Author: "Doctor" Phil Bernstein

Does Your Media Rep Matter?

Dan O’Day recently posted the story of a gift store owner who was making a potentially-extremely-costly decision. He was about to prominently feature this mistake in his radio ad. The mistake was an obvious one, but neither the owner nor the station Account Executive noticed it.

Luckily, the production director spotted it in the copy, and pointed it out to AE, who called the client. Crisis averted.

The story generated a lively discussion in the comments section about what a media rep’s job really is.

There are some advertising buys where it doesn’t matter who books the order — the campaign’s already done, the copy’s already written, and all that’s left is negotiating the price and doing the paperwork.

There are other times where it really matters who your rep is. This story involves one those times:

A Portland auto dealer decided on Thursday afternoon that he wanted to be on the air by Saturday. He doesn’t write copy, so he told me what the offer was, and I got to work.

  • Wrote a script, sent it back to the dealer, who approved it.
  • Sent it to the manufacturer for co-op approval. Learned that the factory had changed the co-op rules on January 1 (the dealer hadn’t mentioned this). Required language now much longer.
  • Removed some copy to make room for the longer co-op language. Resubmitted to the manufacturer.
  • Sent it to my contact at the Oregon Attorney General’s office to make sure there wasn’t a problem with the dealer’s offer. There was a problem.
  • Called the dealer to discuss the AG office’s concerns. Called the AG’s office back to discuss possible solutions. Called the dealer back and convinced him to change the offer and avoid a big fine.
  • Rewrote the script. Resubmitted it to the manufacturer for co-op approval.
  • Dealer decided he wants to make the same offer at two stores instead of just one. This means two versions of the script. Wrote a second version.
  • Checked the two stores’ web sites to make sure the links mentioned in the call-to-action were operational. One store web site turned out to be down. Called the store GM, learned that it was in the middle of a redesign and would be down for a while.
  • Removed the web site from that store’s copy. Replaced it with a phone number.
  • Notified three other radio groups that new spots for two stores would be coming later that afternoon.
  • Dealer arrived for his 11:30am recording session — at 3:15pm. On Friday. With the spots due to start Saturday morning.
  • Matt Jones, Clear Channel Portland Production Director extraordinaire, stayed two hours late to get the spots done. He sent them to me, and I sent them all over town.

There’s a much longer version of this story that stretches deep into the weekend (and involves a trip by Matt back to the station on Sunday. Thank you, Matt Jones). But that’s the basic idea.

This particular campaign would not have gotten on the air unless the dealer’s media rep:

1. Knew how to write good copy quickly.

2. Knew the procedure for securing co-op approval.

3. Had a basic understanding of Oregon and Federal consumer advertising law — and a relationship with someone at the Department of Justice who could clarify things in the case of a gray area.

4. Could effectively coordinate a project involving a manufacturer, a state agency, two stores, and four radio groups.

Luckily, I was available for the task. And in the words of Muhammad Ali, it ain’t bragging if it’s true.

If you’ve got a nice, simple campaign where you’ve already done all the work, feel free to call anybody.

If, on the other hand, your Portland or Vancouver-area business has a marketing project that’s too important to trust to just anybody, Phil Bernstein is but a phone call away. The number’s 503-323-6553.

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Click this link to subscribe to Portland’s Finest Advertising and Marketing Blog.

Request your free copy of Phil Bernstein’s white paper, The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them here.

Got a question? Call Phil Bernstein at 503-323-6553.

Join The Great Portland – Vancouver Twitter Challenge

I’ve been among the skeptics on Twitter, but two recent events are causing me to take another look:

* During the recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai, many witnesses, victims and hostages used Twitter to communicate with the outside world. While the event was going on, Twitter was as important as CNN in trying to figure out what was going on — in fact, Indian authorities begged witnesses to stop tweeting because they suspected that the attackers were using Twitter to follow troop movements.

* According to the New York Times, the Israeli Consulate in New York recently held a Twitter-only news conference.

If the Israeli government thinks that it’s worth communicating with the Twitter audience, who is Phil Bernstein to argue? So it is with great pleasure, and some curiosity, that I announce my first major Twitter initiative:

The Great Portland/Vancouver Twitter Challenge

It’ll work like this:

Portland/Vancouver area businesses will provide prizes worth $50 or more. Five companies have already agreed to participate — I’d like to wind up with eight.

Each company will also provide a question. The answer to each question will be on the participating company’s web site.

On Friday, January 23rd, at 9am, I’ll send out the first question via Twitter to my vast army of followers. Along with the question, I’ll provide a link to the sponsor’s web site.

Entrants click on the link to the sponsor’s site, find the answer, and tweet it to me. First correct answer wins that hour’s prize.

At 10am, I’ll send out a new question, with a new link and a new prize.

Once an hour, I’ll tweet a new question, until I run out of prizes.

The only way to compete in the contest is by following me on Twitter. You can sign up for Twitter here — it’s free. You can find me at http://twitter.com/philbernstein. If you’re already on Twitter, I’m @philbernstein.

One other note: if you win, you’ll need to pick up your prize in person at my radio station in Portland, Oregon. This is deliberate — I’m doing this to help Portland/Vancouver area businesses, which means that this is a Portland/Vancouver area contest.

If you’re a local business and would like to provide a prize, I’ve still got three slots open as of Thursday morning. Call me at 503-323-6553, or email me here.

Next week, I’ll provide a list of prizes and contest rules, so watch Portland’s Finest Advertising and Marketing Blog for details.

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Click this link to subscribe to Portland’s Finest Advertising and Marketing Blog.

Request your free copy of Phil Bernstein’s white paper, The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them here.

Got a question? Call Phil Bernstein at 503-323-6553.

A Green Marketing Innovation: Eco-Friendly Liposuction

Guy Kawasaki, via Twitter, alerted me to this story of Dr. Alan Bittner, a Beverly Hills doctor who claimed to be running his Ford Explorer on liposuction fat.

According to Dr Bittner, his patients are more than happy to be involved in the extraordinary eco-friendly scheme.

“The vast majority of my patients request that I use their fat for fuel and I have more fat than I can use,” he said.

This could have turned out to be the marketing coup of the century — save the earth and get thinner thighs! — if only the authorities hadn’t shut him down.

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Click this link to subscribe to Portland’s Finest Advertising and Marketing Blog.

Request your free copy of Phil Bernstein’s white paper, The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them here.

Got a question? Call Phil Bernstein at 503-323-6553.

Recruiting Case Study: Radio Gets Results for Owens Corning

Owens Corning was preparing to open a new plant in Gresham, Oregon. They needed to recruit skilled workers for some tough-to-fill positions.

So Owens Corning decided to give radio advertising a try. We put together a combination radio-and-online campaign on 1190 KEX Radio in Portland.

Did it work? We’ll let John McClellan of Owens Corning tell the story:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSk7rVRVUCs]

Candidates who heard the ad were directed to type in the keyword “Owens Corning” in the search bar on the KEX web site. This took them to a special page we built which described the open positions and qualifications. The page had a link so that candidates could email resumes directly to an Owens Corning recruiter.

It was easy for Owens Corning to track results and know exactly what they got from the campaign.

While the traditional recruitment advertising methods, such as classified ads, job boards,  and career fairs, are good at attracting the “active” job seeker, they miss the very desirable “passive” candidate — the currently employed worker who isn’t seeking a new job, but would be open to a new opportunity.

Radio advertising excels at reaching those candidates as they drive to and from work, and on the job site.

If you’ve got positions to fill in the Portland/Salem/Vancouver area, Phil Bernstein — that’s me! —  can help you get these kind of results. Give me a call at 503-323-6553, or email me here.

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Click this link to subscribe to Portland’s Finest Advertising and Marketing Blog.

Request your free copy of Phil Bernstein’s white paper, The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them here.

Got a question? Call Phil Bernstein at 503-323-6553.

When Can You Stop Advertising?

One of the most common questions a new advertiser will ask is, “How long do I need to advertise?”

To answer, advertising people like to tell the story of the day McDonald’s decided to stop. For one day, the story goes, McDonald’s pulled everything — radio, TV, print, you name it. They’d been relentlessly marketing their products for decades, and figured they’d earned the right to take the day off and save a few bucks.

The punch line, of course, is that store traffic count and sales dropped immediately — McDonald’s executives were so shaken that they resumed marketing the next day, and haven’t stopped since.

Disclosure time: as much as I like the story, I have no idea if it’s true, and have never been able to locate its source. If you can point me in the right direction, leave a comment below.

But on December 31, 2008, I got a true story of my own.

Paramount Equity Mortgage has been running radio ads on 1190 KEX in Portland for more than three years. They’ve been on the air every week of the year during that time. Although the offers have changed as the mortgage business has changed, the basics have been remarkably consistent.

For more than three years, they’ve used the same spokesman — Hayes Barnard. They’ve used the same jingle. There’s always been just one call to action — “call 503-718-one thousand”.  After three years of this, many KEX listeners could probably recite that number from memory if you woke them from a sound sleep.

But not everybody.

On December 31, Chris Brown, in our commercial traffic department, received a voice mail from a KEX radio listener. I’ve changed the listener’s name and number, but otherwise this is a verbatim transcript:

Good morning Chris, my name is Bob Johnson. This morning on my drive in, approximately 5:15am on 1190, I heard a commercial… I believe it was for, Paramount Equity, it was a mortgage company advertising loans… mortgage loans. I was unable to write down the phone number and would certainly like to contact these people. I do not have a contact number. If you could get that number to me, my number is 503-555-1212. I’m very interested in the product and if it would work for me. Appreciate your help.

I called the listener back and gave him Paramount’s number.  I asked him if he was a regular KEX listener, and he said he’s been listening for years, tunes in almost every day, and is a member of the Mark & Dave Cult (our afternoon show listener club).

What amazed me about this is that over the past few years, he must have heard Paramount’s commercials – and phone number – hundreds of times. Maybe thousands. He should have been able to recite that phone number in his sleep.

And yet, the day he finally decided to refinance, he needed to be reminded one more time.

Not everyone forgets that quickly. A strong campaign will get into many consumers’ heads —  Les Schwab and Fred Meyer and McDonald’s have a semi-permanent place in millions of mental hard drives.

But Les Schwab, Fred Meyer, and McDonald’s know that “semi” always comes before “permanent”. The day you stop advertising is the day that your customers begin to forget about you.

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Click this link to subscribe to Portland’s Finest Advertising and Marketing Blog.

Request your free copy of Phil Bernstein’s white paper, The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them here.

Got a question? Call Phil Bernstein at 503-323-6553.