EndorsementRadio.com

One of my guilty pleasures when I’m driving around anywhere between 12p and 3p is to listen to Dr. Laura on 640 AM (KFI). I’m not sure if it’s because I have a touch of the old schadenfreude, or if it’s because I occassionally get some advice that I can use in my own life, or because I want to feel like literally the best husband and father on earth.

Whatever the case, I listen. So do millions of others. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we all know her faults. We all know what she said about homosexuality. We all know that she’s off base on some stuff. But, really, for a lot of people, she gives a lot of no nonsense, intuitive, I-could-have-told-them-THAT advice. I mean, who can argue with spending more time with your kids, treating your spouse with respect, and doing the right thing?

She does some great endorsements, and I bet they sell well. If she’s got a million people believing that what she says is ‘the right thing’, I’d imagine the radio endorsement is that much more powerful.

From my own experience, advertising in her show is a joy. Apparently, doing the right thing is kissing your kids at night, protecting your family from bad influences, and purchasing some of what I’ve got to sell. What, is a national radio advice show supposed to be a non-profit? Instead, Dr. Laura really investigates companies (or her people do, anyway), before endorsing them. In other words, she does the right thing.

(Wow, look at me…I look like a huge man-monster in an un-manly pink shirt next to her!)

John Gambling’s another WABC guy and he gives great endorsement. He’s another one of those hosts out there that actually wants to sample the product, and have his family sample the product, in order to make the spots seem that much more real.

It’s a great show in NY and we’ve been running with him for over a year. By the way…we’re in Ny and I’m the only one wearing black. What’s up with that?

We just started running endorsements with Judge Napolitano. You’ve probably seen him on Fox News and other shows talking about celebrity court cases or just big cases in general.

We’ll see how it goes. The show is called Brian and the Judge and it’s national. I’m sure there are some products out there (hopefully LegalZoom is one of them) where the fact that he was a Superior Court judge adds a lot of weight and credibility to the endorsement.

But you can’t deny the celebrity and the growing awareness of this sharp legal mind.

Go Judge, Go!

Let me give you a quick list of people I’ve met or had conversations with in my life: Dick Clark, George Clooney, John Cusack, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Leonard Nimoy, Neve Campbell, James Woods, Neil Patrick Harris, Laurie Metcalf, Jimmy Buffet, John McCain, Ron Howard. I’m sure there are more. All bigger than life, amazing people for various reasons. I’m not sure I was impressed by any of them as much as I was with Curtis Sliwa. I’m way too chicken to explain why he’s a bigshot, but Google him if you don’t know.

He’s breathtaking. The way Curtis tells stories. The way he balances humor with drama and danger. The way his New Yorkness comes through is absolutely compelling. Me, the people I work with, the station reps were spellbound as Curtis took us through a 10 year period of his life for over an hour.

I’m just staying this, if he can captivate three A.D.D. marketers for over an hour, imagine what he can do in 60 seconds. Actually, Ron Kuby, his WABC partner, usually does the endorsement spots and Curtis chimes in. Whatever the case, I’ll hold the Curtis and Kuby endorsement spot up against any mega-agency any day of the week if your goal is sales. I bow to the microphone of Curtis Sliwa.

(Look at me trying to be all buff next to him. The guy could kill me with his pinky).

When Ron Kuby, famous liberal attorney and WABC morning talks how host enters a room, you know it. Very funny, very loud, and very expressive. He sat down, looked around for 5 seconds and said “I’m glad you called me to this meeting…IS ANYBODY GOING TO TALK?” I’m not sure why we didn’t talk at first. I think it was because we were instantly overpowered by his persona. Certainly NY radio listerners are, because they’re buying LegalZoom product like hotcakes, and it’s due in part to his hilarious ads.

See, Kuby is an attorney. He basically tells his audience that he doesn’t know how to do all the things LegalZoom does, but could figure it out, and while he’s figuring it out, he’ll be charging $400 per hour. So he says do it right, use LegalZoom.com. Instant credibility, because he’s a lawyer. Instant attraction to the spot, because he does it so well.

Oh, one more thing. He almost always ties in the endorsed product to what he and Curtis Sliwa were just talking about. Great ads, and great radio. Almost makes me want to live in NY to listen to them every morning. Almost.

Well, if I could go to that Babbo restaurant once a week…maybe I will!

Kuby = great radio. You heard it here first. Well, probably 8th or something.

How did I not know about Glenn Beck until last year? The guy is amazing. My first thought was that he was probably another Limbaugh parrot. Nope. Glenn is about as unique as they come. Funny, self deprecating, very intelligent, passionate, and…how do I say this? Quirky? He’s a nutball. But in a good way. Anyone seen his CNN show? It’s great.

For advertisers, he’s potential gold. Why? Because he actually cares, or gives the very strong impression that he does. When we met him, he had just changed the script we were using to talk about a friend of his who used our company to create a limited liability company.

As far as radio endorsements go, it’s as good as they come. It was an honor to meet Glenn Beck (i’m the boring white guy in the light blue shirt). Go Glenn, Go.

During the LegalZoom.com New York media tour, we had the honor of meeting Bill O’Reilly, who does a phenomenal national endorsement for the company where I’m VP of advertising. I live in LA and have a lot of liberal actor friends, so you can imagine the comments I got: “how did you ever get the sulfer smell off your clothes?”, “how could you?”, “dude, you’d sell your soul for a buck”. (I also got from my conservative friends: “Can I touch your hand?”, “Oh man, you are so lucky”, and “I’m actually a liberal…how could you?”).

Lots of people don’t like the guy. But I’ll give him this, he blows you away in person. We walked away from a brief meeting with him feeling like we were superstars. Why? Because he told us we were. The man is on the number one rated cable tv show for a reason. Probably several reasons…and we got a glimpse of them.

Here’s to you, Bill O’Reilly. I have a hard time agreeing with you a lot of times (though if you really listened to what his viewpoints were on a lot of subjects, you’d say “hey, I kind of think that, too”). But I’ll tell you this: you talk about our company like it’s going to save America. Maybe it is.

You often expect when you meet with a bonifide star, be it movie, sports, or media, that you are going to perhaps get 5 seconds of their time. During those 5 seconds they’ll be looking at their watch and talking to PAs. You’ll be lucky to get eye-to-eye contact.

Not the case with Sean Hannity. He couldn’t have been more interested in what we had to say, more engaged, and more charming. He does a phenomenal Dallas and San Diego endorsement for LegalZoom.com and will soon be talking about LegalZoom on his #2 rated national show.

Obviously, as advertisers, we’re probably going to command more attention from a media star than someone off the street, but I was still very pleasantly surprised. Sean (yes, he said “call me Sean”) invited us to his Hannity and Colmes show (Colmes was off this day, he had another liberal star sit in), entertained us with jokes during the commercial breaks, talked with us for quite a while after the show, then slung a backpack over his back and shot out the door.

Politics aside, you can see why he’s a star. And you can see why he’s such a good endorser. (By the way, I’m the dashing young guy in the black jacket and laser blue shirt standing up).

I don’t own a cat. I don’t particularly care to. But if I did, I’d probably buy them Purina. I’ve been hearing these endorsers I trust talk about how Purina is really the healthy and tasty choice for cats. Who ever thought that much about what they feed their cat? Wait, don’t answer that.

But if these guys like it, I guess that’s ok for me. They are really good spots. The hosts talk about how their cats absolutely thrive on the stuff, or how they’ve gone from big lazy beasts to healthy, active felines. But they almost all start by sharing some personal story about their cat, and because I listen to everything these guys talk about, I’m hooked in and interested in their story.

And they took sixty seconds out of their day to tell me about it. I might try some Purina myself.

Handel does a great job with the LegalZoom.com spot. First, he’s a lawyer, so he knows what he’s talking about when it comes to the law, even though he only offers “marginal legal advice” on his syndicated Saturday show (though from my limited legal knowledge, most of his advice sounds dead-on to me). Handel doesn’t really focus on any specific product of LegalZoom’s. Rather, he explains the concept-I’m paraphrasing: Sometimes you need a lawyer. They get paid a lot of money and they probably deserve it. But there are a lot of times, like when you need to create your will, incorporate your busines, get a trademark, even a divorce where you just need the FORMs. That’s LegalZoom.com. Founded by top attorneys, LegalZoom lets you create legal documents that you need in minutes at a fraction of the price of what an attorney would charge. This is quality stuff. It’s 100% guaranteed. And right now, type “X” in the referral code box at purchase for 10% off your order. For high quality legal documents without the cost of an attorney, go to LegalZoom.com.

It’s a compelling message. The law is in our own hands and we can do it reliably and affordably because this site was created by attorneys, and it’s made affordable, after all, through the automation of technology. Through 30s and 60s, Handel does a great job at conveying this.