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

There’s a web site called Book of Odds which can give you the odds of just about anything from buying a winning PowerBall ticket (1 in 195,200,000) to the odds that a baseball player will hit for the cycle (a single, double, triple and homerun) in one game (1 in 739.2).

A few of those listings included mention of radio:

1 in 4.17 The odds an adult listens to the radio or music within an hour of going to bed at least a few nights a week.

1 in 3,625 The odds an employed person 16 or older is a radio or television announcer.

1 in 10 The odds that radio announcer earns less than $15,500 in a year.

Naturally, this prompted our team to invent a few listings that might also be on target:

1 in 11 The odds that someone actually “heard about this” when the host says, “Hey, did you hear about this?”

1 in 4.3 The odds that the station’s weatherperson is named “Storm.”

1 in 2,500,000 The chances that the weatherperson’s birth name is actually “Storm.”

1 in 4,410 The odds of getting through to a radio station’s request line to win a prize that you really want.

1 in 97.5 The odds that a radio sales rep will take responsibility for the success of your advertising campaign.

1 in 17 The odds that a radio station in your town is playing a song by The Black Eyed Peas right now.

1 in 3.44 The odds a car dealer’s radio commercial will feature someone screaming at a decibel level higher than the frequency of the radio station on which it is playing.

1 in 24.7 The odds that the last song you heard getting out of your car in the morning will also be the first song you hear upon getting into your car in the afternoon.

1 in 245,756 The odds that a song “request” just randomly happened.

1 in 1.0004 The odds that your favorite morning show will discuss American Idol the morning after it airs on TV.

So I’m at the DMA (Direct Marketing Association) Conference, working the Exhibit Hall from our booth in Aisle 12. Traffic is brisk, as direct mail and web marketers stop to figure out how their direct response model might translate to radio.

After noon, I grab a box lunch from the concession area and park myself at an anonymous table round of 10, where three people are eating lunch and a fourth is talking on his cell phone. A bit too loudly.

“No, man. I don’t do samples, bro’. I gave your guy the first batch. Something’s wrong, I give him a second batch. Something’s wrong. I give him a third batch. Something’s wrong with that? I kill him. AND I kill his family.”

Huh? OK, time to fold up my USA Today. Apparently, I’ve stumbled on to the lunch table with a floorshow.

The conversation continues with a “man” or “bro’” sprinkled into every sentence, when another cell phone rings. It’s also his. He’s got two. He picks up the ringing phone with his free hand and starts a conversation with caller number two, while caller number one remains held to the other ear, listening in. Two ears, two phones, two conversations. Until that moment, I thought this was only a movie cliché. After two seconds of silence, he interrupts caller number two and launches into a monologue of man’s and bro’s, pulling the first phone away from his other ear, leaving caller one in mid-air and mid-sentence.

“Yeah, man. No. You tell him he’s gotta pay for it, bro’. Call me tomorrow at five-thirty. FIVE-THIRTY.” Phone number two goes down. Phone number one goes back into play. “Yeah, bro’. Call me at five. FIVE. You got it?”

He ends the call. The two phones sit idly, face up at the 11 and 1 positions on the table in front of him. Then, to no one in particular, he says, “Yeah, your boy Obama sure screwed things up.” Suppressing a laugh that screams to bursts forth at 80 decibels, I recognize this as the 2009 rewrite of Joe Pesci’s unforgettable monologue from Goodfellas that opens with, “Do I amuse you?”

To my surprise and shock, the man seated to my left takes the bait. He gets halfway through a sentence defending Obama when Pesci’s cell phone number one rings. It’s answered and within 10 seconds we’re treated to a command performance of how this gentleman does not do samples – and how if this guy does not like what he gets, he and his family may suffer a sudden decline in health.

I would love to see this guy’s day planner. I stick around long enough to learn that this good fellow sells leads, which, for me, doesn’t explain the need for threats. But it did teach me a valuable lesson about conventioneers who carry two cell phones on their person.

Find a seat at the next table.

Mark Lipsky, President & CEO

I am an adman who likes to cook and spend time in my kitchen. I was also a 25-year subscriber to Gourmet Magazine. Recently, publishing giant Conde Nast pulled the plug on Gourmet after close to 70 years of publication. Advertising revenue and subscriber rates have been plummeting for years.

Many a day I salivated over the glossy photos of food porn featured in Gourmet Magazine while I spooned cold cereal or soup from a can into my mouth.

Just like the Internet took the legs out from under a multitude of media, Gourmet Magazine was slow to respond to the Internet threat.

Foodies have gravitated to the internet for free recipes for the last ten years or longer. Websites like recipes.com and allrecipes.com draw millions of visitors who look at pictures of prepared food and download free recipes. Why spend 5 to 6 bucks for an issue of Gourmet Magazine when you can get the content for free?

The Internet has changed the game.

Traditional media has tried to ignore the Internet and to this day very few know how to build and monetize their online presence.

Let’s look at radio. Many radio managers are content to manage the same way they always have, focusing inward on their products, on their rates, ratings, posting, content and HD radio, with very little or no focus on the needs of the client or the hanging marketing landscape.

Advertisers have made it clear that they will no longer be satisfied with advertising that can’t be measured and managed.

Advertisers want results-driven media.

All traditional media really needs to do is focus on the recipe for delivering a successful ROI for its clients to survive and thrive into the future.

It sounds like a simple recipe to me.

Vince Raimondo, Vice President of Marketing

The Premiere Radio Networks announced plans to rename and reconfigure its radio networks to make it easier for advertisers to identify and utilize the right station clusters to market their products and services.

Effective with the release of the RADAR 104 survey in March 2010, Premiere will cast off its nondescript Gem network names (Premiere Sapphire, Premiere Pearl, etc.) in favor of a new collection of properties collated by daypart, demographic and lifestyle. Some of the new properties include:

“Money & Smarts” targeting higher education and upper income

“Super Moms” targeting active, career women, and

“Top Market” delivering stations in the Top 10 and Top 25 U.S. markets.

In addition to its properties clustering Clear Channel stations in audience-compatible networks, Premiere offers syndicated programming from some of America’s leading radio personalities including Rush Limbaugh, Steve Harvey and Glenn Beck.

You’d expect a good advertising agency to create good radio commercials.

You’d expect a good advertising agency to place good radio buys.

But you need a great advertising agency to manage and sustain a profitable campaign. The difference is what we call AMMO.

Actively Measure, Manage & Optimize.

The most crucial work on a successful radio campaign starts well after the recording session, after the buy is placed and after the schedule airs. That’s when your marketing agents need to carefully pore over the data to determine what’s working and what isn’t. What to keep buying and what to stop buying. What needs to be renegotiated to turn the red ink into black ink.

In professional sports, a strong General Manager can hire the best athletes to play the game. And a strong PR team can help fill the seats. But without a “Game Day” Coach to manage the players and react to actual “Game Day” conditions, that team will under perform. A great radio agency, armed with AMMO, is your game day coach.

Most full-service advertising agencies aren’t up to the task. With less than 7% of all national ad spending channeled to radio, you shouldn’t expect to find radio experts at a jack-of-all-trades agency. So how could they effectively stay fluent in the RadioSpeak of a medium with 10,000 commercial radio stations, hundreds of nationally-syndicated programs and networks, dozens of commercial-carrying channels on satellite and thousands upon thousands of radio stations streaming the Internet?

Today’s advertising agency is more likely to have a flavor-of-the-month Social Media Specialist on staff than a Radio Specialist, despite the fact that more than 92% of all American consumers tune in to radio each week; a far greater number than those who consume (or purchase from) Social Media.

If you’re serious about marketing profits on radio, we invite you to get serious about your radio agency. We’re serious and we’ve got both barrels loaded with AMMO.

Mark Lipsky, President & CEO

I’m the newbie at RDR. Take a look on our website – you won’t find a photo of me yet. I’m still in the honeymoon phase.

I spent most of my adult life working in Radio (at this point, that accounts for most of my life). Regardless of the station and/or format, I was always, ALWAYS lectured by the station sales manager, “It’s our job to lead a horse to water, but it’s our client’s job to get it to drink.” It was explained to me that I didn’t control the client’s product mix, the pricing structure or any of the other things that could affect a sale. If the campaign worked, we could take credit and if it didn’t, well, “It’s our client’s job to get it to drink.”

That always bugged me.

Being a marketer at heart, I usually made it my business to get involved, to ask the 4P questions regarding product mix, pricing, place and promotion. I really wanted the campaign to work. And now, after my first month at Radio Direct Response, I am ecstatic to report that I get to do ALL of the above and then even take it one step further in order to ensure success. By TESTING! We test both the creative and the effectiveness of the media properties before we roll out a campaign. You know what that does for a Type A, control-freak personality like me? It makes me feel really good about what I do.

Last week I turned down a potential client request to do a small budget “mini test.” Why? Because the test phase is so critical to the campaign’s ultimate success. After explaining and defending our test process, the prospective client said, “I completely understand. I should be able to get that budget together early next year.” That made me feel really good because I believe, if you make the effort and properly test, you can make that horse drink.

One last thought. Stan Laurel (half of the Laurel & Hardy team) said, “You can lead a horse to water, but a pencil must be lead.” So, take out your lead pencil (or keyboard) and let me know what you think.

Lisa Sable, Senior Marketing Strategist

Every year, we say we are going to get organized (or maybe it’s just me). Get rid of clutter. Know exactly where everything is in the house. Remember every doctor appointment our kids have. THIS is the year, right?

Lucky for us, January is National Get Organized Month. This is a no-brainer radio promotion for your brand if it’s related to anything used in the home or enhances your life in some way. Create a “Get Organized” promotion on stations targeting your brand’s customer and offer to send a Personal Organizer to listener’s homes to organize their lives. He or she will organize closets, eliminate the OTHER four junk drawers and streamline your family’s daily routine.

January 4th is the anniversary of the Pop Music Chart. Billboard Magazine first introduced it in 1936. Since January can be a little slow promotionally, this is the perfect excuse for radio stations to offer your product as a thank you for loyal listening during daily or weekly countdown shows. Contesting could involve music trivia from Billboard charts of past.

January 7th is I’m Not Going To Take It Anymore Day. It’s always fun to listen to someone asserting him or herself on the radio (or hearing a stories about it). Why not be the brand to award listeners for taking control of their lives and telling someone “no more.”

January 25th is Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day. I mean, who can hold a piece of Bubble Wrap and not pop the heck out of it? I envision radio listeners Bubble Wrap popping to a top song on the station’s playlist. The most accurate or creative rendition wins a trip-for-two to see that artist in concert courtesy of your brand.

Other days of note around which you can build a promotion are:

• January 8th - Elvis Presley’s 75th Birthday
• January 13th - Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison Anniversary
• January 26th - Paul Newman’s 85th Birthday
• January 29th - Fun At Work Day

For even more radio promotion ideas that help you start 2010 off right, call us!

Barbra Tabnick, Senior Account Manager