<\/p>\n
Today was a good day.<\/p>\n
I have a copywriting client for whom I’ve just completed a second seasonal radio advertising campaign.<\/p>\n
The campaign goal: To sell event tickets online.<\/p>\n
The commercials run in two different markets \u2014 one to the west of the event location, the other to the south.<\/p>\n
For the first campaign, I created a commercial that they loved \u2014 but that made the Powers That Be a little nervous. They worried that the key reference was a little too “edgy.”<\/p>\n
They wanted me to change the reference, to replace it with something similar but less provocative. They even suggested what we could replace it with.<\/p>\n
I told them they’d be better off with the “edgy” version. I understood their concerns but knew they were being overly cautious.<\/p>\n
Still, the Biggest Power That Be was nervous about my approach, wanted to use the watered-down replacement, and asked me to rewrite the spot to accommodate it.<\/p>\n
Okay. I rewrote it so the replacement fit the entire copy. The client was happy. I was disappointed; we had replaced a great spot with a pretty good spot. But that’s the way it goes.<\/p>\n
I didn’t hear from them for a while and had made a note to call to find out when the campaign would begin. Before I could call, however, I received an excited e-mail.<\/p>\n
After one week of the new campaign airing in Market A, their online sales had doubled. A 100% increase.<\/p>\n
“That’s good,” I thought.<\/p>\n
Then I looked at the results for Market B: Online sales had tripled<\/span>.<\/p>\n And oh, by the way, in Market B they had decided to go with my “edgier” commercial.<\/p>\n A 100% increase feels very good. A 300% increase feels exceptionally good.<\/p>\n That was the first campaign.<\/p>\n For the second campaign, once again one of the spots I gave them was \u2014 not “edgy,” exactly. But the payoff definitely didn’t fit the kind of advertising usually associated with this particular client.<\/p>\n They loved that spot, just wanted me to replace that one “edgy” word with… anything else. But this time, I couldn’t make the change and still make it work. That one word was key to the entire story. I told them I didn’t know how to make the change without killing the spot.<\/p>\n The next day, another e-mail arrived. “The Biggest Power That Be has decided to go with the (edgy word) commercial!”<\/i><\/p>\n They won’t regret it.<\/p>\n Today was a good day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Today was a good day. I have a copywriting client for whom I’ve just completed a second seasonal radio advertising campaign. The campaign goal: To sell event tickets online. The commercials run in two different markets \u2014 one to the west of the event location, the other to the south. For the first campaign, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,58,30,33],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-213","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-bad-radio-commercial","7":"category-radio-advertising","8":"category-radio-copywriting","9":"category-writing-radio-ad"},"yoast_head":"\n