EndorsementRadio.com

Really interesting article from the Wall Street Journal today, following the “uproar” about Keith Olbermann donating to three democrats in the recent election. The article talks about radio hosts and their live read endorsements of politicians.

I always thought endorsement radio would be good for politics and for movies – because what’s better than word of mouth in these worlds? The problem with politics is that endorsers are putting their reputation on the line – and they should be really concerned those associations. Ideology aside, politicians screw up all the time. You may have read that somewhere. That probably explains why they aren’t backing individuals per-se, but political movements. Basically, the equivalent of the old PACs.

The politicians will want to be concerned as well – you also may have heard that people like Rush and Beck have said things in the past that, while THEY may not regret it, advertisers and networks do. It wouldn’t be fun to build your career (brand) on years of hard work and great rhetoric to be submarined by your association with a perfectly fallible entertainer.

If you’re an ad buyer for a politician and are considering endorsement radio, proceed with caution.

Read the Wall Street Journal’s article on politician endorsements.

This guy was telling me yesterday that Burger King has a regional endorsement radio campaign running.

My first thought was, as the kids say “WTFF???” “FF” standing for “french fries”. No, no, no. Endorsement radio is not for QSR (quick service restaurants). I remember a particularly bad endorsement campaign a few years ago for a hamburger chain that I heard on Jim Rome. What in the world could Burger King be thinking?

But as this guy continued, he started to talk about how good a Whopper can be. You know that moment. You’re starving. It’s an hour and a half past lunch and you pass a Burger King. You pull into that drive through and despite your diet and good intentions, those magic words come out of your mouth: “give me a Whopper, medium fries and a DIET Coke”. “With cheese?”. “Sure. With cheese”. Then that warm, 1 pound bag is handed to you and sits on your lap as you get your drink in the cup-holder and put your wallet away. You drive about 5 feet and you’re already tearing into the wrapper. In 10 feet you’re taking your first bite into hot, ketchupy, flame broiled red meat heaven. You’ve got about 12 more bites of heaven to go, fella.

By the end of my short discussion with this guy, I was ravishingly hungry for a Whopper. I got one that very night (actually two – they had a two for one special).

And then it occurred to me – wait a minute – if I’m hearing my favorite DJ or talk show host talking about the joy of a Whopper at about, ohhhhh, 11:45am – there’s a good chance that I’m going to walk the quarter mile for my quarter pounder – errr, Whopper.

So good on ya, Burger King. I’ll take the advice of my favorite host over a subservient chicken any day. It’s gonna beat that wacky expensively produced ad for the golden arches which is going to run 5 times in the following hour. I’ll bet anything.

…as long as they do it in the right way with the right messaging. As always – a good idea can fail with bad creative.

Hmmm, I’m getting kind of hungry.

Inc Magazine wrote a nice little piece on endorsement radio. I found two assertions pretty amusing.

The first is the subtitle that says that the “radio pitch makes a comeback”. Comeback? It never left. I’ve been a talk radio listener for well over 20 years – and I remember the Hooked On Phonics and Snapple endorsed ads from the early 90s clear as a bell.

The second is that small brands are using it because they can’t afford TV. Ahem. There is an increasing number of brands that spend millions in TV – like Home Depot, LegalZoom, eHarmony, Bose, Apple, Auto Zone, and Mobil, – that also use radio endorsements. However, it is true that if you can’t yet afford TV but you have the right kind of product and the right kind of company, endorsement radio could be a great place to start.

All in all, it’s still a positive piece – and the online brands they single out are perfect for radio endorsements (Carbonite and ReputationDefender, both very good products). Do you want to know why they’re perfect? Give me a call at (888) 788-0242. But hurry, I’m only available for the next few minutes.

Here is the Inc article on on-air endorsements.

I was watching the Rachel Maddow last night and saw her agree with Rush Limbaugh. On what? On an advertiser. She admitted that both she and Rush voice ads for the biggest name in the legal space: LegalZoom.com. In the segment, she even plays a LegalZoom ad voiced by Rush Limbaugh and says her agreement with him is that LegalZoom does a good job.

Of course she was making broader point about Rush – that he’ll blast the concept of a Living Will on his show and then turn around and endorse a company that does Living Wills. I like Rachel’s show, but she was off-base on a couple of items. First, she actually played a Last Will and Testament ad from Rush, not a Living Will ad (they’re two entirely different legal documents). Second, Rush isn’t saying that Living Wills are bad…he’s just saying that government enforced living wills are bad. You may have noticed that Rush doesn’t like a lot of things that involve the government.

I digress.

The cool thing is that here you have one endorser playing another endorser’s ad – two diametrically opposed huge personalities endorsing the same company.

Who needs a PR company when you’re using endorsements

Of course, the endorser can also say something insanely stupid. But that’s a (really fun) topic for another time.

Watch the clip here –

I’ve heard some really big brands using endorsement radio lately, including Mobil, Home Depot and Bayer on hosts like Dan Patrick and Dennis Miller.

It is very evident which advertisers (or their agencies) listen to the shows in which they are advertising and those that have created all-purpose copy.

People! You use endorsement radio for two main reason: to access the credibility of the host and also to tie into the content of the show! Why pay the talent fee and the premiums if you are just going to give the host the same copy that you’d produce for a voiceover actor?

That’s why I say – don’t let your ad agency write the endorsement copy, unless the copywriter is a listener to the show. Ads I heard for Bayer and Home Depot were totally generic and unmemorable. Total background ads: we’re the best, we make your life better, blah blah blah.

I really like Dan Patrick’s Mobil 1 ad, though. It integrates really nicely into Dan Patrick’s show and personality. I don’t have the exact wording, but it basically starts out like this: “If you know me you know I have my passions – sports, beer, my hair, and my awesome Corvette 64 Stingray” and then goes into the fact that he only trusts Mobil 1 on his passion. It gets a little generic after that and there is no real clear direct response mechanism to get me to go that minute to buy Mobil, but the ad totally got me.

I can’t remember the Bayer and Home Depot ads, but I think that’s the point. I heard that Mobil 1 ad a few weeks ago and it stuck. The writers knew Dan Patrick and wrote with his personality in mind.

So Big Brands, do yourself a favor and listen to the show…then write your own ads. Whatever you come up with is going to be better than what the Mad Men come up with. Otherwise, save some money and buy more frequency with your agency’s ad.

I think I know why Sony jumped into a Dennis Miller endorsement to promote their HDTVs during the retail season.

I’ve recently became a big fan of Colin Cowherd. Got to have dinner with him in fact:

I’ve learned that Colin has been trumpeting the Vizio HDTVs for a while now. I’m sure some Sony executive somewhere was a listener and correlated the fact that Vizio was eating their lunch to cool, aggressive marketing techniques like big time endorsement radio.

I’m not a fan of the Dennis Miller Sony read for reasons I’ve stated. But I love what Colin does: he owns one (several, likely) and talks about it as if it’s the only way to watch TV.

Word to Sony: you don’t just give an endorser a script. He has to love the product or at least give the appearance that he does.

Constant Contact, the email service provider for small businesses, looks like it’s going to enter the world of endorsement radio. It’s a brilliant strategy.

ESP solutions have always been a business-to-business sale. But when I think about it, many small businesses are really more of a B-to-C play, especially newer businesses of 10 employees or less. Because many (most) small businesses haven’t risen to the visibility of the small to mid-size email service providers, I can’t imagine that there is really any go-to brand name among ESPs for these businesses. So like anything else, I’m sure SBs do one of two things: google “email solutions” or ask their more established contacts and friends which ESP they use.

Email has been a very important part of retention marketing for the last ten years despite falling open and click rates. It becomes all the more important over the next three years, when many economists are expecting an ongoing recessionary environment. In those environments, effectively staying in touch with past customers, leads and “hand-raisers” will be crucial for survival.

Enter Constant Contact. They are on their way to be the first true Brand among ESPs…a name that businesses will recognize immediately. It appears that they will be building this Brand, in part, through endorsement radio. I heard an NPR “ad” for CC the other day and it was really well done. Next step in my mind: full voiced endorsements.

Fantastic idea. They of course get the clutter-cutting benefit of a radio endorsement. But more importantly, they get the recommendation from the listeners’ trusted source…and to small businesses, advice from trusted sources means everything.

Most importantly, their salespeople (and website) are going to have a much easier job selling a solution that small businesses have heard about. In a couple of years, Constant Contact competitors will be kicking themselves.

I love it when a new school idea partners with old school solutions to build something great.

Man, I’ve got to stop this blog. Everyone is waking up to the concept.

Yesterday I heard an endorsement ad for Sony products. I can’t even remember who the endorser is. I’m sure I need that 3+ frequency

Was it Dan Patrick? Rush? I forget. I’ll post when I find out.

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Got it. It was Dennis Miller talking about Sony HD TVs. His ‘endorsement’ is lacking a lot, though. He needs to say “I got one, saved 30%, will never buy one from anyone else again, and the picture blows me away”. Nice attempt, Sony, but you’re not maximizing the concept.

I think endorsement radio could put the “hospitality” in hospital. In my experience, hospitals are grim places. Death and pain lurk in every corner. You hear stories of massive infections, people dying in waiting rooms, insurance hell; not to mention terrible food and overpriced flowers.

I do hear some decent hospital ads. The problem is, they all do it. And there are some hospitals and health groups out there with the best ads but the worst reputations.

But better than any ad telling you what a great hospital they are and how many awards they’ve one, is a friend telling you the great care they received and the nice rooms they have…with decent meals and plasma screens.

Now, how about if that friend is the person you listen to every morning?

It’s like a good bedside manner reaching out through your radio. If any hospital takes my advice, please please please make sure that the promise of the endorsement actually happens in those corners: let’s keep death and pain at bay, if you don’t mind. And nurses, please try not to roll your eyes.

Is there such thing as paid endorsement radio in politics? I know there are “free” radio endorsements all the time, like a Rush Limbaugh supporting Mitt Romney. But can politicians and political groups pay an endorser, as long as it’s identified as an advertisement, to do a spot?

Sounds illegal, somehow. Right?