Per Inquiry spots

[Nostalgia]

I scrolled back a few pages and have not seen any mention of Per Inquiry spots.  I would like to know of stations experience with them and the brokers who handle them.  Any particularly good ones, any ones to avoid?  It seems like a way to get something for unused inventory unless they are especially obnoxious 800 number spots screaming the number a zillion times.  But from what I have read you can pick and choose what you want and when you want to run them. 

Look forward to your comments and suggestions.

[Stewy]

Play another song instead of PI's, unless your listeners would rather hear ads.

[Alan McCall]

I have used some spots from SMP Direct Response and gotten a little $ with them.

Basically, they will send you a list with the clients they offer and the rate per inquiry you'll receive.
It works best if you pick spots that fit your format, instead of using all the different spots available.

The ones that worked for us (country) have been Mantis Tiller, MY-TV, Invent Help and some CD set offers.

But right now things are really slow. I stand a better chance of selling cookies on the corner than I do selling ads on my Internet only station. And the last one I sold, I couldn't collect from. So right now I'm running totally commercial free to try to figure out what I should do next..in radio and life in general, I reckon.

[Prais]

We sold lots of Icy Hot (competitor to Ben Gay). We sold lots of Watkins (spices) products, a zillion diffrent magazines,  Wall Street Journal and USA Today, and many "music collection" record albums.

Ads ran mostly on Sat and Sun, and weekdays after midnight, and in unsold newscasts.
 

[Nostalgia]

Prais,
Who was the rep for those??  Among the ones I have contacted or have contacted me, most have debt relief ads, ect.  None of the ones you mentioned. 

[Prais]

NOt sure, anymore. I've been out of ownership since 1985 and have since retired.

[PTBoardOp94]

There's almost no "decent" products being sold on PI anymore to my knowledge.  E&M Media has a fairly wide variety of PI clients to choose from, at least moving beyond the debt help crud.

For me, the only reason to run PIs is to fill out breaks in a strict clock environment. (Satellite music, sports, whatever)  You're probably not looking at more than a few hundred dollars a month, depending on listener base and the number of airings you give them.

Note that lots of syndicators are going for the same PI revenue that you have, so you'd be well served to choose different PI campaigns than your network(s).  For example, I hear lots of "Tax Debt Relief Center" spots in Dial Global programs.

[Prais]

If you are a dg affiliate, it may be GOOD to run the debt relief spots in addition to what dial global runs. It could be the spot YOU run that motivates the sale.

Also note that bigger media (like maybe dg or on TV, wtbs) get paid a load in ADVANCE of running pi spots. That's part of the deal.

[NE Miss Radio]

IIRC, I think the only ones we had measurable success with were quicken loans and occasionally sears siding/cabinet.  I think Media Advantage out if Chicago handled both.  I would not run the debt consolidators because I generally don't believe in the product.

Don't forget you can check out the product/service on sites like ripoffreport.com or bbb.org. 

[Alan McCall]

Nostalgia,

We also ran a couple of PIs from Magnum PI/Nectar Media recently. One of them was a Yasmin lawsuit ad. Apparently we got some response, because I received a check from Nectar Media recently. Another compnay is buying them so they have a new name and I can't remember what it is.

I worked out a different package that's cheaper for my station. It's mostly listener supported anyway so I've dropped all my ads.

That way I can keep my stream while concentrating more on freelance writing.