November 2009 – Channel Crossing: Radio

Radio Campaign Killers

By Natalie Hale

While driving back from this year’s ERA D2C Convention in Las Vegas, I reflected on the number of meetings we had with clients already in television that were now looking at how they could make radio work. It seems there is a lot of confusion on how to transfer a successful TV campaign onto the radio. So here are some things to beware of. One of the medium’s most popular hosts, Dr. Laura, might call them “10 Stupid Things DR Pros Do to Mess Up Their Radio Campaigns.”

Use YOUR TV Creative for Your Radio Campaign
Just because your TV spot is working doesn’t necessarily mean that you can simply take the audio bed and create a radio spot. This usually doesn’t work because you have no visual to leverage against. Radio depends mostly on the emotion driven by the audio.

Assume Radio Can’t Work as Well as TV
Products that can drive a strong emotional response typically will work on radio. Some examples of product categories that have enjoyed great success on radio are health and beauty, financial, education, supplements and anti-aging products and lead generators. Any product that requires a strong visual to explain its benefits won’t work as well on radio as TV. Generally, strong radio products are those with soft offers that can generate a pricepoint of $100 or more.

Use the Wrong Offer on Radio
Hard offers don’t work on radio. Radio works best by offering a free incentive like information, a sample, a CD or a DVD. A free offer that also requires a small shipping fee can work for the right product to better qualify the call and improve your conversion rates at the call center.

Use the Same Call Center for Radio as FOR TV
This could work–but not always. A call center that converts well with a TV hard offer may have a hard time converting the soft-offer radio call. Again, radio does not have the advantage of a TV visual. A good radio call center will have the ability to probe and rebut effectively, leveraging the initial emotion that motivated the call.

Overpay for Radio Time by not Using an Experienced DR Radio Agency
Experienced agencies specializing in DR radio will already have established remnant rates and a history with numerous stations that have already worked well for past clients. This way, you won’t waste dollars experimenting with stations that may not be priced to reach your goals.

Give TV all the Credit for Website Orders
This happens all the time in radio. Radio gets the short end of the stick because the URL is not in the commercial, so it is assumed that if the consumer heard the ad on the radio, they will only call. Often, listeners write down or commit to memory your product name in the car (they may not not remember your phone number) and search for it when they get to a computer. Your radio campaign deserves credit for the lift it gives to web orders. There is an ongoing debate as to whether to put the website URL in the radio spot along with the phone number (which needs to be in the spot three or more times). If your URL is short and easy to remember, then I would suggest trying to mention both–assuming there’s time in the commercial to do so. However, make sure you give radio credit for the lift that is associated with this. In some campaigns, the drive-to-web component could make up 35 percent or more of the response.

Put Too Much Information in the Spot
Keep in mind that most radio spots are only 60 seconds with no visual, so the message needs to be simple and focused.

Only use Per Inquiry to Test Radio
Per inquiry is good for supplementing your campaign and I recommend devoting at least 10 percent of your media spend on this technique. However, per inquiry is limited in availability and not that scalable. It is also highly preemptible and typically runs in less desirable dayparts. Give your campaign a fair test and the best chance of working by investing at least $5,000 to $7,500 per week for three to four weeks using remnant radio inventory. It’s worth it to get better times, stations and exposure so you can truly do the “discovery” on what will work.

Don’t Take the Time to Test Several Creatives and Offers
It takes time to determine if your copy is working effectively–often more than a week. And even if that first piece of copy doesn’t generate many calls, it shouldn’t be assumed that radio doesn’t work. You have to be willing to test several creative units and offers. It may take three different forms of copy to finally get the most effective cost per call. For instance, we had a client that started off with a $50 cost per call with one piece of copy, but by tweaking it, we were able to reduce the cost per call to $10. But it took three weeks to get to this successful metric.

Use a vanity number or the Same Phone Number as Your TV Campaign
While vanity numbers are great to have and can contribute to effective branding, it makes it impossible to track and optimize the campaign for either TV or radio. Being in the dark is fine when everything is working well, but to optimize a campaign effectively, it is wise to know exactly where your media dollars are most effective.

Natalie Hale is CEO of Media Partners Worldwide, an established DR agency since 1997, specializing in radio. You can contact her at (562) 439-3900 or nhale@mediapartnersworldwide.com.