Happy Friday, everyone!
A couple of weeks ago, we asked about signature advertising packages your station offers. Scott Howard's answer caught my attention:
I learned a few years ago when I joined WOWO that the live 60 second endorsement/testimonial by our morning or afternoon was more than the "Gold Standard"; It's the "Platinum Standard" for our news talk station. I wrote about this last year here: http://www.scotthoward.me/the-wowo-advantage-for-advertisers-with-endorsement-ads/ and here's an exerpt:
Live endorsement ads carry the full power of WOWO plus the added endorsement power of the WOWO personality. When Charly mentions Wicks Sugar Cream Pie, people know that they are good. When Pat Miller mentions Doc Dancer Heating, Cooling and Generators, people know they can trust Doc Dancer. When Rick Wolf mentions the specials at Milan Center Feed and Grain, people know the value because they trust Rick, Pat and Charly.
So here is this week's poll question:
Does your radio station do live endorsement/testimonial ads by your on-air personalities? If so, for which businesses/products/services?
Looking forward to reading your replies!
at August 3, 2017 10:18 PM PDT
Thanks for the mention. By the way, when one of our personalities does live endorsement ads for a client, they are EXCLUSIVE. Pat Miller only endorses one HVAC company, Doc Dancer. I have recorded versions of Pat Miller Doc Dancer ads that now run in other dayparts because he is their spokesperson.
We have to carefully define the business categories when we do this. Charly can endorse two different water treatment companies. He endorses Culligan for home water treatment with reverse osmosis and also a company that manufactors magnetic water treatment systems for business, commercial and industrial use. https://www.superiorwaterconditioners.com/
No Endorsements/Testimonials allowed here. Our market is too small (15,000). If we endorse one, we upset three others. Not worth it. IF someone comes to me and says "I will endorse your Radio Stations with my TOTAL Advertising Budget (every dime)"; then we will discuss, but the dollar amount better make my year and it is still a long shot. We are proud of our reputation and credibility in the market.
In my too-short time in commercial traffic at Clear Channel Des Moines (2006, before disability) live reads and endorsements on WHO were huge. The live reads for just the morning show by themselves probably brought more revenue than the entire day's billing one of CC's DM FM stations.
Small market though, endorsements would be problematic. Too bad more stations don't at least do live reads or live as part of VT.
Interesting article in RadioINK today on lawyers suing their own Utah Bar over the right to do live endorsements. http://radioink.com/2017/08/09/lawyers-sueing-live-radio-reads-utah
This post was edited by RSC Administrator at August 9, 2017 9:24 AM PDT
Yes; I saw that story. Rediculous! We do a lot of LIVE Reads; but stop short of Testimonials. We just don't think it makes sense in a small market.
Rod, that is interesting. Here in Indiana, on television we had a law firm use Robert Vaughn, now William Shatner as their celebrity spokesperson. http://www.marketmasterslegal.com/why-mml/william-shatner ;. Regarding live endorements on the radio, we do that too and also did them on the radio in Detroit when I was there from 1986-93
From Robert E. Lee on the RSC Facebook page: "Very, very limited...for a price! 
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