My Last Dance with Darci (Radio Still Gets Results)

Generally when a business owner decides to call it quits, his choices are either to sell the business or shutter it. The former is preferable but not always possible. Such was the case for a client of mine recently, who for years had operated a healthy, profitable independent video rental store in town.

Carmel began to recognize the handwriting on the wall several years ago. Netflix was already siphoning customers away from her store; video streaming and other emerging technologies would eventually, inevitably, take even more of her market share. So, it was not entirely unexpected when she called me at the end of November to say that she was closing her store and wanted my help with the advertising for it.

Their goal was to sell their entire inventory of DVD's and VHS videos, plus all store fixtures, in as short a time as possible. My conservative recommendation was a two-day advertising blitz on our two Pullman stations, with commercials running heavily all day Friday (30x/station) and Saturday (20x/station). The store would be closed to the public on Friday - windows papered, sign on the reader board announcing the store closing - to allow them to prepare for the sale, which would begin at 6 a.m. sharp on Saturday and continue on Sunday with further reductions on any remaining inventory.

Carmel wanted me to work one last time with Darci (you may recall an earlier post about her), who had done such a fine job as the store's spokesman during the first few years of its rebranding and growth under Carmel's leadership.

I wrote the draft copy, Darci made some notes, and at the appointed time we met at the radio station and collaborated in front of a live microphone in the production studio for some 90 minutes, just as we'd done on so many occasions years earlier. This session provided the raw material which I brought back to my home studio to edit and mix. The result was three commercials, two to rotate on Friday and one to run on Saturday:







A prior commitment took me out of town Friday afternoon and all day Saturday, so I was unable to witness the results of the advertising first-hand, as I would like to have done. However, I was encouraged by a text message that I received at 7:48 a.m. Saturday from one of the owners of the radio station: "Holy Cow! The Video Quest parking lot is full."

On Monday and Tuesday of the following week nearly a dozen people I encountered during the workday made it a point to comment on how much they'd enjoyed the ads. Unsolicited responses like these are often a good indicator that a commercial or campaign has resonated with listeners. But "response" is not the same as "results." So, I was most appreciative when I received this message from the client:

Rod,

I am so impressed with the radio campaign you put together for my store's liquidation sale. You (and Darci) exceeded my expectations beyond anything I could have imagined! People lined up at the doors and at 6:00 a.m. they flooded the store like I have never seen before. After about 15 minutes, two lines began to form at the checkouts and, within 30 minutes, long lines were queued around the perimeter of the store. In the first two hours we sold half of our inventory. I know that our success was the direct result of advertising with you because we only advertised that we were opening at 6:00 a.m. the day before the sale with your radio ads and on our readerboard.

I want to especially thank you for reviving the old 'Rod and Darci' routine so that we could go out of business in the style we came into it. I think it gave our customers a reminiscent smile and reluctant farewell to the end of not just our video store, but to the end of an era where Friday nights were spent with our neighbors roaming the isles of Video Quest looking for a good movie and visiting about the kids.

Thank you!

Carmel

Response: people enjoyed listening to the commercials.

Result: "In the first two hours we sold half our inventory."

I've been selling and creating radio advertising for nearly all my working life, almost four decades now. In that time, I've written or produced thousands of radio commercials for hundreds of radio advertising clients. And to this day I still get a kick, as though for the very first time, every time I receive feedback like this, or hear about about a radio commercial or campaign that has worked for an advertiser, my client or anyone else's, anywhere in the world.

I love seeing radio get results.