per week and an average of 54 million listeners per month nationally, creating new opportunities for advertisers and agencies and making online media planning and buying easier than ever.

In addition, advertisers who traditionally favor branding campaigns are using online streaming, stations and music services to get their message out. Their campaigns are becoming more direct response oriented in nature. With calls to action, including phone numbers and drive to web initiatives, direct response becomes the primary focus of these spots within the new environment that allows for high frequency rotation.

Helene Rubin, Media Buyer for Radio Direct Response sees it this way, “We use streaming and online music services available from many of the national networks to get our clients the highest possible frequencies to get their messages out. Given the current rates and availability, streaming is one of the most affordable ways to maximize direct marketing dollars.”

Askin Emir, Media Director for RDR adds, “RDR measures results for our clients campaigns. It’s critical for us to know how many people respond to our ads. The Internet with its streaming options is one of the strongest areas available for DR advertisers to be able to measure and manage their results.”

With audience numbers on the rise and results increasing, online streaming is becoming a permanent and more dependable source for success in the radio marketing mix.

Danny Ocean, Vice President/Director of Operations

Format Description:
This music format targets African American adults, ages 25-54. The music is comprised of urban-based artists who have long been established as founding members in the current Rhythm and Blues genre. Artists like Boyz II Men, Jennifer Hudson and Usher play alongside “Old School” favorites from Al Green, Teddy Pendergrass, The Whispers and others from the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. Listeners to the Urban AC format are extremely loyal and often spend more time with this format than listeners to other stations. They are community oriented and seek a station that mirrors their lifestyle and reflects their passion in presentation. The station’s air staff often showcase high profile syndicated morning show talents complemented by local air talents in other dayparts.

Audience:
25-54 Adults (skewing female)

Core Artists:
Luther Vandross, Mary J. Blige, R. Kelly, Alicia Keys

Key Radio Stations:
WBLS/New York
WHQT/Miami
WALR/Atlanta
WVAZ/Chicago

DR Factor:
This is an excellent format for target the adult, African-American
audience with little waste outside of the core target. Air talent endorsements can significantly boost results if properly priced and written to take full advantage of the individual talent’s strengths.

For more information, visit:
All Access
FMQB
WVAZ
WBLS
WHQT

This blog may make me a few enemies. But for the countless ways radio stations and networks can “spin” the ratings, I find one practice disgraceful and worthy of print.

Most commonly, this action occurs when a new personality comes to radio or expands into syndication. Shortly thereafter, those selling time on his or her program boast of the personality’s ratings and average quarter hour audience.

That’s quite a feat, considering that no ratings for his/her show are actually available.

Let’s say that Mark Lipsky is the host of a brand new show syndicated on 100 radio stations. A year from now, it’ll be simple to get the audience figures from each station to give a fair picture of Mark’s actual listening audience. But to do so on Day One (or even Month Two) before actual ratings have been measured with Mark on the air is misleading and fraudulent.

Here’s how it happens. Number crunchers take the audience figures from each station’s respective time slot. So if Mark’s show airs Mon-Fri 6-10 AM on WXXX, they’ll include the Mon-Fri 6-10 AM numbers from WXXX’s most recent ratings period as audience figures for The Mark Lipsky Show. Only those listeners were not listening to The Mark Lipsky Show because he wasn’t on the air during that ratings period! So the previous show’s numbers are being presented to advertisers as “Mark’s numbers.”

We recently encountered such a case while evaluating the audience for a personality whose audience historically skews older male. Yet, the ratings showed a strong following with women in their 30s and 40s.

Had we not scratched our collective heads to solve this riddle, we’d have joined many buyers who erroneously invested media dollars in this program to reach the old audience that, in all likelihood, will not be delivered by this new program.

And while it’s perfectly “legal” for these numbers to be presented as “the most current ratings figures available in the personality’s time slot across the network,” it’s misleading and unethical to pass that information off as representative of new program’s ratings.

You could make the case in music programming, where one host is playing the latest hits from Beyonce and Coldplay, a DJ change would result in a less dramatic change in audience composition. But if the change is a foreground program – with a shift from sports to relationships, or from finance to “Hot Talk,” you can bet that the numbers and audience composition will shift from previous levels once the new numbers come in.

Let the buyer beware.

Mark Lipsky, President & CEO

When we first talk to potential partners about implementing a radio promotion campaign on their behalf, we assume that they know what a radio promotion is. But then they usually ask how much the radio buy has to be to accompany the promotion or how many 30-second or 60-second spots we’ll get throughout the promotion.

That’s when we realize that radio promotions may not be totally understood by marketers out there. Here is a little Radio Promotions 101 and why they are so useful, cost effective and just plain fun!

A radio promotion ties in with an on-air or online contest that is promoted through a series of negotiated live and recorded mentions. These mentions are 10-seconds in length and are, essentially, your little commercial. Sit and time 10-seconds and you’ll realize that you can say about 25 – 30 words that drive people to a website, retail location, to watch a TV show, etc.

This exposure we are talking about is in-programming, not during commercial breaks when people may tune out. So, it’s the listeners’ favorite on-air personalities talking about a contest, talking about the great demographic-appropriate prizes they are going to give to their listeners and, every time they talk about it or give a prize away, they read your 10-second commercial.

Unlike a typical radio buy where you have 30 or 60 seconds to describe what your product looks like, tastes like or does (at length), the promotional mention is a concise message that, when heard enough times, can get listeners to take action, according to the results our clients share with us. If you’re lucky, a personality involved in the promotion is a fan of yours or simply goes on and on about your brand. That is the kind of exposure you just can’t buy.

In addition to the on-air exposure, we can negotiate website exposure on most stations in the form of copy and a logo/link to your site or a microsite created just for this promotion. Sometimes it’s an entire contest page. Radio stations have been spending a fortune to get people to their sites and entice them to stay longer. Partly, if not mostly, due to the fact that this is a revenue source for them. So to get this exposure for free is a very nice bonus, valued at thousands of dollars.

Done right, promotions are a great way to either complement a media buy, or target markets where there is no budget for a media buy. And, RDR Promotions does them right for a long list of great brands.

For more information on radio promotions and how they work, give us a call or listen to an actual aircheck from a recent promotional campaign.

Barbra Tabnick, Senior Account Manager

The Radio Industry has had its share of problems over the last few years. Hundreds, maybe thousands of articles, reports and stories have been written about radio’s sad economic state. Through it all there are still innovative companies, radio stations and managers who are managing to thrive in a challenging economic environment.

I reached out to radio station managers who are doing a strong job of weathering the storm.

In Philadelphia, I spoke to Paul Blake, VP of Sales for the Greater Media Cluster-WBEN-FM, WMGK-FM, WMMR-FM, WNUW-FM and WPEN-AM. Paul was very generous in sharing his stations’ ideas, strategies and tactics for generating revenue in today’s economic climate.

How’s business at your radio station/cluster?
Paul Blake: Although the economy is currently challenged, key customers are looking for innovative ideas and integrated marketing programs. Customers are still spending money. However, they need to be more judicious in how and where they spend it. In addition, they need to know that their investment will achieve results from the campaign.

What steps have you taken to be more accountable to advertisers?
Paul Blake: One of the commitments that we’ve made is that every key account will receive a post-campaign marketing analysis on a quarterly basis. We feel that taking accountability for the advertising/marketing program will create an open dialogue for improving future performance or building upon the great results we’ve achieved.

What day-parts, programs and/or personalities deliver the best results?
Paul Blake: At Greater Media, we believe in local on-air talent and content. The relationship that our personalities have developed with listeners is a powerful combination for advertisers. Surrounding the consumer with a single powerful message yields the greatest results. Many tools are available to achieve ROI: digital applications on the web or mobile devices, testimonials, webisodes, event marketing, various length commercials, etc.

What are you doing differently to drive revenue?
Paul Blake: We continue to develop the “total client” approach. By tapping into various client budgets, we have the ability to positively affect their business in many ways. We can help customers with recruitment, public relations, event marketing, sports marketing, community affairs, sales goals, and, of course, marketing & advertising.

What are you doing to secure your relationships with your key accounts?
Paul Blake: We remain committed to growing our key accounts’ business as our primary goal. We remain focused on their consumer and what they want their consumer “to do” or “to believe.” Our primary goal is to create programs dedicated to their needs and then, ultimately, be accountable for the results. Our pledge is that every key account will receive a custom-generated idea each quarter with a follow-up analysis of the program.

What are your top account categories?
Paul Blake: We see growth in the wireless category and banks/financial institutions in Philadelphia. In addition, home improvement is growing.

What are your customers asking for?
Paul Blake: Innovative concepts that drive results.

What’s the single most important practice you preach to your sales staff?
Paul Blake: Focus. Remain focused on providing great ideas to your best clients and target the best opportunities for growth. Although many radio companies have a multitude of tools, we must remain committed to filling the needs of the client with the tools as opposed to force-feeding the tools upon them.

Obviously, Paul and the team at Greater Media Philadelphia have their focus on keeping the customer satisfied. Don’t be shy about asking for the same level of service from the radio stations where you buy time.

Vince Raimondo, Vice President of Marketing

Fans of FOX-TV’s “24” know we’re well into “Day Seven” and another 24-hour roller coaster ride where Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) will save the world without ever having to eat, sleep or go to the bathroom.

Anyone familiar with the show will tell you that one of the things that make Sutherland’s character so compelling is the way he uses his voice.

A third of the time, Jack speaks in a regular tone, usually in office settings where plot lines are being explained and advanced. A third of the time he’s yelling in an urgent life-or-death rasp that makes it impossible not to listen and obey. And a third of the time he’s whispering in a different kind of urgent life-or-death rasp that also makes it impossible not to listen and obey.

Kinda makes you wonder about why you’d ever use a monotone radio announcer voice to pitch your products and services.

Not that there’s anything wrong with a great “radio voice.” But as you compose your script, select your voice talent and direct him or her through your 60-second commercial, look for places to vary inflection to continually recapture the audience’s attention and reinforce key benefits.

Compel them to listen. Compel them to take action.

In real-life conversation, a person who abruptly changes volume from normal speech to a whisper often causes the person listening to lean in and focus intently on every syllable spoken. With the right script and the right talent, the same holds true on radio.

And while we’re not advocates of announcers shouting radio copy (with apologies to most car dealerships), a raised voice, in character, can be a wonderful device to deliver copy points. One of the best commercials we’ve ever produced at RDR featured a drill sergeant barking questions to a lowly private, who answered each question by repeating our client’s URL in a crackly, cowering cadence. It flooded our client’s web site with traffic directly attributable to the radio campaign.

So vary the volume, alter the cadence and employ every trick available to keep your audience engaged and attentive. Hey, if it helps Jack Bauer beat the terrorists, who knows, it might just help you beat your projections.

Mark Lipsky, President & CEO

So it seems the FTC is cracking down on testimonials in all forms of advertising.

The FTC is seeking public comment on “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

In a release, the FTC said, “In the newly approved Federal Register notice, the FTC’s proposed revisions to the Guides address consumer endorsements, expert endorsements, endorsement by organizations, and disclosure of material connections between advertisers and endorsers. On the issue of consumer endorsements, the proposed revisions state that testimonials that do not describe typical consumer experiences should be accompanied by clear and conspicuous disclosure of the results consumers can generally expect to achieve from the advertised product or program.”

So get ready to see and hear even more ‘results not typical’ as part of every disclaimer. And if you’ve been paying attention to TV commercials the last few weeks, you might have seen the words “Not testimonials. These are paid actors.” in small font on the bottom of the screen.

I haven’t heard that in a radio commercial yet.

Come to think of it, I’m hearing fewer testimonials on the radio.

I’m wondering why. Is it assumed the people voicing the testimonials are compensated in some way, shape or form, so the public is less likely to believe them? Is there a stigma that a product that has testimonials in its commercial means the product is of lesser quality? Is the public more leery and cynical than years ago and just not believing the testimonials?

I have no answer, just random unproven, untested theories. But if commercials have to start saying “Not testimonials. These are paid actors.”, what’s the point of using them? Why not just say, “Don’t believe anything these people are saying. They were all paid to say the following.”

So I pose these questions to you: Do you believe a testimonial when you hear one in a radio commercial or see one on TV? Do you think “It worked for him, so it’ll work for me”? How many products have you bought because of a testimonial in a commercial?

Which brings me back to my original question: Do we need testimonials?

Ian Cohen, Production Director