When professional associations advertise, the result usually is dreadful.
Why?
1. Usually they haven’t identified a goal for their campaign, so there’s no way to create commercials to achieve their goal.
2. Understandably, associations know nothing about effective advertising. Less understandably, they’re unwilling to admit their ignorance and put themselves in the hands of advertising professionals who know more.
3. Almost invariably a committee determines both the medium and the message. So instead of a hard-hitting sales message, they end up airing a compromise.
“It’s highly changing.”
“Yes, but it’s always local. Gotta say that.”
“Buying a home is a good investment. We should push that.”
“We want people to visit our website.”
“Well, our members are realtors. We’ve got to tell people to call a realtor.”
Voila! Money down the drain.
Here’s the commercial:
“The real estate market is ever-changing and highly localized. Interest rates are low, and buying opportunities have never been better. If you’re on the fence, the National Association of Realtors wants you to know that a home isn’t just a great place to raise a family. It’s also the key to building long-term wealth. On average, the value of a home nearly doubles every ten years. To learn more, visit Housingmarketfacts.com. Every market’s different. Call a realtor today. (DISCLAIMER)”
Got your rubber gloves on? Let’s do the autopsy….
“The real estate market is ever-changing and highly localized.”
• The opening line of a radio commercial is the commercial for the commercial. This is your one opportunity to command the attention of your target audience. Does that opening line command YOUR attention?
• Who cares?? Is the listener supposed to get excited because the real estate market is ever-changing?
• What the $%#& do they mean by “highly localized”? Are they telling us that the real estate market in Sheboygan might possibly differ from the real estate market in Manhattan? If so, do they think we don’t know that? Even more importantly, why should we care? Are they warning us not to make the mistake of retaining the services of a Manhattan realtor to help us buy a condo in Sheboygan?
“buying opportunities have never been better.”
• Not a single listener is looking for a buying opportunity. Some might want to buy a house. Some might want to stop paying rent or sharing walls with noisy neighbors. But “buying opportunity” isn’t on anyone’s wish list.
• A good radio commercial employs active language. (A passive way of saying that: “Active language should be employed.”)
“Opportunities have never been better” is passive. “If you want to buy a house in greater Sheboygan, you’ll never find a better time than right now” is active.
“If you’re on the fence”
What the $%#& are they talking about? What fence? “On the fence” means not being able to decide between two options. What options are they referring to? Whether someone wants to buy a house? Whether someone wants to buy a house now?
“The National Association of Realtors wants you to know”
Oh! This message is all about what the National Association of Realtors wants. Listeners who don’t happen to be members of the National Association of Realtors couldn’t care less what the association wants.
“…a home isn’t just a great place to raise a family. It’s also the key to building long-term wealth.”
Thanks for telling me that. Being completely ignorant, I had no idea that owning a house could serve as an investment in addition to providing a place to live.
“On average, the value of a home nearly doubles every ten years.”
Boy, is THAT a risky claim to make. What average are they referring to? In fact, I’ll go further than “risky”: That’s the kind of claim that can get an advertiser in serious trouble.
But let’s say it’s true — that over, say, the past 7 decades the value of a home has doubled every 10 years. (Again, I doubt it. But….) At a time when home prices are in a nationwide free fall, citing that statistic makes the advertiser sound foolish and in contradiction to the listener’s experience.
Successful Advertising Intersects Common Human Experience.
At the moment, the value of a home doubling in price is not the common experience of most Americans.
“To learn more, visit Housingmarketfacts.com.”
To learn more about WHAT?
HERE COMES THE CLUE TRAIN: If you want people to visit your website, you need to give them a compelling reason.
“Every market’s different.”
Oh, thanks. I thought they were all the same. Good thing your commercial set me straight.
“Call a realtor today.”
Um….Why? (See THE CLUE TRAIN, above.)
And which is the Call To Action? Do you want me to visit Housingmarketfacts.com, or do you want me to call a realtor today?
What’s The Core Message?
A radio commercial should have a single core message — the one thing you want the targeted listener to hear, to understand, and to remember.
What’s the core message of this spot? Is it….
Low interest rates?
Wealth building?
Housingmarketfacts.com?
The value of calling a realtor?
The Disclaimer
The best way to avoid the negative effect of disclaimers is not to say anything that requires a disclaimer. This commercial requires a disclaimer to weasel out of the highly suspect claim about homes nearly doubling in value every ten years.
Is It Possible This Commercial Achieved Its Goal?
Sure: If the goal was to let members of the National Association of Realtors hear the association mentioned on the radio.
Otherwise, not a chance.
