The First R in Advertising Success – Part Two

Over the next few weeks, I’m sharing with you a formula for advertising success that I was reminded of recently. Last week it was The First R in Advertising Success (part one), and today The First R in Advertising Success (part two).

This is part of the 3 R Formula; it goes like this:

Right Message + Right Audience x Right Number of Times = Success

Last time I talked about the content of the Right Message, today, a different angle on the right message, and I’m going to call it the style and length of the Right Message.

Using Human Relationship Marketing Principles in your advertising will give you an advantage in the impact your advertising has. I’ll use examples from the radio world, since I work for WOWO radio in Fort Wayne Indiana.

Most radio ads are a minute long and recorded with a music background.  The person writing the commercial has 60 seconds to fill and they sometimes use that time to throw in way too much information.  TV ads are usually 30 seconds long and with the power of visual and audio, they do the same thing.  We’ve all seen or heard a car commercial that has 3, 4 or 5 different cars and or trucks in one commercial, right?

Problem is, that is way too much information to cram into one commercial and it violates a rule of ONE MESSAGE PER MESSAGE.  That rule is not a law, that’s why it gets violated all the time and the only consequence is response and results are less than if that rule ONE MESSAGE PER MESSAGE was followed.

Maybe you really don’t need all that time to get your message out.  Copywriters are notorious for filling an ad with extra junk because they have a full minute to fill up.  Or the business owner tells them to include their business hours and free parking and other stuff that takes away from the real message.

When I joined WOWO radio in 2013, I noticed that we had something that others on the WOWO advertising sales had not been using as an option for advertisers.  Well, some were using it, but not very much.

It became my secret sauce recipe and within about 18 months, others started doing it.   The popularity of my secret sauce led to us having to keep track of the special radio advertising format because we were getting close to selling them out!

Here’s what I’m talking about and how it became my secret sauce.

Live News, Weather, and Sports sponsorships on WOWO.

Weekdays from 5am thru the 6pm newscast, Monday thru Friday, we have a total of 188 opportunities for a business to be mentioned in an “embedded” mention by the local newscaster or program host.  These mentions are 10 seconds long and it’s surprising what you can say in those 10 seconds.  It has helped me to focus on the ONE MESSAGE PER MESSAGE concept.

I have some radio advertising partners that only do this type of advertising because they only need to get a very specific message out without much explanation that would require a longer message.

In 2013, when I started selling my secret sauce, these sponsorship messages were priced at $20 each because we had plenty of them available.  Compared to the price of $100 for one 60 second commercial, if the message only needed 10 seconds, I could get 5 times the exposure.

Prices for my secret sauce have risen since then due to the popularity.  $40 or more is the common price during weeks that we are 80% sold out of these live sponsorships.  But still, that is a great price that allows me to expose your business to more people than if we used the same total dollars with 60 second commercials on WOWO.

Here’s how the Human Relationship Marketing Principle works with these ads…

Because WOWO is a news and talk formatted radio station, our listeners tune in to hear what our news and talk hosts are saying.  For example:

WEATHER BROUGHT TO YOU  BY A TO Z COINS AND JEWELRY, IN THE NORTHCREST SHOPPING CENTER NEXT TO FIVE GUYS. DID YOU INHERIT A COIN COLLECTION AND DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH IT? TAKE IT TO A TO Z COINS AND JEWELRY. OPEN THIS MORNING AT 9.

A-Z gets an implied endorsement of the radio station because it’s a trusted radio personality talking about them.

None of our other Fort Wayne Federated Media stations offer this live, embedded advertising messaging to the degree we do at WOWO radio.

Before we wrap this up today, I’ll share a little about the other form of live advertising messages I offer with WOWO that was the gold, no, make that the platinum standard.

Live Endorsement and Testimonial Ads.  These are done by our WOWO personalities Charly Butcher, Pat Miller and Rick Wolf and are a full minute long.  They have the endorsement power of not just WOWO, but also the hosts.  These are the most expensive ads you will hear on WOWO but the Return On Investment makes them worth it.  They also include a form of exclusivity that I’ll share with you in the future.  Or you can contact me and I’ll fill you in on the details.

All of this talk about having the Right Message is extremely important, when you deliver it to the Right Audience.  That’s our subject the next time.