A loyal reader writes:
I’m a production director and one of my Account Executives has a client that is INSISTING on a radio coupon (by the way, it’s an additional 5% off — BIG DEAL).
I’ve told the client NO on several separate occasions. Finally I was overruled by my station owner. He told the AE to include the radio coupon in the ad and write the client a letter stating that this won’t work. I still think we should stand firm, but he’s the owner.
My purpose for writing is I would like your permission to include an excerpt from HOW TO EDUCATE YOUR CLIENTS about radio coupons in this “letter to the client”. (I added a 4th reason at the end – see below). The entire excerpt is below.
RADIO COUPONS
by Dan O’Day“Mention Radio X and you’ll also receive….”
“Tell us you heard this radio commercial, and….”
“Ask about our ‘radio special,’ and….”In “the business,” it’s known as a radio coupon.
Why Your Advertisers Want To Do This
Your advertisers have an excellent reason for wanting to include such a line in their commercials:
They want accountability and they want some concrete way to measure the effectiveness of their radio campaigns.
Why You Never Should Allow It
It seems logical to them, but there are four good reasons why you shouldn’t allow them on your station:
1. They don’t work.
2. They make your client sound cheesy.
3. They make your station sound cheesy.
4. THEY DON’T WORK.
Sure…Go ahead! (My book goes also explains the reasons behind those reasons.)
Comments on this entry are closed.
We discourage them too, but our stations will only allow them if the whole spot is devoted to the “coupon”. The offer must be mentioned minimum 3 times, you can’t say “tell them you heard this ad” and no mention of station name so we’re not associated with it. They also have to include the phrase–It’s simple–just ask for your ____% off.
What about online coupons from the station’s website? Better approach?
When confronted with RCI (radio coupon insistence), here’s the only way I’ve made it work: a) insist the coupon be worth at least 15%, b) make the entire commercial about the discount, and c) make it fun to participate. Had a furniture store promote a “Super Secret Sale.” The only person who knows about this sale is you, and when you come into the store, quietly say “Super Secret Sale” and you get 15% off. Worked like a charm. (Until, of course, the client decided to make his spot “better,” but that’s another story.)
Radio coupons don’t work for one primary reason:
Customers could not possibly care less about the stores they shop.
They don’t care about where they heard or saw the advertising that got them to purchase from any given business. And – more important – they will outright lie if pressed on the information.
Two actual cases from my history:
A client ran a radio coupon in a commercial for a week. Then they called and cancelled the rest of the advertising schedule. Why? Because their customers told them that they saw their ad in the newspaper. The station sales rep said, \But you’re not advertising in the newspaper – you’re advertising only on our station\. The client’s response: \Yes but if our customers tell us they think we’re in the newspaper then that’s where we need to be.\
Case #2:
I was working at a rock station as production director and got a call from an irate religious bookstore owner. \HOW DARE YOU RUN ADVERTISING ABOUT MY STORE ON YOUR FILTHY STATION!\, he yelled at me.
\We’re not running anything about your store,\ I replied, \we don’t run ads from stores that aren’t paying us to be on.\
\WELL YOU MUST BE BECAUSE MY CUSTOMERS SAY THEY HEARD AN AD FOR MY STORE ON YOUR STATION! YOU TAKE THAT OFF THE AIR RIGHT NOW OR I’LL TAKE YOU TO COURT!\
After a little more yelling from him I was able to discern that some teenagers had come in and told him they heard an ad about his store on our rock station. It was a lie, but the guy refused to believe that customers in a religious bookstore would lie to him.
Moral of the story: Until Intellectual Capacity Becomes A Federal Requirement To Own A Business, This Is What We Get.
I’d recommend sales training. Start with how many weekly spins a spot needs to get one P1 impression. Couponing isn’t evil, but it belongs in a printable or text form, and never on the air, it’s not what we do.
I’m stuck with this issue again today, and between AE and the PM, this production/copywriter is being ignored.
It’s possibly borderline tho, the restaurant is offering to knock R100 off your bill if you mention you heard it on the station. To try n make sense of the currency exchanges, Beloved and I recently had a lovely, indulgent lunch there (including a middle-of-the-winelist bottle of bubbly) and the bill came to R600. So it is a fairly substantial discount he’s offering.
Sadly it is going thru, and only as a tag at the end a Live Read commercial.
Sigh.