Larry

I'm not here to pick on all Larry's. I just happened to meet a 'Larry' just like the one I'm going to feature and can't resist using the name. My apologies to any Larry's this profile doesn't fit. My sympathies to those that it does.

Every seminar I've ever done, whether it be at RAB, a broadcast group or for a cluster that was kind enough to invite me in to speak, there's always a Larry. He invariably he finds me right after I've spoken about the relationship between copy, creative and sales.

Now he begins a conversation, usually about something that has nothing to do with radio. Next, when he thinks he's disarmed me, he puts his arm around me, so now we're 'guy bonding', and begins to tell me about his life in radio. He tells me about his success stories, about how he loves the industry because he gets to work so closely with clients and how it allows him to use his creativity to help them succeed. He knows I'll understand--- we creative guys think alike.

He says he likes what I said in the seminar--- but he has his own way with clients, and it works so, he probably won't be needing our services much, if at all. He pats me on the shoulder for a final 'bonding' moment, smiles, shoots an imaginary finger gun at me, and he's gone. He has retained nothing of what I spoke about-- probably was busy figuring commissions during my talk. He has his way of doing things, and nothing, save the apocalypse, is going to change that..

Understand something-- at BENMAR, we're not here to change the way you think, work or create success. What we do is take the creative out of your way so you can concentrate on other money-making matters. Perhaps, using 25 years of experience, we can help your client's message get a fresh new feel, look and success of it's own. That's what we do. And trust me, the elements we build into a radio ad--even if you don't notice or recognize them-- are there for the sole purpose of creating success.

We're not here to challenge you or change your world. We're not here to tell you you're wrong or right. We offer a tool--and like any good builder, you should keep us in your tool box and use us to help you complete your task as smoothly as possible.

Experience counts. So do results. So don't  'Larry' yourself into a position where you create boundaries and limits because you think you know it all. We don't. You don't either. So let's work together, to bring out the best in each other, and the best in your cluster's air sound.

Mention this ad

If I had a dollar for every time we received a request that said, "the client wants something in the ad that says, 'mention you heard this ad on K triple X' or something to that effect."

Wow. OK, Pandora, step back-- the box is open.

I usually spend about 30 minutes in any seminar discussing this one aspect of radio which is really misunderstood. But not here. Let's get down and dirty. The simple answer is, 'mention this ad' does not work. It's always a losing proposition for you--because no matter how successful, you'll never meet the client's expectations for it. But there IS way to make a variation of this idea work for you.

It's called the Offer of Perceived Value.

What an offer of perceived value does is give the listener a reason to respond. The only key component of it, is it has to be indigenous to your radio cluster--- meaning, no other media source that your client may be involved with can be using it. It has to be specific to you and your listeners. So--- let's look at two examples.

Poor offer----'Come into my dealership this Saturday, take a test drive and I'll give you a free key chain." Nothing compelling about THAT, is there. So this offer has no value to the listener.

Solid offer--- 'Come into my dealership this Saturday and if you're one of the first five people to buy a car, I'll give you an additional $500 off your deal PLUS extend your original factory warranty six months." The line will start early Saturday morning for that one.

Now, all we have to do is couch the words in a way that makes the audience feel special. Well, at BENMAR, we do that in a simple manner-- by making it a gift or special surprise. In other words, instead of  'come in and mention you heard this on KXXX', we say,'Stop by and ask for your special gift. There's one waiting for you, and it's yours, but you have to ask for it.' This accomplishes two things----- first, makes the listener feel special and second, forces the listener to 'act' or respond. Your staff isn't coaxing them by asking., 'hey-- did you hear our ad?", thus corrupting the  actual test and reason for the  whole idea to begin with. Instead, the information is volunteered, making it a purer form of response, and better when your client analyzes results.

See, the ugly truth is, very few listeners will take the time to walk in and say, "hey, I heard your ad on KWWW."  The reasons are one, they don't like to embarrass themselves, and two because, well, frankly, they just don't remember where they heard the ad. And we have documented proof of that.

So don't worry about 'mentioning' the ad. Worry about how to use the idea to gain results and help the client better target customers. And these are just a couple of ideas about how to do just that.