The current issue of my Radio Advertising Letter discusses:
• The Federal Trade Commission’s new guidelines for testimonials and endorsements in advertising
• The importance of having a Client Protection System
This post is for my subscribers to use to add their own comments, thoughts, rejoinders, etc.
Comments on this entry are closed.
Enjoyed this month’s newsletter, and read your suggestion about establishing a “client protection system”. I loved the idea, until I got to the part about promising the client that it’ll happen.
The reason for my concern? Many stations are not in a position to implement it properly.
In order to set up a real system you can have confidence in, you need to have personnel in place who can make adjustments quickly – traffic people, production people, and live bodies in the studio. The major station groups have spent the past few years laying those people off.
In my old cluster, there’s one continuity person, and two production people, to cover seven stations. These people are overwhelmed trying to stay on top of the regularly-scheduled business. Shows are often voice-tracked in advance and loaded into the computer. At night or on the weekends, there’s often nobody in the building. The joke around my office was that if we ever have an earthquake, it had better happen during regular business hours so we have someone in our news department to cover it.
The problem with promising a “Client Protection System” to a client is that under these circumstances, the odds are overwhelming that the system would break down the first time someone attempted to put it to use. Better to set the system up quietly, and brag about it later if everything works.
If you argue that these companies should never have let it get to this point, and that they have a responsibility to employ enough people to take care of our customers properly, I will agree with you. But that’s the reality of the world we live in. Those decisions are made out of town, and the situation isn’t going to change in 2010.
When an advertiser engages a station its buying more than time and some writing/production creativity. Implicit in any contract should be a real interest in the client’s profitable use of the station. Without it the station’s integrity is in question.
Whether or not a station has a formal Client Assurance Plan, its sales and traffic people should be empowered to act quickly to suspend a campaign or use stand by “generic” copy when the environment for the scheduled message is “stormy”. No pun intended.
With things very stormy for our Toyota dealer clients over the past few weeks, when the news first broke we immediately offered to suspend their schedules on our stations—with mutual understanding billing would remain—and the spots will be re-scheduled when an appropriate new message is crafted.
The dealers appreciated our initiative. They saw the move as an example of the genuine partnerships we try to foster with clients.
Toyota will fix things and dealers who do business with us have indicated they’ll be with us stronger than ever when they’re ready.
With regard to the FTC guidelines, what aqre your thoughts on the use of a voice talent representing the endorser who doesn’t want to be on the radio. For example, the announcer says, “Mary Smith from Oakland wrote the following …” Then the voice talent says what Mary’s letter says. Yes, the announcer could read the letter, but having a different voice read the letter — even though it’s not Mary’s voice — could add to the impact of the message. Legitimate approach? Or too close to the edge? (I know, no one on this list is a lawyer and we’re not dispensing real legal advice.) Anyone?
@Rich: If it’s a real letter from a real person relating a true experience and the advertiser can document that the true experience being related is typical of the results the average consumer experiences…
I don’t see why not.
On the Client Protection Program:
Anonymous thought of the point that I should have first so I commend them on that.
Let’s look at your original example, The Winter Festival. More than likely your cluster (or independent) is going to be the only station running this policy. Therefore the only station to pull the advertising. So, how do you reschedule? The festival is likely only this weekend. Does this mean the festival gets a free run next year?
Since you were the only station that pulled the spots, which station do you think your client is really going to appreciate? Now, you’re right, if you have a really good sales person that can make the client really believe that your station was the only station looking out for the festival’s best interest this could work. I see it. I just don’t see it happening in reality. In the day and age we live in, with the corporate masters that we have.
The idea is sound but the execution of the idea would be questionable