Advertising is war…  End of Story…

Before television, when there was only radio, we as creative writers and producers did a fabulous job at describing a car enough to make someone want to buy it or at least, visit the showroom.

“Sell the sizzle”.

According to Marketing VP’s from Budweiser and Pepsi, the number one problem with radio is that agencies and station do not provide radio creative that sticks the message in the minds of their customers in a way that stay with them. To them, this is far more important than how many people hear the spot. They say radio creative is the key, along with making ads part of the content instead of an interruption. On the other hand, Business owners and CMO’s don’t want great sounding spots. They don’t want cutting-edge effects. They don’t want something trendy or shocking. They simply want the listener to remember the brand message with a desire to find out more, which in turn should sell product if their message is correct. If great-sounding spots do that, great. If, as in the case of “Head-On”, bad creative does that even better, that’s even better! The Saturn spots didn’t say a thing about the car that made me want to find out more. It did tell me I am wasting my time listening to radio since it won’t do the job…the same job they paid money to be on.

I think plenty of people are still happy with radio, and saying that it doesn’t work or that it’s less than the rest is counter-productive.  Radio still works, bad radio doesn’t. It’s like the industry has become complacent in the shadow of other forms of entertainment. Radio people are throwing their hands up and saying “there’s nothing I can do”, yet they’re not stepping up their game like the pioneers did back when radio was just beginning. Think about how resourceful and resilient people had to be in the early years of radio – now we take it for granted. On-air people and the creative staff are why people listen to radio – you can get your music and ads anywhere from the internet to t.v. to satellite, etc.

Man I love you guys! Let’s roll in the grass!

photo credit: Midnight-digital 

Brainstorming  some Shop Local PSA’s today.  So, how can we encourage our local listeners to shop locally and keep the dollars in our own hometown? 

Maybe we could have ”local” merchants come in and say… 

“I’m Bob from Bob’s Burger Barn on First Street encouraging you to shop local. We have six local community members as employees, we pay local taxes, and support local Little League. There’s no reason to send your locally earned money out of our community if you don’t have to. Think local, shop local, and we’ll see you when you come in.”

or…

“Everyone orders out…pizza, Chinese, heck these days you can order movies out. But what if everybody ordered out for things like A/C or car rental. What if you went to the next town or even farther still XYZ City just down the road. What do you think would eventually happen to the economy of our town. Well you can make a difference. How? Glad you asked…by shopping locally at your local business and keeping our money here in our own economy. By doing that you maintain the job market, and help keep our town…blah blah blah blah…so the next time you want to order out for pizza…go ahead. But the next time you need something done to your home or want to shop for that designer brand. Remember the business right here at home. Because without eachother…we’re just another sad cliché inserted here for effect.”

or in the Dick Orkin fashion…

Male1: Jane, I see john’s still sitting on the curb.
Jane: How long has it been…two
Male1: Three weeks now
Jane: He comes in to eat…
Male1: what the heck did he order again?
Jane: one of those flashy dashy, chromy domey…
Male1: You know he could have got that here locally…
Jane: He wanted to say he got it on the internet
Male1: He does know that 80% of local store owners have a website
Jane: I know…He’s a Leo
Male1: Ohhhh..Gotcha
Annc: Shop Locally.. Yada Yada Yada

OR any number of other promos that come to mind.  Are you doing something special to encourage your local businesses to shop local?  If so, let me know by adding your $.02 to the conversation.

Justin Kaiser
Creative Identity Group

Just received the following links from a client…

I suspect he’ll be issuing a challenge to me shortly.

Did I say short?  http://www.shaveeverywhere.ca/en_ca/

http://qml.quiettouch.com/files/publishing/marketing/MarketingDaily/2008/GardeningTips.mp3

http://qml.quiettouch.com/files/publishing/marketing/MarketingDaily/2008/HousekeepingTips.mp3

http://qml.quiettouch.com/files/publishing/marketing/MarketingDaily/2008/DecoratingTips.mp3

photo credit: NickStarr

At Creative Identity Group we have several Auto Dealers as clients that we write and produce Creative for.  Some of our clients, contrary to our recommendations, prefer to go for the hard sell.  Personal preferences aside.  Darren, one of our associates in NW Chicago, has a theory…

“The louder and more obnoxious the commercial, the less intelligent the customer being sought. Think about it. No one ever shouts at you to buy the latest Mercedes but Billy Bob Dodge will act like a complete goof and tell you to see him in “Loooooooves Parrrrrrk!  Here’s proof for my theory. Last night I watched a screaming-character commercial for some low-end car dealership. Can’t remember which - it obviously wasn’t directed to me. Anyway, the announcer said “100% of qualified customers approved!” Think about that. What does it take to get credit approval for a customer? Well, the customer has to qualify! So, by definition, an approved customer cannot be anything other than a qualified customer. Whoever wrote the script for this car dealer thinks that the customers they are trying to attract are absolute morons. And they’re probably right, because the dealer is still in business.”

I thouroughly agree with Darren.  If you want something different, something that will stand out and make your customers stand up and buy, then you need Creative from Identity Group Marketing.

Here to Help!

Justin Kaiser
Creative Identity Group Marketing

We ALL have a great responsibility for Great Creative!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYEf8XZKlUU[/youtube]