Last week I heard a radio commercial for the San Diego Zoo.
Because it was a typical radio commercial, I have no idea what the commercial actually said (other than “San Diego Zoo”).
But at the very end of the radio ad, the announcer shifted from whatever he was trying to talk about to:
“Download the San Diego Zoo app today.”
The commercial wasn’t about the app. It hadn’t mentioned how the app could be of value to San Diego Zoo patrons.
Instead, listeners were instructed to download an app they’d never heard of, so that they could…um…Well, if people download the San Diego Zoo app, they can do whatever it is the San Diego Zoo app does.
Suggestion: Don’t end your radio commercial with a meaningless and irrelevant Call To Action.
Oh, and hey: Download my app.
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I had to deal with restaurants doing something similar all the time. They’d spend the entire commercial talking about intimate dining, delicious food…then they’d want to stick on a quick line about hiring them to cater your next event. And let them host your holiday party. And don’t forget their lounge downstairs with a DJ every Friday night and live music Saturdays. >sigh<
Another one you hear quite often these days, usually tacked right on the end of a commercial and having nothing to do with the rest of the commercial (like that example for the San Diego Zoo app) is: “Like us on Facebook.” Mind you, they don’t give any compelling reason to take that action. But (like most of the other meaningless crap in their commercials) clients think it needs to be there. Probably because their equally ignorant and misguided competitors are doing it, too. When a client insists on adding this bit of fluff, their account rep should be asking, “When’s the last time YOU heard a commercial for ANY business that said ‘Like us on Facebook’ and you actually went and did it? Never? Exactly.”