radio advertising Articles Search

How many of you actually believe the radio commercials you hear? Many businesses tend to over sell their capabilities, and as a result, end up making just one sale and losing a long-term customer. Here is where advertising gets interesting. Send out a simple, believable message to capture a new customer, then, when you have them in your business go overboard to win them as a loyal fan. In the article “Promise Small, or Promise Big”, Trent Hamm reveals some simple examples of ...

It’s sometimes downright dangerous to latch onto a celebrity spokesperson for your radio advertising. Or maybe it’s more like a trip to Vegas, a gamble. There are local celebrities, which you would find in your market, from radio personalities to higher profile local personalities. Number one, they need to fit your brand. Not long ago here in the Houston market we had a Houston basketball superstar touting the Chevrolet brand, while he was seen driving around in his favorite ...

Fast Company recently revealed the ten most addictive sounds in the world. The article “This Is Your Brain on Jingles” by Martin Lindstrom is a great read. Music and sounds have a way to transport us to a special place in our lives. Beyond our favorite songs, advertising jingles and sounds hit the memory buttons as well. In the article, when sound was removed from slot machines in Vegas, revenue fell by 24%. When slow music is played in restaurants, we tend to eat slower and ...

A telephone hotline for their fans, a price cap on tickets, and their own mail-order house. These guys were into social media long before anybody even knew the term. So what did they do that was so special? The passionately embraced their fans, then super-served that fan base. Read the article “Make Your Money Like Gerry Garcia”. We found it in the March issue of The Atlantic. Written by Joshua Green, it’s beyond entertaining, it’s got a message for your ...

You might think that a radio commercial that leverages “lust”, “alarm”, “vice” and “power” might be selling something illegal, or just as bad, distasteful. But according to Sally Hogshead, these are key triggers persuasion and captivation. We recently taped an interview with Sally on The Advertising Show, and that interview is coming up in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, read a taste of what you’ll be hearing in the article The ...

There have been numerous books written on the subject, and you can’t deny that women play an important role in the purchasing decision. And it’s not just those products that you might think, it’s a lot more, like homes, cars, vacations, consumer electronics and a variety of service industries. As radio creatives, we have take a serious look at this with every piece of radio advertising we produce and distribute. In the article “Marketing to Women, Who’s Doing ...

We found an interesting article called “Recession Era Marketing Poses Challenge for Marketers”. The original piece, published in Knowledge @ Wharton, says we as consumers, full of high anxiety are either trading off or trading down. Not only does a brand have to emphasize its value, but demonstrate how it might be beneficial to this high-anxiety consumer attitude. This is definitely food for thought when creating your radio advertising campaign. Take a look at the article and see ...

Why does it take a specific event to get people really keyed into commercials. Obviously the Super Bowl has built a brand, great football, great commercials, and we eat that stuff up. In an article called “What Super Bowl Advertising Can Teach Your Small Business”, Rohit Bhargava gives us his take on how you can tap into a few key elements to differentiate your business. To do this, you don’t need a seven figure budget or the brightest agency on the planet. This type of ...

Local radio advertisers can take a cue from national chains this Valentine’s Day; consumers are looking for a bargain. Stuart Elliott, in the New York Times says we’ve turned into savers rather than spenders, especially coming off Christmas. So what does that say about your Valentine’s Day offerings. If you’re a spa, or service oriented business, you’d better design a promotion that gives your customers more. When you’re competing against retail giants ...

One of Coke’s jingles sang, “It’s the real thing”, Canada Dry ginger ale is made with “real” ginger. Not a big deal, yeah it is, according to how our current administration sees things. According to the article “Can Marketers Back Up Real Claims", appearing in Advertising Age, written by Emily Bryson York, the Obama administration just might come calling, if you decide that you’re the “real deal”. The word “real” is ...

Radio is hailing the new year as a time of getting back to business, and back to the way it used to be, and we also believe that it’s time to challenge the way you see advertising, specifically radio advertising as a part of your media mix. For the past two years we’ve seen many businesses either cut ad budgets completely or dramatically reduce their ad spends. For those of you who decided that a positive media presence was important, congratulations, you have now out-paced your ...

Okay, as an advertiser wouldn’t you just love to map out 2010 with just enough budget to make the bottom line healthy, and be able to deliver your product or service message to best satisfy everyone who wanted it? Or, maybe morph your product or service into a refined package that better address the need. The article “10 Essential Consumer Trends for 2010” really does a great job of looking at a variety of consumer behaviors and beliefs (some risqué). Needless to ...

An article worth stopping what you are doing just to get a glimpse into the real world of 1960’s advertising. With names like George Lois and Joy Golden, take a few minutes to get her perspective on what it was really like on the creative side of an advertising agency. The BBC documentary called “Selling The Sixties” is a great read and includes some cool video clips. Enjoy the feature called “Pioneering Ad Woman on Selling the Sixties”.

John Jantsch is one of our favorite marketing guys. His “Duct Tape Marketing” material is a must have for small business. His article “ 5 Trends That Will Shape Small Business in 2010” is worth reviewing. And this is a must read for those of you who are afraid, confused, in denial, or generally are ignoring the social media aspects of advertising. In our radio advertising campaigns we always suggest introducing an element of social media into the creative. It ...

One of our favorite ad guys, Walter Hammock, always signs his emails with a quote from Henry Ford, and it reads, “a man who stops advertising to save money, is like a man who stops a clock to save time”. Well guess what, lots of folks were guilty as charged in 2009, and it makes me wonder why. Some of our clients went full steam ahead, other’s adjusted their radio ad budgets and others, kind of vaporized. In the article “Report: Radio Expected to End 2010 on an ...

Still hiding under a rock, wondering if the economy will come back this holiday season. Chances are that if you hesitate, you will be last on your customers list. From K-Mart to Wal-Mart, Home Depot to Lowes, ad spending is up this holiday season and that means those who hesitate will lose. It doesn’t matter if you are a big box store or a small retailer, don’t let your competition beat you to the punch. According to an article called Some Retailers Bulking Up on Ad Spending This ...

If we didn’t already have enough options on our plate as to how to relate to radio listeners, we have yet another. We had this issue come up with a session for the Houston Texans. How do you “say” the year 2010. Is it “two thousand ten”, or “two thousand and ten”, or “twenty ten”. Silly question, but the same issue was written about in The New York Times. The article “Naming 2010”, written by Stuart Elliott, titled “2010 to Come in Plain and Fancy Versions” as car dealers flip a coin to ...

As a business owner, anticipating a rebound, or just waiting to see what your competition does might be a mistake. Kohl’s is a good example of taking advantage of an opportunity to spend sensibly, and react quickly. In the article from Advertising Age “Kohl’s Increases Ad Spending to Woo Holiday Shoppers”, written by Natalie Zmuda, Kohl’s is beefing up its advertising budget and radio is one of the benefactors. Very smart, because at a time when radio is feeling the sting of a down economy, ...

Some marketers call this a conversation economy. What does that mean? We are no longer marketing products and services, but marketing conversation, or better yet, triggering conversation with creative scripts and produced commercials. With radio advertising, that equates to starting a conversation, then pulling that conversational community together through non-traditional and other forms of media. For another perspective, take a moment to read the article called “Marketers need ...

Radio Lounge has successfully used local market radio personalities to sell a product. These “produced to sound live” ads are normally used in conjunction with produced radio spots, as part of the overall marketing effort. It’s a simple concept that some advertisers don’t get; you’ve got to connect the personality with the brand. Nationally or locally, advertisers are sometimes too quick to link to a personality without doing their homework. In an article from Advertising Age entitled ...