open book

So, we saw the Eagles in Vegas. Wow.

What a great show. Well…everything except for most of Joe Walsh’s stuff. I just don’t get the “love” that so many give that guy. If you ask me, he’s rather annoying. But I could have listened to the sweet harmonies of the rest of the band all night long.

The first half of the History of the Eagles show was amazing. It started out with Don and Glen sitting in chairs with their guitars. They proceeded to tell stories in-between songs about how the band started, how they came up with some of the songs, the Desperado album, and so much more. They were a great pair of seasoned storytellers. I wish the whole show would have been like that. You could have heard a pin drop when those guys were looking back and reminiscing about the old days. We were hanging on every word they spoke.

Which brings me to your advertising. If you’re not sharing some stories in your radio ads…then you’re missing out on what could be. People don’t like to be advertised to. Well, not the way that we usually do – forcing all the wonderful things about a business down people’s throats. Gag. But when you tell an engaging story, you can sidestep the BS meter in all of us and get people to listen. You can get them to understand that you’re not like the others.

Tell a story! Share something interesting with all of us. What? You say you’re not that interesting? I disagree. Feed us some new information in story form, and we’ll listen. We will! Everyone loves a good story! But if say “Phooey!” and you opt for just giving laundry lists of dreadful features of your business, you’ll soon be jaded and say, “Radio advertising doesn’t work!” Well, I would know exactly why you said that…and would then love to prove you wrong. Actually, I have quite a few radio clients who would love to tell you about what happens when you do radio right and when you decide to share a good story.

Tell me a story about helping someone out of a tough jam. Or about how you decided to go into this wacky business of yours. I bet a lot of people would find your stories interesting.

You don’t know what kind of story to tell? It might not come to you right away. You may need some people to brainstorm with you. You may need me to stop by and get the conversation started. I’d love to do that with you. OR… you could sit down with a guitar and pretend to be Don or Glen.

Have a great day!

Duane Christensen (radio ad writing guy / sales & marketing)

Results Radio Townsquare Media – Sioux Falls

605-940-7984

The Great Eraser of Advertising

The great eraser of advertising is SLEEP.
Image courtesy of “Maggie Smith” / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The great eraser of advertising…is sleep. And I’m going to give credit to my understanding of this…to Roy Williams at the Wizard Academy in Austin, Texas. When I went there for 3 days, years back…he literally changed how I looked at the world. And of course he also changed my understanding of how advertising works.

So, the great eraser of advertising is sleep. Every night we go to sleep, our brains purge all the junk out of our brains. It starts putting things like the hundreds of irrelevant marketing messages you were exposed to today into the proverbial trash bin. If it didn’t do this, our brains’ estimated 2500 terabytes of memory would fill up pretty fast. To put it another way, your brain has the potential to store about 2 trillion pictures of cats. Ha! But this is an estimate. Our brains are amazing and we’ll never truly understand how and why it does things.

So, how do we get a consumer’s brain to start remember the plumbing ads for Bob’s Plumbing? Or the mattress ads for the Princess Pea Mattress Factory?

For starters you need repetition to overcome the brain purging every night we sleep. You’ll need enough ads airing on the radio so that the average listener hears a certain radio ad 3 to 4 times per week. And after looking at radio listening habits across the nation, that equates to running 21 to 25 radio ads per week between 6am and 7pm. It’s the closest we can get to a formula when it comes to radio ad scheduling. Of course, there are other options regarding an ad schedule and the best use of your budget. And we can’t forget to take into account your competition and how much they’re advertising to the public.

This is how you get people to start remembering a business’ radio ads. Repetition is the first step towards branding. Just like Pavlov’s dogs, remember? The meat paste and the bell ringing and the drooling?

But getting the dogs to drool when they heard the bell wouldn’t have happened if Pavlov didn’t use meat. If he used lemon juice or Windex, he wouldn’t have got the results he did. In branding a business, there must be a message that’s pleasant and relevant shared with the radio listener that’s tied in with the business itself. You want to associate something good or something helpful with doing business with the particular advertiser who’s trying to get advertising results.

Otherwise…you’re just spouting words across the airwaves that nobody cares about – and will never have the chance to be remembered when people need what the advertiser offers. Amazing results from advertising will come when your ad is of the branding or relationship building nature that has a chance of making someone feel warm and fuzzy in a sense, when they hear it. And when you repeat those kinds of ads over and over, consistently, in a long-term plan, that’s when the “true branding” starts happening.

Then, your ads must also use words that aren’t boring us to death. They need to tell a story. They need to give us useful information. They need to “connect” with us and include a strong emotional element. We’re emotional beings. We like to do business with those we like and trust. Therefore, radio ads should always be increasing the listeners’ chances to like and trust an advertiser before they’ve ever even met them. Then, when the listener actually HAS a plumbing problem… when they’ve had enough of their sore back in the morning… they’ll definitely have Bob’s Plumbing and Princess Pea’s Mattress Factory among the top prospects or hopefully THE top choice for them to call.

Great advertising comes from the words you use…and the manner in which they’re used. I feel like I’m pretty darn good at that. Let me know if you’d like to talk about making your mark on Sioux Falls and the surrounding area. Thank you. Have a great day!

Duane Christensen

Results Radio Townsquare Media

Sioux Falls, SD

605-940-7984

duane.christensen@results-radio.com

http://duanechristensen.townsquareinteractive.com/