by Scott Howard | Apr 23, 2019 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
We want young people, you know, the ones who have money to spend and are not stuck in their ways to come to our place.
That was part of the conversation I had with a couple of business owners in their 40’s recently. Their Mom was in her late 70’s and still active in the family business.
But these two brothers were having a hard time understanding who they should be inviting to spend money with them.
There is a stereotype that Baby Boomers are too old. Boomers are not going to change their buying habits. Boomers are looking for cheap stuff and discounts. Boomers have limited incomes. Boomers are not worth inviting to your business.
This was either said or implied by people in their 20’s, 30’s and 40’s.
They may be right. But not really.
Over the years I have worked for a few radio stations that played music that catered to Baby Boomers and I’ve worked for radio stations that have a talk format that is also popular with Baby Boomers. WOWO Radio for example.
When I worked for the music stations catering to Baby Boomers, I met those listeners and many of them fit those stereotypes that I mentioned.
But I’ve also met the WOWO News Talk Radio listeners and the majority of them don’t fit the stereotypes I mentioned.
By the way, Baby Boomers are currently ranging in age from 55 to 75. More than half are still working full time, and even more are working part time.
Here’s a few more insights from Mediapost on the Baby Boomers that listen to WOWO Radio:
In the United States, Boomers and seniors control more disposable income than the rest of the generations combined. The term disposable income is important. In our 20’s and 30’s, we may have a decent income, but that money is flying out the back door as quickly as it comes in the front door. College Debt is at a record high level and young adults are delaying major purchases and starting a family. Meanwhile, Boomer grandparents are chipping in sometimes because their monthly expenses are lower. Or they are indulging in buying stuff they couldn’t afford when they were younger.
I have friends who are in their 50’s and 60’s who are buying brand new custom homes, who are taking trips, who are eating out every weekend. Money is not the issue that it was when they had little kids and teenagers to take care of.
84% of surveyed Boomers prefer to shop in-store. This is great news for local retailers. Are you inviting Boomers to come to your store or restaurant? I can help you design a plan for that using WOWO radio. Boomers will also buy online, but it’s still an alternative, the second option, not the first choice for most Baby Boomers.
Boomers place greater emphasis on convenience than other generations. They want an easy-to-access store, with ample parking and clearly defined return policies. We know what it was like to have real interaction with people when shopping instead of the self check out lanes. Our generation values truth, honesty and a good buying experience, because we’ve seen that level of service decline over our lifetimes.
Contrary to popular opinions, Boomers aren’t necessarily attached to classic brands. Of the groups surveyed, they were the only generation that didn’t prioritize buying the brands that they identified with from their childhood. For example, every summer, my wife and I visit a new restaurant nearly every week. I’ve introduced her to nearly all of the local brew pubs and I see a few more opening soon for us to check out. We may stick to a few items from our youth, but Boomers are living life with a freedom and gusto that we had in our teen to explore this world and all it offers.
Having trust in a retail purchase is also immensely important to Boomers. Internet-based review sites now provide consumers easy access to product testimonials, and Boomers love them. I emphasise to my clients the importance of maintaining a solid reputation online and offer tips on how to do that.
A brand looking to attract and convert sales from Boomers should spend its time and money advertising in the pre-purchase stage. Another way to look at this is you want to create Top Of Mind Awareness. If my car needs new tires, I am going to go to the first tire store that comes to mind. I’ll either do that in person, or online. The beauty of radio ads on WOWO Radio is that we create Top Of Mind Awareness for our advertising partners with our listeners. Want to know how it works? Ask me.
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by Scott Howard | Dec 19, 2018 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
There’s an old saying that the reason bank robbers rob banks is because that’s where the money is. While that may have been true in the last century, it’s not true anymore.
What is still true and a more honest way to make money is to invite people who have money to spend, to spend it with you and your business.
Generally speaking, my generation has both the money and the need to spend money. I’m talking about the grownups that are age 50 plus.
I was reading another article about this, I see them on a regular basis. Here’s a quote from Jacobs Media on the subject:
Logic suggest that advertisers and marketers are smart enough to connect the dots, and realize that today’s 50+ consumers are the most reliable – and have the most money. And every year, prognosticators (I was once one of them) maintain that as Baby Boomers age, their marketing strengths will become in vogue once again.
My wife and I have 5 adult kids from previous marriages, and that has led to a crop of 9 grandkids.
Right now, I have more disposable income than most of our kids. While they are saddled with college debt, the expenses of a growing family and all the stuff my wife and I went through when we were their age, we are on the other side of those financial burdens.
We are also making home improvement upgrades to the house we bought a few years ago. We continue to purchase cars and you know what else? We are planning on a few trips in the years ahead.
We are also helping out our kids financially on occasion and that includes the grandkids too. Recently one of my kids asked for a help to cover some expenses and I was able to ask how much and with the convenience of PayPal take care of it right away.
That’s part of my story as a Baby Boomer. Baby Boomers for a long time were the sought after generation for marketers because of the size of our generation, the biggest in human history. We were the original Pepsi Generation among other things.
Baby Boomers with money to spend are also the primary audience of WOWO radio. WOWO is a news talk radio station that is over 90 years old and as I continue to look at the research and hear the success stories from our advertising partners, I see that my wife and I are not alone in our spending habits.
I was talking with the marketing person at a dentist’s office the other day and discussed what forms of advertising and marketing they had done in the past and what worked best and heard the same thing that I hear over and over again.
Two of the highlights are:
- When we run specials on Groupon, we get new patients but they don’t stick around. In other words, they are getting people who are price shoppers and they are very fickle.
- We really would like to do full mouth restorations. We get a lot of satisfaction from changing a persons life and giving both a healthier life physically and emotionally.
So, apparently they have been inviting people to become one-visit patients based solely on price which is the opposite of their ideal patient in terms of the satisfaction they get as a dentist office.
Wouldn’t it make more sense to invite the people you really want to help and that will establish a long term relationship with you and even tell others about you and refer their friends and family to you?
The answer is yes. Invite People with Money to Spend with You.
Seems pretty basic, right?
Sometimes marketing and advertising is not as complicated as it might seem.
I blame the advertising sales people who either have been taught all wrong or just don’t care to keep it simple.
My job is to really dig in and help your business grow with the right kinds of customers, the customers that you want more of, the customers that appreciate you and value you.
Like I said at the beginning of this, I can help you invite WOWO radio listeners who have money to spend to spend it with you. Want to know more? Let’s meet.
by Scott Howard | Oct 23, 2018 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Fort Wayne, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
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.
by Scott Howard | Jul 11, 2018 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Fort Wayne, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
As a member of the WOWO radio advertising sales team, I have some insider information to share with you.
As a member of the Fort Wayne, Indiana community for the past 20 years, I have some insight to share with you.
As a marketing professional who has worked for other media companies, including those that competed with WOWO, I have some perspective to share with you.
As a Baby Boomer who grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where WOWO radio is located, I also have some history to share with you.
At the conclusion of this article, you will have a greater understanding of WOWO, Fort Wayne, and if we should talk about your business using WOWO to invite people to become your customers.
Twice a year, Fort Wayne radio stations receive the results of an independent ratings survey that tells us who listens and when they listen. Not in any scary, meta-data manner, but in demographic and geographic terms. June 29th, I received the results of the Spring 2018 rating survey.
I was not surprised by the data. I look for a couple of things such as the total number of listeners each week. When a business advertises with a radio station, there is a finite number of people that will hear their ads. Same is true with any advertising medium.
So I want to know how many total listeners WOWO has and once again, WOWO is listed as the radio station heard in Fort Wayne that has the largest number of listeners. Over 99,000 every week just in the 6 counties that include Allen County, where Fort Wayne is, and the 5 Indiana counties that are adjacent to Allen. That includes, Adams, Wells, Huntington, Whitley and Dekalb Counties in Indiana.
WOWO has listeners beyond those counties including the Indiana counties of Grant, Wabash, Kosciusko, Noble, Lagrange, Steuben, and several Ohio counties. The listeners in those counties are not included in the survey, but they are there. We know this because of the advertisers and listeners tell us.
The rating survey also tells me that 95% of WOWO’s radio listeners are grown-ups, age 25 and older.
Again WOWO leads the pack, we have nearly 30,000 more grown-ups listening every week compared to the next most popular station that has less than 70,000 listeners aged 25 and older.
Charly Butcher and the Fort Wayne Morning News Team have nearly 50,000 weekly grown-ups listening to WOWO.
So does Glenn Beck, whose 3 hour national talk show comes on at 9am.
Rush Limbaugh’s 3 hour national talk show has over 60,000 weekly listeners on WOWO between noon and 3pm and local WOWO Talk Show host Pat Miller has nearly 55,000 listeners every week between 3 and 6 in the afternoon.
There is no other radio station in Fort Wayne that has this massive number of listeners week after week, of grown-ups. Remember it’s the grown-ups that have the money, not the 13 year olds.
Why is WOWO so popular?
WOWO is a legacy radio station in Fort Wayne. When I was a kid, WOWO played music and the disc jockeys were allowed to be personalities. Bob Sievers, the legendary morning show host would tell me if school was delayed, but hundreds of farmers all across Indiana, Ohio and Michigan also listened to hear the farm reports.
In the evening, I listened to Ron Gregory when I was supposed to be doing my homework and enjoyed his wry sense of humor and puns.
But the WOWO of today is different. Now over 90 years on the air, mostly on 1190am, WOWO has been broadcasting a news and talk format for a couple of decades.
Politically, Northeast Indiana, or “WOWO-Land” as it is called to include the entire tri-state area leans conservative. With the line-up of conservative talk show hosts like our own Pat Miller along with national radio personalities, Glenn, Rush and Sean Hannity and Buck Sexton at night, WOWO has a strong format that attracts grown-up listeners.
We are not totally a conservative part of the country. Our mayor is serving his 3rd term as a member of the Democratic Party and his predecessor also from the Democratic Party served as mayor for two terms. The City and County Councils however lean Republican.
Our Fort Wayne Morning News with Charly Butcher, isn’t really a talk show, more of a news program with interview segments lasting 3 minutes or less, because it’s jam packed with 4 newscasts, 6 traffic and weather reports, 2 sports updates and 2 farm reports every hour! Interview segments with our Mayor and other city and county officials, state government leaders including the Governor and our Congressmen and Senators are featured live each week along with what ever else is timely and appropriate. And yes, just like when I was listening as a kid, WOWO still has school delays and closings in the morning when the weather is bad.
95% of WOWO listener tune in weekdays between 5 in the morning and 6 at night. I call in WOWO Primetime. 70% listen on the weekends.
There are other stations in Fort Wayne that are targeting the same age demographic as WOWO, but they have half as many or even a third as many weekly listeners.
There are also other stations that have a news or talk format, but again their total number of listeners is a tiny fraction of the weekly listeners that WOWO has according to the latest radio survey I’m looking at.
By the way, this dominance of WOWO is not new, it’s been consistent during the 15 plus years I have worked for WOWO and before when I worked for the other radio station companies in Fort Wayne.
All this information is good and great and wonderful, but how does WOWO perform for business that advertise with us?
I’m impressed and that’s not a bunch of hype. Because of all that I have already mentioned, there are certain characteristics and options that I have with WOWO that are not available anywhere else in Fort Wayne that have created phenomenal results for advertisers that partner with us. Nothing is 100%, but compared to other stations I have worked for since 1986, I don’t have to cross my fingers and hope for the best when I have a true advertising partner who takes my guidance, coaching and follows that plan we create together.
Not every business that I talk to however qualifies to work with me. Want to know if you qualify? Hit me up, and let’s connect.
by Scott Howard | May 24, 2018 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, Uncategorized, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
As we head into the unofficial summer season of June, July and August, the three months between Memorial Day and Labor Day, I want to address a headline I saw again and give you an insiders perspective on The Decline of Mass Media.
Why talk about it now? Well, television viewing habits in years past were different during summer time, with the major networks showing summer reruns instead of new episodes. But hang on because I’m getting ahead of myself.
What is mass media anyway? Perhaps traditional media is a better term. Television, Radio, Newspapers and Magazines are the traditional media that have been the mainstay since the 1950’s and before.
Newspapers are continuing to struggle. Lay offs and shut downs have been occurring for nearly two decades, due to the rise of the internet. One story I read this month blamed the owners for cutting staffs.
The Denver Post cut the newsroom from 184 journalists to 99, according to the story. Other cuts at other newspapers were also harsh. 73 reporters down to 10 while another paper went 45 to 12 journalists. Locally in Fort Wayne, the afternoon paper ceased publication, and instead gets one sheet in the morning paper and an online edition. I saw friends of mine in the newspaper business in town leave either on their own or due to cutbacks. I was once tempted about 8 years ago to work for their online division but am grateful I stayed put.
The company I work, Federated Media sold the one newspaper they owned a couple years ago because it was nearly impossible to be profitable.
When I say the internet is the reason for the decline in print, it’s really a combination of things related to the internet.
Accessibility for one. 20 years ago most of us owned a desktop computer with a dial-up modem at home, if we had a home computer. 12 years ago laptops took over as the primary personal computer device. And did you realize that the first iPhone debuted in 2007, ushering in the smartphone revolution?
Online Content is the other contributing factor. No need to wait for the morning paper to check the weather or the score. Newspapers have tried to replace their dwindling subscriber numbers with paywall subscriptions, but the math doesn’t work. If you don’t have the readers, the advertisers will also go away and the decline has been going on for too long.
Declines in the magazine publishing industry are similar. What seems to have survived in print is specialized publications. Smaller but targeted readership than mass media.
Another way the internet has changed the media is the television industry. The New York Times featured a story that I read online about the future of broadcasting: Why Traditional TV Is in Trouble.
Here’s a few quotes:
Ratings are on the decline, especially among young people, some of whom don’t even own televisions. It’s hard to keep up with the many devices and apps people now use to watch shows. And there is a host of material from Silicon Valley that is competing for viewers’ attention, including Google’s YouTube, Facebook and Netflix. It all adds up to a precarious situation for broadcast TV.
Advertising on TV has long been the best way for marketers to reach a large number of people at one time. And it is still a formidable medium. But cracks are showing.
and:
The hottest shows on TV networks — which command the highest ad prices — are attracting older viewers, which is a challenge for brands that want to reach millennials and teens. For instance, this season’s top-rated show, the revival of “Roseanne,” has a median viewer age of 52.9 years. The network show with the lowest median age is “Riverdale” on the CW, at 37.2.
The TV networks will be able to survive by reinventing themselves much like radio stations did when television became a media force last century. But the local TV stations? My advice if you want to reach anyone younger than Baby Boomers, good luck. All of my kids are in their 30’s and none of them are watching broadcast TV, some don’t even own a television. They get their video content online. Even my wife and I watch just as much video content on something other than a TV or if we do, often it’s days later and the local ads are not even seen.
So what is taking the place of traditional broadcast TV as a mass media?
Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, to name a few. Alternatives to cable like Sling, Hulu and Roku. These are all offering the best of both worlds for advertisers. You get to reach people watching video content but you get to target your ads to specific audiences, one of the technical marvels of the internet.
Here’s a quote from a newsletter I received from Google:
More than half of 18 to 49-year-olds in the U.S. either don’t watch a lot of TV or do not subscribe to TV. But that doesn’t mean TV content and TV screens are on their way out. In fact, the TV screen is the fastest growing screen for YouTube content, with 70% growth in the last two years.
Let me address the radio broadcasting industry too. It was the first broadcast mass media and WOWO radio, the station I work for is over 90 years old. There are two categories of traditional broadcast radio stations these days, and I’m not talking about AM and FM. The two categories I am referring to are talk based programming and music based programming.
Radio broadcasting started out with network radio shows from NBC, CBS, ABC and the Mutual Broadcasting System and eventually they evolved to what we have today.
In Fort Wayne, Indiana, there are 37 radio stations within close listening range. Some are duplicates of the same programming on different signals, like WOWO 1190 AM is the same as WOWO 107.5 FM, so let’s say there are 25 separate and individual choices. This is also a way of targeting your advertising. The best local radio stations keep an emphasis on local content, stuff you can’t get by listening to Spotify or Pandora.
Federated Media has 6 stations in Fort Wayne, four are music based, two are talk. I work for the talk stations, WOWO and our ESPN affiliated station. Both offer a combination of local and national programs. There are specific characteristics of WOWO listeners that help me determine if advertising on WOWO would be a good idea. Want to reach grown-ups? Let’s talk. Want to reach teenagers? I’ll connect you with someone who works for one of our music stations.
Not all radio stations and radio broadcasting companies are the same. Overall radio listenership has remained pretty steady for the past decade. Over 90% of everyone age 12 and older listens every week. However smart radio stations and companies are staying ahead of the trends that we see going on around us.
For years, radio stations like WOWO offered a way for you to listen via the internet. Go to WOWO.com and click on the listen now tab and you can stream WOWO on your computer. There are plenty of apps that offer access to radio stations like WOWO, and some people listen to WOWO via the WOWO app itself.
2018 however is the break thru year for Alexa and Google Home smart speaker systems. We are seeing a resurgence in radio listening simply by telling the smart speakers to play WOWO and poof, there’s Pat Miller in the afternoon or Charly Butcher in the morning, in your kitchen, just like 40 years ago when I was a kid and my parents had clock radios in their house.
One last way radio stations like WOWO are staying on top of the trends is podcasting. WOWO and our other Federated Media stations share both content from our live shows online in podcast form, but also we have some podcast only shows that are available via iTunes or what ever your favorite podcasting player is. Podcasting is huge and we can connect businesses to podcast listeners too.
The title of this today was The Decline Of Mass Media. As I’ve laid out what’s going on in print and broadcasting in response to the web connected world we live in, I hope you see as I do, these are exciting times. The traditional mass medias that are adapting are going to done fine while the others struggle and will be a mere shadow of their former selves.
Fortunately, I get to work with a company that continues to be on the leading edge and I get to offer advertising and marketing solutions that work using WOWO radio and our digital marketing division of Federated Media.
Want to see how I can help your business grow this year and next? Contact me.
One final piece that I’m going to share because it was posted on LinkedIn by Ben Saurer, WOWO radio’s General Sales Manager that demonstrates how WOWO truly is a leader. Ben’s job is to hire, coach and lead an advertising sales team. Quite frankly, most media companies struggle with this, but as you will see, WOWO is different, in a good way. Here’s what an excerpt from what Ben wrote:
All my people earn above the industry average. Client retention is high. Everyone on my staff is generating more revenue than last year. We’ve had ZERO sales staff turnover in 2+ years while having our market’s largest sales staff. People perform and like working here.
Remember the story I shared about the newspapers cutting their staffs to try and save themselves from going under? Completely different story here at WOWO.
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