Talkback stations tricked into Strepsils plugs
Audio agency Eardrum has pulled off a cheeky guerilla campaign in which actors called talk radio stations and once on air pretended to lose their voice before telling the presenter they had to take a Strepsil.
Among the talk radio jocks taken in was John Laws on 2SM who, unaware he was being hoaxed, even told the caller: “You’d better take some Strepsils and get rid iof that cough.”
2GB’s Ben Fordham was another pulled into the stunt.
Some of the hoax calls:
The stunt was masterminded for Strepsils by audio agency Eardrum. All of the talk radio stations targeted – 2GB, 2UE and 2SM – were based in Sydney.
Creative director Ralph Van Dijk told Mumbrella “eight or ten” calls got on air without any of the stations smelling a rat. He said: “The references were subtle enough and the actors were good enough and they let it go.”
The stunt coincided with a radio advertising campaign urging listeners to take Strepsils at the first signs of a sore throat.
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This campaign sucks.
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Why does it suck? do you work for a radio station?
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Hi DJ,
I think it’s a little play on Strepsils…
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
Facepalm DJ
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er…isn’t this highly unethical?
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It may suck but it makes swallowing easier, which is a great cause.
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Lying to the media is a very dangerous activity. Not one I would recommend to a client.
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@sven Unethical? That’s how you know it’s brilliant marketing!
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I was about to say “wait for all the po faced posts about this being unethical…deceptive…Witchery” etc, but Sven beat me to it.
Nice work, Eardrum
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Do you think John was paid in cough lollies or cash for his part in the campaign? Very cool from Strepsils.
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are you kidding is a pain in the neck
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hehe… oh DJ….
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How pissed off would John Laws be about that. Brilliant trap
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I like this too. I think its good. Cant see how it is Unethical.
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So in the post cash for comment era this is deemed clever marketing? What a con. I wouldnt be happy if I were Strepsils marketing director and my ad guys were out there lying to the public in the name of my brand. So Lawys and Fordham … I smell a rat here. (edited by Mumbrella for legal reasons)
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Brilliant. The media lies to us often enough, I see no problem pulling the wool over their eyes. Good on them.
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unethical behaviour and talkback radio just don’t mix. Strepsils should have known better.
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This appears to be the lowest form of advertising. It is not clever and tricking radio journalists on air, by actors mentioning the product, is not only unethical, it is wrong. I will not buy the product mentioned. It looks to me like the company can not afford the normal advertising, so they are doing it this way on the cheap, using actors to ring in and mention the product on air.
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Well, if Jonesy can plug the Liberals, I guess you guys can plug Strepsils.
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This is fantastic! Talk back radio for years has used the airwaves to influence the public with their own agenda and opinions under the guise of “independent” comment, so why shouldn’t the “listeners” do the same?
It also is a great branding for the product, placing the brand name as the generic term for the product and the fact that it wasn’t picked up as a plug only strengthens that position.
Well done! I’m off to by some Strepsils!
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Hmmm, clever? No. Entertaining? No. Informative? No. Ethical? Sure, why not. If Strepsils want to advertise to us like we’re idiots who are entertained by fooling people, that’s their choice – but surely they should have read all the studies which show that THE GENERAL PUBLIC EMPATHISES WITH THE *FOOLED*, NOT THE *FOOLER*.
Strepsils campaign research = *FAIL*
The advertising company handling this should be hauled over the coals for not doing their research and putting a “clever idea” in front of the advantage towards the client.
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8 people mentioned the word Strepsil on air on a few station? Wow, can’t wait for the huge spike in sales.
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Come now Bob, don’t be sore…
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@Nick,
Spot on.
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(insert enthusiastic applause) … well done Eardrum
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” Talk back radio for years has used the airwaves to influence the public with their own agenda and opinions under the guise of “independent” comment”
More like preach to the converted.
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It just goes to show how fallible the talk-back gurus really are! Should be more of it!!
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@ Nick
Clever – yes it was, don’t be a hater!
Entertaining? Im having a blast reading the comments of some people on here with their g-strings in a twist.
Informative? They got the name of their product across in a completely relevant scenario. What more would you want? Step by step directions on how to unwrap and suck?
Empathy? Perhaps its you who needs to go do your homework. Why would Stepsils want empathy? They aren’t asking for donations to save the whales. The reality is people LOVE a good punk – the ratings and popularity of the ‘punkers’ such as Ashton Kutcher are proof enough.
So at end of the day, I say job well done!
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Brilliant campaign, very believable callers, well done Eardrum and Strepsils.
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@Paul, @Nick is the Fishermen’s Friend brand manager )
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Getting actors to call up really is deceptive! They should be using real people like they do in those tv commercials…
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well done Eardrum!
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It’s an interesting campaign. I’ll write some more about it when I wake up properly this morning. Time for a Nescafe.
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Clever, funny, and informative. Nice work eardrum.
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Nice little clever one.
Not sure why they only did it in Sydney though, it’s not as if there would of been a budget blowout in making a couple more calls.
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It ceratinly worked for Stepsils it has you all talking. May have added some extra spice to talkback sessions, now wait for the copycat campaigns, the gatekeeps will have to be really on the ball.
Years ago annoying new announcers were told by seniors that to cure their sore throat suck on a Strepsil every half hour, after four to six the result was interesting, yes they had no sore throat BUT they also had very little voice.
Oh yes Eardrum next time you want to pull a stunt on talkback announcers give me a call.
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Yeah, it’s a clever stunt, whether aranged with the stations or not, can’t wait for the imitators to start work.
But I reckon RBK would have preferred that eardrum keep it to themselves.. Loose lips sink ships.
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@Nick
I also think you’re spot on
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How irrelevant are the majority of these posts?
How many people would either: know that they were listening to advertising, or were actually listening but not actively enough to hear the references?
A subtle insertion of a brand into a conversation isn’t going to register to the majority of listeners. Add to that the number of those that did pick up on it, who aren’t at the moment sick, and by the time they are will have been exposed to countless other advertisements by the various Strepsils competitors in the market, therefore mitigating the effect anyway.
The number of people who actually purchased Strepsils on impulse after hearing the calls I could probably count on my right hand. So I doubt there will be any sort of mass complaint about the ethics of the stunt.
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Wow, Ex-Agency, that must mean you really know your stuff right? But you just walked away because you couldn’t deal with all the rubbish in the industry? I love it, so much narrative in a name, brilliant.
Of course you realize that the campaign establishes top of mind awareness for the product and that it’s success is evident in John Laws (Am i going crazy? i swear he retired) intonation of the message. Besides you are giving the listeners too much credit, the type of drones that follow these programs are looking for any opinion to keep them from having to actually think. If they are told to have a strepsil at the first sign of a cough they will, despite the fact that strepsils can dry out your throat and make you cough more, resulting in a fantastic little bonus revenue stream. Alas it’s the subtle references that build thoughts, beliefs and eventually actions, a big campaign with billboards and TV ads is easier to tune out than a hijacked comment in passing and a large number of listeners will not even think about buying anything else.
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Dylan – No really, ‘top of mind awareness’… what’s that?
If this campaign achieved any awareness, I would imagine it would be because of the accompanying radio ‘campaign’. But never mind that – my point was that people were over reacting about the “ethical” issues. And that most consumers wouldn’t have noticed or cared, or without the efforts of sites like this – both (but how many Lawsie listeners check this site, and it’s not like it made the news, or even ACA).
Oh by the way, you can tell how much of an impact the campaign made on the web http://www.google.com/trends?q.....038;sort=0. None.
I think it is you that is giving the listeners too much credit – you think in talkback where people are usually getting emotional over issues and arguing points back and forth they’re really going to concentrate on whether someone has a cough. It’s not really a sexy product, that makes your ears prick up. It’s said, forgotten in the blink of an eye, or a soothing John Laws syllable.
Funny thing I noticed to from my many years in FMCG, prior to my many years in agency. (I only point this out because you seem to think it’s important I ran away because of the bullshit – if you only knew the truth). Many customers would come in and ask for ‘Strepsils’ only to put ‘Soothers’ on the counter. So what does that tell you about how effective ‘top of mind awareness’ is…
I can tell you it tells me a lot more about genericide than much else.
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Which of the above comments are real… and which are Strepsils hoaxes?
Seriously though – awesome concept.
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Love it…very cheeky, well done Strepsils….!
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_of_mind_awareness That should bring you up to speed.
Why would anyone google strepsils? There is no manual, they are not complicated, it is a low involvement product which means consumers are using internal information, hence the importance of top of mind. No one is going to google it., maybe if you had realized this you wouldn’t have been fired.
It’s pretty hard to miss strepsils with about a dozen lines on the shelf, including a ‘soothing’ variety, of course soothers are placed in confectionery while strepsils are in medicinal so if consumers are confusing the products then there’s your problem.
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Its just bad radio in my view
Though its great to catch Chris Smith as he is such a wanka and great to hear some thing other than pollie bashing on 2GB
Giddy Up
Regards
Adam
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Just the fact that we are talking about strepsils was well worth it.
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It’s brilliant. What’s not to like about this??
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All you lefties in the ad industry cheering this on are on poor reflection on the industry as a whole. Same lefties who justify gillard lying. Losers
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Dylan – *sigh* who said I was fired? I cannot believe I am even attempting to have a somewhat informed discussion with someone who jumps to conclusions.
How about I jump to some conclusions of my own – are you the same Dylan at the top of the thread? With the following Twitter link – http://twitter.com/dje_me? In which case, chances are this is you http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dylan-evans/17/8a6/8b2.
If it IS, and only if it IS then I can’t see anywhere that would indicate you have any sort of marketing/advertising experience to even qualify you to comment on this subject.
If not then I sincerely apologize, because I have just compared you to someone who at first look knows nothing about advertising. Which, based on your comments I don’t think would be a completely out of line assumption to make.
I could be wrong about this.
What I’m fairly certain I’m not wrong about, is how pointless a few guerilla mentions of a product in a talkback segment is, for the reasons I have already outlined above.
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Oh burrn.
Good on them for getting on the radio though.
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I’ve been identified by the name which i used which led back to myself… I don’t recall ever having misrepresented myself. Marketing is a fact of life, it permeates every industry, interest and project, i use my understanding of marketing as a tool when making decisions, there is no better discipline for understanding the influences of people and groups. I studied marketing as part of my degree and I would happily stand by my comments under the scrutiny of an examiner.
Are you trying to defame me by outing me as a software engineer? You must realize that i’m not promoting myself as a marketer, i’m marketing myself as a programmer. So what is this all about? You’ve turned a discussion about strepsils into a exploration of me, now that’s brilliant.
Honestly, this is a little off topic but while i respect the right to anonymity, i find it difficult to respect anonymous comments on a fairly trivial subject. So now you have gone to such lengths to identify me, despite the lack of confidence in your own convictions, perhaps it’s time for you to spill the beans.
My other interests include archery and photography, follow me on twitter or connect via linkedin.
🙂
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Cash for comment?
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Hey Dylan,
Don’t get too down. Marketing people hate it when people not in their industry comment on the marketing profession.
It is mainly as they are worried about any new ideas filtering into their profession.
Take a random look at the next five tv ads, five billboards, five radio ads. Take a look at the next five new products you see in the supermarket.
See what I mean?
Same old. Same old.
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I thought it was Talk Too Radio? I listened to it once and all I got was a right wing opinionated nutter peddling an ultra conservative line. All the little old ladies are already converted because the music crew are listening to their ipods which don’t have adverts…
ABC News everyday for me. Balanced and less sensationalist.
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