Last week, I asked you an odd question.  Let's see how you answered.

Terry's Bonus Point Poll 315 Respondents

96 Males

219 Females

Do you know what day, month and season it is, right now?

Total    %           Answer

153      48.6%   Yes, of course I do.

12         3.8%     Nope! I'm blissfully ignorant of all sense of time and space.

150    47.6%     Okay, Ter. I know that this question is going to lead to one of      

                             your weirder blogs. I'm saying "Yes", but I know you're up to

                             something.

The results are pretty much what I expected.  Most folks know what day, month and season it is at any given time.  Yet, every single time the seasons change, I hear radio ads that start out like this:

"It's spring."

"It's that time of year again."

"The flowers are blooming, it's getting warmer, blah, blah, blah"

"It's spring savings/fever/apalooza time again!"

[SIGH]

I'll come right out and say it.  I have nothing to do with any ad that starts out with a line like that.

A copywriting guru-type guy, whose advice I hold in pretty high esteem has a great saying that applies here: 

"Your opening line is the ad for the rest of your ad."

Take a look at those opening lines I posted up there.  Do any of them look like attention grabbers?  Nope, not a one.  They simply tell you what you already know.  The weather changed.  Big flippin' whoop.

If you own or manage a business and run ads like that, please stop, call me at 842-1672 or shoot me an e-mail at terry.stevens@mwcradio.com, and I'll fix your ad free o' charge.  Seriously.  Especially if you're going to run on a station that I write for. 

If you know someone who owns or manages a business, send them a link to this article.  (I've written a few others about radio advertising too that they might like.)

You deserve better than "It's that time of year again!" for your hard earned advertising dollar.

There's a brand new Terry's Bonus Point Poll up here.

Stay warm this weekend.

Be Cool,

TS