My Secret Sauce for Advertising on WOWO Radio

The summer of 2015 update on advertising with WOWO Radio continues today with an update on what my manager calls, “My Secret Sauce”. 

When I joined WOWO’s sales team in 2013, most of the others were focusing on offering 60 second commercials, which as I mentioned yesterday are about $100 each.  I needed something else to help businesses get exposure and after a few months started selling another advertising option on WOWO.

10 second live sponsorships.  Now these were being included with the advertising campaigns that my co-workers were offering.  I didn’t invent these, however…

I had not seen these as the primary method of getting the message out on the radio. The 10 second live sponsorships were a secondary, not a primary vehicle for most of our advertisers on WOWO.

I flipped it around.

Here’s why:

On WOWO, these 10 second live sponsorship messages are embedded in the programming elements.  The sponsorships are of News, Weather, Traffic, or Sports and are read live during WOWO’s primetime hours.  That’s weekdays between 5am and 6pm.

Depending on the business and the message we want listeners to hear, many times you don’t need a minute.  10 seconds does the trick.

What is the advantage of a 10 second live sponsorship on WOWO over a 60 second commercial on WOWO?

The first thing that stands out is the price. Instead of $100, how about $50?  Now I am treading on dangerous ground right now, and here’s why:

Some businesses and organizations need a full minute to get their message out.  Unless your message can be communicated in 10 seconds, don’t try this.

Here’s the other warning I have for you.  Instead of trying to be cheap and going with the 10’s only to save money,  use the same amount of money, but buy more ads.  $2000 can get you 20 60 second ads, or $2000 can get you between 40 and 50 10 second ads.

There are plenty of additional considerations that we need to talk about too, including the competitive landscape both in your area and on the radio.  The call to action, the simplicity or complexity of your message, to name just a few more.

I’ve talked about this in the past and my co-workers have been including more and more of these 10 second live sponsorship messages in the marketing solutions that they have been offering their clients, which means…

The price for 10 second live sponsorships on WOWO has gone up.  When I started, we didn’t even have a set price, we had our own internal guidelines.  But just last month, due to the success of “My Secret Sauce”, we had to pay closer attention to how many 10 second live sponsorship messages we had available and include the price on our rate card.

The rate card for WOWO is a living document that is updated weekly.  It tells me how many 60 second commercials are available during each of our primetime programs and what the price is for the remaining commercial slots that are not sold each week.  Last month that rate card added a couple of lines for the 10 second live sponsorship messages.  Before, I could offer these at a rate ranging from $20 to $40 each. Today, those prices are controlled by the number of spots we have left. $50 is now the top end, but we’re more likely to be able to price them at $40 each if we reserve the time in advance.

The reason the demand for these 10 second live sponsorship messages is increasing is because they work. Even with the price increase, they will work, and I’ll be glad to show you how this could be the right marketing solution for you.