Hey, here’s a refreshing change: A Radio Mercury Award winning commercial that’s actually…
Good.
This campaign has been running for a long time. But because the human stories they tell are so vivid and so relatable, the campaign continues to work. (Unlike a certain other long running, always award winning beer campaign…)
Some subtle strengths:
• Unlike 99% of radio advertisers, they do not begin with the advertiser’s name. They are too smart to open with, “At Mount Sinai Hospital…”
• Listeners are not told they are going to hear two parallel stories. They figure it out for themselves.
• Listeners irresistibly are drawn into the “what happens next?” aspect of the storytelling.
• The voice representing the “other” hospital is just as empathetic as the voice representing the advertiser. No attempt is made to demonize the competition.
• Think about the pictures this spot painted for you: The doctors catching the problem and immediately performing heart valve surgery…The arrival of the healthy baby…In other words, the results the advertiser is selling.
There Is Only One Dumb Thing About This Commercial:
The Call To Action.
“For more information, call 1-800-MD-SINAI.”
Huh?
For more information about…what?
You think I’m being too harsh? Go ahead, dial 1-800-MD-SINAI and tell the operator, “I’m calling for more information.” See what happens.
(This spot is so well done that I suspect we’re hearing the heavy handed results of a client insisting upon including their phone number.)
They’re also using a dumb vanity number. No one will remember “1-800-MD-SINAI.”
A vanity number is used when it’s important to get people to remember it. If the goal of this spot is to make people remember their phone number, this spot will fail.
If the goal is to get people to call that number (again, for reasons that have not sufficiently been explained), you want to make it as easy as possible for them to call.
Before listeners can call 1-800-MD-SINAI, they’ll need to translate it into digits. Why put that obstacle between them and the telephone call?
