Popcorn, Peanuts, Hotdogs....Get your media value here

I'm willing to bet that Popcorn, Peanuts and Hotdogs are a part of the fabric of baseball, not because they're good for you, but because the fans appear to get a lot for their money (and ball parks get big mark up). In a year like this, we're reminded by nearly every marketing group that we, as consumers, should expect to get more for our money. The McDonalds Value Meals, www.Hotwire.com 's "Best Value" deal, Hyundai's incredible growth http://www.thestar.com/business/article/759602--hot-hyundai-revs-up-january-auto-sales are but a few examples that illustrate this point.

So what is value? According to thefreedictionary.com, value can be defined like this..."reasonable or equivalent return"

My next question is, SO WHAT? How then do we deliver value in Media? Wikipedia explains that "When an organization delivers high value at high price, the perceived value may be low. When it delivers high value at low price, the perceived value may be high." When it comes to media, one way to define value is to say that a high value media is one that can deliver your message to the most potential consumers, the most times for the least cost.

Each media has it's own strengths and weaknesses so it's hard to find an apples to apples comparison. However, for the purpose of this article lets look at how many consumers are using each media on any average day since it's indicitive of consumer behaivour.

According to the Canadian Newspaper Association http://www.cna-acj.ca/en/aboutnewspapers/circulation, the 2008 average daily circulation of the
Calgary Herald is 119,909
Calgary Sun is 49,633

There is limited information on how many people use Yellow Pages on an average day, but according to the Fall 2009, BBM RTS survey of Adults 12+, the number of people in Calgary who will use the Yellow Pages today is 36,016.

According to S4,2009 PPM results, our Radio stations would reach the following Average Daily Audience
JACK FM - 110,150
LITE 96 - 94,338
660NEWS - 48,148
FAN 960 - 46,837

Using my best estimates a full page, full color yellow pages ad costs about $5000/month and given you have to buy 12 months thats accounts for $60,000 of my annual budget.

With the same budget, I could buy about
16 full page ads @ $3600 each in the Calgary Sun.
12 full page ads @ $5000 each in the Calgary Herald
26 weeks @ 21 or more ads per week on either FM station PLUS 26 weeks @ 35 or more ads per week on either AM station

Which media has the most value for you?

Wizard of Ads, Yellow Pages and Tape Recorders

I recieved this memo from the Wizard of Ads that I thought was quite interesting and reflects the sentiment of a growing number of my clients. Research shows that 80% of all Calgarians use the internet, regardless of age. Consumers are shopping online and more often, avoiding the Yellow Pages.

The chairman of the board looked at me and said, “You’ll be speaking to about 16 hundred members and delegates from the US, Canada, England and Australia. They’re looking for ways to boost attendance at their fairs.”

“Son,” he said as he stopped abruptly, “the average age of the people you’re about to address is 72 years old. Many of them are over 80. There’s no one in the house younger than 65. These just aren’t internet people.”

Then I raised my hand and said, “How many of you have used a search engine in the past 7 days to research a purchase you were considering?” Sixteen hundred hands went up simultaneously.

Pennie and I found a plastic bag at the end of our driveway last Tuesday. In it were 3 different Yellow Page books. This triggered a discussion between Pennie and me about icons of the past. We recalled the famous Yellow Pages ad of 1962, “Let Your Fingers Do The Walking.” We talked about all the different tape recorders we’d owned. I told her about the J.C. Penney Golden Pinto mini-bike I coveted in 1970. And then I dropped the bag of books into the garbage

Yes, money spent in the Yellow Pages (and their associated websites) is basically wasted.

Have you ever Googled a product or service and had the search engine direct you to the online Yellow Pages listing for a company? I’ve never once experienced it. Search engines elevate the most commonly clicked links. Think about what this implies. (Okay, I'll spell it out for you: if people were using the digital Yellow Pages, those online Yellow Page ads would rank higher on Google and the other search engines. The ads don't rank high on Google because most people never see those ads.)
During the past few years, a number of our service company clients (foundation repair specialists, plumbers, HVAC companies, etc.) have taken our advice and abandoned the yellow pages completely, moving virtually 100 percent of their ad budgets to the radio. They already have websites, of course. These businesses, without exception, are outdistancing their competitors in the area of new customer acquisition.