Radio showmanship (Sept 1940-May 1941)

anking on Radio By Allen C. Knowles, Executive Vice President, South Side Federal Savings & Loan Association, Cleveland, Ohio, Who Illustrates Some of the Varied Methods That Bring Results There was a time, and not so many years ago, when advertising by a financial institution meant a few lines or column inches in a newspaper publication. Happily the science has progressed to the point where today a multitude of media may be used by the average financial organization, affording vastly increased opportunities for promotion. It remains, however, for the advertiser to determine which one or how many to use, how much of it to use, how to use it properly. Radio, with its mass appeal is springing into prominence as a medium in the financial field, and so rapid has been its growth in this field, that thousands of aggressive banks and savings and loan institutions have scarce had time to analyze and appraise it. Already established are hundreds of unrecorded success stories. In most of our large cities one, two or more financial institutions have "discovered" radio and are using it properly and successfully. Note that word properly. That cannot be stressed too strongly, because therein lies the secret of successful use of radio. We've just scratched the surface in research, but what we've found definitely is convincing. We do know that given the right program or announcements, and the right correlated promotions, radio does an amazing job. And so the question arises in the minds of financial advertisers: "How can I use radio to the best advantage?" Your radio man replies: "What are you selling?" And your answer is mortgage loans. Or small loans. Or * savings. Or a general banking service. The first thing you do is plan your campaign. The plan should pointedly drive toward one accomplishment; side-issues lead only to frustration in any type of advertising. Once you have decided specifically what you're going to sell, find out who your best prospects are and when they listen to the radio. Choose the program or announcement which will catch their interest at this time. Put it on the air and keep driving your message home with sufficient frequency to make it stick. Your local radio representative will help. Most important of all — don't relax! Not yet! Your job has just begun. Radio is the hub of the wheel of your promotional vehicle — and you can't ride on the hub. Put some spokes in — and build a solid rim. Every employee of your organization, from the janitor to the chairman of the board, should be thoroughly familiar and helping with your radio effort. Radio advertising breaks down into two primary types: announcements and programs. There is infinite variety possible in the presentation of each. We'll suggest only those types which have already been used successfully by financial advertisers. If you decide on a program, there are a dozen ways you can call attention to it, each of them a sales point in itself. Your radio salesman or your advertising agency will tell you about them. Once you've started the vehicle rolling, and gathered momentum, you keep it going by the same method. We'll go into that in just a minute. Right now let's consider a few types of spot announcements that have proven effective. Announcements varying in length from fifty to one hundred fifty words, judiciously placed in the station schedule for specific audience appeal, and having special copy appeal, are the most widely-used type in this classification. A competent radio copywriter should create the announcements, and here again your local radio representative or your advertising agent can help you by determining where on the schedule your announcements should be "spotted" MAY, 194 1 137