Why WOWO is the Best Choice for Advertising (Part 3)

Why WOWO is the Best Choice for Advertising (Part 3)

As we move toward a new year, many business owners are attempting to figure out the best bang for their buck when it comes to marketing and advertising.

If you are in the Northeast Indiana region, specifically Fort Wayne, Indiana and nearby communities and you want to invite adults age 25 and older to buy from you, become your patient, or client, I urge you to contact me and my team at WOWO radio.

Marketing Charts dot com released a couple of articles that I’m going to use in the 3rd installment of my series this year of Why WOWO Radio is the Best Choice for Advertising.

About half of US adults say they trust the information they receive from reviews of products or services from other users or customers.

Also in this study, less than 25% of us, trust TV advertising.

One big trend that companies have been relying on is using Influencers on Social Media who have thousands of followers to convince their followers to buy the products they pitch online.  According to the study that marketing tactic only works on about 15% of us and nearly half of us distrust these so-called influencers.

Follow along with me as I relate this information to the capabilities of WOWO radio.

Besides WOWO having the largest weekly audience of adults, our news and talk format means our listeners are actively listening to the words our radio personalities are saying, compared to a music station that has passive listenership because music is often used as background music.

At WOWO, our morning news host Kayla and afternoon talk host Pat have the ability to connect with their audiences much more deeply than any other form of media as they share not just the latest news but also their personal lives too.

They have built a trust relationship with their listeners.

Imagine if that trust relationship could be transferred to your business. That would be incredible.  Pat and Kayla and the other WOWO radio personalities become friends with their listeners and in the same manner that you trust your friends to make recommendations, WOWO’s listeners trust them too.  I call it Word of Mouth with a Bigger Mouth,

Yes, many of the businesses that use WOWO also use Kayla or Pat testimonial endorsement ads and are seeing the benefits.

Now there was another article that confirmed the power of a host doing a live ad.

Host-read ads were also found to outperform non-host-read ads on several key marketing metrics. Most notably, they were found to produce some 60% higher intent to seek information, a 50% higher intent to purchase, and 50% higher recommendation intent. Additionally, host-read ads produced 67% higher affinity and 33% higher familiarity than non-host-read.

The data I just shared pertains to podcasts, but it is both reasonable and acceptable to apply this to WOWO.

Not every business qualifies for a testimonial endorsement from Pat or Kayla on WOWO.  When you contract with WOWO for this type of ad, you are category exclusive.  Ask me or my team for details on this.  We actually have a waiting list for some categories.

 

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Work for WOWO

Work for WOWO

The final weeks of 2021 are here and I have an update for you. I just started running an ad for an advertising sales account executive to join my team at WOWO.  And I’ve included a healthy hiring bonus.  Here’s the text of the radio ad:

It’s true. Everyone is hiring. But you’re not just anyone. You’re a self-motivated, over-achiever who’s looking for a new career home. Have you considered that home might be right here, working for your favorite radio station? The legendary WOWO radio has been making an impact on our community nearly a century, and I’m looking for our next radio sales account executive to join our growing team. This is Scott Howard, General Sales Manager for WOWO radio. We invest in you before day one on the job: it starts when you take our free sales talent assessment.  Text sales to 46862. That’s sales to 46862 to receive your free talent assessment. With only one sales opening, do it right now! If you wait, you’ll also miss out on the five thousand dollar, $5000, $5000 sign on bonus. That’s right – a five thousand dollar sign on bonus for the next WOWO account executive. Text sales to 46862 so we can start investing in you at Federated Media; or send me an email: scott@wowo.com. Federated Media  an equal opportunity employer.

 

Why WOWO is the Best Choice for Advertising (Part One)

Why WOWO is the Best Choice for Advertising (Part One)

Today I’m kicking off an occasional series of Why WOWO Radio in Fort Wayne, Indiana is the Best Choice for Advertising Your Business. I am calling it an occasional series because, every few weeks I’ll add another article interspersed with the other articles I share each week on this website and the Genuine ScLoHo Media & Marketing Podcast.

While just this year I was named the General Sales Manager for WOWO radio, and this is my 7th year working for WOWO, I’ve been writing and publishing these stories and insights for over 15 years.  Pretty soon, I’ll have my 20th anniversary of returning to the media and marketing world in Fort Wayne after having worked in radio in Detroit and other places too.

Recently Marketing Charts.com published a story on the “Graying of America” that caught my attention. I’m a young Baby Boomer and for most of my life, I was part of the most sought after demographic for advertisers.  I was part of the Pepsi Generation.  Until I turned 55 that is.

See, in my work in advertising, the desired demographic was either the 18 to 34 year olds when the Baby Boomers were that age, and then more recently 25 to 54 year olds were the hot target market.

When the advertising guru’s followed the Boomers in to middle life with that initial switch, many of them forgot what they were chasing.  As the Boomers got older, the advertising people stayed with the 25-54 year olds which was foolish.

Why?

Because the age 55 and older people in America are not the same as their grandparents were when they were in their 60’s.  We didn’t turn into a bunch of grumpy old men and women sitting around playing checkers and reminiscing about the good old days.  We blew that stereotype sky-high.

Boomers have more money, more free time, more overall freedom and they’re not sitting around waiting to die.

Coupled with the misconception of what Boomer are doing, the advertising people ignored the fact that the younger generations are smaller.  That’s what this story from Marketing Charts dot com points out.

Over the past 10 years, since 2010 the number of pre-teens has been going down, so has the teenage population and college crowd.  There has been 11 percent growth in the 25 to 34 year olds, but less than 2% growth in the 35 to 44 age group.  45 to 54 year old population had a big loss of over 9% in the past decade. So if you are targeting your advertising to 25 to 54 year olds today, there are statistically fewer of them.  That mean less people to buy your stuff than a decade or two ago.

When you compare that with the growth of the older population…

55 to 64 year olds grew in size by over 15%; 65 to 74 year old grew by  almost 45%; and even the 75 and older crowd grew by more than 20% in the past decade.

Clearly the Baby Boomer population is still alive and kicking, and not just dying off.  Some Boomers parents are very active in their 80’s and 90’s.

WOWO Radio has been the most listened to radio station for adults age 25 and older for years and admittedly the biggest chunk of our listenership was age 50 and older.  But we’re not our grandparents.  We’re upgrading our lifestyles, socking it away for retirement one day and living longer, healthier lives than previous 50, 60, and 70 year olds were.

One more statistic I noticed this summer from our most recent ratings survey was that the WOWO Radio audience is becoming more diverse.  We are also getting younger listeners, those between the age of 25 and 50 have grown in the past year.  Another trend is the ratio of men and women listening to WOWO Radio.  We used to be 60% guys and 40% women 10 years ago.  Today it’s nearly 50/50.

Let’s wrap this up with a few more facts and figures from the Marketing Charts report.  Baby Boomers have more than 54% of the nations wealth, and if you add it the money from the next older generation, that’s where 75% of the buying power is in America.  These people are also the least affected by the fall out of COVID-19.   And these are the WOWO Radio listeners.

There you have it, Part One of Why WOWO is the Best Choice for Advertising.  Contact me to get started with a campaign to marketing your business.

 

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#TBT Fort Wayne ScLoHo Homes

#TBT Fort Wayne ScLoHo Homes

I rarely do a strictly personal column on this website, instead I include personal stuff in my usual media and marketing articles.

However recently I was driving past a former house I lived in and decided to do a #ThrowBackThursday post for fun.

These are all the previous Fort Waynehomes I have lived in since moving to Fort Wayne as a kindergartener with my folks.

After school I left and then returned a few years later before leaving again.

I have now lived in Fort Wayne continuously longer than I had previously and longer than anyplace. There’s just 7 here plus our current home, but if you count all the places I’ve called home, I guess we’re pushing 20.

All these picture were snapped on a cold wintery day in January 2019 and every one looks different than when I lived in them.

1st house my parents rented. Used to be pink.

The two story used to be green. My parents owned in for over 35 years.

4 apartments in this West Central house. Different siding from when I lived there in the 80’s.

I rented the top floor of this Duplex. Or it may have been a Tri-plex. Looks much nicer now. But in the 80’s there was an old man that had a peach colored Rolls Royce he parked in the street on this block.

This one used to be white.

1st time I had a mortgage was this place. They had a fire in the attic after we moved and raised the roof when they rebuilt.

Biggest change to this is the color. It was green when we owned it.

The Talk Radio Advantage For WOWO Advertisers

The Talk Radio Advantage For WOWO Advertisers

Not all advertising venues are created equal. The idea of an ad is an ad is an ad is like saying a cow is a cheeseburger is a filet.  Yes they are all forms of beef, but with big differences.

In Fort Wayne, I’ve worked in the radio advertising world since 2003.

I have created successful advertising campaigns for hundreds of companies using all formats of radio stations including both music and talk formats.  But this story is not about me.  It’s about what I have observed over the past 5 years that I’ve been on the WOWO Radio advertising sales team.

Quite simply, WOWO listeners pay attention to the ads on WOWO and respond to them like no other form of advertising I have ever seen in Fort Wayne.

This is a conversation I have several times each month.  It is about the mental state of people who are exposed to your advertising messages. 

We are going to look at the big picture and include many of the places you can spend money to advertise.

Start with television.  When you and I sit down to watch a show, we are paying attention to the show.  When commercials come on, most of us stop paying attention, at least not the same level of attentiveness that we have during the show.

Newspapers and magazines.  Unless it’s a fashion magazine that is chocked full of 50+ pages of ads before the articles start, we are not really interested in the ads.  We bought the paper to read the stories, get the scores, or see if someone died.

Social Media.  Facebook for example is a place to go to find out what’s happening with friends and family.  They have managed to work ads and sponsored posts into out timelines so we can’t help but seem them but we are not on Facebook to check out the ads.

Radio. Not all radio stations are created equal.  For this discussion, let’s look at the difference between music based stations and talk based stations.  The reason we tune in to a station that plays music, any music for that matter, is to hear music that we like.  In Fort Wayne we have country music stations, rock music stations, pop music stations and plenty of variations.

Every listener to a music radio station selects that particular station because they want to hear that particular style of music.  Anytime the music stops for any length of time, say 2 minutes, we pay less attention.  If the station plays 5 or 7 minutes of commercials in a row, we really tune out and pay less attention.  Some may even change stations.  The reason we listen to music radio stations is to hear music.  It’s to escape.  Anything other than music on a music station is an irritant.

Talk based radio stations are a different animal. Stations like WOWO which are a combination of News and Talk have listeners who tune in for information.  The programming on talk radio stations is brain food, not escapism like the music on a music radio station.  When the newscaster or program host is talking, listeners are paying attention to the words.  It’s the information that people want to hear.

So what happens when your commercial airs on a talk radio station like WOWO? 1st off, it’s not interrupting music, taking the place of your favorite song, so it is less of an irritant. Next, if your ad is a live endorsement from the radio personality, that is the very best kind of commercial because you have the credibility of the radio personality combined with the credibility of WOWO and a receptive audience that is listening to hear the talk, whether it is about politics or your business, it doesn’t matter.

If you air regular recorded commercials on a talk radio station like WOWO, you still get a receptive audience that is not turned off by talking on the radio and you are on WOWO which adds credibility to your business.

I discovered another way to use WOWO’s talk radio format to help your business and that is with our live 10 second sponsorship messages of news, weather, traffic and sports.  These are done live by the newscasters and program hosts and are embedded in the program and carry almost as much weight as a full endorsement.

This relationship between the WOWO listeners and the WOWO air staff with our news and talk radio format is one of trust.

For many it’s as strong a bond of trust as a trusted friend.  

You don’t get that with a newspaper ad.  You don’t get that with a TV commercial, You don’t get that with nearly any other form of advertising you can spend your money on.

This is the Talk Radio Advantage WOWO advertisers receive.   Want more info?  Let’s talk.

A New Era at WOWO Radio

A New Era at WOWO Radio

WOWO Radio, the radio station I work for and one of the stations I grew up listening to has promoted our News and Program Director, Kayla Blakeslee.  Starting Wednesday 10/16/18, Kayla has become the new host of Fort Wayne’s Morning News on WOWO.

What makes this newsworthy is the history of WOWO and the future of WOWO.

WOWO has been on the air since March 31, 1925, one of a handful of AM radio stations that were on the air, in the early days of broadcasting.  1190 AM has been the place to find WOWO all of my life, but that move to 1190 didn’t occur until about 20 years after they first signed on at 1320AM and later on 1160AM.

Bob Sievers was the morning man for WOWO from the 1930’s until the 1990’s.  Bob was who I woke up to in the 70’s and honestly, I lost track of who was on in the mornings when I moved out of state in 1986. When I returned to Fort Wayne 20 years ago, it was Macy in the Morning.  I worked with Dave Macy for awhile at another station in Fort Wayne after he left WOWO.

Over time, WOWO evolved from being what was known as a full service radio station that had radio personalities that played music and had news to becoming a full time news and talk station the past 20 years.  For the past 14 years, Charly Butcher has been the host on Fort Wayne’s Morning News on WOWO.  Charly unexpectedly passed away this summer while on vacation.  Charly is legendary because he actually came to Fort Wayne in the 1980’s and worked on the air at our sister station WMEE before making the switch to WOWO in 2004.

Charly was just 61. and we expected him to continue into his 80’s as he was full of energy and loved what he did on the air with WOWO and in the community. His loss was a shock and loss not just for the staff and his family, but for the thousands of people who listened to him for years.

At first we had local broadcast veteran Steve Shine who was Charly’s vacation fill in host, alternate with Kayla Blakeslee to cover the hosting duties.   But both of them had full time positions already and when WOWO got an offer from former WOWO News Director Mike Wilson to fill in for 4 weeks, we took it.

Mike gave us some breathing room.  He was not available to take the position long term, but having a month to review applicants and make a decision for the future of WOWO was a blessing.

When I found out that Kayla was going to be taking over, about a week before it was public, I was happy.

The initial reaction on WOWO’s text line and social media was also very positive. Here’s one of the Facebook comments:

Kayla was the obvious choice for the ‘morning drive’ at WOWO. Congratulations to Kayla, and to Federated Media for having the hootzpah to put a lady in that slot!! Nice going, everyone!!

In doing some research, a friend of mine, Blaine, only found one other woman who has been the morning host on a major news talk radio station in Boston, and her duties were that of a co-host, not the main anchor, or ringleader as I like to refer it to.

I honestly don’t think that the radio industry is sexist however Kayla is breaking new ground as the first female news host on WOWO.  This is different from being a news anchor or news reporter, WOWO has had women in that position for years.  Women on the air hosting a radio show on WOWO is not new either. Carol Ford was on in the late 1970’s when WOWO played music.

Kayla also represents a generational change.  Kayla is in her 30’s and quite frankly, she’s at the age when a lot of people start listening to news/talk radio. Being a member of the millennial generation creates a lot of positives.  For example, she has the ability to relate to the 2nd largest generation because she is one.  Baby Boomers are still the largest but as we age, the number of living Boomers is declining.

Kayla

Kayla hosting Fort Wayne’s Morning News also presents a fresh opportunity for the local business community for advertising opportunities.  Our radio program hosts, Pat Miller, Rick Wolf and previously Charly Butcher offer the crème de la crème of advertising opportunities in Fort Wayne with Live Testimonial and Endorsement ads on WOWO.  These are usually the most effective and impactful ads available anywhere.  Ask me about them.

Kayla has been doing a recorded version of these testimonial endorsement ads for a few years taking advantage of her trusted name recognition as the WOWO news and program director, but now we are able to take the next step and do Live Testimonial and Endorsement ads with Kayla on Fort Wayne’s Morning News on WOWO.   These are limited and if you and your business want to see if you qualify, please contact me right away. Email Scott@WOWO.com, that’s Scott@WOWO.com.

The Future of WOWO is in good hands with Kayla and the Fort Wayne Morning News team starting the day for thousands of listeners every morning. The legendary Bob Sievers and Charly Butcher would both be proud as we are in the midst of history in the making at WOWO.