EndorsementRadio.com

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’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 received this from my ad-writing hero, Roy Williams, a.k.a The Wizard of Ads. It’s a list of the top things to never say in radio ads. To me, endorsement radio basically follows these same rules. However, there are some notable exceptions. My comments follow Roy’s main points.

Never, Never, Never

1. Never promise everything you plan to deliver.
Leave something to become the delight factor. That unexpected, extra bit you deliver “because we love you” will go a long way toward helping the customer forgive and forget any areas where you may have fallen short. Great ads are written in three steps: (1.) How to End. What will be the Last Mental Image your ad presents to your customer? Begin with the end in mind. (2.) Where to Begin. A clear but interesting angle of approach will gain the customer’s attention. (3.) What to Leave Out. Surprise is the foundation of delight. What will you intentionally leave out of your ad so that you can deliver a delightful surprise? What will you leave out so that the imagination of the customer is engaged?

Scott says This is usually going to be the case. However, in a very competitive environment, where the competitor has ABC and D to offer, you may have to show everything under the kimono. “Not only do we have ABC and D but we do E”, assuming E is of interest to people.

2. Never begin a sentence with the word, “Imagine…”
If you’re planning to take your customer on a journey of imagination, plunge them into it. “The wheels of your airplane touch down, but not in the city you were promised…” “You must now choose between two good things…” “If you had more enemies like these, you wouldn’t need friends…”

Scott says Yeah. This is probably a good call, even for endorsement radio.

3. Never include your name in an ad more often than it would be spoken in normal conversation. Cramming your name where it doesn’t belong is AdSpeak. Back when Americans encountered one thirtieth as many ads each day, the rule was to repeat the name of the advertiser as often as possible. Do this today and your ads will sound like they were written in the 1940s.

Scott says I think an endorser can get away with more mentions than you would hear in a typical, produced ad. If it’s a monotone read, it’s going to come across as an ad. But if there’s a lot of passion from the endorser, lots of mentions can convey excitement.

4. Never conjure an unpleasant mental image.
Fear and disgust work face-to-face, but they often backfire when used in mass media. Conjure these unpleasant emotions in the minds of the masses and you’ll leave your listeners with a vaguely bad feeling attached to your name. They’ll want to avoid you, but they won’t be able to recall exactly why.

Scott saysThis makes sense as a general rule of thumb. But some endorsers/hosts have a lot of leverage. For example, Howard Stern can get away with unpleasant mental images. The listener ascribes the negative image to comedy and Stern’s way of talking about things. After all, his whole show revolves around UMIs (my new acronym for ‘unpleasant mental images’). Furthermore, the ad sounds more like integrated content, which is usually ideal for the advertiser. The listener stays fully engaged and doesn’t have their advertising guard up.

5. Never respond to a challenge from a competitor smaller than you.
Drawing attention to a smaller competitor makes them larger in the eyes of the public. Conversely, if someone bigger than you is foolish enough to shine their spotlight on you, dance in it.

Scott says Definitely.

6. Never claim to have exceptional service.
Most people won’t believe you. And those who do believe you will expect more from your staff than they can possibly deliver. It’s a lose/lose proposition. Rather than promise exceptional service in your ads, tell the public something objective, factual and verifiable that causes them to say, “Wow. Those people really serve their customers.” Never praise yourself. Do things that make the customer praise you.

Scott says True. The advertiser shouldn’t claim it, but the endorser can, in the context of “I’ve shopped there and received exceptional service…and not because I’m a star. I looked around and they were treating everyone like royalty!”

7. Never mention the recession.I understand how tempting it is to say, “In order to help you combat the recession we’re offering…” But all that really does is remind the customer that now is not a good time to be spending money.

Scott says I think the endorser can acknowledge the ‘trying times’, which can lead right into the story of why your product makes trying times less-so. Rather, because the economy stinks, this product makes EVEN MORE sense.

8. Never make a claim you don’t immediately support with evidence.
Unsubstantiated claims are the worst form of AdSpeak. Give the customer facts, details and objective proof if you want to win their confidence. Specifics are more believable than generalities.

Scott says I also generally agree with this. But an endorser making a claim is often all the evidence you need!

9. Never use humor that doesn’t reinforce the principal point of your ad.Here’s the litmus test: If remembering the humor forces you to recall the message of the ad, the humor is motivated. Good job. But if recalling the humor doesn’t put you in memory of the ad’s main point, the humor is unmotivated and will make your ad less effective. Sure, people will like the ad. They just won’t buy what you’re selling.

Scott says I disagree a bit here. If the host is usually humorous and the show is built with comedy, unrelated humor within the spot makes the ad seem more like content. I’ve heard some great Bill Handel and Howard Stern “ads” that sell a lot of product but contained humor completely unrelated to the message.

10. Never say things in the usual way. From billboards to storefronts to packaging to messages on T-shirts, ads whisper and wheedle and cajole and shout to win our attention. A 1978 Yankelovich study reported that the average American was confronted with more than 2,000 advertising messages per day. But that was 30 years ago. When Yankelovich revisited the study in 2008, the number had jumped to more than 5,000 messages per day. The mundane, the predictable and the usual are filtered and rejected from our consciousness. Win the customer’s attention with words and phrases that are new, surprising and different.

Scott says This is going to be true for 90% of the advertisers out there. However, the more your product or service is needed, and the less the competition, the more you’re able to hit the nail on the head and say your message in a usual way. In that lucky case, once your frequency starts to climb,

then

would be the time to mix up the messaging and use all the Robert Frank you want.

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.

Another great endorsement from Rush; this time for Rinnai Tankless Water Heaters. Premiere Radio is really delivering here for the advertiser. You have very little idea you’re in the middle of an ad until about halfway through. Although there’s no real transition from content to advertising (he goes from politics straight into home water heating)…the way he delivers this is exactly the way he would talk about, say, the election.

Listen: Rush for Rinnai Tankless Water Heaters:

Mike Gallagher LegalZoom endorsement

Here’s a guy who’s not just reading bullet points. I love the passion (from 2006). Talks about Wills and forming your corporation. Beautiful job, Michael Gallagher.

Bill Bennett endorsed LegalZoom.com in January 2007

This was from January of 2007.

The man that brings us “The Moral Compass” and “Book of Virtues” tells us why we should use LegalZoom.com for Wills, Incorporations, Trademarks and LLCs.

I love John Hamm’s (Mad Men) endorsement of John Ham. Companies should come up with products that mirror star radio hosts names. Glenn “Beck” is an obvious one. How about: “Rush’s Rush Job Delivery” or “Jim Rome’s Italian Vacations”. Oh, oh, how about “Dennis Miller Time” or “Bill Handel’s Bill Handler”.

I love it when hosts do this.

Rush Limbaugh goes from an article about identity theft right into an ad for LifeLock. This is an advertiser’s dream.

You get no tune-out (the listener doesn’t know you’ve hit the ad pod yet), the copy is absolutely relevant, the product is a solution to an important problem, and you get what radio stations and networks are always promising: “we want to be your partner, not just a vendor”.

Awesome job, LifeLock. You came out of nowhere and now rule the identify theft world. I know you’ve got TV and event sponsorship in there, but you built this thing on the back of radio: congratulations.