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

Google Radio is going dark at the end of May. One of America’s strongest online brands is abandoning its offline foray into aggregating unsold radio inventory at deeply discounted rates.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt cites the inability to crack radio’s ROI code as the reason it will be shutting down its Google Radio remnant time sales division. I think the mystery can be easily solved. All of Google’s available radio inventory was for 30-second commercial time.

While 30-second ads remain the standard unit of measure for network radio sales (and a good fit for well-known brands), those are precisely the advertisers that have been slashing ad budgets in the current recession. Direct response advertising, complete with measurable metrics and accountability has flourished with the sudden availability of commercial inventory.

The one-minute, direct response radio marketer has a precious 150 words to grab a listener’s attention, tout its most compelling benefit, present an irresistible offer and then rally the consumer to take action.  This usually takes the form of repeating a toll-free telephone number or reciting a special URL three-to-five times.  Sometimes it’s both.  Many times, it’s both and a special “promo code” to help the marketer track, source and manage its return on investment from each, individual media source purchased.

Google Radio’s decision to be an aggregator of discounted 30-second radio time forced direct marketers to lose 75 of their 150 words.  It caused marketers to cut back on the number of times they could share their contact information.  And it most certainly prevented most brands from presenting an effective problem-solution scenario in anything less than an unnerving, staccato, rat-a-tat-tat delivery.

Over the past several years, there’s been a pronounced shift in radio from non-measurable, branding ads to direct response commercials that live and die based on results and accountability.  Even pure branding advertisers now include URLs and other contact points to measure and manage ROI.  With very little exception, the only DR advertisers that can sustain campaigns on radio use the traditional, 60-second commercial format.  And those rare exceptions, such as Geico, have already spent millions in their early years using 60-second spot radio to explain their selling proposition and build their brand.  They paid their dues in cold, hard cash so that now, they can use 30-second radio to make their case in half the time.  It also doesn’t hurt that Geico is heavily invested in other media such as television, so that radio’s renowned “Imagery Transfer” enables you to “see” that cute, little gecko when you hear his voice on radio.

But for the majority of direct response radio advertisers, including the ubiquitous credit counseling services and personal health care products, most of their brand names are as foreign to the general public as a word formed by seven tiles pulled randomly from a Scrabble box.  For these marketers to make the medium work, they need the full 60 seconds to make their case and earn the consumer’s trust.  Or, at the very least, proffer an offer so irresistible that listeners race to their cell phones and laptops to make contact.

Listen to any radio station for one hour and note how many commercials include a call to action and a telephone number or web site.  More than likely, it’s more than half.  And more than likely, most (if not all) of those ads are pleading their case in the full space afforded by 60 seconds in the spotlight.

Our advertising agency was an early champion of Google Radio.  We tested and tested, tweaked and tested again.  But the return on investment for year-round clients that were already using the medium of radio profitably failed in the tight time constraints of 30 seconds and 75 words.

Essentially, Google entered a new industry and bet everything on an exclusionary segment of that industry of interest to less than the full universe of its potential customers. It would be like Google deciding to open a car dealership, but only to sell red convertibles. There’s a market for consumers willing to buy red convertibles – but that market is a small slice of the overall pie and a segment that’s been cutting, not increasing, its spending.

Thanks to the extraordinary utility of its core services, there is tremendous equity and goodwill in the Google brand.  A line extension into radio could have created a powerful complement to its many online channels of marketing.  But in attempting the transition into sound, Google left something essential on the table.  The final 30 seconds of the radio commercial.

Mark Lipsky, President & CEO

Format Description:
This music format is comprised of artists and songs that made their mark during the 1980’s. The format itself was considered hot during its run between 1980-89. It went through an out-of-fashion period of backlash where people didn’t really want to hear it or anything associated with it. Nowadays, 80’s music is being embraced by a new younger generation of listeners who weren’t around to experience it when it happened. Many a one hit wonder was charted during the 1980’s with many artists never being able to duplicate their success again. With the advances of Satellite radio and Internet streaming, 80’s stations have sprung up everywhere and have re-ignited the public’s interest and passion for the music and lifestyle that existed during the decade of overindulgence.

Audience:
Women 18-34 and Women 25-49

Core Artists:
Madonna, Michael Jackson, Duran Duran, Prince, Bon Jovi, U2 and Bruce Springsteen

Key Radio Stations:
KHPT/Conroe, TX
WPOI/St. Petersburg, FL
WBZA/Rochester, NY
KMAX/Wellington, CO

DR Factor:
This music-intensive format poses a challenge for DR marketers, as air talent plays a background role and the younger demo to which this format appeals is not among radio’s most desirable direct response targets.

For more information, visit:
All Access
FMQB
BackTrax USA

Last week, I had the pleasure of sitting front row for the dress rehearsal of Saturday Night Live hosted by Justin Timberlake.

A little background. In 1975, I was a reluctant business major at Drexel University, getting good grades, but bored to tears. Then came Saturday Night Live, the irreverent sketch comedy show that changed my life. Inspired by SNL, I started writing comedy and three months later was performing standup at area nightclubs. SNL awakened creative talents that might have otherwise lay dormant, so I was more an observant student than passive audience member when I entered Studio 8H at 30 Rock.

What impressed me most was the precision execution by the production staff. Sets were erected and stripped in less than two minutes. Team members briskly ushered talent through the maze of cameras and wires at the completion of each sketch, clearing the way for the crew to strike one set and build the next.

I played front row producer and took on the task of deciding which sketches to keep and which ones to cut. (SNL’s dress rehearsal runs two hours with extra sketches performed; the scaled-down live show runs 90 minutes.) A parody of singer Michael McDonald promoting his new restaurant (a fast food place called McDonald’s) lacked enough laughs to merit being cut. A trio of short films made for Mother’s Day bombed at rehearsal and were mercifully omitted for live broadcast. A last half-hour, rehearsal sketch featuring the grandfathers of Timberlake and cast member Adam Samburg leapfrogged to the front of the live show to set up the new Timberlake/Samburg SNL Digital Short sequel to their hugely successful “D**k in a Box” from last season.

I’ve seen enough episodes and read enough SNL books to know the drill – from the Monday afternoon “meet the guest host” meeting through block, dress rehearsal and live broadcast. Watching it unfold in real time gave me new appreciation for the process and pause to reflect on the process that unfolds here at RDR every time we take on a new project and follow our 95-item task list to guide the project from start-to-finish. It took us years to build that 95-item list, just as it took years to develop and seamlessly execute everything needed to present a live, 90-minute network sketch comedy show.

Sid Caesar and a talented cast of writers and performers invented the live TV sketch format with “Your Show of Shows.” And since 1975, the cast and crew of SNL have kept the showcase alive for new generations of late night viewers.

With new appreciation for what goes on behind the scenes, I’ll be more likely to sit through an extra so-so sketch in future episodes out of appreciation for the creative process. And I’ll make an equal effort to treat our creative people here at RDR with equal reverence. After all, I see and work with these talented folks every day.

Mark Lipsky, President & CEO

In Fall 2006, the Philadelphia radio metro completed its final diary measurement of radio listening. Arbitron’s Portable People Meters (PPM) became the new currency of measurement as of January-February 2007.

Since then, all of the Top 10 radio markets (the last being Boston in Fall 2008) ended their diary system in favor of PPM. By its projections, Arbitron will be measuring radio audience exclusively by PPM in all of the Top 50 markets by the end of 2010. Click here for a look at the rollout schedule.

PPM data has already been incorporated into Arbitron’s RADAR and Nationwide ratings services that measure radio listening on a national basis.

How accurate is this new system? I think it’s fair to give Arbitron credit for doing everything in its power to design the PPM system to yield a representative sample of audience habits – and then make the necessary changes when valid concerns were raised.

The first PPM survey released in New York made headlines as minority broadcasters saw their market share crumble, citing Arbitron’s failure to attain sufficient participation amongst listeners in the Black and Hispanic communities. It was hard to look at the new numbers and disagree. Arbitron has since taken steps to assure a truer sample size across all segments of the population.

But there was a disturbing trend that emerged in market after market that switched from diary to PPM. The average radio listener, formerly spending an average of roughly 20 hours per week with radio, was now only spending roughly 12 hours a week with the medium. Was it possible that this new technology “corrected” listening levels by reflecting a 40% drop in usage? Was this radio’s version of a Wall Street 2008?

Dig deeper and a couple of theories factor into the mix. Perhaps first and foremost is the effect of satellite radio. Sirius XM Radio finished 2008 with 19 million subscribers. And, to date, Sirius XM has elected not to transmit the signal that would enable Arbitron PPMs to recognize radio listenership to Sirius XM channels.

That means that 19 million adults who pay for the privilege of receiving Sirius XM radio are not having their time spent listening to satellite radio included in the overall industry measurement of audience. That means that roughly 8-9% of the Adults 18+ population are not having much (or possibly all) of their radio listenership captured by PPM devices and included in the overall time being spent listening to radio. It could further be argued that this segment of the population (which pays for a premium service) would be among the medium’s most heavy users.

Then, there’s the glitch of PPM devices capturing (and attributing) listening is unintended by the PPM wearer. On the pro side someone wearing a PPM who spends 20 minutes shopping in a retail store playing a radio station would now have that unintended time spent listening reported via PPM. And I’d argue that the PPM had done an excellent job of reporting valid listenership that would have otherwise gone unreported.

But then there’s the case of the PPM wearer sitting in a 50,000-seat baseball stadium where the guy in front of him is listening to the game on a portable radio. The PPM device could conceivably “hear” the encoded signal and report a three-hour listening event, when the actual PPM wearer didn’t hear a word of the actual radio broadcast.

No system will be perfect. But PPM does take the monumental challenge of tracking audience to this highly-mobile mass medium into the 21^st Century.

It’s already uncovered some interesting trends, such as debunking the myth that radio is primarily a “Morning Drive” medium. The new PPM system also now measures radio listenership for all persons aged 6+, expanding coverage to include the “Tweens” segment previously unmeasured in the diary system’s universe of Persons 12+.

And while some will be slow to embrace this new technology, PPM will be the industry standard by which advertisers and radio stations define their audience size and composition.

Read more at the Arbitron PPM Home Page.

The Arbitron Ratings Company is well on its way to transitioning audience measurement in America’s Top 50 radio markets from the diary system to Portable People Meters, commonly known as PPM.

Our agency was an early skeptic of the new system, as new flaws in the system and outcries from some broadcast groups called into question whether we, as an industry, were trading one troubled measurement system for another.

The former diary system relied on individuals, recruited by Arbitron, to track their daily listening habits by recording the times and stations to which they listened in a seven-day diary. Arbitron then collected and analyzed the data for each radio market, weighting the value of each diary to arrive at a market sample representative of the age, gender and racial mix of the actual marketplace.

The new PPM is a passive, electronic measurement system designed to automatically detect radio frequencies by picking up encoded audio signals. Panel participants wear a PPM device – about the size of a small cell phone - that automatically tracks consumer exposure to media and entertainment. Participants must wear their devices a specified number of hours each day to qualify for inclusion in the program.

In theory, PPM eliminates the human error factor inherent in the diary system.

Someone who listens to radio at work might have recorded listening to Radio Station X from 9 AM-5 PM, simply by writing down the radio station’s call letters and drawing a line from 9AM to 5 PM to signify eight hours of continuous listening.

That same office worker, wearing a PPM device, might have shown (during that same, hypothetical eight-hour period) five hours of listening to Station X, one hour tuned to Station Y, 15 minutes with Station Z and an hour and forty-five minutes with no radio listening.  Why the difference? Those eight diary hours of “listening” might have included time spent in meetings, telephone calls, bathroom breaks, the lunch hour and other times when the “listener” just wasn’t listening.

In this light, this new process to electronically capture exposure to radio signals gives a truer, more credible read on how a typical listener is exposed to radio.

But there are downsides to the technology. We’ll explore those in our next blog.

One of our clients forwarded a very exciting email from a new customer. Radio closed a major sale when the prospect heard our client’s new commercial and made a buying decision.

Our client had been diligently working with this prospect, but was unable to get him to make the final commitment to buy. While driving home from work, the prospect heard our client’s commercial on his favorite radio station. The prospect reported that it gave immediate credibility to the service he was considering! The prospect called our client the next day and became a cash customer.

Radio closed the deal.

This is a wonderful example of how radio works in different ways. It can produce instant results in a DR campaign, create brand awareness, or subtly convince consumers to buy over time. We often say that “frequency breeds awareness.” The more a listener hears your commercial, the more comfortable they become with your message, your offer, your product, your service and your brand. The frequency of your commercial campaign will draw in prospects you haven’t touched previously.

Radio also builds goodwill within your organization. Your people on the street and in the field will shine every time they hear your spot, knowing that you’re committed to marketing and growing your business. Every time a prospect says, “I heard your commercial,” there’s really good chance that he or she will become your next customer.

Your job, of course, is to make certain that they hear your commercial.

Vince Raimondo, Vice President of Marketing

I love this business. The nebulous fluff and silly hair flips of “creative” radio copywriting have been supplanted by the demands of today’s marketplace, where clear and direct radio commercials tell the consumer precisely what to do.

Why? Because most of the fluffy branders are either out of business or circling the drain!

The most important question we ask of any new client is this:
“What, specifically, do you want the radio listener to do after hearing your radio commercial?”

We then discuss how their answer will be measured and managed so that radio can become an essential part of their ongoing media mix.

Radio salespeople would do well to start asking this question and then guiding clients to a responsible answer. “Sell more cars!” might be a typical knee jerk response, but it’s too broad. “Deliver 200 people to my showroom on Saturday the 12^th so that I can sell 10 cars” gives a much better picture. It provides a specific target at which we can aim our arsenal. It provides the projected conversion ratio of tire-kickers to actual car buyers. It gives us a clear picture of the rubric by which our report card will be graded.

Everything is at stake, especially in today’s zero-tolerance economy. A first-time advertiser must understand the process and how radio stations and networks can work to share accountability for results. As an added bonus, providing this level of detail to the media enables clients to receive the high level of account service that can turn a grumpy skeptic into a happy customer who’s all too happy to give you an annual budget and referrals to help you land your next piece of business.

If you can measure it, you can manage it.

But without a target, your agency and the media are just shooting a quiver full of arrows in the air, then asking if they accidentally hit something. Ouch.

Mark Lipsky, President & CEO

In my opinion, July holds the record so far for the most fun ways to promote your brand. Read below and ponder the possibilities – from snarky to sentimental.

July is Family Reunion Month, so it’s perfectly acceptable to have radio stations assist loyal listeners in creating a great reason to reconnect with loved ones any week this month. If your brand is somehow related to travel, outdoor furniture/accessories or even family-friendly foods, this is a nice feel-good promotional opportunity for you.

On the flip side of feel-good, July is also Cell Phone Courtesy Month. Since I am often on the train from Philly to New York, I can attest to the rudeness of cell phone users. No matter what product I was trying to promote, I would offer it - or a small pile of cash - to people who need to vent about or were able to dissuade poor cell phone etiquette this month.

If you’re a brand that enhances the optical experience of people everywhere in some way (sunglasses, eyeglasses, contacts, eye exams, lasik surgery, etc.) you might want to warn people that the week of July 6^th is Nude Recreation Week. Radio stations can camp out near parks and beaches and hand out sunglasses or coupons for free eyewear and exams in the event people need to shield themselves/recover from the “activities” of local nudists.

In the spirit of seeking the positive from people, radio stations can take advantage of Gruntled Workers Day on the 13^th by having listeners call in all week with reasons why they LIKE to go to work everyday. Stations can reward listeners with catered lunches for the entire office or a shopping spree for new work clothes.

Some other fun days to celebrate in July are below. Call RDR Promotions for ways to creatively insert your brand into one of these promotional themes.

• July 2 – I Forgot Day
• July 7 – Tell The Truth Day
• July 19 – National Ice Cream Day
• July 23 – Gorgeous Grandma Day
• July 24 – Jennifer Lopez turns 39
• July 26 – Mick Jagger Turns 66

Barbra Tabnick, Senior Account Manager