I am re-reading a couple favorite marketing books during my last-of-2007-vacation-time, and came across a great analogy in John Moore's Tribal Knowledge: Business Wisdom Brewed From the Grounds of Starbucks Corporate Culture.
It's from "Tribal Truth #8" wherein John draws a comparison to marketing strategies being more commonly akin to an on/off switch versus a volume control knob. The analogy seemed especially appropriate for Radio advertising campaigns, and blends perfectly with a well-planned Web component.
When a client considers an advertising campaign, it's either an active schedule that is on the air or off the air. The duration and frequency is dictated by budget restrictions, and the common goal is to turn "on" the marketing campaign and bombard the audience for as long as their ad dollars hold out, and then turn "off" the marketing and hope the message momentum will carry forward long enough to bring about future customer purchases.
Starbucks' strategy was to look upon marketing as a constant flow that could be dialed up or down depending on the need to influence their audience. There were radio and print ads, but usually it was in-store marketing, word-of-mouth, etc. The mainstream media was only used to dial-up the knob and increase the marketing "volume" to allow more people to hear their message.
Consider this in regard to Radio+Web marketing strategy:
The addition of a Web component can help an advertiser's ad dollars go farther. The comparatively lower investment allows the client to maintain a constant level of 'marketing volume' and then turn the control knob to "11" by adding Radio components during times of greater need.
Actually, a steady marketing 'volume' maintained Online will allow the increased volume of additional Radio to work more effectively -- their Web efforts pay-off by building brand awareness so that the Radio message doesn't need to work quite so hard to break through the clutter. The Advertiser will have already been introduced to (and built a relationship with) our Listeners. You may want to reference a blog entry from July of 2007 in which I shared a study that showed Web+Radio demonstrated a 27% ability to recall vs. a 6% recall for using Web-only ads.
Maintaining a constant Web presence and increasing the message 'volume' with Radio as-needed is a great way to help a client's ad dollars work more effectively on their behalf. Try using this Volume Control vs. On/Off Switch comparison the next time you're speaking with a client. It's a great way to tell a compelling story about a 'sound' (...had to slip in a pun!) marketing strategy.
To learn more about John Moore's book (and read all the Tribal Truths) visit: http://tribalknowledge.biz/
NOTE: In case you were wondering, the headline is a reference from the movie "This is Spinal Tap" (for all you heathens.)
