Category: Media

2008 SalesGenie Ads — I Think They’ll Work

Time to follow up last year’s post on the SalesGenie Super Bowl ads.

To start with, a note so that you don’t think I’m a complete boob: I hated them. Poor animation. Ethnically insulting, bordering on racist. Not even remotely clever.

And yet…

I think they’ll work. And by “work”, I mean bring in enough business to the company that the seven-figure ad buy turns a profit for them.

The first-quarter ad actually told a story that could resonate with salespeople — a failing seller is threatened with loss of employment, signs up with SalesGenie, and wins Salesman of the Year honors. It answers a question that many sellers are asking — “How can I double my sales?”, cleverly typed by the seller into Google. The answer? SalesGenie.com.

It’s got a clear call to action, with a reward that will appeal to salespeople and managers — go to SalesGenie.com and get 100 free leads for every rep in your company.

The second ad — the one with the pandas — told a story that seemed less clear, but the call to action was there with the same reward.

Neither ad was an artistic success. But as the economy goes south, there is an increasing demand among salespeople for anything that might give them an edge. Even if the tone offends them (and I suspect there’s a segment that won’t be bothered at all), they are likely to hold their noses and give the company a shot. I’m thinking SalesGenie may win the only award that counts.

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Does “Long Tail Media” Pencil Out?

There’a a provocative post by Chris Anderson on the Long Tail Blog about public radio. Mr. Anderson is a fan of a number of public radio shows, but doesn’t much like his local station. And he hates Pledge Week. So…

I’m listening to more and more of my favorite NPR shows (This American Life, Terry Gross’s Fresh Air, Science Friday, etc) as podcasts, something that finally suits me thanks to having a phone that automatically loads the latest shows. I don’t have to avoid the NPR pledge drive anymore…

Now that I get my radio via podcast, I don’t have to take the bad shows with the good. I’ve got an a la carte menu, and I assemble my own schedule with what I want and when I want it.

Anderson believes that radio is going to get “microchunked” so that people can listen to just the shows they want without ever tuning into the station that originated it. He talks about avoiding Pledge Week — I suppose the equivalent is avoiding the ads on commercial radio. 

This is especially interesting to someone like me — my day job is selling advertising on a group of commercial stations. I’m somewhat skeptical (and yes, it’s in my self-interest if the old model holds together long enough for me to get to retirement age). But I wonder:

 Who’s going to pay for all this? Right now, someone can hire me to design a campaign that will deliver their sales message to hundreds of thousands of people. They pay significant dollars for the access to this large audience, which allows my company to pay for the equipment, announcers, engineers, license fees, traffic reporters, and other expenses involved in putting on a broadcast. And there’s enough money left over to compensate me for designing the campaign.

What happens in this magical future when media’s microchunked, and the campaign reaches a few hundred people instead of a few hundred thousand? Does everyone’s paycheck get microchunked, too? And if that happens, how many of these shows actually get produced?

 Just asking.

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The Downside to Viral Marketing

Much talk recently about how social media and viral marketing are changing the way things are advertised and sold. Done well, it has some real advantages for marketers. Nancy Arter on RRW Consulting’s Direct Marketing blog has a very interesting post on the subject. Here’s an excerpt of her view:

“The idea of customers selling on behalf of marketers is an idea whose time has come. Think of all of the time we spend trying to isolate that perfect consumer or business that may be willing to hear our message. Think about the hours of sleep lost over whether the DM campaign that’s hitting mailboxes in the next week will reap us a .5% or a 1.5% response rate — and the repercussions of either. With this shift, it’s all about the customers preferring our product, and preferring it so much that they discuss why they prefer it. What a concept!”

That’s the potential upside. Here’s the potential downside, courtesy of Roy Williams’ Monday Morning Memo:

“Word-of-Mouth is the new Mass Media. Video games and cable TV stripped our kids of their innocence at an early age, but the Technology that robbed them of idyllic childhood also empowered them with cell phones, blogs and blackberries.

Viral marketing wasn’t created by the advertising community. It’s simply the result of a horizontally-connected generation (1.) sharing their happy discoveries with each other and (2.) trying to protect one another from mistakes.

WHAT THIS MEANS TO BUSINESS: It’s no longer enough just to have great advertising. When your customers carry cell phones and can email all their friends with a single click, you need to be exceptionally good at what you do.”

Viral marketing only works if the consumers doing the viralizing (a word I believe I just made up) are happy with what they bought. If they’re not, they’ll take it out on you with blogs, forums, and Amazon’s Customer Reviews. If the product is shoddy or the service is poor, the chorus of consumer voices can quickly wipe out any gains an advertising campaign can make.

 

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Advertising Invades the Shopping Cart

The advertising onslaught you face at the supermarket is about to increase — a company called MediaCart, in partnership with MicroSoft, is unleashing targeted video advertising in the cart itself. According to Online Media Daily,

Using Microsoft’s technology, MediaCart will execute anonymous ad targeting through data obtained from ShopRite’s customer loyalty card program. For the system to work, shoppers must first scan their card in the system. They then receive ads and promotional offers based on past purchases and saved shopping lists, which can be uploaded from a home PC.

Will shoppers love this, or will they set their carts on fire in protest? Stay tuned — the experiment will begin later this year at ShopRite stores on the East Coast.

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

Bad News For Portland Advertisers

I just finished Day 2 of Dan O’Day’s Copywriting Master Class. Just Dan and ten students. Two flew in from Australia, one from Canada, and one from Fiji.

Although there are lots of people writing and producing radio commercials in Oregon and Washington, I’m the only person from the Pacific Northwest at this seminar.

So if you’re a Portland-area businessperson, and you’re working with anyone other than Phil Bernstein, your media rep isn’t here. If you’re working with an ad agency, your account executive isn’t here. Neither is the agency creative director, or any of the copywriters. I guess Los Angeles was just too far to travel.

That’s the bad news.

The good news is for those people who work with Phil Bernstein. Because I’m here, and have spent 14 hours so far — with another 7 to go tomorrow learning the most effective techniques for writing and producing effective radio commercials.

Want to find out what I’ve learned, and how it can help you tell your story, find more customers, and make more sales? Call me at 503-323-6553, or email me here.

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

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