ERA Radio Council Announces Goals for 2007

By William Sullivan

One of the ERA Radio Council's primary goals in 2007 is to help ERA members understand and appreciate the enormous selling power of radio advertising--when properly produced. There is a general feeling that radio advertising doesn't work like TV.

Thus, our aim this year is to demonstrate that radio does work with the right creative approach--the right copy, the right selling strategy, the right offer. In short, hard-sell, price-driven infomercials work great for TV, but radio demands at least a soft-sell approach. Instead of imitating TV spots that are money-savings driven, we highly recommend radio spots that stress risk-free, satisfaction-guaranteed, money-back offers. We also recommend spots that tell about a product's value and benefits, including stressed risk-free guarantees. Our number-one choice is lead-generating spots that promote call-ins for something free. These spots can maximize response and deliver callers who can then be turned into business-building buyers.

OTHER GOALS
The Radio Council also wants to promote Spanish-language radio advertising. Spanish radio spots translated from proven English radio and TV advertisements can expand your market and become highly profitable new revenue streams. This requires working with professionals who can provide the right infrastructure for creative telemarketing, collateral material, quality control and media to support the Spanish language.

Another one of our goals is to encourage the use of radio to drive listeners to the Internet to purchase products rather than dialing the phone to place their orders. Yesterday, doing business via the Internet was tomorrow's marketing technology, but it's already here today and we want to help our members get in on the cutting edge.

The Council also wants to help ERA members start media convergence projects, which means re-producing successful short- and long-form TV, Internet, magazine, newspaper ads and direct mail into radio and online radio campaigns--in Spanish as well as in English. Radio can become one part of a multichannel marketing plan that optimizes your present successful creative strategies.

We strongly recommend you get help with any of these radio advertising methodologies. The Radio Council members are fully experienced in all of them and can assist the smallest and largest advertisers in any phase of any project. They not only can save you time and help you avoid costly mistakes, but also can assure you of successful new-age advertising campaigns. Contact ERA for available experts, or call me directly.

Bill Sullivan is president of William Sullivan Advertising, a full service agency that specializes in direct response radio and TV. He can be reached at (973) 379-8555, or via e-mail at bill@williamsullivanadvertising.com.