I have a farm implement dealership with 3 locations interested in a 52 week plan with our hot country music format station in NE Nebraska. The decision maker says he is not 'thrilled' with the radio advertising plans he is now doing. He advertises on 3 radio stations all located in the same community. He is a Case IH Dealer. I would like new/unique ideas that have worked in other markets for the AG EQUIPMENT Dealership. He's currently doing a weather sponsorship, and has frequency on another country music station. I'm meeting to do a CNA this week, to get more details.
I'd like pointers on how to get his copy to stand out from the crowd.
Colleen
The creative must be very specific. If he is selling farm implements, a good position is Monday to Friday at 12:00 noon. This is when farmers come in for lunch and check the "Farm Market" reports. If you run these reports, have him sponsor them. Alternatively, if you don't the noon time is a good time for farmers to do some "Active Listening"....Make the commercial very personal like one farmer talking to another. Talk in the commercial how his products can help make the farmers job easier and in the end, cost efficient. If you can get any testimonials from past and current customers, this works well. Finally, what is important to farmers?.... Weather/Cost Savings and ROI. Speak to the farmer as if they are your neighbors.
Good Luck
Dave
I have a large Case IH dealership advertising with us on our Hot Country station too. We have done a number of things over the years. First off, if you haven't already, tap in to their Co-op program. Enrolled dealers get 50% reimbursement of advertising as long as you follow their protocol. RAB has more details in their coop library. My guys (there are four dealerships in our listening area) have a :30 pre-recorded ad in a set position next to a morning ag report. They also do local sports broadcasts, and some special interest packages like Harvest Safety and our Winter Ag Expo. We have also done live :90 call ins positioned around the closing ag markets that were very effective and got instant feedback. These are a great way to highlight new trade ins, updated buying incentive programs, and just plain talking to the farmers about what they are needing right now. Hope that helps. Happy Selling!
Colleen,
Our modern country station has more than a dozen ag businesses advertising on-air and, yes, they love to be sponsoring - or adjacent (we call them "adjacencies") - to the ag commodity reports! But, aside from that scheduling comment, most of our ag businesses run pretty 'plain vanilla' (i.e., boring to anyone but farmers and ranchers) advertising, usually somehow provided by national manufacturers as either scripts or completed spots with brief taglines on the end (e.g., "... your local Kobota dealer is Smith Implement of Centerville!").
But, one of our local ag businesses is a small independent ag supplier who seem to have NO manufacturers who provide them with co-op funds and/or required ad copy and/or required pre-recorded spots. This allows 'ABC Supply' to totally control their own advertising budget and their own message.
So, ABC Supply has used quirky, funny and completely original radio ads that they mostly write themselves (with a little help from their account rep - who is sadly not me!) for the last 10 years or more. These ads usually run 60 - 90 seconds in length (they are our station's only 90-second spot advertiser!) and they are, to my ear, kind of 'corny' sometimes. But the farmers seem to love them and talk about ABC's ads, among themselves! (So, ABC gets a multiplier effect, you might say.)
These ads are usually dialogues between ABC's boss and one or two of his key employees. They tell funny (to farmers, at least) jokes and anecdotes, while squeezing in their own product promotions and useful advice to help farmers with a wide variety of agricultural problems and issues. If you were a farmer, wouldn't you listen to these ads?! (I definitely would!)
My long-winded point is that your potential client sounds like he wants to get beyond the bounds of boring and general national manufacturer advertising. Help him to be a radio star and he will love you!
"How to get his copy to stand out..." Colleen - What a great topic!
A few ideas to help set both you and your client apart:
1) He should seek to "own" one or more audiences, not just occasionally "rent" them. So whether it's a commodity report, weather, local news, or even just the same time slot each day, he should take advantage of the repetition afforded him by reaching the same audience every day, all year long. If he can afford to do this two, three, four or more times a day in different day parts, all the better.
2) Farm equipment is expensive and the purchase cycle is measured in years, at least. He should understand that while he's reaching a lot of prospects on your station, he will "harvest" only those who are ready to buy today. All the rest he'll be cultivating and preparing for a future sale. If what he says to them in his advertising during this time is meaningful to them, matters to them, impresses them deeply, those messages will have a beneficial effect, though not immediately felt.
3. Is there something the dealer can do to attract farmers to visit his showroom even when they're not actively shopping for equipment? Opening up a little coffee and donuts place inside might attract farmers to gather for a coffee break and conversation on a Saturday morning. Don't laugh. I read last year about a Cadillac dealer in Fort Worth, that added a high-end wine shop to his showroom. Another car dealer in California opened a restaurant in his dealership. If your dealer isn't afraid to try something new and bold, it just might propel his business in ways you cannot imagine.
4. Amp up his "good citizenship" profile. Do you have a Food Bank in the area? The dealership could become a drop-off for donations. Perhaps area farmers would respond to the opportunity to donate a portion of their harvests to help feed the needy. Here in our neck of the woods a farmer and former grain merchant teamed up to start Storehouse, a charitable agriculture-based enterprise that's growing like nobody's business (no pun intended).
5. His advertising doesn't always have to be about his products or services (rather, his customers' need for those products and services). He could sponsor some youth-focused messages to support FFA, 4-H, Scouts, youth sports, etc. He might even address more serious issues. For instance, sponsors of the Anti-Bullying Awareness messages that we produce run the spectrum; no reason a farm implement business can't get involved, especially if the dealer himself voices a part of the spot.
6. Offer to interview the dealer's good customers and turn those interviews into radio commercials. Make them as natural and conversational as possible. Credible testimonials are powerful, but they take time and meticulous attention to make them so. If they sound at all contrived or artificially sweetened, a real possibility if hastily produced, they will be some of the most annoying, irritating and counter-productive ads on the station, and they will not serve the client. Here's an illustration from my own experience.
7. Roy Williams has done radio advertisers a big favor by paying attention to what he calls "brandable chunks." (In fact, this past Monday's Wizard of Ads Live webcast was devoted to this topic, and Roy took the time to help me with some ads I'm developing for a Realtor. And he came up with some great ideas for someone else's bait and tackle shop client in the midwest. Paraphrasing: "We don't just sell bait. We sell fun." And "----- Bait and Tackle. Just add water." Brilliant and memorable. ) Search the archives of his Monday Morning Memo on the term "brandable chunks," you'll find more on the topic. Then, working with your client, come up with a list of brandable chunks for his business - anywhere from 8-14 of them - and then use some of them in every commercial you write for him.
Hope you'll find something of use here. Please tell us how it goes for you!
Case IH has some very good scripts with their co-op. We do all of the production and add our local "tag line" to them. My client markets during morning drive 6-10a - we believe this has been very effective for them.
