EndorsementRadio.com

I never knew this. It looks like P&G was extensively using endorsement radio for Crest back in 2002 according to this great article on radio.

My questions is, if they had so much success with it, why didn’t they continue it? Maybe they did, but I never hear any endorsement spots. My guess is that Crest went back to mostly TV advertising.

Again, ER seems to make a lot of sense for toothpastes. When presented with numerous choices and numerous prices at the store, I’m sure several factors will guide a customer’s purchase. Word of mouth is probably not one of them: “oh my lord, suzy, have you tried Crest lately? It gets my teeth so white and the taste is so fresh. Here’s a coupon for your next purchase of Crest. Did I mention that I was talking about Crest?”

No, your friend will not do that. But your radio friend would…for the right price.

Have I already written about this? Maybe I have, but it warrants repeating: movie studios should be using endorsement radio like nobody’s business.

Any studio knows that advertising and initial buzz gets you your opening weekend. After that, the make or break is word of mouth.

Helllloooooooooooo studios.

I heard that the Adam Carolla show actually does some pretty non-intrusive ads for HBO shows. I need to take a listen to that. Apparently, they seemlessly weave in positive reviews of TV shows into their content. I’m only assuming this is pay-for-play stuff…but it sure sounds like an endorsement to me.

And it sure sounds brilliant to me.

I was blown away by an ad on KFI in Los Angeles today. It was one of Bill Handel’s “morning crew” doing an endorsement. I came into the middle of the ad and it sounded like Rich Marotta, the sports guy on KFI, but I’m not positive about that.

That’s not the point. The fact that Canon, a huge multinational corporation, is using endorsement radio is a very smart move.

The internet has commoditized everything, it seems. There are shopping sites, independent review sites (not to mention “independent” review sites), comparison sites, Brand sites, Brand microsites, affiliate sites, and the list goes on. If you find the right site, you can look at price comparisons, userability comparisons from actual purchasers and reviewers, and great offers on what you ultimately buy. You add all of Canon’s competitors to the mix, and you have a very hard time cracking the purchaser’s thick and jaded skull beyond price discounts. (And outside of maybe 2% of Americans, who’s really going to know the difference between one camera and another when you’re talking about the big brands?)

But if I’ve learned one thing, and I’ve probably learned at least two things, it’s that peer-to-peer reviews matter.

Enter radio endorsements. Again, in a very cluttered environment, by which I mean competitors and advertising as a whole, endorsement radio could be the difference between a flat year and a significant bump in holiday sales.

Take me, for example. I don’t know one camera versus another. But the ad I heard on KFI made it seem like if I’m going to buy a camera this season, I’d be foolish not to consider the Canon. At the very least, it put Canon in my consideration set…which is half the battle.

Awwwww snap, smart move Canon.

Listen to Marotta talk about Canon

I remember a Carl’s Junior ad that Jim Rome read and endorsed (maybe it wasn’t Carl’s Junior…some hamburger restaurant other than McDonalds because I remember him saying about Grimmace: “dude is not fresh”). To my recollection, the ad wasn’t on the airwaves very long. To me, it meant that he wasn’t able to drive sales.

(There’s that “drive” word again. OOOOHHHHH I hate it. Give me another word, universe!)

Well, my experience with Romey has been fantastic. On a lark and a gamble, we tested the Jungle. The gamble is working.

Where else to try endorsement radio than a host that has millions of “clones”. It’s better than Limbaugh. I’ll take a clone over a brain washed robot, any day. I kid, of course.

But I’m not kidding about the power of Rome, here. His ads are great…weaving the content from the prior segment seamlessly into the “ad”. He’s passionate, and he sounds like he’s having fun talking about whichever company it is that he’s endorsing.

In our conversation with him, he had us believing we were the greatest product ever. This is rare. Not all hosts do this. Most seem positive and upbeat about your brand. But they’re not crazy enthusiastic. But Rome. Ohhh Rome. We got off the phone with him and we were doing backflips. He had us THAT pumped.

He can call me Chris anytime.

In the world according to Scott, here are four scenarios where you should strongly consider endorsement radio:

1. You’re introducing a new product category…something that needs to be explained. I really think Vonage would have been served well by starting with endorsement radio. Their initial ads were baffling to me. What percentage of Americans know what VOIP is? The endorser could have simply said: Vonage…they use technology to make your long distance phone calls cheaper and better, guaranteed. I use it, and you should, too.
2. You’re not a well known brand and need the credibility of a known brand (radio personality). Areas that need a lot of credibility, I think, include financial services, legal services, anything involving children, anything involving your identity (congrats, LifeLock, on a brilliant campaign), health services, and contractor services.
3. There’s a lot of competitive clutter. I don’t know why companies in hugely competitive environments don’t use radio endorsements more often. Every commercial sounds the same in automotive, fast food, business services, phone services, travel…even the humorous ones. An endorsement cuts through the clutter quickly, IMHO. Why, for example, isn’t travelocity using endorsement radio? Expedia? Anyone?
4. You need to regain your reputation. How about borrowing some credibility, hmmm? Jiffy Lube I think is doing it successfully after some negative press recently. I just saw a funny online video about Verizon. Bet they could use some credibility about now.

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Heaven help us.

Roy Williams of the Wizard Academy says that you can train your potential customers to only respond when there’s a discount. So, the advice goes, focus on value, benefits, and continuity. Marketing 101 stuff.

Ignore Roy’s advice at your own peril.

It happened to me.

We’re running ads with a huge local talk show personality for over two years with a discount code. The response during these two years have been phenomenal. Month over month profit.

After analyzing the numbers, we reasoned that we didn’t have to offer that discount code in the radio spot any more. His audience simply responds to anything he says.

So we drop the code. Guess what.

Sales plummet. We add the code back: sales are back on track.

Now, you say, that just means that you need to have an offer in all spots. Maybe. But if you’re advertising something to the right audience and people need what you have to sell, consider thinking long term. Especially if you’re using an endorser. The short term strategy is to generate quick response. But you gotta be tough. You gotta have faith. It’s proven time and time again that if people want what you’ve got, steady wins the race.

And you don’t need 10% off.

I have to take a detour from radio endorsements for just a second. I just lead a creative review of ad agencies at the company where I work. Here’s what I’ve learned: all you agencies say THE EXACT SAME THING. One literally could swap out the logo on 90% of the presentations with any other agency, and you would never know.

It would probably be efficient for all agencies to share the same powerpoint and only differentiate themselves based on referrals.

Here’s the painful thing. I worked at both huge and micro agencies for 11+ years. AND I USED TO SAY THE EXACT SAME THINGS THAT THESE GUYS ARE SAYING. Ouch. I thought I was being soooooooo innovative and creative…especially because I always handled the media portion of the presentation and you just have to talk about “synergies” of creative and content to seem creative. Guess what. Everyone talks about those synergies. Every one.

I’ve learned my lesson. If I were to ever find myself again in the agency world, I think I’d limit my presentation to about 5 pages and spend the rest of the time asking very detailed questions about how they will measure success…and providing about 10 referrals. And doughnuts.

Without further ado, whether they are good or not, here is what every agency will tell you. Guaranteed.

1. Of course, we won’t know everything about your business. But we know everything about generating results.
2. We think like the entrepreneur.
3. We all come from big agencies and were looking to start something different.
4. We are radically different from the other agencies out there.
5. We don’t care about awards. What matters to us is the client’s success. But in case you’re interested, we’ve won…
6. Our teams work collaboratively. The creatives know what media is doing. Media knows what the account planners are doing. Etc.
7. We want our creatives to sit in an open, fun environment.
8. You want to meet the team that will work on your business? They’re us. We are the team.
9. What’s your budget?
10. We’re always optimizing your campaign.

The one that might drive me the most crazy is ‘what’s your budget?’. To me, that’s the wrong question. To me the best questions are:

1. What do you want to acheive, and
2. Can your business handle it if we do achieve that? Prove it.

So, knowing that everyone says the same thing, I think the ideal presentation focuses on questions to the client, an exploration of that energizing idea that will drive business, and very specific case studies, corraborated by the Advertiser.

I also hate using the word “drive” when it comes to marketing or business. Baby steps.