Streetwise Tips on Radio Advertising - my rebuttal

My responses to this article are in RED

http://www.businesstown.com/advertising/radio-advice.asp

Critical mass


Radio is referred to by some advertising people as the ”Cinderella medium.” It can be spectacularly successful if everything clicks—the right offer, the right message, the right copy, the right stations. Or radio spots can fall on deaf ears.  


Is this any different that other forms of advertising?  I don't understand your point.


Radio ads require repetition to work. A minimum run of at least fifteen ads on one station during a one-week period is recommended. Furthermore, if your entire advertising run on a particular station will be less than sixty spots during a month, try to keep the ads within a particular time slot. This way you will reach the same listening audience during each spot or often enough to create an awareness and ideally a desire to buy or inquire about your product or service. If your spots run on an erratic schedule, you might reach the full listenership of the station but you won’t be reaching any one group of individuals often enough to motivate them to take action.

I believe that all media requires repetition.  The reason for this is that the marketplace of consumers is made of a dynamic and ever changing group of people.  Let me use an example to illustrate my point.  


Think about the last time you bought a car or a house.  When you were in the market, did you notice how many ads there are for the vehicle you were looking for?  Did you notice how many "For Sale" sale signs there were in the neighbourhood you  are looking at?  I believe that consumers are only consciously receptive to advertisements when they are in the market.  At all other times we tune out the ads.  


I believe that there are many different triggers and reasons that make people receptive to ads, which by the way, are impossible to predict.  Talk to your local rep about the right kind of schedule for your campaign.

A great way to zero in on the same people and have added impact is to buy a sponsorship of a daily feature, such as a news or sports broadcast. A sponsorship guarantees your ad will run at a particular time and typically affords you a brief “sponsored by” message in addition to your ad spot.

Errors and rip-offs

New advertisers are often suspicious as to whether or not their ads have run correctly or even run at all. Advertising salespeople respond by saying “No need to worry, our ads are recorded in our operating log as required by the FCC. To not run an ad would violate the law.”

Don’t believe the salespeople for a minute. One of the very largest Boston radio shows was subject to a major scandal a few years back because they were skipping clients’ ads on a regular basis, logging the spots and billing the clients as if all of their spots had run as per contract.

While skipped ads are fairly uncommon, they can happen—and happen to you. What is a lot more common, however, is an unsatisfactory ad presentation. This is most likely to occur if all or part of the ad is read by on-air talent.

Most radio stations are going digital.  What that means for the client is that reps are able to print off a log of the exact times that commercials ran.  If you're skeptical, just ask your rep.  We want you to be happy and we want your ads to work so that you keep buying more radio.  Skipping your ads is counter-productive to both our pockets.



For example, in running a series of ads that included changing short live taglines on six major radio stations, I discovered that only one station read the ad correctly. Most made significant errors in the live taglines. Some actually skipped the tagline altogether. Some ran the wrong ad on the wrong day. One station even ran half of the recorded version of an ad, abruptly cutting it off midway through the spot.

You need to monitor your ads to assure that you are getting your money’s worth of exposure. And don’t hesitate to demand free spots, called make-goods, for significant goofs.


Any radio rep worth their salt will make good on spots that ran in error.  In my 4.5 years of experience in radio, errors in live reads can happen, but aren't the norm.  


Roadblocks

If your audience is fairly general and you have successfully tested radio ads on one station, you may want to consider running ads on many stations at the same time. The practice of airing television or radio ads on several stations simultaneously is called a roadblock. The advantages of this strategy are that you get multiple exposure, reach those people who frequently switch stations, and are more likely to benefit from word-of-mouth or viewers talking you up after the ads have run.

I once did roadblock advertising in the Boston marketplace and saw newsstand sales of a local magazine I was publishing almost double during a two-week period. I also saw the sales slide back toward their former level about a month after the ads stopped running.

As the results of my campaign show, radio ads tend to work best for advertisers who can concentrate a lot of money in one marketplace, with heavy concentration over an extended period of time.


In 4.5 years of radio, I've never heard of a roadblock before, but that doesn't matter.  What matters is that the effect was real.  There are numerous studies that prove that using multiple media is more effective than using any single media platform.  


There are a few reasons for this positive effect on newsstand sales that I can think of.   First, is that people (in Canada at least) consume TV, RADIO and INTERNET nearly equally over the course of a week.  By using TV & RADIO, this campaign would have delivered this message to consumers during approximately 60% of their media consumption time.  Secondly, there is good evidence to show that campaigns that engage more than one sense ie. taste, smell, touch, sight and sound are more effective than single sense campaigns.





Let’s make a deal

The real fun in radio advertising is negotiating rates. Try to wait until a slow season, then call every station that meets your demographics. Tell them either how much money you are considering spending on their station or how many spots you intend to place. Also tell them nicely, but firmly, that you are only going to run ads on the station or stations that give you the best rate deals. Get one or more of them to show you their ratings book, ideally from Arbitron, and compare how many people in your target audience they will be reaching.

Get all of the bids from each station. Then call each station back and say you still haven’t decided which station to choose, and can’t they do any better?

If you choose a slow time of year and are persistent but pleasant with people, you should be able to negotiate rates that are even lower than the those paid by large national advertisers that buy huge blocks of advertising time.

You will be amazed to see how much less than the published rate card price you can buy radio time for. You will also note that, from radio station to radio station, there is an enormous difference in the station’s willingness to negotiate.

For example, a Boston station, which normally sold morning drive ad spots at $150 per second, sold me a package deal costing only $10 per spot. What you should typically expect through negotiating, however, is half the published rate. If you can do this, you are doing great!


We negotiate rates everyday, to a point.  I'd like to point out that every consumer should try to negotiate.


Some stations will sell their product for any price just to get the sale.  I think radio is the same as any other business, you do get what you pay for.  If a rep is willing to sell a $150 spot for $10 do you think access to their audience was really worth $150 to begin with?


In my opinion, the best stations have rate integrity.  The reason this makes them great is because you can feel confident that there aren't a dozen other clients buying the same station at a fraction of the price you're paying.  It also means that these stations are likely selling out...proof that they are as big as the reps say they are.  


During slow times of the year JAN/FEB and JULY/AUG most media platforms sell their inventory at special rates and/or with extra bonuses.   HOWEVER, in most cases, these rates and bonuses disappear when the busy months kick in.  If you want a real deal, negotiate a rate and buy as much media as you can during a recession.

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?

Major Changes in Radio (PPM) + A New "rule of Thumb" for Advertisers by The Wizzard of Ads

The PPM system signifies a major change in measuring radio (and TV). For decades, we've used a diary based system which asked panelists "what do you THINK you listen to". We believe the new electronic PPM system is a far superior measuring tool because it more accurately measures "what people REALLY listen ". It's important to note that the listening audience for each station in Calgary has not changed. What has changed is the way we measure each audience. One of my colleagues noted that this change is similar to when Canada converted from Imperial measurement to Metric. 10 degrees celcius is still as cold as 50 degrees farenheight.

The major changes are as follows

1. Reach

• it (PPM) accounts for persons that are exposed for even 1 minute or more


• it (PPM) will measure loyal, occasional and infrequent listeners as well as those exposed by coincidence. It will capture data from personal listeningexperience in your office, car and home, to incidental listening at a coffee shop, mall, a colleague’s office or at the dentist.
  Diary respondents report listening to stations that are part of their daily routine and seldom record second hand exposure while PPM accounts for actual exposure to a radio station

2. Daytime Performance

• Diary data typically reports that morning and afternoon drive had the highest reach potential; however, PPM indicates that day time tuning isjust as strong.

3. Frequency

• the average frequency for any radio station campaign will be lower when occasional and incidental listeners are part of the equation
  
  

you may find yourself asking....
SO WHAT DOES THIS MEAN TO ME?

For the answer, I'd like to refer to the Wizzard of Ads, Roy Williams...http://www.entrepreneur.com/advertising/adcolumnistroyhwilliams/article170166.html

• It’s no secret that advertising isn’t working as well as it once did
• In truth, only 11.7 percent of U.S. households are equipped with a DVR, but response to TV ads is off by far more than 11.7 percent. Broadcast radio has only lost about 4 percent of its audience over the past three years...But response to radio ads is off by far more than that. Newspaper readership peaked in 1984, and today’s number is only about 16 percent below that banner year. But the response to newspaper ads isn’t nearly what it was back then.
• SO WHAT'S GOING ON? In a nutshell, we’ve developed mental filters to guard against hypercommunication
• Bottom line: Meaningful messages are working better than ever, especially when the fundamental premise of your ad is clearly stated in the opening line.
• You and I spend about a minute a day sorting the mail, right? Up until a few years ago, these six minutes each week were our only exercise in high-speed content evaluation. Now we’re spending at least six hours a week scanning search engine results, web pages and e-mail for relevant, meaningful information. These hours of practice are teaching us--and our customers--to more quickly recognize and disregard empty words.
• If your ad delivers a meaningful message that rings true from the moment of contact, you’ll find that it works regardless of which media you choose to deliver it
• The new rule is to say what you've got to say, and say it clean. The opening line of your ad is its most important element, so open big
• Message relevance has become more important than repetition. (Keep in mind that I did not say repetition no longer matters.)
• Here’s an example of an ad that closes the loopholes instead of sounding like hype:
  

Green Fees + Condo = $20

It’s a Myrtle Beach Miracle. No strings attached.

We want you to get to know us at Condotels, and we’re willing to lose a few bucks to make it happen.

Put yourself in our shoes. Nothing is more frustrating or more expensive than advertising that doesn’t work. So we did the math. Financially, it makes a lot more sense for us to help pay for your next golf outing than it does to pump out ads that don’t work.

So here’s the deal:4 days of golf at 3.5 and 4-star courses: Tradition Golf Club, International Club, Wachesaw Plantation East and Indigo CreekGolf from December 8 to January 25You and three friends stay three nights in a two-bedroom (four beds) two-bath condo at Golf Colony.Green fees + Condo = $20 per golfer/per dayThe total four-day/three night package price is $80 per golfer x 4 golfers: $320 total.

Want to golf between now and December 7?

This same package is only $39.50 per golfer/per day.

Here’s what we get out of it: Four people telling all their friends back home how much better it is to stay in a condo than in a hotel.

This whole thing sounds too good to be true, right?

Let us tell you what we’re up against: Four short years ago, Myrtle Beach had 73,000 rooms for rent. Today it has 92,000 rooms. Our job at Condotels is to rent out our clients’ condos when they’re not using them. And we’ve got a lot of condos to rent.

The Condotels check-in desk in open 24/7, just like a hotel, and we’re not hard to find. Just pick up your keys, and go to your condo. Do it once, and you’ll never stay in a hotel again.

Not interested in golf? Want to take the family to a luxury, oceanfront condo with a balcony overlooking the beach? Talk to us. We’re knee-deep in condos like that.

Condotels has decided to spend its ad budget serving you instead of annoying you.
Book a golf outing or beach vacation with us. Let us know it’s working.

Sincerely,
Chipper Chip Olin

PPM - a new way to measure TV and Radio

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS135579+31-Aug-2009+PRN20090831

• the world's largest combined panel for television and radio audience measurement is now live in Canada using Arbitron Portable People Meter(TM) (PPM(TM)) technology.


• The PPM technology is designed to measure exposure to all audible media and is easy-to-use, mobile, flexible and language-agnostic.


• PPM technology is now used throughout Canada, replacing the legacy electronic measurement technology for television. It is also replacing BBM Canada's diary service for radio in five markets.


• "In September 2004, BBM began using PPM technology to measure television viewing in the francophone market of Montreal and over the past 5 years we have grown confident that the PPM service is the audience measurement solution that can best meet our members' needs today and well into the future."


• The Arbitron Portable People Meter system uses a passive audience measurement device -- about the size of a small cell phone -- to track consumer exposure to media and entertainment, including broadcast, cable and satellite television; terrestrial and online radio as well as many types of place-basedelectronic media


• Carried throughout the day by randomly selected survey participants, the PPM(TM) device can track when and where they watch television, listen to radio as well as how they interact with other forms of media and entertainment.


• PPM detects inaudible codes embedded in the audio portion of media and entertainment content delivered by broadcasters, content providers anddistributors. At the end of the day, the meter is placed in a docking station that extracts the codes and sends them to a central computer. The PPM isequipped with a motion sensor, a patented quality control feature unique to the system, which allows Arbitron to confirm the compliance of the PPM surveyparticipants every day.