So we're thinking a little out of the box. We're talking about doing some "unsolicited ads," telling our listeners some great things about the business, and asking them to simply go in and tell them that they listen to our station. We're hoping that after a few people mention us, that they'll get the idea. We've scripted the ads to be friendly and welcoming, not pushy.
So what do you think? Any potential problems with these? Has anyone tried anything similar?
Why would the potential advertiser ever pay for anything if you give it for free? One thing you might mention to these businesses who are reluctant to advertise now is to tell them your station can help them sell merchandise now at their asking price or...that you have a "special'" starting December 26th when they have to sell at 50% off!. Might get them thinking. Also, include in your presentation some quotes from other businesses (especially their competitors!) who have advertised as to how well radio worked for them. I definitely would not give them anything for free. Our station often gets asked to air PSA's for non-profits, then we pick up the newspaper and see they bought a newspaper ad for the same event they are asking us to run for free. We now tell non-profits that if they have paid for an ad with any other media, they must pay our discounted non-profit rate.
Idea Number 1: Back in the 80s, we did a promotion in January whereby our station really partnered with our advertisers. Basically, we took unsold inventory for each day and gave it back to our advertisers based on what they were spending with us.
Imagine a rep calling a client to share the news…"Hey John! Just wanted to let you know we ran an additional 3 spots for you yesterday. It didn't cost you anything, we just had a few spots open and ran your spots in their place. Hope it helps your campaign, and thanks again for letting W--- be a part of your success."
Idea Number 2: This also shows a station's willingness to partner with their sponsors. We gave all the advertisers the option of buying overnight spots…any quantity…at 10% of their rate that week. So, if a client was running 20 spots at $40 per spot, they could buy up to 20 more spots that would run 12Mid - 6AM for just $4 per spot. Overnights were rarely sold, and we had no ratings to show for it, but clients liked the low price and the overnight guy liked having some spots to run too! This is a great example of found money.
Idea Number 3: If you want to show your client who your 'customers' are, you need to drive your customers…i.e. listeners…to their business. One way is to give away promotional products with your stations logo, or your client's logo and have winners pick them up at the client's store. I've done this many times. In the snow belt, a station might want to give away ice scrapers with the station, and/or the station/customer's logo imprinted on them. Run promos…"Hey, this Saturday, we've got 100 WRSC ice scrapers that we want you to have. That's right. Stop using that old credit card and get over to Sam's Hardware. Remember, just 100!"
I've done this many times with different products. So much so, that I left radio years ago to start my own promotional products business. Now, I coach my promotional clients to do the same thing. If you need help with any ideas, shoot me an email. Good luck and good selling. Kelly Fleming, CRMC
Sam, I think it's a slippery slope I wouldn't get on. We never allowed advertisers to say, "Tell us you heard our ad on ..." because we knew that customers, for the most part, won't do that. It's a bit embarrassing to most. Same applies here. You are setting yourself up for failure because of you do this and no one comes in says, "we heard about you here", it will reinforce to the client that advertising does not work and especially advertising on your station does not work.
Agree with Jeff 100%. Just told a client this last week. This is all about testing the media when the focus should be on making the offer good enough to drive business. I often ask the client if they've ever stopped what they're doing to save 10% for mentioning an ad. The answer is almost always no.
In my first year of radio sales (in Springfield, IL), I had a boat dealer propose to put in his commercial: "mention this ad and get a free ski rope when you buy a boat from us."
(Worse, I probably said, OK.)
I've actually told clients wanting to go down this road that I can run one really good commercial in morning drive and have people lined up at their door. They just need to offer $100 to the first 20 people in line that day. When the client says, "I can't do that," I remind them that we've just established that we have the listeners and it's really all about the message.
If the "economy" is scaring them into NOT advertising, imagine how frightened they'll be when their bankruptcy lawyer comes to call. This is a fake objection. Any business that is truly IN business FOR business understands they have to advertise to drive sales. period!
