“I hear you on the radio all the time!” That’s when you know you have a good radio schedule.
There are 3 key components to an effective radio schedule:
1. Targeted Reach- you want to reach as many of your prospective customers as possible.
2. Frequency- repetition, repetition, repetition. You want them to hear your message over and over again so they hear it, understand it and take action. Research shows that an average consumer needs to hear your ad at least 3 to 4 times during the course of a week to process the information they hear and respond to it.
3. Duration- don’t expect miracles to happen overnight, within a week, or even a month. It takes a commitment of three to four months for your advertising to reach maximum impact. When you get it there, you want to sustain it. See the Buyers Awareness Cycle for more information on this.
Assuming you’ve found the right radio station that reaches your target customer, here are some tips on achieving a good frequency.
The Ideal Schedule
If you have the budget for it, ask your AE to provide you with a schedule that distributes spots throughout all of the stations dayparts (morning drive, mid-day, afternoon drive, nights and weekends) throughout the week at a Frequency of 4.
This doesn’t mean you’re going to run 4 spots per week. Most stations use a software program with data provided by Arbitron that measures the average length of time their listeners tune in and out of their station. It calculates the amount of spots needed so their average listener will hear your ad 4 times.
The frequency goal used to be 3, but in this modern age of technology, we are so bombarded with messages that we need a frequency of 4 to cut through the clutter and grab someone’s attention.
When you get a proposal back with the cost of this schedule and you haven’t suffered a heart attack from sticker shock, then great. Run that schedule every other week for the rest of the year. If you have money left in your budget, go through the same process and buy your next radio station the same way. You can alternate weeks, unless you’re running a time sensitive promotion, like a sale.
If you’re experiencing chest pains from sticker shock, read on…
Own A Daypart
If you can’t afford to reach every listener on a station, it’s better to achieve frequency by reaching a sub-group. Select a daypart that’s affordable and buy at least 2-3 spots per day, every day.
This method takes a little longer to work and requires a bit of patience on your part, but it does work. Duration is key here.
Own Part of the Week
Radio stations tend to sell most of their inventory with spots that run towards the latter half of the work week- Wednesday through Friday. Because there’s a high demand for those days, they charge higher rates. That leaves the weekend, Monday and Tuesday more open. Negotiate a great deal by requesting those days of the week for your schedule.
Generally, radio listening tends to drop on the weekend so rates tend to be priced accordingly. But radio listening is about the same on Monday and Tuesday as it is Wednesday through Friday. So, if you’re not advertising a fire sale that’s happening over the weekend, you can typically get 25% off spots that run Monday and Tuesday, especially if you commit to a long term contract, which you ought to do to get results.
At the very minimum, you need to run 8 spots per day to make this schedule effective--2 spots per daypart (morning, mid-day, afternoon, and nights). Running 3 spots per daypart, or 12 spots per day is ideal, if you can afford to run this every week for a long duration.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Sunday, January 24, 2010
BILLBOARDS AND RADIO - A BEAUTIFUL THING!
The Radio Advertising Bureau has a Competitive Media section, which gives us access to the latest information profiling 10 competitive media. Each profile contains a complete white paper as well as the advantages, disadvantages and “Plus Radio” (working with radio) for each medium.
Outdoor
Billboards have come a long way since the Burma Shave days. From the first advertising mural painted on the side of a building to today's animated "diamond vision" boards, outdoor advertising is an established part of the great American landscape. If it stands or rolls, chances are it has an advertisement on it. Bus sides, transit shelters, sidewalk benches, even privately owned automobiles, all reflect the value the business community sees in making their name visible to the public.
Many of today's billboards are impressive. Vinyl technology provides advertisers with the ability to display images that are photographic in quality. Diamond Vision technology is turning some billboards into giant flat screen televisions. Inflatable and structural attachments make an advertiser's message 3-D. These technologically evolved billboards do more than create visual impressions; they create word-of-mouth message proliferation. As a result of these advancements, the outdoor industry has been able to grow their revenues at an impressive rate.
Still, there are distinct limitations to what outdoor messages can achieve. While outdoor is effective at brand maintenance (assuming an adequate number of boards are bought), it is ineffective at initial branding. Due to the minute amount of time consumers can spend reading them, billboard messages must be brief. Some experts recommend no more than eight words. As a result, comprehensive messages cannot be
conveyed with a billboard. Advertisers regularly must alter the messages they communicate to consumers. Marketing situations such as new locations, new departments, new products or services, and special events all require a new message. However, changing messages on existing billboards is cost-prohibitive and require significant amounts of time to accomplish.
For all these reasons, Radio is the perfect partner for outdoor advertising. Not only can Radio do the things that outdoor cannot, we do them all cost-efficiently. And considering the primary purpose of billboards is to reach consumers in their cars, can you think of a more compatible medium than Radio?
And by the way ... the Burma Shave outdoor campaign was brilliant.
Advantages
Attention Grabbing: The combination of size, color and illumination attracts attention.
Strategic Placement: Billboards can be placed in high-traffic areas or other strategic locations, while transit signs can be affixed to the backs and sides of buses, in bus stops, and in rail stations.
Low Cost: Outdoors’ cost-per-thousand is significantly lower than that of any other advertising medium – in some cases by a factor of 10 or even 20.
Building Word of Mouth: Billboards can generate curiosity in “teaser” campaigns.
Full-Time Audience: Outdoors’ message can appear year-round. For additional fees, outdoor advertisers can purchase evening lighting – or in some cases, even 24-hour illumination.
Directional: Billboards can be used as directionals, guiding consumers to the location of a given business.
Disadvantages
Brevity: The very nature of outdoor advertising demands that the commercial message be brief and relatively simple. Therefore, it is difficult to communicate product details, competitive advantages, and specific consumer benefits. Billboard companies generally recommend no more than seven words on a billboard, or people speeding by will not have time to read the message.
Limited Availability: Prime outdoor locations (in high-traffic areas) often are controlled by large, long-term advertisers. Construction of new billboards is restricted by costs, space availability, and sometimes-rigid municipal codes and environmental regulations.
Lack of Effective Measuring Tools: Unlike other advertising media, outdoor advertising has no truly reliable method to measure its effectiveness. A few studies have been done, but they mostly apply to limited geographical areas and employ widely varying methodologies.
Low Recall: Commuters behind the wheel and other potential customers are exposed very briefly to outdoor messages, minimizing message retention. Such adverse conditions as heavy traffic or bad weather also can limit message impact and recall.
Ugly Image: Because of growing environmental concerns, many communities have eliminated, reduced, or limited the volume and placement of outdoor advertising.
Inflexible: Once a message is up, it generally stays up through the duration of the contract, even if the advertiser’s needs have changed. In addition, printing a new message is expensive, possibly taking weeks to produce and days or weeks to have it displayed.
“Plus Radio”
Power of Sound: To be effective, billboard messages must be brief. That’s where Radio can help. Use Radio to enhance and expand on the message displayed in your billboard showing.
Recall: Radio blankets the market. Your outdoor message can be seen only where it is displayed, but Radio allows your message to travel with your customers wherever they go – at home or at the office as well as in the car. By combining Radio with outdoor, you can build your message’s range and frequency – and reach more of your customers more often building recall.
Personal Connection: The Radio Advertising Effectiveness Laboratory (RAEL) shows that Radio listeners enjoy listening to their station and believe the advertiser’s message is directed toward them.
Flexible: Radio gives you the option to easily make copy changes. Use Outdoor for image, and Radio for timely information. A billboard can grab your customers’ attention; Radio can give them the details. By combining these two complementary marketing forces, Radio can deliver all the information on your products and services your customers need in order to make intelligent purchasing decisions.
Bad weather and adverse traffic conditions: Both are known to decrease outdoor ad exposure, but Radio listening actually increases under these circumstances. American consumers depend on their car Radios for weather and traffic reports, so billboards and Radio make an effective drive-time combination.
Outdoor
Billboards have come a long way since the Burma Shave days. From the first advertising mural painted on the side of a building to today's animated "diamond vision" boards, outdoor advertising is an established part of the great American landscape. If it stands or rolls, chances are it has an advertisement on it. Bus sides, transit shelters, sidewalk benches, even privately owned automobiles, all reflect the value the business community sees in making their name visible to the public.
Many of today's billboards are impressive. Vinyl technology provides advertisers with the ability to display images that are photographic in quality. Diamond Vision technology is turning some billboards into giant flat screen televisions. Inflatable and structural attachments make an advertiser's message 3-D. These technologically evolved billboards do more than create visual impressions; they create word-of-mouth message proliferation. As a result of these advancements, the outdoor industry has been able to grow their revenues at an impressive rate.
Still, there are distinct limitations to what outdoor messages can achieve. While outdoor is effective at brand maintenance (assuming an adequate number of boards are bought), it is ineffective at initial branding. Due to the minute amount of time consumers can spend reading them, billboard messages must be brief. Some experts recommend no more than eight words. As a result, comprehensive messages cannot be
conveyed with a billboard. Advertisers regularly must alter the messages they communicate to consumers. Marketing situations such as new locations, new departments, new products or services, and special events all require a new message. However, changing messages on existing billboards is cost-prohibitive and require significant amounts of time to accomplish.
For all these reasons, Radio is the perfect partner for outdoor advertising. Not only can Radio do the things that outdoor cannot, we do them all cost-efficiently. And considering the primary purpose of billboards is to reach consumers in their cars, can you think of a more compatible medium than Radio?
And by the way ... the Burma Shave outdoor campaign was brilliant.
Advantages
Attention Grabbing: The combination of size, color and illumination attracts attention.
Strategic Placement: Billboards can be placed in high-traffic areas or other strategic locations, while transit signs can be affixed to the backs and sides of buses, in bus stops, and in rail stations.
Low Cost: Outdoors’ cost-per-thousand is significantly lower than that of any other advertising medium – in some cases by a factor of 10 or even 20.
Building Word of Mouth: Billboards can generate curiosity in “teaser” campaigns.
Full-Time Audience: Outdoors’ message can appear year-round. For additional fees, outdoor advertisers can purchase evening lighting – or in some cases, even 24-hour illumination.
Directional: Billboards can be used as directionals, guiding consumers to the location of a given business.
Disadvantages
Brevity: The very nature of outdoor advertising demands that the commercial message be brief and relatively simple. Therefore, it is difficult to communicate product details, competitive advantages, and specific consumer benefits. Billboard companies generally recommend no more than seven words on a billboard, or people speeding by will not have time to read the message.
Limited Availability: Prime outdoor locations (in high-traffic areas) often are controlled by large, long-term advertisers. Construction of new billboards is restricted by costs, space availability, and sometimes-rigid municipal codes and environmental regulations.
Lack of Effective Measuring Tools: Unlike other advertising media, outdoor advertising has no truly reliable method to measure its effectiveness. A few studies have been done, but they mostly apply to limited geographical areas and employ widely varying methodologies.
Low Recall: Commuters behind the wheel and other potential customers are exposed very briefly to outdoor messages, minimizing message retention. Such adverse conditions as heavy traffic or bad weather also can limit message impact and recall.
Ugly Image: Because of growing environmental concerns, many communities have eliminated, reduced, or limited the volume and placement of outdoor advertising.
Inflexible: Once a message is up, it generally stays up through the duration of the contract, even if the advertiser’s needs have changed. In addition, printing a new message is expensive, possibly taking weeks to produce and days or weeks to have it displayed.
“Plus Radio”
Power of Sound: To be effective, billboard messages must be brief. That’s where Radio can help. Use Radio to enhance and expand on the message displayed in your billboard showing.
Recall: Radio blankets the market. Your outdoor message can be seen only where it is displayed, but Radio allows your message to travel with your customers wherever they go – at home or at the office as well as in the car. By combining Radio with outdoor, you can build your message’s range and frequency – and reach more of your customers more often building recall.
Personal Connection: The Radio Advertising Effectiveness Laboratory (RAEL) shows that Radio listeners enjoy listening to their station and believe the advertiser’s message is directed toward them.
Flexible: Radio gives you the option to easily make copy changes. Use Outdoor for image, and Radio for timely information. A billboard can grab your customers’ attention; Radio can give them the details. By combining these two complementary marketing forces, Radio can deliver all the information on your products and services your customers need in order to make intelligent purchasing decisions.
Bad weather and adverse traffic conditions: Both are known to decrease outdoor ad exposure, but Radio listening actually increases under these circumstances. American consumers depend on their car Radios for weather and traffic reports, so billboards and Radio make an effective drive-time combination.
Debug Your Ad Campaign!
Spending all your money on advertising but getting no results? Find out whether you're guilty of committing one of these 12 blunders.....
By Roy H. Williams
Q: I've spent a ton of money advertising in lots of different media, but it doesn't seem like I have much to show for it. Can you tell me plainly and simply how to advertise so it will work?
A: I applaud your honesty. The simple truth is, most advertisers feel just like you do, but their pride won't let them admit it. Unfortunately, I don't have a "success pill" for you to swallow, but I can describe each of the most common mistakes you will need to avoid:
1. The quest for instant gratification: The ad that creates enough urgency to cause people to respond immediately is the ad most likely to be forgotten immediately once the offer expires. It is of little use in establishing the advertiser's identity in the mind of the consumer.
2. Trying to reach more people than the budget will allow: For a media mix to be effective, each element in the mix must have enough repetition to establish retention in the mind of the prospect. Too often, however, the result of a media mix is too much reach and not enough frequency. Will you reach 100 percent of the people and persuade them 10 percent of the way? Or will you reach 10 percent of the people and persuade them 100 percent of the way? The cost is the same.
3. Assuming the business owner knows best: The business owner is uniquely unqualified to see his company or product objectively. Too much product knowledge leads him to answer questions no one is asking. He's on the inside looking out, trying to describe himself to a person on the outside looking in. It's hard to read the label when you're inside the bottle.
4. Unsubstantiated claims: Advertisers often claim to have what the customer wants, such as "highest quality at the lowest price," but fail to offer any evidence. An unsubstantiated claim is nothing more than a cliché the prospect is tired of hearing. You must prove what you say in every ad. Do your ads give the prospect new information? Do they provide a new perspective? If not, prepare to be disappointed with the results.
5. Improper use of passive media: Nonintrusive media, such as newspapers and yellow pages, tend to reach only buyers who are looking for the product. They are poor at reaching prospects before their need arises, so they're not much use for creating a predisposition toward your company. The patient, consistent use of intrusive media, such as radio and TV, will win the hearts of relational customers long before they're in the market for your product.
6. Creating ads instead of campaigns: It is foolish to believe a single ad can ever tell the entire story. The most effective, persuasive and memorable ads are those most like a rhinoceros: They make a single point, powerfully. An advertiser with 17 different things to say should commit to a campaign of at least 17 different ads, repeating each ad enough to stick in the prospect's mind.
7. Obedience to unwritten rules: For some insane reason, advertisers want their ads to look and sound like ads. Why?
8. Late-week schedules: Advertisers justify their obsession with Thursday and Friday advertising by saying "We need to reach the customer just before she goes shopping." Why do these advertisers choose to compete for the customer's attention each Thursday and Friday when they could have a nice, quiet chat all alone with her on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday?
9. Overconfidence in qualitative targeting: Many advertisers and media professionals grossly overestimate the importance of audience quality. In reality, saying the wrong thing has killed far more ad campaigns than reaching the wrong people. It's amazing how many people become "the right people" when you're saying the right thing.
10. Event-driven marketing: A special event should be judged only by its ability to help you more clearly define your market position and substantiate your claims. If 1 percent of the people who hear your ad for a special event choose to come, you will be in desperate need of a traffic cop and a bus to shuttle people from distant parking lots. Yet your real investment will be in the 99 percent who did not come! What did your ad say to them?
11. Great production without great copy: Too many ads today are creative without being persuasive. Slick, clever, funny, creative and different are poor substitutes for informative, believable, memorable and persuasive.
12. Confusing response with results: The goal of advertising is to create a clear awareness of your company and its unique selling proposition. Unfortunately, most advertisers evaluate their ads by the comments they hear from the people around them. The slickest, cleverest, funniest, most creative and most distinctive ads are the ones most likely to generate these comments. See the problem? When we confuse response with results, we create attention-getting ads that say absolutely nothing.
By Roy H. Williams
Q: I've spent a ton of money advertising in lots of different media, but it doesn't seem like I have much to show for it. Can you tell me plainly and simply how to advertise so it will work?
A: I applaud your honesty. The simple truth is, most advertisers feel just like you do, but their pride won't let them admit it. Unfortunately, I don't have a "success pill" for you to swallow, but I can describe each of the most common mistakes you will need to avoid:
1. The quest for instant gratification: The ad that creates enough urgency to cause people to respond immediately is the ad most likely to be forgotten immediately once the offer expires. It is of little use in establishing the advertiser's identity in the mind of the consumer.
2. Trying to reach more people than the budget will allow: For a media mix to be effective, each element in the mix must have enough repetition to establish retention in the mind of the prospect. Too often, however, the result of a media mix is too much reach and not enough frequency. Will you reach 100 percent of the people and persuade them 10 percent of the way? Or will you reach 10 percent of the people and persuade them 100 percent of the way? The cost is the same.
3. Assuming the business owner knows best: The business owner is uniquely unqualified to see his company or product objectively. Too much product knowledge leads him to answer questions no one is asking. He's on the inside looking out, trying to describe himself to a person on the outside looking in. It's hard to read the label when you're inside the bottle.
4. Unsubstantiated claims: Advertisers often claim to have what the customer wants, such as "highest quality at the lowest price," but fail to offer any evidence. An unsubstantiated claim is nothing more than a cliché the prospect is tired of hearing. You must prove what you say in every ad. Do your ads give the prospect new information? Do they provide a new perspective? If not, prepare to be disappointed with the results.
5. Improper use of passive media: Nonintrusive media, such as newspapers and yellow pages, tend to reach only buyers who are looking for the product. They are poor at reaching prospects before their need arises, so they're not much use for creating a predisposition toward your company. The patient, consistent use of intrusive media, such as radio and TV, will win the hearts of relational customers long before they're in the market for your product.
6. Creating ads instead of campaigns: It is foolish to believe a single ad can ever tell the entire story. The most effective, persuasive and memorable ads are those most like a rhinoceros: They make a single point, powerfully. An advertiser with 17 different things to say should commit to a campaign of at least 17 different ads, repeating each ad enough to stick in the prospect's mind.
7. Obedience to unwritten rules: For some insane reason, advertisers want their ads to look and sound like ads. Why?
8. Late-week schedules: Advertisers justify their obsession with Thursday and Friday advertising by saying "We need to reach the customer just before she goes shopping." Why do these advertisers choose to compete for the customer's attention each Thursday and Friday when they could have a nice, quiet chat all alone with her on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday?
9. Overconfidence in qualitative targeting: Many advertisers and media professionals grossly overestimate the importance of audience quality. In reality, saying the wrong thing has killed far more ad campaigns than reaching the wrong people. It's amazing how many people become "the right people" when you're saying the right thing.
10. Event-driven marketing: A special event should be judged only by its ability to help you more clearly define your market position and substantiate your claims. If 1 percent of the people who hear your ad for a special event choose to come, you will be in desperate need of a traffic cop and a bus to shuttle people from distant parking lots. Yet your real investment will be in the 99 percent who did not come! What did your ad say to them?
11. Great production without great copy: Too many ads today are creative without being persuasive. Slick, clever, funny, creative and different are poor substitutes for informative, believable, memorable and persuasive.
12. Confusing response with results: The goal of advertising is to create a clear awareness of your company and its unique selling proposition. Unfortunately, most advertisers evaluate their ads by the comments they hear from the people around them. The slickest, cleverest, funniest, most creative and most distinctive ads are the ones most likely to generate these comments. See the problem? When we confuse response with results, we create attention-getting ads that say absolutely nothing.
WHY RADIO???? If you want your message to be heard, someone has to listen to it!
Radio gets your message out there better than any other medium. Just think about how people use the media. People “watch” television, they “browse” the internet, they “read” newspapers and magazines, but they “listen” to the radio. Arbitron audience measurements reveal that radio has the greatest overall penetration of any medium.
Radio’s reach is unequaled. Despite the undisputed growth of “new media” in recent years, the fact is that nearly everyone still listens to radio. In fact, radio maintains its place as the most effective medium for reaching people. According to Arbitron’s 2009 edition of “Radio Today” radio reaches 94% of the population. As Arbitron notes, “No other medium – electronic or otherwise – can claim as many weekly consumers as radio does.”
Radio delivers great demographics, especially talk and news radio. A recent survey of talk radio listeners by “Talkers Magazine” highlights the desirability of radio as a medium for people who are trying to reach educated, affluent, and active people. The survey found that 70% of talk radio listeners had attended some college, 57% had a household income of more than $50,000 and 74% had voted in the last election.
Radio is ubiquitous. People are listening just about everywhere! And one outgrowth of recent technical innovation is the fact that, radio’s influence continues to grow. The digital age has created fabulous new ways for people to process and receive information. But, one constant in all of this is radio.
And radio connects. Listeners tend to have a special relationship with radio that transcends all other forms of media. A 2006 study entitled “Radio and the Consumer’s Mind: How Radio Works” quantified the unique relationship that listeners have with radio. Among the specific findings:
• radio listeners tend to have an emotional attachment to radio, and,
• they find radio advertising more relevant to their lives than other forms of advertising.
Radio’s reach is unequaled. Despite the undisputed growth of “new media” in recent years, the fact is that nearly everyone still listens to radio. In fact, radio maintains its place as the most effective medium for reaching people. According to Arbitron’s 2009 edition of “Radio Today” radio reaches 94% of the population. As Arbitron notes, “No other medium – electronic or otherwise – can claim as many weekly consumers as radio does.”
Radio delivers great demographics, especially talk and news radio. A recent survey of talk radio listeners by “Talkers Magazine” highlights the desirability of radio as a medium for people who are trying to reach educated, affluent, and active people. The survey found that 70% of talk radio listeners had attended some college, 57% had a household income of more than $50,000 and 74% had voted in the last election.
Radio is ubiquitous. People are listening just about everywhere! And one outgrowth of recent technical innovation is the fact that, radio’s influence continues to grow. The digital age has created fabulous new ways for people to process and receive information. But, one constant in all of this is radio.
And radio connects. Listeners tend to have a special relationship with radio that transcends all other forms of media. A 2006 study entitled “Radio and the Consumer’s Mind: How Radio Works” quantified the unique relationship that listeners have with radio. Among the specific findings:
• radio listeners tend to have an emotional attachment to radio, and,
• they find radio advertising more relevant to their lives than other forms of advertising.
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