7/19/2012 By Lee Morrow Don’t Tell Anybody, but: The Best Value-Added I Ever Got
When I worked for an ad agency in Washington, DC, I negotiated radio for all of my accounts within the agency (one package for all) on a quarterly basis. It was very efficient to work this way. Generally speaking, the radio stations always wanted the automotive accounts to pay more. By negotiating an “agency” rate for the quarter, the automotive accounts got the same rate as the agency’s other accounts.
During my negotiations, I always asked the radio station media rep, “What is your station doing to increase listenership?” One station rep in particular replied one quarter, with, “I am so glad you asked me that! I almost forgot to tell you that we’re doing a Giveaway to beat all Giveaways! We’re going to give away a car as first prize, 100 TVs as second prize, and 500 boom boxes as third prize.” “Holy Cow!” was my response. “How will you work this?” I asked. Are you sitting down? Here it comes! This one will turn out to be the very best value-added I ever got for any of my clients – in my whole career! She told me, “We’re going to send out flyers, and each flyer will have a different twelve-digit number on it. Our listeners will have to keep the flyers handy so that if their number is called, they can call into the station within 105 minutes. Cute, huh? Our spot on the frequency dial – 105.1.” My brain started turning, and I’m picturing these huge dollar signs for our drugstore account. “How many of these flyers are you going to send out, Mary?” I asked. “A million, two,” she casually replied. My mouth agape, I asked, “Have you gone to press with this yet?” I sat there with my ankles crossed, my fingers crossed, until she replied, “No. We’re hoping to go the end of this week.” Here it is……..
“Mary, do you suppose it might be possible to attach three perforated stickers to this piece to be used as coupons for cents off of the drugstore’s generic brands of say, band-aids, toilet tissue, and paper towels? Perhaps the drugstore would even chip in with help for the printing.”
Bottom line: The drugstore ran the coupons on the Giveaway piece – all one million, two hundred thousand of them, and the great part was, because they were so unique, the drugstore could track them to see how successful the campaign was. The station declined the offer of help with the printing costs. They told us that the agency and the drugstore account had been working with the station for so long, they were glad to be able to include us on this campaign! Media Buyers, remember to always ask, “What is the station doing to increase listenership during quarterly negotiations.