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.

DoorCountyDailyNews.com - A Model for Radio

Wisconsin broadcaster Roger Utnehmer was recently named "Entrepreneur of the Year" by the Door County (WI) Economic Development Corp.

Utnehmer's online newspaper and website have become a model for broadcasters around the world.

Although he is a "radio guy" through and through (including stints as head of the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association and board member of the Radio Advertising Bureau), the owner of four local radio stations recognized the potential and power of the Internet early on and, unlike many of his peers, embraced it with open arms, an open mind, and sufficient investment of financial and human resources to make it work.

And work it does.

Nicolet Broadcasting, Inc. — owners of WBDK (96.7 FM), WRKU (102.1 FM), WRLU (104.1 FM) and WSBW (105.1 FM) — has made significant capital investment and has experienced above-industry growth and a 400-percent increase in sales since moving its main studios and corporate offices to Door County in 2002. In 2007, Nicolet Broadcasting expanded its coverage in Door County when they introduced WSBW and opened a studio and office in Fish Creek. A recent article in a national broadcast industry trade publication cited Nicolet Broadcasting as one of the 30 best broadcast companies to work for, based on employee training, compensation and future financial security.

And while he certainly knows how to make a buck, he's no miser. Roger's stations donate one :30-second ad PER HOUR, 24/7, to non-profit and charitable causes. And Roger himself is glad to share the things he's learned about success with other broadcasters.

Congratulations, Roger. Thanks for setting the bar high for Radio, and for your willingness to share your ideas and experiences with other broadcasters.

Learn more about Roger's award HERE.

The Real Reason Advertisers Are Abandoning Newspaper?

Business columnist and author Geoffrey James returned from a recent Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW) confab with a stinging indictment of the newspaper advertising industry.

According to James, the reason newspapers across the country are folding faster than a bad poker hand is not the national economy, but "...that advertisers have finally figured out that newspapers, in collusion with clueless marketers and unscrupulous ad execs, have been fleecing them for decades."

The writer asked a room full of newspaper writers how many of them actually read the ads that appear in their papers.

Fewer than five percent said they did.

This made me wonder, what if a similar question were asked of radio broadcasters? How much higher would our percentage be? (You do listen to the ads on your station, don't you?)

After all, radio advertising is intrusive. When the radio is turned on, the listener can't help but hear the ads. (As someone once said, God's gift to Radio is that He created human beings without earlids.)

Whereas newspaper advertising tends to be passive: ...if the reader happens to open that day's paper to the right section...and if she happens to turn to the right page...and if she happens to notice your ad...she might actually read it.

Or she might not.

James' real problem with newspaper advertising is its lack of measurability and/or accountability. Is it effective? Do you know for sure? How do you know?

The problem with newspaper advertising is that, in most cases, you have NO idea whether anyone is reading an ad, or whether that ad is driving buying behavior. And because nothing is being measured, newspapers and ad agencies have been able to artificially inflate the price of their space ads. Massively.

One way newspapers do this is to simply lie about circulation. For example, it’s not uncommon for a newspaper to claim that each distributed copy is read by 3 or 4 people. But that’s total BS. Many copies of most print publications don’t get cracked even once. And the ones that do, I’ll bet that only a fraction of the content ever actually wins the reader’s eye.

As for the ads themselves, only a tiny fraction of the circulation reads them, and the number of people who take action as result is probably in the single digits. (I’m talking the actual number here, not the percentage.)

Newspapers also cook the books is by setting the value of advertising based upon what other newspapers are asking. As if that made any difference. But it worked, in the past at least, because marketers (many of whom don’t want to be measured anyway) never asked the obvious question: how much revenue will this ad generate?

James is bullish on online advertising because click-throughs can be tracked and ad performance measured with greater accuracy. In this, he echoes Ken Dardis of Audiographics - a former terrestrial radio guy, now SVP of Spacial Audio Solutions, an authority on Internet radio, and an outspoken critic of "business-as-usual" where Radio is concerned. For Dardis, the Internet holds the key to Radio's future, which makes him either a gadfly or an augur - or both, depending on whose ox is being gored at the moment.

Ken Dardis is passionate about Radio, but critical of the status quo. His company recently gave away hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of software and hosting to displaced terrestrial broadcasters willing to start their own Internet radio stations.

In other words, he's walking his talk.

The take-away from all of this, for those of us who make our living as radio advertising professionals, is our responsibility to exert every effort to create advertising that is as effective (and measurable) as we can make it.

We do this by investing as much time and energy as needed to understand our advertisers' objectives, their customers' needs/desires/motivation/buying behavior, and the realities of the marketplace that may affect how they interact. Only then can we begin to write and produce the advertising messages that have what it takes to move people and products.

I remain optimistic about Radio's future. Terrestrial stations and online stations both have a place in the new media landscape. They may differ in their delivery, degrees of accountability, and demographics, but they will still provide valuable information, entertainment, and advertising to their audiences.

Read Geoffrey James' full article here.

This from NPR: "Radio Ads Are a Good Thing!"

It is SO enjoyable to hear Real Radio Ads (A Bud Light "Real Men of Genius" spot, no less!) airing on..."ad-free" National Public Radio.

All Things Considered, April 28, 2009 · Radio offers advertisers the last captive audience.

Radio ads are cheap to produce and buying airtime is inexpensive, too. You can blanket the airwaves with a slogan or jingle in a way you can't with TV.

Warren Berger's forthcoming book is Glimmer: How Design Can Transform Your Life and Maybe Even the World.

Listen to Warren Berger's >enthusiastic evaluation of radio advertising (2 minutes, 50 seconds).

All of us in the radio advertising business ought to appreciate (and emulate) Mr. Berger's enthusiasm!

Thanks to Eric Rhoades for the tip!

Sinking the Boat or Missing the Boat?

Much has been written - and is being written (by marketers and economists alike) - on the subject of marketing during a recession.

Today's Small Market Radio Newsletter carried a fascinating New Yorker piece by James Surowiecki on the subject.

Surowieki contrasts the Depression-era responses of two ready-to-eat cereal makers, Post and Kellogg:

Post did the predictable thing: it reined in expenses and cut back on advertising. But Kellogg doubled its ad budget, moved aggressively into radio advertising (emphasis mine), and heavily pushed its new cereal, Rice Krispies. (Snap, Crackle, and Pop first appeared in the thirties.) By 1933, even as the economy cratered, Kellogg’s profits had risen almost thirty per cent and it had become what it remains today: the industry’s dominant player.

Chrysler took the same approach during the Great Depression and in 1933 passed Ford to become the #2 automaker in America, thanks to its aggressive marketing of the Plymouth brand. This gain was not as long-lived as some, but it demonstrates what can be done when a company goes after market share while others are trying merely to preserve what they have.

I was visiting with a new client earlier in the week. He's in the retail furniture business, a category not exactly thriving these days, given the overall economic climate and contraction in the housing market. But he's not hunkering down. He's planning for expansion and growth. He said to me, "We're in a kind of Ice Age now. And you know what an Ice Age is good for? It kills off the dinosaurs!"

Indeed.

Commenting on why many companies are so quick to cut their advertising during an economic slowdown, Surowiecki cites economist Frank Knight's distinction between risk and uncertainty.

Risk describes a situation where you have a sense of the range and likelihood of possible outcomes. Uncertainty describes a situation where it’s not even clear what might happen, let alone how likely the possible outcomes are. Uncertainty is always a part of business, but in a recession it dominates everything...

For businesses that choose to place their bets on minimizing risks and preserving assets in the short-term, cutting back makes sense.

For others, deep pockets or not, the opportunity to chase a bigger slice of the smaller pie, believing that they'll keep the larger share of their market when the economy rebounds (as inevitably it must), is a worthy challenge and a calculated risk.

Surowiecki concludes:

It’s true that the uncertainty of recessions creates an opportunity for serious profits, and the historical record is full of companies that made successful gambles in hard times: Kraft introduced Miracle Whip in 1933 and saw it become America’s best-selling dressing in six months; Texas Instruments brought out the transistor radio in the 1954 recession; Apple launched the iPod in 2001. Then again, the record is also full of forgotten companies that gambled and failed. The academics Peter Dickson and Joseph Giglierano have argued that companies have to worry about two kinds of failure: “sinking the boat” (wrecking the company by making a bad bet) or “missing the boat” (letting a great opportunity pass). Today, most companies are far more worried about sinking the boat than about missing it. That’s why the opportunity to do what Kellogg did exists. That’s also why it’s so nerve-racking to try it.

I am privileged to work with a number of clients who have the ambition, foresight, and fortitude to pursue relentlessly their goal to be the best they can at what they do.

Counterintuitive though it may seem, this is a great time for smart advertising on Radio!

Read the full article here.

Women in Sales, Selling to Women

This week's Small Market Radio Newsletter had a short piece by copywriting teacher David Garfinkel entitled, "Women, Business, and Advertising." In it he writes:

One problem is that the sales culture and sales training fields are dominated by men...and we often use war metaphors and battle strategies as the basis for success.

Women, generally speaking, don't think in these terms. (Those who do can be very scary.) The female approach tends to be more collaborative and nurturing.

Reading the piece reminded me of a funny and insightful video presentation by Wisconsin pastor and marriage counselor Mark Gungor on the differences between men's brains and women's brains. If you've not seen it before, enjoy it here.

Following the Wall Street Journal's Example

As I type these words, three dozen major newspapers have filed for bankruptcy protection.

Barely four months into 2009 and already several venerable newspapers have gone out of business or moved exclusively to a web-based format.

To drive home Old Smudgy's predicament, a recent Pew Research piece revealed that less than half (43%) of all Americans believe that the loss of their daily paper would have significant repercussions on their communities. Fewer than one-third would personally miss their newspaper greatly if it ceased publication.

Most Americans would simply shrug off the demise of their local newspaper.

But even as much of the newspaper industry is faced with precipitous declines in circulation and advertising revenue, one newspaper has actually been experiencing growth.

If you guessed The Wall St. Journal, advance to Go and collect $200.

According to WSJ Managing Editor Robert Thomson, quoted in parent News Corporation's The Australian , "One of the reasons our core circulations are rising so strongly is because papers around America are diminishing. And whether it's in San Francisco or Los Angeles or Detroit, it creates a tremendous opportunity for us to gain readers who are increasingly internationally aware and also aware of their need to be well informed about the world."

It's worth noting the WSJ's aggressive marketing mindset. They're mindful of the supreme importance of content and are leveraging their leadership and expertise in this area across their various platforms, creating a powerful global brand.

As with other marketers that recognize and seize the opportunities that inhere during a recessionary period, to gain market share at the expense of weaker competitors, the WSJ is exploiting their advantage and moving full speed ahead.

If they can do it, so can you! Assess your competitive strengths, focus your marketing accordingly, muster your troops and take that next hill!

What's stopping you?

Substance vs. Style

Here's an example of a radio commercial that from a distance sounds terrific. Positive, uplifting, even inspiring.

Until you listen to the actual words.

It might make you chuckle, but not without wincing a bit.

Disclaimer: this spot was part of a RAB Sales Meeting of the Month cassette from long ago. Can't remember who the original advertiser was. The last ten seconds of this commercial contained that real bank advertiser's pitch - if you want to do business with an institution that cares, switch to us.

Clever joke back then.

Perhaps not so much today.

Consumer Confidence Linked to Advertising

"Financial Company Ads: Out of Sight ...Out of Business?"

That's the headline on a post at the Nielsen blog.

The article goes on to say, When asked about their own banks, insurance companies and investment firms, 55% of respondents who said they had seen more advertising for their financial institution reported having “complete confidence” in the financial health and soundness of their financial company and only 18% said they had “little or no confidence” in their company.

Companies that maintain or even increase their ad spend during times of economic slowdown often gain market share at the expense of competitors that cut back. When the economy rebounds (as inevitably it will), the aggressive marketer reaps the benefits of that additional market share. Some in the advertising community call this the (Procter and) Gamble strategy; it's sound thinking.

Now there's additional evidence to support the claim that positive PR and advertising go a long way toward preserving familiarity and boosting consumer confidence in an otherwise chaotic environment.

No medium is better suited to fostering this kind of familiarity and confidence than radio.

A competent and caring radio advertising professional can be worth his/her weight in gold to any client who's serious about weathering the present storm and navigating toward a prosperous future.

Radio (Still) Gets Results - an Audio Presentation

The fact that I retrieved this presentation from a cassette tape tells you something about how long ago I put it together. (Hint: it was before we recorded onto flash memory cards, before we emailed MP3's, even before we burned CD's. Seinfeld was airing in prime time, yada-yada-yada.)

Nonetheless, it's worth sharing.

Thinking about the success of Steve and Theresa Myers prompted me to search for this presentation I put together years ago to share some of my clients' success stories with prospective advertisers. It was a local implementation of the RAB's original "Radio Gets Results" initiative.

Back then, I'd ask the prospect to listen to the cassette in the car, driving to or from work. It proved an effective means of establishing credibility with new prospects, and opened many opportunities to help them with their advertising.

Today, a presentation of this sort would likely be posted on a station's website, or maybe uploaded to You Tube.

Running time's about nine minutes, longer than I'd make it if I were doing it today. Folks' attention spans keep getting shorter.

That said, the clients and their stories were/are real.

Myers Auto Rebuild and Towing

It was neat to see my client, Myers Auto Rebuild and Towing, profiled in the March 23, 2009 issue of Radio Ink magazine!

Here's the link to my original post about their successful use of their thirty-second full-sing jingle, "The Client Whose Copy Never Gets Changed."

We should all be so fortunate to have clients like Steve and Theresa Myers.

Another Opportunity for Radio to Shine

May is Military Appreciation Month - providing an opportunity for radio stations and their advertisers to honor local men and women serving in America's armed forces. Five military celebrations take place in May: Loyalty Day (1st) ◊ VE Day (8th) ◊ Military Spouse Appreciation Day (8th) ◊ Armed Forces Day (16th) ◊ Memorial Day (25th)

To help radio stations and advertisers connect with listeners whose family members have served or are serving today to defend and preserve our liberty, Grace Broadcast Sales (GBS) is offering two FREE :60-second radio features for use by any commercial or non-commercial broadcast station in the United States. Each of these one-minute salutes provides approximately :10 seconds at the beginning and :20 seconds at the end for Station or Sponsor inserts.

Audition or download the free spots - and get more information on Military Appreciation Month.

Radio Gets Results - A "Radio Heard Here" Video

Whether you sell radio advertising, use radio advertising, or are thinking about trying radio advertising for your business...here's a short, entertaining video that demonstrates Radio's pervasiveness.



Ironically, Radio's ubiquitous presence may explain why some in the advertising community don't get excited about it. It's not The Next Thing. It's just "there."

As in...

Everywhere.

For more detailed information on the effectiveness of Radio as an advertising medium, visit the Radio Ad Lab.

Raiders of the Radio Ad Budget

Ever stopped to count all the different competitors in your market, trying to raid your clients' shrinking advertising budgets?

After posting on the supermarket video ad display yesterday, I thought it might be interesting to compile a list and see how long it gets.

Here's what I've come up with for starters. Please feel free to add to it using the Comments button below.

Newspaper display ads.
Classified ads.
Newspaper inserts and flyers.
Weekly "shoppers" and other print publications.
Cable TV.
Broadcast TV.
Magazines.
Billboards.
Sports programs.
Sports pocket schedules.
Sports schedule posters.
City maps.
Concert programs.
Yearbooks.
Backs of tickets.
Bumper stickers.
Direct mail.
Door hangers.
Yellow Pages ads.
White Pages ads.
Website banners.
Search ads.
Sponsored links.
Bus stop bench ads.
Airport panel ads.
Hotel window boxes.
Mall kiosks.
Supermarket video displays.
Movie theater ads.
Bowling alley score-sheet ads.
Restaurant menu ads.
Advertising specialties (pens, key chains, etc.)

How to Squander a Perfectly Good Ad Budget

Advertising dollars are scarce in the best of times. Competition is always fierce. But in today's economy, can any businessperson afford to squander his limited advertising budget?

You wouldn't think so.

The sheer number of competitors for local ad dollars is matched only by the mind-numbing stupidity of some of these new alternative forms of advertising.

For a couple years now, I've watched and winced as a local grocery store (a client of mine, no less) has made wall space available to an out-of-town company to mount two flat-screen monitors that carry Powerpoint-type video display ads. These monitors are mounted eight feet or so above the ground, spaced 20 or 30 feet apart at the end of the checkout lanes.

I've stood around paying close attention to see if anyone even glances at these things, let alone watches them long enough for an impression to register. Drives me crazy to see all the advertisers they've bamboozled, including a few regular Radio advertisers (and many that have never spent a dime on Radio. Isn't anybody calling on them?)

Here's a view from the vantage point of Suzy Shopper, the captive consumer, standing in line waiting to be checked out. Presumably, instead of watching her groceries being scanned and rung up by the checker, while engaging in a brief, pleasant verbal exchange, Suzy's head will turn 90 degrees and her eyes will be fastened upon the monitor, as she checks out all the wonderful ads. (Assuming it's turned on. It's been dark on more than one occasion.)

Think she'll head right home with all her groceries? Nah, she'll drive to the French restaurant instead. Maybe have a new furnace installed. Or else she'll drop by the real estate agency and shop for a new home.

Right.

It's painful to think about all the ad dollars that have been wasted on this garbage "medium." At the same time, it represents an opportunity for a conscientious Radio advertising professional to help a business in dire need of better advice.

What similar opportunities exist at this moment in your market?

Fish Mongers vs. Fear Mongers

"The Pike Place Fish Market, founded in 1930, is an open air fish market located in Seattle, Washington's Pike Place Market, at the corner of Pike Street and Pike Place. It is known for their tradition of fishmongers throwing fish that customers have purchased, before they are wrapped. After nearing bankruptcy in 1986, the fish market owner and employees decided to become "world famous", changing their way of doing business by introducing their flying fish, games, and customer performances. Four years later, they were featured repeatedly in the national media and television shows. The store is now a popular tourist destination in Seattle, attracting up to 10,000 daily visitors, and is often billed as world-famous." - Wikipedia

Such is the power of a can-do attitude, backed by the work necessary to make things happen.

This weekend's 11th annual Palouse Empire Home & Garden EXPO was a breath of fresh air for me, as the show's producer, as it was for the eighty or so exhibitors that decided to show up and do some business instead of staying home and talking about how terrible things are. I expected good traffic on Saturday and was not disappointed.

One of my clients, a successful HVAC contractor, talked non-stop to prospects interested in his residential wind generators, for four-and-a-half hours straight, before his wife finally intervened and urged him to take a break and get a drink of water. (Later this week - if I can pin him down - I hope to post a short interview with him about his success at the EXPO and consumer response to his new radio commercial. Stay tuned.)

If you're not subscribing to Roy Williams' free Monday Morning Memo, you really ought to. This morning's edition contained this timely observation from the Wizard:

...a frightened person frightens other people. And these newly frightened people will frighten still more people until finally no one is spending any money. Fear is the fuel of recession. I understand perfectly what’s happening in the world. I simply choose not to be afraid.

You can choose, too...

Warren Buffett agrees with this outlook.

“Fear is very contagious. You can get fearful in 5 minutes, but you don’t get confident in 5 minutes.” - Warren Buffett on CNBC, Monday, March 9, 2009

CNBC: “We’ve been getting thousands and thousands of emails from our viewers. Warren, we’d like to start with one that echoes a theme we heard again and again. This one comes from Terry in San Antonio, Texas, who asks, ‘Will everything be all right?’”

BUFFETT: “Everything will be all right. We do have the greatest economic machine that man has ever created. We started with 4 million people back in 1790 and look where we’ve come. And it wasn’t because we were smarter than other people. It wasn’t because our land was more fertile or we had more minerals or our climate was more favorable. We had a system that worked. It unleashed the human potential. It didn’t work every year. We had 6 ‘panics’ in the 19th century. In the 20th century we had the Great Depression, World Wars, all kinds of things. But we have a system – largely free market, rule of law, equality of opportunity – all of those things that cause the potential of humans to get unleashed. And we’re far from done. Your kids will live better than mine. Your grandchildren will live better than your kids. There’s no question about that. But the machine gets gummed up from time to time. If you take the bulk of those centuries, probably 15 years were bad years. But we go forward.”

Did you notice the quote the twitchy news people of America lifted from Buffett’s very upbeat, 3-hour interview? They filtered out all kinds of affirming, positive statements (such as the one above) to create the headline, “Warren Buffett Says ‘The Economy Fell Off a Cliff.”

Slippery Wall-Streeters triggered this recession but the twitchy news media seems committed to making sure it progresses.

On February 5th I posted a link to a Paul McDonnold piece in the Christian Science Monitor, in which the writer asked, "Is the media reporting the recession - or worsening it?"

We can't stop the news media from being themselves (though Roy's suggestion to slap 'em and tell 'em to stop is tempting) - but we can choose how we'll respond to any adversity we face.

I prefer the approach of the fish monger to that of the fear monger.

How about you?

Enlist YOUR Listeners to Help Defeat the "Performance Tax" Now!

I was working into the wee hours this morning when Tom Taylor's newsletter arrived in my inbox, carrying a story about Cleveland's classical colossus WCLV 104.9 FM taking the fight against the performance royalty bill (sponsored by Michigan congressman John Conyers) to their radio listeners.

As I've had the privilege and pleasure of doing business with WCLV over the years, I asked Robert Conrad, WCLV's founder and president, for permission to share the spot he's currently airing on the damaging effect this new tax bill, if passed, would have on the radio broadcast industry.

Because this issue affects every commercial radio station in America that plays music, you may wish to broadcast your own version of this message and urge your listeners to take action.

If you have a website, you may wish to view the letter of opposition to this measure, based on information provided by the Free Radio Alliance, along with a list of Congressional representatives and their contact information, posted on WCLV's website.

An Opportunity for Radio to Shine

Every year local newspapers and magazines across America conduct their annual reader polls -- "best of" surveys in which their readers are asked to rate local businesses and other entities.

The results of these reader polls generally serve to promote good business throughout the community.

They also provide beaucoup opportunities for (surprise!) ...selling advertising.

Typical survey questions include:

Who's your favorite local TV news personality (sportscaster, weatherperson, etc.)?

Who in town makes the best pizza (hamburger, salad, sandwich, dessert, etc.)?

What's the best Chinese (Korean, Greek, Mexican, Italian, etc.) restaurant?

Favorite bakery (ice cream shop, watering hole, Espresso stand, wine bar, place to meet the opposite sex, etc.)

Favorite local doctor (optometrist, massage therapist, bank teller, college professor, insurance agent, city official, etc.)?

It's not uncommon for a poll to contain dozens of retail categories: clothing, furniture, appliances, lawn and garden, hardware, gifts, jewelry, hair salon, fitness club, book store, auto dealer, tire shop, service shop, drug store, supermarket, meat department...the list can go on and on....

They might also ask who has the friendliest staff? ...the cleanest facility? ...the funkiest decor? ...the best smell? ...the most attractive waitress? ...the best bartender?

Obviously this is just a representative sampling of the types of companies and individuals that can be included in a "Best of [Community]" poll.

But what a marvelous opportunity! It's loaded with benefits and no negatives that I can think of. (OK, so the losers don't get to say they're #1 this year. So what? They might be on top next year, if they work at it.)

At the end of the survey, results are tallied and the winners receive framed certificates to display proudly in their businesses, for all the world to see. It creates a lot of buzz, both for the business community and for the media outlet conducting the survey, whose logo appears on every award certificate.

So why is it that - in most of the markets I'm familiar with anyway - this promotion always seems to be the exclusive province of the print media? ("Ol' Smudgy," as my friend Jay Mitchell likes to call 'em.) Because it's easier for them to conduct a survey?

I'm sure there must be exceptions where the local radio station is running this show, thereby positioning itself as a community leader. I just don't know of any.

But it's a real opportunity for Radio to shine, my friend.

And so easy to put together!

•Let salespeople and air staff help create the survey form, identifying the obvious categories along with a few esoteric ones for fun.
•Write some promos inviting listeners to visit your website and fill out the survey form.
•Take printed copies to remotes.
•Pass them out at supermarkets, shopping malls, anywhere large numbers of people congregate. •Email them to listeners.
•Offer some nice prizes in a random drawing from among all completed surveys. (Great way to build a loyal listener database for future promotions.)

Make it fun, make it worthwhile for people to fill out the questionnaire, and you'll get lots of participation.

Then, make a big deal of announcing and saluting the winners. Use some trade and take 'em out to dinner to present the awards. Create "theater" by broadcasting the presentations. Or literally, take videos and upload them to You Tube and your own website. Share them on Facebook.

Make it as big a deal as you can imagine, and you'll ride on the goodwill for a long time to come.

Best of all, you'll get to do it again the next year.

And the next.

Once you've staked this promotion as YOURS, it'll stay yours for as long as you want to keep it going. And if one of your local print media is already doing a Readers' Poll...do your own anyway. (In the words of the late, great radio sales trainer, Jim Williams, "What the heck's wrong with two good things?")

A favor. If your station is doing this promotion, now or in the future, would you drop me a line and let me know about it? Thanks.

And good selling!

Paul Harvey Tribute Page

ABC is providing this tribute page to the late superstar.

Remembering Paul Harvey

I grew up in Chicago, listening to WLS. Dick Biondi, Art Roberts, Clark Weber, and Ron Riley played records and bantered. Lyle Dean read the news. Paul Harvey turned it into the stuff of life.

America could set its watch by Paul Harvey.

His noontime broadcasts were a given, a constant. Year after year, decade after decade, Paul Harvey showed up right on schedule to share his distinctive take on the news and not-so-news of the day.

When I left Chicago in 1972, his was the only voice that followed me from one market to the next. I couldn't conceive of an American radioscape without Paul Harvey.

He also was a consummate pitchman. When he spoke about a product, you just knew he was telling the truth. To this day, I can still remember the words he used to launch the Teledyne Water Pik as a national brand: "Over, around, and in-between...Water-Pik'd teeth are hydraulically clean!" I admired his ability to communicate product benefits so naturally and authoritatively many years before I backed into my own career in advertising.

Paul Harvey set an impossible standard for elocution on radio, and achieved it daily. His demeanor was ever that of a gentleman, gracious, considerate, and kind. He remained a rock, unmoved by the vicissitudes of a shifting social and cultural landscape.

As I came to learn, his values were grounded in his Christian faith. Decades before there was such a thing as the "Christian Right", it was obvious to anyone with half a brain that he actually took his Bible seriously. The scriptures informed and shaped his worldview.

He didn't wear his religion on his sleeve; he just lived it.

Which is why most days he spoke with a confident smile in his voice and, I suspect, a confident twinkle in his eye.

The milestones he cared about were the extraordinary accomplishments of ordinary people. Celebrity status and achievements were ephemeral and unimportant. Leave the gossip and scandal to others. Paul Harvey would rather call our attention to an elderly couple among his listeners, celebrating their 50th or 60th wedding anniversary that day. Such was the stuff real life was made of.

He celebrated the institution of marriage, even as the revolution of the 60's sought to undermine it. He placed his "Angel" on a pedestal, where she remained until the time of her death a couple years ago. Now they are together forever.

ABC will find someone else to occupy Paul Harvey's time slot.

No one will ever fill his shoes.