Case Study #4: Lead attribution and online banner ads help radio stations donate

more than 5 million meals to those in need

Listen folks, I’ve been doing this a long time. So when I started looking for stories for
this article, I had my assumptions about which marketing tactics this article was going to
cover:
Landing page optimization to better communicate value —that’s a given.
Content marketing — probably more than one mini case study.
Better ad targeting — of course.
But lead attribution?
Valuable tactic? Absolutely. But it’s boring, behind the scenes, and has little direct
correlation to bring about positive change for people. At least, that was that my
assumption.
If you’ve had similar assumptions, check out this next story.
In just three weeks, the radio industry pulled together for RadioCares, a day-long
radiothon to raise money for Feeding America. 300 artists and celebrities did voice
appeals, 3,400 radio stations participated, and the stations’ on-air talent broadcasted
from their homes.
That was a major initiative. The small and independent radio stations had never come
together like this on a national scale, and it’s rare to get two competitive radio stations
together in the same city to support an initiative.
But Ron Stone, President & CEO, Adams Radio Group, was the Operations Chair for
the radiothon and led the effort to pull stations together. He leveraged the stations’
competitive nature to amplify his already motivated radio industry colleagues.
He partnered with LeadsRX, which used its marketing attribution technology to create a
nationwide heatmap showing where donations were coming from. This spurred a little
friendly competition for stations and listeners to see which metro areas could generate
the most donations.
Creative Sample #6: Lead attribution heatmap showing which metro areas were
donating the most to radiothon
Creative Sample #7: Part of infographic from lead attribution company for radiothon

Stone’s all-volunteer team created a portal with radio assets that participating stations
could use.
For example, the portal included artist liners with promotional messages from recording
artists. One message said, “Hey, it’s Brian from Weezer. As the COVID-19 pandemic
continues here at home, battling hunger has become harder than ever. We should all
come together as a community to help our neighbors in need by donating now at
radiocares.org.”
Dave “Chachi” Denes, President, Benztown, produced promotional voice spots stations
could use. And Mike McVay, President, McVay Media Consulting, wrote a content guide
of how to do a radiothon.
Creative Sample #8: Portal for radio stations participating in radiothon
Also included in the portal were online banners, branding and videos. Those online
banner display ads, which are normally lower-performing mediums, out-performed all
other marketing programs for this event, according to AJ Brown, CEO and co-founder,
LeadsRx. Specifically, these ads were placed on the radio station websites and led to
more conversions than social referrals and even organic search.
“The goal [of the banner ads] was simple, present a story that everyone could see
themselves, their family, and/or friends in this tragic situation. It was a singular branding
message ‘RadioCares Feeding America Emergency Radiothon,’ not just RadioCares. It
was many brands — ‘RadioCares,’ ‘Feeding America,’ ‘Emergency Radiothon,’ and
local radio station brands that had the deepest connections to the audience,” said Chris
Peaslee, President and CEO, Vipology, who was in charge of website and digital for the
radiothon.
The banner ads were animated and cycled through a message:
“12.3% of all Americans go hungry. An average person knows 600 people. Which
means 74 people you know go hungry. Your kid’s schoolteacher, neighbor,
teammate, barista, fellow Marine, hairstylist, friend, grandmother, uncle, sister,
mother, brother, partner. It could be your child. Save them from hunger. Feeding
America Emergency Radiothon. Donate Now.”

Creative Sample #9: Radiothon banner ad

“It didn’t click at the time, but on the day of the event, money starts trickling in. At 2 p.m.
there was around $300,000 in donations … it was a surprise how much money was
flowing in,” said Ron Stone, President & CEO, Adams Radio Group.
All told, the radiothon raised $500,000 for Feeding America, which the nonprofit is using
to serve five million meals to those in need. Since everyone who participated donated
and supported the effort pro bono, the only expense was $9.67 Stone used to purchase
a domain — generating one heck of a good ROI.