Fed up with bad radio advertising, Jack Lee, president of Milwaukee Area Radio Stations, Inc. (MARS), asked marketing communications agency BVK, Milwaukee, to create a radio campaign that would drive traffic to the trade association’s Web site, www.milwaukeearearadio.com, which–among other things–instructs potential advertisers on how they can best unleash the power of radio.
BVK responded by creating a daring new interactive campaign for MARS made up of three :60 radio spots for fictional clients that gleefully spoof the worst of radio advertising and encourage listeners to visit three corresponding Web sites, which ultimately let them in on the joke and direct them to the MARS Web site.
“The campaign not only mocks how bad some radio advertising can be but also shows it doesn’t have to be this way,” according to BVK creative director/copywriter Jeff Erickson.
Among the radio spots is “Lawyer.” Poking fun at the ads created by ambulance-chasing attorneys, this spot finds fictional attorney Peter Gurerri promising accident victims, “Not only will we fight to get you the money you deserve, we’ll break the legs of the people that did you wrong.”
“Lawyer” concludes by directing listeners to check out www.webreaklegs.com, the Web site for the faux law firm of Gurerri, O’Malley & Gonzalez. Upon an initial glance, the Web site looks like it might be legitimate, but after a few clicks, visitors are led to a page that reveals they have been had. It reads: “Now you know how effective radio advertising can be! The law firm of Gurerri, O’Malley & Gonzalez is not real. But the power of radio is.” An accompanying link takes visitors to the MARS Web site.
In addition to “Lawyer,” the campaign for MARS also includes “Gravy Diet,” which features a fake diet guru who urges listeners to visit www.gravydiet.com, and “Gandhi,” a promo for a fake spring break movie that casts the late Gandhi as a party animal and points listeners to www.gandhigonewild.com.
You Got Punk’d
Erickson reported that the spots did fool listeners–even though a sponsor ID for MARS, which is required by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)–preceded each ad. “We stuck it in at the beginning with a one-beat pause, hoping that maybe the audience wouldn’t connect them,” Lee said.
While the spots and accompanying Web sites were certainly creative, were they successful in driving traffic to MARS’ Web site? After “Lawyer” began running last fall, the MARS Web site saw a 600-percent increase in traffic the first month the commercial was on the air, Lee shared.
Traffic to the MARS Web site also surged when “Gravy Diet” was introduced around last Thanksgiving and “Gandhi” premiered last December, as well as when all three spots went into simultaneous rotation in January, Lee added.
One of the key points illustrated by the success of the campaign is that you don’t have to “cram tons of information in a radio spot” when the ad effectively compels listeners to visit a Web site for more details, Erickson stressed.
Incidentally, additional buzz for the MARS campaign was created through viral means–numerous visitors to each of the fake Web sites took the time to send a link posted on each Web site to friends via email, Erickson said.
Looking back on the reaction to what they both acknowledge was a nervy campaign, both Erickson and Lee reported that it was overwhelmingly positive, although there were some complaints about the “Lawyer” spot, which actually didn’t come as a surprise to either of them.
“We knew we would be in trouble with them. The main point of that spot wasn’t to make fun of ambulance-chaser type lawyers. The main point of that spot was intended to be, ‘You guys do terrible advertising,’ ” Erickson laughingly related, noting, “And that went right over their heads.”
Additional credit for the MARS campaign goes to BVK creative director Gary Mueller, art director Melissa Early, producer Kelly Ladwig and programmer Benjamin Gray. Steve Kultgen of Independent Studios, Milwaukee, served as audio engineer on the spots.