Sales & Management

How should we judge a commercial?

By Doc Holliday, Superior Sales Training

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As you may or may not know, there has been a controversy regarding this year’s Mercury Awards. Tom Taylor of “Taylor on Radio” asked a thought provoking question of his readers. He asked, “Should the Radio Mercurys be about ROI, and not just creativity?” I sent the following reply to his request:

We know that creativity and ROI are not mutually exclusive. We also know that entertainment value will not necessarily deliver results. (Yo quiero Taco Bell?) All commercials have a primary purpose. Commercials that fail to generate a return that is at least equal to the norm for advertising in their respective industry should be deemed to be bad commercials, regardless of their artistic or entertainment value.

Read the entire article here:

Doc Holliday, Superior Sales Training
docholliday4superiorsalestraining@charter.net

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Breaking News

RAB opens up "The Best of Radio" to inspire creative minds

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CEO Jeff Haley envisions the website as a rich resource that also offers social networking. The foundation is the RAB’s interactive library of creative spots. Each :30 or :60 spot will offer “the original campaign plan, client results, award recognitions, scripts and digital components.” The site is already loaded with all the winning Radio Mercury Awards spots, plus additional quality radio spots from agencies Arnold, BBDO, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, DDB, Goodby Silverstein & Partners, JWT, The Richards Group, TBWA\Chiat\Day and others. See “The Best” here.

A Motel 6 spot from The Richards Group wins this year's $100,000 Radio Mercury grand prize

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The RAB and the Radio Mercury organization hope to defuse this week’s controversy by doubling the cash amount of several other prizes – after the judges declined to give prizes in the “Station Produced”, “Political”, “Student Produced” and “PSA” categories. Next year’s Station Produced prize will be doubled from the usual $5,000 to $10,000. Same with the others: the Student prize goes from $2,500 to $5,000, for example, and the charitable donation involved with the PSA prize doubles to $5,000. As for this year – the other Radio Mercury awards given out at the Lighthouse at Pier 61 in New York City went to JWT for the first Integrated Campaign Award (client Jet Blue, prize $10,000). To Young & Rubicam New York for Office Depot. To BBDO New York for AT&T. To DDB Chicago for Anheuser-Busch. And To Grupo Gallegos in the Spanish Language category for a spot done for Comcast named “Epic.” There was another first-time category – Marketer of the Year. Winner is McDonald’s. Radio Advertising Bureau CEO Jeff Haley also announces a new collaboration with the Virginia Commonwealth University Brandcenter, overseen by former Ogilvy executive Rick Boyko – this year’s Chief Judge.

This year's Radio Mercury awards won't have prize winners in four categories

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No “station-produced commercial” or best political ad, student-produced spot or Public Service Announcement – because the judges didn’t find that the entries rose to the level they expected. The “station-produced” category had been revived several years ago, and over time the competition as a whole has added and dropped categories alongside its main $100,000 prize – designed to stimulate better creative work by agencies. This year’s chief judge was Rick Boyko, former co-president and chief creative office of Ogilvy & Mather and now director of the Virginia Commonwealth University Brandcenter. The 2009 Radio Mercury winners will be announced tomorrow evening at the Lighthouse on Pier 61 in New York City.

This year's $100,000 Radio Mercury Award goes to...a snack named "Combos"

RadioMercuryActually, the grand prize awarded Wednesday evening in Beverly Hills went to the funny radio spot created by New York’s TBWA\Chiat\Day for the Mars product named “Combos.” Last year the same shop won a $5,000 prize for an earlier spot in the "Man Mom" series. This was the competition's first year in Los Angeles for the presentation of the awards, and the concept continues to be to encourage agencies and clients to put more resources into their radio campaigns. There's also a “Radio Station-produced” Radio Mercury, and that goes to Emmis’ Q101, Chicago for an Aptera Motors spot titled “Wow.” Listen to all the winners – including those in the new categories of Politics, Entertainment and Radio Innovations – here.

RAB's Mercury Awards in Los Angeles this Thursday

The RAB's annual Radio-Mercury Awards recognizing great creative work in radio advertising will take place Thursday, May 22 at the Four Seasons Beverly Hills, will feature hosts Rick Dees, Big Boy and "Gossip Gangsta" Perez Hilton. To see the 2008 finalists, check out the RAB website here: Hosts Dees and Big Boy are both morning personalities at Emmis-owned LA stations KMVN "Movin' 93.9" and KPWR "Power 106" respectively. They're on board since the 2008 Mercury Chairperson is Emmis Radio President Rick Cummings.

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Brooks Becomes First Artist To Win CMA Broadcast Award

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Kix Brooks, host of Citadel Media’s “American Country Countdown,” is adding yet another CMA Award to his trophy case. He has been named CMA’s broadcast personality of the year for the first time.
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