WOWO Radio & The Christmas Coffee

I’m here to tell the story of WOWO Radio & The Christmas Coffee, that surprised even me this month.

And let’s clear up some conceptions about the power of advertising.

Advertising is not some magical superpower that will automatically convert those exposed to your ads to spend money with you if they are not at all interested in what you are selling.

For example, if I lived in an apartment, I would never be in the market to buy a fence.  Or if I was allergic to shellfish, I would never buy lobster.   (I used those two examples because I talked to someone who lives in an apartment and someone else who nearly died due to an allergic reaction after his girlfriend kissed him after eating lobster.)

There are just certain things that advertising cannot do.

Now perhaps if that apartment dweller decides to buy a house and needs a fence, then the advertising you bought over the years may have an eventual return on investment for that person.  But in the meantime, there are plenty of others who qualify to buy a fence and qualify to buy lobster that your advertising can influence.

I drink coffee nearly everyday.  I have the Starbucks app on my phone that I keep loaded with money that allows me to order instantly and pick up my drink when I show up.

The other day, WOWO radio’s Charly Butcher was talking with his morning news teammates about this years Starbucks Christmas cup controversy.  Each year someone makes a big deal out of the design that Starbucks uses and this year is no different from years past.

Here’s how this played out that morning in my life.  I had just left a meeting and was thinking about where I was going to go next.  I almost visited a local coffee shop around the corner from where I was, but I didn’t have time to sit and enjoy before I would need to head out to my next meeting.

Instead, a few minutes after Charly was talking about Starbucks, I had a hot Starbucks drink in my hand.

WOWO radio, specifically the conversation about Starbucks had the triggering effect for me to pull out my phone and spend my money with them.

That’s the way a lot of advertising works.  When we are in that moment of deciding where to buy something, and we hear someone we trust mention one of our options, it can push us over the edge to say YES to that advertiser and NO to the other options at the moment.

Now I realize that what I heard on WOWO that morning was not a commercial for Starbucks that made me buy their coffee.  It was more powerful.  It was a live conversation that was, for me at least, as powerful as the live ads that Charly, Pat Miller and Rick Wolf do on WOWO.

WOWO has built a loyal audience that trusts our show hosts and when they say good things, either off the cuff or in a live endorsement ad, listeners respond.  That’s why my Christmas Coffee cup said Starbucks on it that morning.

Thanks WOWO.

Do you want to see if you qualify to be endorsed by Charly, Pat, or Rick on WOWO?  Contact me.