EndorsementRadio.com

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.

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.

MediaDailyNews had a nice little article about the following conundrum: millions of people listen to radio yet the revenue is shrinking. While ratings are holding relatively constant, despite satellite radio, Ipods and internet radio, somewhere around 90% of adults listen to at least some “terrestrial” radio every single week.

But the article also talks about something that I had heard before, but needed reminding: creatives don’t like working in radio because they don’t see a lot of payoff. TV, Print…likely even billboards seem sexier than radio to many copywriters. And so creatives don’t give the radio copy their best efforts. From there it’s a trickle down effect: the poorer the ads, the worse the results. The worse the results, the lower the spend. The lower the spend, the less you have for creative costs dedicated to radio. And so on…

And that’s why I love radio endorsements. You only need to create some key bullet points with your value propositions. The

hosts

then get to be the creative ones. And usually, on a national level, the hosts fees are wrapped into the unit costs.

So, in effect, you’re still capturing all of those millions of ears listening to talk radio with better than “produced” ads, without having to pay a dime to some “creatives” who would rather work on tv ads.

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.