DAN O’DAY TALKS ABOUT RADIO

Many radio stations have rules that prescribe a minimum lead time before a new advertising order can air. These most often range from 24 hours (too short, in my opinion) to 72 hours (barely long enough).

During a break at a sales/copywriting seminar I conducted for a state broadcasters association, I heard one attendee tell another, “My station has a rule that all new orders have to be turned in at least 72 hours before the air date. But it’s never enforced, so we usually get the copy orders at the last minute.”

I couldn’t help but correct him. “A rule that isn’t enforced is not a rule. It’s a suggestion or a request. But it’s not a rule.”

Sadly, at most stations with “rules,” here’s what happens when an account executive turns in a copy order past the deadline.

Production Director to Account Exec: You want this on the air on Friday? Our policy is 72 hours in advance, and it’s Thursday already! No way!

Account Exec to Station Manager: The production director says he can’t produce this in time to go on the air tomorrow, and the client says it has to start first thing in the morning.

Station Manager to Production Director: This radio station does not refuse money. The customer is always right. We need team players here. Are you or are you not a team player?

Production Director to Station Manager: Sure, I’m a team player. But the station’s policy —

Station Manager to Production Director: I’ll make an exception this time. But I don’t like people who make waves, and I’m starting to get the idea that you’re a wave maker.

At a different state broadcasters association sales/copywriting seminar a production director complained, “I can’t get our salespeople to turn their copy in on time.”

“What percentage of the time do they turn in their copy late?” I asked.

“At least 90%.”

I shared my solution with the attendees and then asked a sales manager in the front row, “If you adopted this technique at your station, how would it affect the frequency with which copy is turned in late?”

He thought a moment and then replied, “It would probably drop the percentage of late copy to 2 or 3 per cent.”

I offer this solution to you only if you agree that your clients deserve more than a last-minute compilation of ineffective advertising cliches, hastily recorded over a completely unrelated music bed.

Here it is:

1. Determine your policy — 48 hours, 72 hours, 96 hours — however much in advance you believe is necessary to insure at least a minimum of quality for the final product.

2. Make sure everyone in the building is aware of the policy.

3. Include in your policy one other other point: Any time a salesperson turns in an order in a time period that is shorter than the prescribed minimum, the producer of the spot will receive 50% of the commission on the sale.

If you do that, all of the standard alibis magically will disappear:

“I couldn’t get the information from the client in time.”

“I was too busy working on that other big account.”

“I would’ve had the order in on time, but I had that emergency dental surgery.”

I’m just sayin’….

Most radio advertising salespeople have been taught to sell “The Immediacy of Radio.”

But they’ve been completely misinformed as to what that “immediacy” actually means.

They’ve been taught to equate “immediacy” with, “Give us the copy — or just the order — this afternoon, and we’ll get it on the air tomorrow morning.”

That is not what “the immediacy of radio” means.

The concept of “the immediacy of radio” comes from the fact that radio can cover news as it happens.

It dates back to the days when if some major event occurred, people would automatically turn on the radio because they could learn about that event as it unfolded. They didn’t have to wait until the next day’s newspaper to find out what happened.

If you’re over the age of 40, when you were growing up and you heard about some big news story and wanted to get the details immediately, what did you do? You turned on the radio.

Unfortunately for Radio, CNN changed all that.

“The immediacy of radio” never meant, “Give us the order today and we’ll put you on the air tomorrow.”

But most radio salespeople have been taught otherwise, and they in turn have led their clients to expect almost instant turnaround on their copy.

Why is that bad for Radio and bad for advertisers?

If you routinely accept an order at 4 o’clock in the afternoon for airing the next morning, you are doing two things:

1. You are virtually guaranteeing the client does not get his or her money’s worth, because you are not allowing enough time to do a professional job of creating the advertising.

Yes, you can write, produce and air a new commercial within 24 hours. Or within 24 minutes.

If you manage a radio station and allow that to occur, then you are contributing to radio’s small percentage of most advertising budgets and to the all-too-common complaint, “I tried radio, and it didn’t work.”

2. You are training your clients to think of radio as a “last-minute” medium of last resort, rather than as the powerful advertising medium that it can be when used properly.

Tomorrow: I solve the age-old problem of “getting the salespeople to turn in their copy orders on time.”

Really.

Perhaps I should’ve saved this for Halloween, but….

Years ago I advised a nightclub whose owner insisted on talking about his new $75,000 sound system.

I told him, “Nobody cares that your new sound system cost you $75,000.”

That kinda hurt his feelings, because spending that $75,000 was a big deal to him.

“What will your patrons experience as a result of your new sound system?”

“A state of the art audio system!” he enthused.

“So? How will that affect your patrons?”

“They’ll enjoy the music more.”

“Why?”

(Exasperated) “Because it’s a brand-new $75,000 system!”

“Why does that mean they’ll enjoy the music more?”

“Look, at most clubs you’ve got the deejay on one side, separated from the crowd…even if it’s a small space. The music comes at you from the ceiling. But with this system, the floor literally vibrates to the music. It’s like…like you’re not dancing ‘to’ music; you become part of the music. It’s extraordinary. That’s why I spent $75,000 to buy —”

“Don’t tell me the name of the system.”

“Why not?”

“You’re not selling the audio system. You’re selling the extraordinary experience of becoming part of the music…and, I’m guessing, part of the entire crowd on the dance floor?”

“Exactly!”

We filled the club with our radio campaign.

Today’s Lesson That Applies To All Advertising Media

Talk to your prospects about things they care about, in their language.

Here’s a huge sign over a local dry cleaning establishment….

There might be dry cleaning customers who are looking for an establishment that uses “environmentally conscious” equipment and materials.

But there isn’t a single “civilian” anywhere who is looking for an establishment that has “the latest state of the art DF-2000 dry cleaning and special wet cleaning systems.”

Is it possible that DF-2000 paid for part or all of that sign? Yes.

Even if the store got the sign for free, would they have attracted more customers by paying for a sign that gives people a reason to want to patronize that store? Yes.