Reaching Out to International Students via Radio

Living in a college town, we see quite a few international students here during the school year.

A few years back one of my clients, a medical clinic, challenged me to come up with a radio spot to reach out to these internationals, hoping to attract them (and their families) as new clients.

With a bit of probing, I was able to determine that the predominant cultures/languages among these foreign students were Hispanic, Chinese, and Arabic (not necessarily in that order). I thought it might be fun to record some of these students speaking in their native tongue, a "welcome" message to their peers. But where would I find them? And how would I be able to communicate with them?

I broached the situation with another client, who owns a popular coffee house on campus. He indicated that he'd have no trouble locating some suitable candidates - students who were bi-lingual and would enjoy helping. There was no budget for all this "talent," but the clinic's administrator did offer to buy fancy espresso drinks for the participants. So, we arranged a day and time to meet together at the coffee shop for a group recording session.

The day came, the group assembled, and everything clicked. As a bonus, a young professor originally from Poland, who happened to be in the coffee shop just then, appeared to be quite interested in our little production. She was quickly pressed into service as an "extra."

The kids were cooperative, patient, and seemed to enjoy "starring" in the project. Afterwards they all received a copy of the MP3 to send to the folks back home.

The resulting :30-second commercial pleased the client well enough that the clinic has trotted out this spot at the beginning of the school year every year since. Here's the spot:

What Does It Take to Create Good Radio Advertising?

"Creating great radio ads is hard work
and an acquired skill." - Bob McCurdy

Bob McCurdy is the president of Katz Marketing Solutions, the national marketing unit of the Katz Media Group, a division of Clear Channel Communications.

Right on, Bob!

That statement ought to be printed in 60-point boldface type, framed and posted at the desk of every radio advertising salesperson, sales manager, general manager, operations manager, production director, copywriter, producer, and board op at every radio station in America.

Right next to it should be posted a list of cliches* that from henceforth are banned and must never appear in a radio commercial without severe consequences to the perpetrator or perpetratrix.

Creating good radio commercials is painstaking, time-consuming work.

Anyone undertaking the responsibility of writing advertising for a client must understand the fundamentals of advertising. What works, what doesn't, and why. This information is readily available in books, on CD's, videos, online, in the library.

Writing good advertising involves an investment of time for research, to understand the advertiser's customers, as well as his product/service, market, competition.

It involves think-time, before and during the process of writing, editing, tweaking, refining and polishing, spinning words into gold.

It involves choosing an appropriate spokesman. Extensive casting opportunities may be out of reach for many stations, but thought should still be given as to who should deliver the message. Often the advertisers themselves make great spokespeople (I can hear the protests rumbling from the "professional" bench already. Don't bother. I've been writing for and coaching ordinary folks for years, decades really - with consistent, bankable results for the client! It CAN be done. Just takes a little more time, patience, and perseverance, that's all. Want to hear examples? I can provide you with plenty.)

Great production won't compensate for poor copy. If you can't have both, put your money into the copywriting. Great copy always trumps great production.

Invest in improving the quality of your advertising copy for clients and the inevitable improvement in their results will keep them on the air.

It's just that simple.

And because it is, there's no reason it can't be done.

*Cliches that should be forever banned from radio commercials include:

for all your ______ needs
conveniently located at ___________
the friendly folks at ___________
the professionals at ___________
your ________ headquarters
and much, much more
just in time for ________
like never before
the sale you’ve been waiting for
lowest prices of the year/season/ever
it’s that time of year again
we sell the best and service the rest
our service is second to none
our friendly, knowledgeable staff
you heard it right
it’s happening right now
(Season) is right around the corner

Bob McCurdy's article appeared in Media Post's Marketing Daily Commentary.

Radio Works for Constant Contact

Radio advertising works.

And not everyone is hurting these days.

Just ask the folks at Constant Comment, a provider of email marketing services.

Perhaps you've heard their ads running in radio network news broadcasts and syndicated programs.

How are the ads working? According to company President and CEO Gail F. Goodman:

Summarizing our results for the first quarter. Revenue was $28.1 million, an increase of 55% year-over-year and adjusted EBITDA came in at $1.7 million, which was up a 112% on a year-over-year basis.

During the quarter, all of our sales and marketing channels performed well. We believe our national radio advertising campaign helped drive much of the better than expected demand for our email marketing service. Equally important based on the statistical analysis we have recently completed national radio is delivering results within our cost expectations. We expect to continue national radio advertising in the fall following our usual seasonal marketing pullback across all of our acquisition channels during the summer months...

Read the transcript of Constant Contact's 5/7/09 conference call HERE.

Another "Snow" Spot

Dan O'Day's Radio Commercial Smackdown today reminded me of an ad I did a few years ago, at the request of a young man who wanted to rent snowmobiles at his cabins up in Elk River. It was late season (March) and the snow wasn't going to be around for much longer. Being 60 miles away and having no website, we had to include his phone number in the commercial - a practice generally to be discouraged unless absolutely necessary. Here's the produced spot.

And here's the script:

(SFX: Winter wind)

A giant cedar tree towers above you – it is 18 feet in diameter, 177 feet tall, and 3000 years old.

In the distance, Hemlock Butte….Elk Butte…. Grandad Bridge overlooking an ice-covered Dworshak Reservoir.

And today…it is all yours.

At the front door of this wilderness adventure you’ll find Elk Butte Recreation. You walk in, hop on one of their powerful snowmobiles, and an unforgettable adventure is about to begin.

While there’s still snow on the ground, why not do a little exploring on a big sled? Half-day and full-day snowmobile rentals are available now at Elk Butte Recreation.

Call to reserve yours now. 208-826-3632. That’s 208-826-3632.

Clients as Spokesmen #2

Testimonials from customers can be powerfully persuasive in a radio campaign. But they have to be real. Listeners can smell a fake a mile away, and that hurts much more than it helps.

Case in point: for the past few weeks I've been signing up exhibitors for our annual Palouse Empire Home & Garden EXPO, an event I've helped coordinate for the past eleven years. Prospective exhibitors are solicited through a combination of radio (our primary vehicle), newspaper and television ads, and direct mail to previous exhibitors.

Every year toward the end of the show the station's news director has taken time to record brief interviews with exhibitors, inviting their feedback on the show while the experience is still fresh. He then passes these recordings along to me, so that I can use them to create vendor-solicitation spots.

These two spots are running on the air as I type these words.

Think the message would be nearly as compelling without the voices of previous exhibitors? Neither do I.

Clients as Spokesmen

I've long been a proponent of using advertisers' voices in their radio commercials whenever it seemed appropriate.

This used to incur the wrath of program directors and indignant DJ's who felt that only mellifluous "professional" voices were worthy of a listener's attention, but the opposition seems to have mellowed of late. Even in my home market local broadcasters and advertising folk that once disdained the idea now have no problem letting their clients participate freely in their own commercials.

Done well, a client-voiced commercial offers several advantages to the advertiser:
(1) It provides a unique and distinctive sound, unlikely to be mistaken for any other personality or advertiser on the air.
(2) The authority and expertise of the spokesman may enhance the credibility of the message.
(3) Over time the advertiser becomes a familiar voice, no longer a stranger to people who have yet to patronize his business.
(4) And yes, all other factors being equal, the client is more likely to have people mention hearing the ad. What's wrong with that? If it makes his investment in Radio more tangible, that's just great.

No, not every client belongs on the air. And yes, getting most clients to speak to your listeners with authenticity and appeal, as opposed to stiffly reading or talking at them, typically requires more time and effort than simply handing the copy off to a station voice.

First, the copy has to be fine-tuned to fit the client's individual style of communicating, his personality. In my experience, this often involves editing on the fly (during the recording process).

Second, in most cases the client will need to be coached and directed to bring out the most effective interpretation of the copy, involving equal measures of persistence and patience. It can be frustrating for both client and coach to do 15 or 20 takes, fine-tuning to get everything right.

Modern digital editing tools have greatly lessened the need to get one "perfect" take. More often than not, I'll take portions of several takes and combine them into the final voice track, a best-of compilation, so to speak. Back in the days of reel tapes and splicing tape, this posed a much greater challenge, with a very small margin for error - and no Undo function. Here's a funny example from back in the day (18 years ago), a short piece I cobbled together from outtakes of the legendary Chuck "Bobo" Brayton struggling through numerous takes to voice a spot for a local Mexican restaurant. It's a hoot.)

But getting back to the issue of coaching - after many less than stellar takes, it can be tempting to throw in the towel and let a substandard reading pass. Resist the urge at all costs! If necessary, come back for another session when you're both fresh. Because if you let the client get away with a subpar reading, it'll come back to bite you every time that commercial is aired!

Take the pains to do it right, so that when the spot airs you, your client, and your listeners can enjoy it and benefit from a job well done.