RADIO ADVERTISING: Don’t Water Down The Good Stuff

Today was a good day.

I have a copywriting client for whom I’ve just completed a second seasonal radio advertising campaign.

The campaign goal: To sell event tickets online.

The commercials run in two different markets — one to the west of the event location, the other to the south.

For the first campaign, I created a commercial that they loved — but that made the Powers That Be a little nervous. They worried that the key reference was a little too “edgy.”

They wanted me to change the reference, to replace it with something similar but less provocative. They even suggested what we could replace it with.

I told them they’d be better off with the “edgy” version. I understood their concerns but knew they were being overly cautious.

Still, the Biggest Power That Be was nervous about my approach, wanted to use the watered-down replacement, and asked me to rewrite the spot to accommodate it.

Okay. I rewrote it so the replacement fit the entire copy. The client was happy. I was disappointed; we had replaced a great spot with a pretty good spot. But that’s the way it goes.

I didn’t hear from them for a while and had made a note to call to find out when the campaign would begin. Before I could call, however, I received an excited e-mail.

After one week of the new campaign airing in Market A, their online sales had doubled. A 100% increase.

“That’s good,” I thought.

Then I looked at the results for Market B: Online sales had tripled.

And oh, by the way, in Market B they had decided to go with my “edgier” commercial.

A 100% increase feels very good. A 300% increase feels exceptionally good.

That was the first campaign.

For the second campaign, once again one of the spots I gave them was — not “edgy,” exactly. But the payoff definitely didn’t fit the kind of advertising usually associated with this particular client.

They loved that spot, just wanted me to replace that one “edgy” word with… anything else. But this time, I couldn’t make the change and still make it work. That one word was key to the entire story. I told them I didn’t know how to make the change without killing the spot.

The next day, another e-mail arrived. “The Biggest Power That Be has decided to go with the (edgy word) commercial!”

They won’t regret it.

Today was a good day.