The Radio Mercury Awards – #ThirtyYearsinYourEars

Posted on July 7, 2021 by Rod Schwartz

2021 marks a milestone for the Radio Mercury awards. For 30 years, these awards have recognized exceptional audio advertising created by advertising agencies, production companies, and radio stations across America. The Mercury is to radio commercials what the Oscar® is to movies.

The details and prizes awarded have changed from time to time, reflecting changes in media, culture, technology, and the advertising landscape but the essential vision of the Radio Mercury Awards has remained the same: to reward the creators of outstanding audio advertising messages.

The very first Radio Mercury Awards celebrated the best commercials of 1991, dubbed fittingly “Radio’s Top 40 for 1991.”

Among the brands and advertisers in that first class of finalists were L.A. Gear, U.S. Bank, Crain’s New York Business, Nike, Nynex Information Resources – Yellow Pages (remember those?), Molson Breweries, Washington Apples, Fox Photo 1-Hour Service, USPS Express Mail, The New York Lottery, and Motel 6.

Here are a few of my favorites from that first collection:

“Pirahna” — produced for Crain’s New York Business by Goldsmith/Jeffrey, the spot combines great copy and a compelling voice to deliver its message…incisively. One of three 1991 finalists for this advertiser and agency.

“Different Announcers” — is how U.S. Bank addresses turnover in the banking business by promising to take a longer-term approach to its relationships with small business customers. The ad never says how they plan to do this, nor is U.S. Bank even prominent in this spot. But what impressed me was the parade of famous voices no longer with us, including Mason Adams, Gary Owens, Don Pardo, and Edward Herrmann.

“Fantasies of a Single Girl” — one of three finalists for L.A. Gear produced by Jennifer Joseph, this spot impressed me at the time for its surprise ending. Twelve years later, the memory of this spot would inspire me to write and produce this commercial for a local music store. In 2004, it became that year’s winner of the Radio Station-Produced Radio Mercury Award, an honor that still brings a silly smile.)

“Two A.M.” — A middle-of-the-night phone call from a desperate woman delivers the message that John Moore Plumbing’s 24-hour emergency service is ready to help. The tagline nails it: “Call John, get more.” Cute, entertaining, effective. Created by Radio Works, Inc.

“Not Smoking Habit” — Popular cigarette advertising themes of the past are brought back in short vignettes to describe the pleasures of not smoking. Clever and effective message for the Michigan Department of Public Health by Brogan and Partners.

“Bad Connection” and “I Wish I Was Mary Hart” — Two spots for television shows, written and produced by one of my favorite radio mavens, Joy Golden. Her advertising company, Joy Radio, Inc., was known for its smart writing, witty punchlines, distinctive characters, and astonishingly effective mental theater. (Listen to her iconic Laughing Cow cheese ads and reflect on what you’ve seen with your ears.)

“Singing Telephone Number” — Tom Bodett’s aw-shucks delivery and The Richards Group’s amazing writers have kept the lights on at Motel 6 for 30 years and counting. Winner of the $100,000 Grand Prize in the very first Radio Mercury Awards, this spot was the first of several Motel 6 commercials to earn recognition and cash in the years to come. The consistency of the Motel 6 campaign over the past three decades is possibly the finest demonstration of how to grow a national brand with radio.

If you’ve enjoyed listening to these commercials and would like to hear more, click here to explore the Radio Mercury Awards audio library. And remember, on radio anything is possible!

The Radio Mercury Awards, the only major advertising awards program devoted exclusively to audio advertising, was established in 1992 to encourage and reward the development of effective and creative radio commercials. The annual Radio Mercury Awards competition draws entries from advertising agencies, production houses, radio stations, and educational institutions across the country. Approximately 20,000 commercials have competed for close to $3.5 million in prizes. The Radio Creative Fund (RCF), a non-profit corporation funded by the radio industry, governs the Radio Mercury Awards. The Radio Advertising Bureau produces the Radio Mercury Awards.

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Remembering Rush Limbaugh

Posted on February 23, 2021 by Rod Schwartz

So much has been written and said about Rush Limbaugh recently in the wake of his death at age 70. Much more will be said in the weeks and months ahead, as his millions of listeners and fans mourn his passing and recall the impact he had on their lives.

Rush’s death was not unexpected, of course—he’d been frank with us about losing the battle he’d been waging against his lung cancer—but that didn’t make his absence any easier to embrace. Such was his relationship with his vast audience, a relationship that cannot be quantified by the numbers alone: 27 million listeners, 600+ stations, and a compensation package worth more than the combined salaries of the big three network television personalities* at the time (Dan Rather, Peter Jennings, and Tom Brokaw, with Barbara Walters thrown in for good measure). Heck, even his branded “No Boundaries” collection of neckties brought in over $5,000,000 in the first year they were offered.

KQQQ-AM here in Pullman, Washington was the first station in the Pacific Northwest—and one of the first 100 stations in the country—to carry  Rush Limbaugh’s nationally syndicated program that began in August 1988. It remained a fixture here for 32 years.

I recall getting a telephone call a year or so earlier from one of my advertising clients, Dr. Arthur B. Sachs, Optometrist—he had offices both in Pullman (next to the Audian Theater) and Clarkston (above Wasem’s Drug). Art had just returned from visiting relatives in California and he called to tell me about a show he’d heard on a Sacramento station. “He’s got a funny name. Rush Limbo or something like that. You guys gotta get his show,” Art said. “He’s really good!”

I didn’t know anything about “Rush Limbo” then, and it wasn’t until he hit the airwaves in Pullman that Art reminded me that this was the guy he’d heard in California. And he was, indeed, really good.

Dr. Arthur B. Sachs became a regular advertiser in Rush’s show, as did Wasem’s Drug in Clarkston. In fact, Cliff Wasem, who typically wrote and voiced his own commercials, asked me to find out what it would cost to have Rush voice a spot for him. Rush wanted $350 per spot at that time. Cliff drafted his message, which we sent along with Cliff’s check to Rush. Within a week or so, during the daily closed-circuit feed to network stations, we received this:

Was that disdain in Rush’s voice, a sigh of exasperation when he said “here comes this…spot.” It felt like it. And he may well have preferred not to be endorsing this particular product, but once he started reading—and notice that he read it live in one take, zero mistakes—he made Cliff Wasem’s anti-oxidant enzyme formula for arthritis sufferers sound like a gift from above. (And at $350 for a single read, he was effectively charging $21,000 per hour!)

For a number of years, Rush was a spokesman for Snapple beverages, along with shock jock Howard Stern. (Prior to being hired as a spokesman, Rush had, in fact, been giving Snapple free plugs on his show on WABC, simply because he enjoyed the product.) At the time, Snapple had limited distribution, centered around the New York region. But because his show was nationally syndicated, Rush helped to create such a demand for Snapple across America that the company, which had no manufacturing facilities of its own, made arrangements with some 30 bottling plants around the country to increase distribution to meet the pent-up demand.

Finch’s Grocery in Pullman was an advertiser on our station; the owners, who happened to be Rush Limbaugh fans, were amenable to my suggestion that they acquire all the Snapple they could get their hands on when it first became available here, keep it under a tarp, and advertise for a week that Snapple would be released to the public on such-and-such a date. Because of a familial relationship between the grocers and the beer distributor who became the area’s Snapple wholesaler, Finch’s enjoyed an exclusive franchise for the first few weeks. They created the display, we ran the ads, and when the day came, Snapple was flying out of the store by the pallet load. Here’s Jerry Finch, recalling the promotion nearly 30 years later.

Our contract with the syndicator ensured that we would be the only station in the Quad Cities—actually, the only station between the Tri-Cities and Spokane—to carry Rush, and we were hearing from listeners not only in our primary and secondary coverage areas but out in the fringes of our signal, as well.

Curious to learn more, we offered to send any listener that requested it in writing a printed copy of Rush’s 35 Undeniable Truths of Life, to which he often made reference in the early days of his show. We were flooded with requests, and the cards and letters that poured in spoke volumes about Rush’s popularity with listeners. One farmer from the St. John area wrote that he listened in his tractor, timing his fieldwork so that he’d be working on top of the hill when Rush’s program came on.

Rush loved to “illustrate absurdity with absurdity,” by means of the jargon terms he invented (e.g., “Drive-by Media,” “Club Gitmo,” “Governor Coomo,” “Gorbasm,” etc.) and his exuberant news-of-the-moment updates, introduced with his trademark vocal trumpet fanfare: Dadelut dadelut dadelut dadelut dadeluuuut….

Among the dozen or so categories were homeless updates (theme song: “Ain’t Got No Home” by Clarence “Frogman” Henry, whom he subsequently invited to perform on stage with him at a Rush to Excellence tour appearance); animal rights updates (theme music: Andy Williams singing “Born Free” mixed with the sounds of animal cries and gunfire); feminist updates (several themes over the years, ranging from Lesley Gore’s “It’s My Party” to this over-the-top mash-up); and condom updates (theme song: “Up, Up, and Away” by the Fifth Dimension). Here’s an example of the latter from June 15, 1990, featuring a story from Moscow about a University of Idaho vending machine:

Additional satire was regularly cooked up by Rush’s program announcer, Johnny Donovan, and celebrity impersonator and parody songwriter, Paul Shanklin, whose wickedly funny riffs on popular tunes took on a life of their own.

Not everyone liked Rush, of course. Occasionally we’d receive a complaint, sometimes accompanied by a demand that we take him off the air or risk losing a listener; we’d politely remind the individual that they could choose not to listen to Rush simply by switching stations.

His detractors, most of whom evidently never really listened to his program long enough and carefully enough to arrive at an informed opinion, accused Rush of being a racist, among other things. He was not.  And who better than James Golden, aka “Bo Snerdley,” his intrepid call screener and longtime producer, to lay that criticism (and so many more) to rest. One of the best pieces I’ve read on the erroneous perception vs. the true reality of his character is this from the WSJ.

Rush was a gift to many. One person I spoke with today said she felt that she’d lost a brother, adding that even though she was several years older than Rush, she considered herself a “Rush baby,” introduced to his show by her father.

*Rush’s success as a national broadcaster endured for more than 32 years, a span surpassed only by that of Paul Harvey, whose national broadcasts aired for more than 57 years. (However, Rush filled 3 hours of airtime every weekday, compared to Harvey’s 15 minutes.) No TV anchor enjoyed as long a career on the air: Walter Cronkite (“The Most Trusted Man in America”) occupied his CBS perch for 19 years; his successor, Dan Rather, anchored or co-anchored the CBS Evening News for 24 years; Peter Jennings at ABC lasted 22 years; Tom Brokaw at NBC, 21 years.

KQQQ is inviting its listeners to record their own memories, tributes, and stories about what Rush meant to them, by calling (509) 339-7676 and leaving a message.

Selected older Rush Limbaugh videos and interviews:

Additional links of interest:

Photos from Rush’s funeral, courtesy of Kathryn Limbaugh

Rush answers a 13-year-old girl’s question on why getting American citizenship should be difficult

Oliver North and David Goetsch on Rush’s tireless devotion to America

Heartwarming remembrance by Rush’s cousin, Stephen N. Limbaugh III, a musician and composer (3/27/21)

Rush Limbaugh Tribute Video, featuring his family and friends (opens in new window)

David Limbaugh’s tribute to his brother (4/9/21)

SE Missourian Tribute to Rush (5/25/21) (includes a list of Rush’s achievements and accolades)

James Golden, aka “Bo Snerdley,” is hosting a new podcast: “Rush Limbaugh, The Man Behind the Golden EIB Microphone,” a 12-episode series chronicling the legendary host’s award-winning, 30-plus year career in radio that revitalized the spoken-word format, and provided a platform for him to develop and lead modern conservatism in

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What POTUS Can Teach Us About Marketing

Posted on October 15, 2020 by Rod Schwartz

Editor’s Preface: The following article has drawn more response than any we’ve ever run. Heading into what is likely to be the most contentious political contest in recent history, a number of readers have asked about this piece all over again. I wrote it in the first place, and run it again, because of the marketing principles involved; no political position is expressed or implied.

Back in the 1980s, Philip Kotler formulated five attack strategies and six defense strategies that together compose a novel way of looking at marketing. I got to thinking the other day that our current president has displayed an uncanny mastery of these strategies, whether instinctive or learned. We’re going to review Kotler’s strategies later in this article, but first, let’s look at some of the principles that our unlikely Commander‐in‐Chief employed to win the nomination, win the presidency, and continues to employ to solidify his position. In other words, the seemingly random behaviors, utterances, and tweets that emanate from the Oval Office might actually be based on solid marketing principles. What is interesting about the president’s application of these principles is that he seems to be playing both an offensive and defensive game simultaneously, using a mash‐up of strategies from both columns.

Here’s what I’ve observed:

KEEP IT SIMPLE. Trying to communicate complex, nuanced concepts is futile in a marketing environment. Use short, catchy, memorable phrases; the fewer the words, the more likely the message is to be understood and repeated. Examples: “Lock Her Up,” “Drain the Swamp,” “Build the Wall.”

REPOSITION THE COMPETITION. Whether it’s “Crooked Hillary,” “Little Marco,” “Fake News,” or “The Failing New York Times,” the average consumer (a.k.a. voter) is likely to be swayed by the appellations when they are repeated, consistently, often enough.

This is a particularly effective technique in that the competition is powerless to fight it—because they can’t even acknowledge it. If Ms. Clinton were to say something like, “I’m not crooked,” or The New York Times were to adopt a slogan like, “We’re Not Failing,” they would be playing into the president’s hand. (Neurolinguistic Programming teaches us that the mind ignores a negative. “Not failing” is “Failing”; “Not crooked” is “Crooked.”) Naturally, the marketer who has effectively repositioned the competition would love nothing better than for the competition to respond; that merely gives more exposure to the repositioning.

BE CONSISTENT. Whenever referring to Ms. Clinton it’s always “Crooked Hillary.” It’s always “The Failing New York Times.”

BE REPETITIOUS. Any good marketer knows that anything repeated often enough seeps into the public consciousness and becomes “fact.” (Coca‐Cola has certainly proved that over the years by taking truly awful taglines and making them work by pouring billions of dollars into their promotion.) This rule is a corollary of “Be Consistent”; the two work together to build up impressions and solidify viewpoints.

BE PREEMPTIVE. This is one of Kotler’s defense strategies. A great example is this whole “Fake News” business. By using that epithet early and consistently, the groundwork has been laid for a response to any unfavorable reporting. Since the constant repetition of the phrase “Fake News” establishes it as fact in the mind of the consumer, then any reporting negative to the president is deemed to be “fake news” and thereby discredited.

DOUBLE DOWN. A good marketer understands the value of the competition acknowledging what you’re doing. No matter how withering the competitive response, it’s important to stand your ground—and take advantage of the opportunity to use consistency and repetition yet again.

BE UNPREDICTABLE. Kotler calls this the “Mobile Defense”—it’s hard to hit a moving target. However, in the case of the president, he seems to be using this as an offense. It’s hard to marshal a response when the attacks cannot be predicted. Do anything and everything you can to keep your competition off balance and chasing their own tails. Any time and effort spent in regaining balance is time and effort not devoted to defeating you.

USE THE EBBINGHAUS PRINCIPLE. In 1885, Hermann Ebbinghaus came up with his famous “Forgetting Curve,” which proves what we already know: we forget stuff over time. The president employs this tactic quite frequently: “I’ll have a major announcement in four days”—and the announcement never comes. After four days, most people will have forgotten all about it—and any news media outlet that does not forget has already been branded “Fake News,” so there you go.

Now we turn to a review of Kotler’s attack and defense strategies. How many of them can you see in the president’s behavior?

Kotler’s Attack Strategies

FRONTAL ATTACK. One of the less subtle forms of attack. It involves meeting your competitors head‐on, and generally requires a lot of resources to pull off successfully.

So you will look at where your competitor is currently strong and then pump marketing resources into competing on those strengths. If successful, you can deal a massive blow to the competition and turn their strengths into your own.

There is also an alternative strategy, which Kotler termed a “modified frontal attack.”Here you match your competitor on everything but price, with which you come in lower. By undercutting them, you can convince the market that your offering is of better value, which could sway more customers over to your side.

2. FLANKING ATTACK. Flanking is a little shrewder than a full frontal assault. On a real battlefield, an army will deploy more defensive troops and resource to the areas it expects to be attacked, leaving certain other areas more exposed.

The same is true on the marketing battlefield, as your competitor will be likely to spend more resource defending its key territories. But this gives you the opportunity to identify and geographical areas where they’re weaker, allowing you to focus your efforts on them for some easy wins.

You can even launch a mini frontal attack to encourage the competitor to divert even more resources to their key territories, while you launch your real flanking attack on their exposed areas.

3. ENCIRCLEMENT ATTACK. Encirclement attacks are all about overwhelming your competitor into submission, and like the frontal attack they require a lot of resources.

You need to identify all of your competitor’s positions and products in the market. You then need to launch a well‐orchestrated simultaneous attack on all of them at once, for example by introducing rival products to every one of theirs. You can even give your attack a super‐cool name like “Operation Total Market Takeover.”

This will force them to either spread their resources extremely thin to defend their territories, or get them to sacrifice some so that they can afford to defend others. Either way, you’ll deal a heavy blow.

4. BYPASS ATTACK. Sometimes in the face of a tremendous enemy, the best tactic is to avoid a confrontation altogether. But that doesn’t mean just giving up, instead you keep a careful eye on the enemy so that you can build up your strength in areas they haven’t even considered.

So you might decide that since your competitor dominates the domestic market, that you’ll take your business overseas. Or you might develop types of products and services which your competitor doesn’t even offer, so that you don’t need to worry about them standing in your way.

And then, once you’ve built up your strength in these new areas, you might find that you’re able to spend some of your new resources on launching a successful attack against the original competitor.

5. GUERRILLA WARFARE. Guerrilla warfare is all about winning multiple small victories against a competitor, which cumulatively become a larger victory over time.

You might launch attacks on small territories you know the competitor won’t bother to defend, but over time you could start to build up a substantial market share. Think of it as death by a thousand cuts.

But guerrilla warfare shouldn’t be thought of as a cheap option. If you actually want to ‘beat’ your opponent then it will probably just have to be a preparation for a real frontal, flanking or encirclement attack.

Defense Strategies

So now you now how to attack, but how do you go about setting up an effective defense? Well, Kotler devised a number of strategies for that as well.

POSITION DEFENSE. This is the marketing equivalent of sitting back into your chair, stroking a white cat, and saying “bring it on.” It’s where you pour all of your resources into building a fortress around your flagship product, with full confidence that it’s strong enough to carry your whole business.

But in practice, no fortress is impenetrable. After all, even the Death Star had an exhaust port‐ shaped chink in its armor. Resting on your laurels like this is generally the least effective strategy, as in the long run you’re likely to end up losing out.

2. MOBILE DEFENSE. As any boxer will tell you, it’s much more difficult to hit a moving target than a stationary one. In marketing this principle is applied by diversifying into new products and segments.

By spreading your efforts out this way, you become a much more difficult target to pin down. They’ll be reluctant to commit to a large‐scale attack on you as it will only affect one part of your business, and may not deal the massive blow they want it to.

3. PRE‐EMPTIVE DEFENSE. Maybe you’ve got a spy in your competitor’s ranks who’s tipped you off, or you’ve heard rumors that they’re working on a product to rival yours. If this is the case then you could be in the position to launch a pre‐emptive defense to shut down your competitor’s attack before it gets a chance to start.

You might rush out a new product which will outshine your competitor’s new one, or you might pump more advertising resources to that sector to drown out any noise your rival wants to make.

4. FLANK POSITION DEFENSE. Getting flanked by an enemy is a constant concern for military commanders, which is why efforts are made to protect yourself from all sides. In marketing, taking a flanking position means that you establish a defensive presence in a weaker segment which you anticipate your competitor will move into.

So you might launch a regional version of your brand or product overseas to counter any expansion your rival might make into that market. The important thing is to dedicate enough resources to secure a decent foothold in each flank, otherwise your enemies will be able to steamroll you out of the competition without much cost or effort to them.

5. COUNTER‐OFFENSIVE DEFENSE. Ever heard of fighting fire with fire? When you’re facing a head‐on assault then chances are that you’ll want to retaliate. Well, Kotler suggests three ways of doing so.

First is a head‐on counter assault of your own, where you lock horns with your enemy and see who’s tougher. The second requires more tact, as you pause for a moment and wait for the attacker to reveal a weakness you can exploit. So you might find that your competitor’s product lacks a key feature, and really play on that in your own attacks. Finally comes a pincer movement, where you might release two counter products at once. One could match the opponent’s and the other could beat it on price, so that they struggle to defend against both.

6. STRATEGIC WITHDRAWAL. This isn’t the same as just giving up; the word “strategic” means that it’s different. It’s always better to live and fight another day than to foolishly fight a losing battle until the inevitable grizzly end.

This strategy is where you withdraw from your more vulnerable areas and redirect your resources to the more defendable ones, which Kotler likens to a hedgehog withdrawing into a spiky ball. So you might sell off some of your smaller operations to focus more efforts on your more profitable ones.

Reprinted with permission from The Small Market Radio Newsletter

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Ask the Wizards – Marketing Advice from the Wizard of Ads® and partners

Posted on April 20, 2020 by Rod Schwartz

Business owners and radio marketing executives get answers to their questions on marketing in a COVID-19 world by Roy H. Williams (the Wizard of Ads®) Ryan Deiss (founder of DigitalMarketer.com), and Daniel Whittington (Chancellor of Wizard Academy). Send your questions to: questions@wizardacademy.org and subscribe to these weekly videos, free for a limited time.

Posted in Advertising (General), Branding, Business, Client-voiced commercials, Communication, Consultants, Copy, Copywriting, life lessons, Positioning, Problem-solving, Professional Services Advertising, Radio Advertising, Radio Commercials, Radio Copywriting, Radio Production, Sales, Sales & Marketing, Shop Local, Slogans and taglines, Storytelling | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Ask the Wizard of Ads® – Free Now!

Posted on April 1, 2020 by Rod Schwartz

Roy H. Williams, the Wizard of Ads®, and Wizard Academy Chancellor, Daniel Whittington, recently announced that they will be offering weekly one-hour videos, in which they answer advertising and business questions submitted to them by email.

It’s a generous offer from one of the world’s truly original small business marketing and advertising experts, respected and admired especially by radio advertising professionals across the USA and Canada.

Roy and Daniel are joined by Ryan Deiss, Board Chairman of Wizard Academy and founder of DigitalMarketer.com. We’re talking serious marketing firepower here!

I hope you won’t pass by this golden opportunity to learn from the best and position yourself to better serve your customers in the challenging weeks and months ahead.

Posted in Advertising (General), Branding, Business, Client-voiced commercials, Communication, Copy, Copywriting, Grace Broadcast Sales, Positioning, Problem-solving, Professional Services Advertising, Radio Advertising, Radio Commercials, Radio Copywriting, Radio Production, Sales, Sales & Marketing, Storytelling | Leave a comment

What Businesses Need From Local Radio Right Now

Posted on March 24, 2020 by Rod Schwartz

What do businesses, especially those closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic,  need from their local radio stations right now?  A relevant advertising message that addresses the new reality of closures, quarantines, business not-as-usual.  At minimum, the information businesses need to provide is:

I. What is the advertiser doing to serve their customers’ needs while they’re closed?  (We’re doing things differently for a while.)

  • Are they working at the store/shop/office, even though closed to the public?
  • Are they working from a remote location?
  • How can customers connect or interact with them while they’re closed?
  • Phone? (Voice, text, what numbers?)
  • Email? (How often checked?)
  • Can customers shop online? (Is website chat available?)
  • What additional help/information is available at their website?
  • For all of the above, what’s the target or estimated wait time for a response?

II. Offer a personal message of encouragement to let customers know that they’re not alone in this, preferably in the advertiser’s own voice and words. Share some good advice or a personal anecdote. Examples:

  • We realize this situation is unprecedented, inconvenient, difficult, and frustrating. But we’re in this together, so let’s work together to help each other, as neighbors and fellow citizens.
  • Share stories, especially ones that offer humor, cheer, inspiration, or edification. Maybe a favorite Bible verse, poem, or anecdote from your own experience. Anything to make a connection and engage in a positive way.
  • Remember that “sheltering in place” doesn’t mean complete isolation. Use your phone to stay in touch with friends. Make an extra effort to reach out to seniors and others who may be living alone.
  • Resources are available to help with personal, financial, and physical, mental, and spiritual health issues during the crisis. (Even if others are providing this information, it doesn’t hurt to share it yourself.)
  • If you’re unable to work and looking for something to do with your time, consider volunteering, making yourself available for delivery or some other needed service. Call your local hospital, school, or nonprofit and ask how you can be of help.

III. This is not a time to be silent but to be present, in touch, and actively engaged with your customers and community.

  • Don’t go dark.
  • Don’t stop communicating.
  • Eventually, things will return to normal and the businesses that maintain (or even increase) their share of voice will see their share of market rebound, as well, as has been abundantly documented* in previous downturns in the economy. 

*a small sampling of articles on marketing and advertising during a recession. If you know of one that should be on this list, please share it in the comments below or email it to me.

THRIVE IN A RECESSION. HOW TO. (The Monday Morning Memo for 12-3-07)

WHEN A RECESSION COMES, DON’T STOP ADVERTISING (Forbes 9-5-19)

HOW TO ADAPT YOUR MARKETING TO A POSSIBLE SLOWDOWN IN THE ECONOMY SHAPED BY THE CORONAVIRUS. (Forbes 3/5/20)

HOW TO MARKET IN A DOWNTURN (Harvard Business Review 4/2009)

ADVERTISING DURING A RECESSION (WARC publishes case studies of marketing excellence from all over the world. An excerpt from this article follows.)

More importantly, the data also reveal that a moderate increase in advertising in a soft market can improve share. There is a substantial body of evidence to show that a larger share of the market generally leads to higher return on investment.9

For the aggressive marketer, the data suggest that a more ambitious increase in expenditure, although reducing short-term profit, can take advantage of the opportunity afforded by a recession to increase market share even further.

THE EFFECT OF RECESSION ON ADVERTISING (The Conversation blog)

ADVERTISING IN A BAD ECONOMY (The Balance Careers 7/25/19)

 

Posted in Advertising (General), Branding, Business, Client-voiced commercials, Communication, Consistency, Grace Broadcast Sales, Positioning, Problem-solving, Professional Services Advertising, Radio Advertising, Radio Commercials, Radio Copywriting, Radio Production, Sales, Sales & Marketing, Shop Local, Storytelling | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Rodney Dangerfield, Bank of Pullman, and Me

Posted on October 15, 2019 by Rod Schwartz

Celebrities are paid handsomely for endorsing products and services; the bigger the celebrity, the heftier the fee.

Whether a celebrity endorsement is worth the sizable extra investment is debatable. It’s one thing to have a spokesman who is intimately, if not inseparably, associated with a brand. For instance, Tom Bodett’s decades-long association with Motel 6 has been a huge win for both parties. However, simply shelling out megabucks to have a well-known actor or sports figure attach their fame to your name doesn’t guarantee that you’ll recoup your investment.

But what if you could get that big celebrity endorsement at no cost? That’s what happened to one of my local clients in the early 1990’s.

Pullman, Washington’s last independent community bank was Bank of Pullman, which operated until 2001 when it was acquired by AmericanWest Bank (which in turn merged with Banner Bank in 2014). But 26 years ago, Bank of Pullman was still thriving as Pullman’s hometown community bank.  I started calling on them when I moved here in 1979, working directly with its president, Emil Schell, and a decade later with his son, Gary Schell, who followed in his dad’s footsteps. Both men prided themselves in providing banking services to local families and businesses. Its key officers and employees had been with the bank for decades.

The bank was a regular advertiser with our local stations. Sometime in the late ’80s or early ’90s, Gary invested in a catchy jingle package, We’re Hometown People That You Know, to reinforce that special bond between the bank and its customers. It remains one of my all-time favorites. Here’s an example of one of Gary’s radio spots at the time.

Then, in 1993, something unexpected happened. Gary’s cousin Joan married comedian  Rodney Dangerfield. And one day, Gary gets this cassette tape in the mail with a note from his new cuz, saying Rodney has created a spot for Bank of Pullman, as a gesture of goodwill. All of a sudden our little hometown bank has a big celebrity endorsement, free–no strings attached.

Gary told me the story, gave me the tape, and said he’d like to run it. I took it back to the studio and edited Dangerfield’s voiceover to fit in one of the special cuts from the Hometown People jingle package. The result was this spot.

Evidently, it impressed a few people. Earlier this year, someone in the Remember Pullman When Facebook group posted that he recalled Rodney Dangerfield endorsing Bank of Pullman on the radio and wondered what that was all about. Someone tagged me in that post, which sent me down a rabbit hole in search of an old cassette tape. Months later, while going through some old minidiscs, I found the two spots above, along with some other vintage material.

Twenty-six years later, the spot still makes me smile. I thought you might enjoy it, too.

 

Posted in Advertising (General), Branding, Business, Casting Talent, Client-voiced commercials, Jingles, Radio Advertising, Radio Commercials, Radio Copywriting, Radio Production, Slogans and taglines | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Seeing With Your Ears

Posted on October 22, 2018 by Rod Schwartz

His canvas was our minds.

His paintbrush, words.

And the pictures he painted so vividly made us see.

They made us think. 

And they made us buy – whatever he was selling.

Paul Harvey was the master of spoken-word communication. His choice of words, melodic intonations, and impeccable phrasing influenced the thinking and behavior of millions of Americans for more than a half-century.

I recently came across a remarkable thirteen-minute video profile of Paul Harvey, narrated by Chicagoland DJ Bob Sirott, who also worked for ABC affiliate WLS-AM when this video was made. Paul Harvey fans will enjoy every minute of it. 

HE TAUGHT US HOW TO SEE WITH OUR EARS. And if you’ll listen to the picture he paints in the space of just 17 seconds (beginning at 1:05), you’ll understand a little more of the power of pure audio, spoken-word artistry.

Advertisers and radio advertising professionals, take note of what he says beginning at 4:28, and again starting at 9:50. It’s pure gold for anyone who hopes to persuade people, to influence consumer behavior, to move goods and services.

You already know that “word-of-mouth” is powerful. Imagine how much more powerful it can be when you start controlling it? 

Need some help with that?

 

Posted in Advertising (General), Branding, Business, Communication, Copy, Copywriting, Paul Harvey, Positioning, Problem-solving, Radio Advertising, Radio Commercials, Radio Copywriting, Radio Production, Sales, Sales & Marketing, Storytelling, Voice Acting, Voiceover | Leave a comment

“How Often Should My Message Be Repeated?”

Posted on July 30, 2018 by Rod Schwartz

“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” 

John_Wanamaker's_Clothing_House,_Market_St,_Philadelphia,_PA_1876

Wanamaker’s famous quote on advertising has been widely disseminated. For some, it has inspired bold risk-taking and marketing breakthroughs; “nothing ventured, nothing gained.” For others, it’s been little more than a bromide to justify laziness, complacency, and mediocrity in advertising.

Wanamaker, a practicing Christian, refused to advertise on Sundays. His newspaper ads were widely considered to be fact-based and trustworthy, and Wanamaker guaranteed the quality of his advertised merchandise in writing, allowing customers to return any unsatisfactory purchases for a cash refund.

Costco, Amazon, WalMart, Nordstrom’s, and many other other successful retailers today emulate his customer-centric policies.

Ever an innovator in his marketing and attentiveness to the customer experience, his department store was the first to provide an in-store restaurant; he even installed a magnificent pipe organ, at a cost (adjusted to 2018 standards) of nearly three million dollars, it attracted throngs to the free concerts he provided in the Grand Court. That organ is still in regular use today at the Macy’s Department Store that occupies the location of the original Wanamaker’s in Philadelphia.

Meanwhile, in England, a contemporary of Wanamaker’s named Thomas Smith wrote a book called Successful Advertising. It contained this now white-haired explanation of the need for repeated exposure to advertising in order to achieve success:

The first time people look at any given ad, they don’t even see it.
The second time, they don’t notice it.
The third time, they are aware that it is there.
The fourth time, they have a fleeting sense that they’ve seen it somewhere before.
The fifth time, they actually read the ad.
The sixth time they thumb their nose at it.
The seventh time, they start to get a little irritated with it.
The eighth time, they start to think, “Here’s that confounded ad again.”
The ninth time, they start to wonder if they’re missing out on something.
The tenth time, they ask their friends and neighbors if they’ve tried it.
The eleventh time, they wonder how the company is paying for all these ads.
The twelfth time, they start to think that it must be a good product.
The thirteenth time, they start to feel the product has value.
The fourteenth time, they start to remember wanting a product exactly like this for a long time.
The fifteenth time, they start to yearn for it because they can’t afford to buy it.
The sixteenth time, they accept the fact that they will buy it sometime in the future.
The seventeenth time, they make a note to buy the product.
The eighteenth time, they curse their poverty for not allowing them to buy this terrific product.
The nineteenth time, they count their money very carefully.
The twentieth time prospects see the ad, they buy what is offering.

In Smith’s day, newspaper and magazines were the only mass-media advertising available to merchants. Their counterparts today can find success advertising on radio, television, the internet, and a plethora of lesser-reach advertising choices.  Whichever medium or media you choose, the question remains: how often should your advertising message be repeated?

If your message is strong, and the timing and audience are ripe, once may be sufficient. A timely Facebook post might be enough to get the few dozen folks you need to take advantage of your dinner special.

But if your message is strong, and the timing and audience are ripe, it also may be repeated successfully for decades, as in the case of the classic Maxwell Sackheim/Victor Schwab advertisements for Sherwin Cody’s English home study course.

The same holds true of the many jingles and slogans that have been woven into the fabric of our lives over the past century. Those of us who were around prior to 1970 can still recall cigarette jingles that have not aired for nearly a half-century.

To illustrate the point, just fill in the blanks below with the name of the advertiser:

“_________________________. When you care enough to send the very best.” – used continuously since 1944, it was created by one of the company’s salesmen on an index card

“__________________. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance.” – one of radio’s top advertisers.

“More saving, More doing. That’s the power of the _____________________________.” – another of radio’s top advertisers.

“I’m lovin’ it.” ____________________.

“__________. It’s everywhere you want to be.”

“________________. Eat fresh.”

“Just do it.” ________

“___________________. Because you’re worth it.”

“Every woman alive wants ____________________.”

“Nothing gets between me and my __________________.”

Pretty easy, huh?

And how much effort did you expend to memorize them in the first place?

None. You were simply exposed to them over and over again, and they’ve become indelibly etched into your consciousness.

For those in the Pullman/Moscow market who may be reading this, a couple more:

“_____________________. It’s not just a job. It’s a future.” – I wrote this one for a local advertiser whose reach has expanded dramatically over the past 35 years.

“______________________. You’re gonna love what happens next.” – Another tagline I developed for a local advertiser. You know his name. You may even find yourself singing it in your head.

Repetition is vital to most successful advertising. To paraphrase one of my major influencers, Roy H. Williams:

  • Repetition is the hammer that drives the nail (your message) ever deeper into the mind of your customer.
  • Repetition is necessary because sleep is the great eraser of advertising.
  • People stay “sold” like grass stays “mowed.” You need to keep at it, keep at it, and keep at it.

This is why one of my longtime clients hasn’t changed their ad in over 25 years. It’s a singing ad. The music production company provided the tune and the singer, I wrote the lyrics. Again, if you live in the Pullman area, you can probably guess who I’m talking about. And just for the record, the reason the ad never changes isn’t because we’re lazy; it’s because the advertisement is still getting results for them. Skeptical? Call and ask them how they know it’s working.

How’s your advertising working these days? Are people talking about it? Are they responding to it?

If not, you could use some help. It’s as close as your phone.

 

Posted in Advertising (General), Branding, Business, Communication, Radio Advertising, Radio Commercials, Radio Copywriting, Radio Production, Sales, Sales & Marketing | 1 Comment

Conversations in Advertising: Are You a Participant or an Eavesdropper?

Posted on July 19, 2018 by Rod Schwartz

By Photos by Bertilvidet, European People’s Party, Republican Conference of the United States House of Representatives. Collage/graphic by Didia [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons

Whether you’re a business trying to engage consumers or a political candidate wooing voters, before your ad hits the airwaves, make sure it passes the Gossage test:

“An ad should ideally be like one end of an interesting conversation.”

(Howard Luck Gossage)

The “interesting” part depends on your content and its relevance to the listener. As to the “conversation,” there are two ways you can engage the listener: either as a participant or an eavesdropper. You can talk directly to me, or you can let me listen in on someone else’s conversation.

The late Dick Orkin was a master at creating great theater-of-the-mind using dialogue, as in this spot for Time Magazine:

Listener-as-participant is the approach most often taken by radio writers. With the right script and the right voice, nothing else is needed to capture and hold our attention, as illustrated by this award-winning spot for Ortho’s Fire-Ant Killer, delivered by killer voice actor Steve Morris:

It’s true that national advertisers and ad agencies have greater resources at their disposal than most local small businesses can afford. Does that mean you must settle for second-rate work? Hardly, especially in radio, the only pure-sound medium.

Listen to this spot for a local music store, which ran successfully for many years, featuring the voice of Cliff Miller, lead singer of local band The Fabulous Kingpins and an employee of the store at the time. I recorded Cliff on a portable Sony Walkman in a teaching room above the store.

Another local example – this time we’re eavesdroppers, listening to a story as it’s being told by the participants:

Whether you’re hearing that spot for the first time or tenth, chances are it held your attention. And holding a listener’s attention long enough to make a meaningful impression is the goal of every advertising message. Some succeed; too many fail. But one of the keys to success is having a firm grasp of whether your listener is going to be a participant or an eavesdropper.

This becomes even more important in the other spoken-word broadcast medium, television, because now you have to control the picture, as well as the words.

For example, there’s a political race in our area that’s drawing national attention, the race for U.S. Representative for Washington’s District 5 between Cathy McMorris Rodgers and challenger Lisa Brown. Stay with me for a moment and you’ll see just how audience engagement can be crippled by a single, simple lapse in perspective.

First, here’s a TV spot for Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers in which two presenters take turns talking to us:

It’s an effective approach. The alternating conversations keep us engaged as the story moves forward. Cathy comes across as confident, competent, and comfortable.

Now, here’s a two-and-a-half minute video featuring her challenger, Lisa Brown, also talking directly to us…or so it seems. Because at :53, 1:30, and 2:06 into the spot, the producer inexplicably decides to show us that it’s not a conversation; it’s a performance, as the candidate is viewed from the side and further away from the camera. How does this shift in perspective enhance engagement or credibility?

9-29-22 Update – Brown’s campaign video was subsequently taken down following her unsuccessful bid to unseat the incumbent, hence the “Video Unavailable” placeholder.  -RS

Setting aside the candidates’ political differences, McMorris Rogers’ spot is decidedly more engaging. Brown’s decision to call attention to the fourth wall* for no good reason is an unnecessary distraction. It draws our attention away from the candidate and toward the video producer! With all the money being thrown at this election, I’m surprised the Brown camp let this get past them.

For those of us who work in spoken-word media as ad writers or producers, it’s essential to understand the distinction between participant and eavesdropper throughout the message. And since a campaign consists of multiple messages, it’s usually advisable to preserve that distinction from one message to the next. Consistency will help drive your message, your business, your brand deeper into the minds of your prospects.

Need help with your advertising? It’s as near as your phone. Let’s talk!

——

*The “fourth wall” is a convention in performance art, an invisible barrier separating the audience from the action taking place onstage or onscreen. We, the audience, can see through the wall at the action taking place; but they, the actors, cannot see us watching them, as they go about their performance. However, when an actor takes cognizance of the audience, either through direct address or reference, he is said to be “breaking” the fourth wall. Breaking the fourth wall turns an observer into a participant, as when House of Cards’ Frank Underwood suddenly looks straight into the camera and confides in the viewer, or in this scene from Blazing Saddles.

P.S. Can you imagine James Bond turning to the camera and start talking to you?  Never!

Well, maybe just this once…

Posted in Advertising (General), Branding, Client-voiced commercials, Communication, Copy, Copywriting, political advertising, Radio Advertising, Radio Commercials, Radio Copywriting, Radio Production, Sales & Marketing, Storytelling | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment