WOWO Radio Report Card Time: 2019

WOWO Radio Report Card Time: 2019

What’s the status of radio broadcasting as we prepare for a new year?

That’s a question I hear in various forms from friends, family and others who hear I work in the radio advertising business.

Last month, I spoke to a marketing class at a local university and did a Q & A about radio advertising and marketing overall, and the question came up.

I talked with a couple family members who I had not seen in months and they asked too.

The good news is, radio broadcasting is strong and healthy, profitable for both the company I work for and for the businesses that advertise with us. The unfortunate news is that the public perception doesn’t match reality. Westwood One, and Edison Research released a study this month that I want to share with you along with some inside information about the station I work for, WOWO radio and the Fort Wayne media market.

First off, advertising agencies and major advertisers overall don’t know the truth about the impact of music streaming services compared to traditional AM/FM radio broadcasting.

 A simple question was asked: “Please estimate the audience share of Pandora, Spotify, and AM/FM radio.” The perceptions? Spotify has a 23% share, Pandora has a 21% share, and AM/FM radio has a 36% share.

The truth is Pandora only has a 4% share and Spotify has 2% nationally.  Only 6% of people listening to what we call audio are using Pandora and Spotify to listen to their favorite music.

Perception among the people who should know was that these internet based music channels had nearly half the audience and listening to the radio for music was history.  Not a chance, my friend. Another wrong perception is that those Pandora and Spotify listeners must listen all day long, right? Wrong again.  Pandora get 12 minutes a day and Spotify get 10 minutes a day on average according to this study.  Meanwhile radio listeners are tuned in nearly two hours daily.  Mindblowing to those who thought that everyone is listening to music online.

But here’s the really important part for businesses that are looking for a place to advertise that will be effective and profitable.

Listening to music at home used to mean albums and CDs. Today, that has shifted to Spotify and Pandora. Now listening to music at home means audio streaming is playing softly in the other room. According to a MARU/VisionCritical study, only 54% of Pandora and Spotify listeners actually pay attention to the ads.Background music like this was never meant for advertising.

So if your business is advertising on Pandora or Spotify you are likely reaching a fraction of the people who you could reach using traditional AM/FM radio, and the odds that they are listening when your ad is one is a tiny fraction of that number, and to make it even worse, nearly half are mentally tuning out when your commercial comes on.

There are actually two versions of Pandora and Spotify.  The free version that includes ads and the paid version that is ad free.  The study shows that while the ad free version of Spotify is growing the version of these services that your business can use to advertise on, is losing audience. What about Sirrus XM Satellite radio? That audience is still tiny.  Only about 1 out of 10 people have Sirrus XM.

Traditional AM/FM Radio stations continues to reach over 70% of adults every single day and over 90% every week.

Two newer forms of audio listening are growing, podcasts and smart speakers. Fortunately WOWO Radio and the other Federated Media owned radio stations have been using podcasts as a standard part of our offerings for out audience. 

Miss an interview on WOWO’s Pat Miller program?  You can listen later by subscribing to our podcasts.  We even have podcast only programs for our radio audiences.

And the smart speaker revolution has increased our audiences because now, instead of a tabletop radio, or stereo system in your home or office, you can tell Alexa to tune into WOWO Radio and poof, it’s there.

I told you I would also share with you some inside information about WOWO and Fort Wayne Media. In August, WOWO radio’s long time morning show host, Charly Butcher passed away unexpectedly on vacation.  This was a major blow to everyone as Charly was our anchor and host of Fort Wayne’s Morning News for years and previously was on our sister station WMEE.

Management expected WOWO’s advertising revenue to decline and not make our budget in 2018. Instead of declining, the advertising sales team at WOWO had a record year.  This was only possible if the advertising campaigns we ran on WOWO produced results for the businesses that invested their ad dollars with us.   It’s not just a tip of the hat to the sales skills of my co-workers, but to the entire staff and listeners who continue to make WOWO radio an important part of their day and support the business who they hear on WOWO.

In 2019, we expect more growth at WOWO in listenership, in our relationships with our listeners, and in connecting those listeners to the businesses that they want to spend money with.  As always, I am here to help you become one of those businesses.

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The Tradition Lives and Works

The Tradition Lives and Works

This is a ScLoHo extra report that is not included in the Genuine ScLoHo Media and Marketing Podcast series.

Radio broadcasting is considered traditional media.  So is TV broadcasting along with print (newspapers & magazines), and if we expand to look at traditional advertising platforms, let’s toss in the phone book and outdoor billboard signs.

What’s not considered traditional in the media and advertising worlds?  Internet related stuff.

The digital marketing options that include platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, etc.

Heck, digital includes apps, websites, search (both SEO and SEM) and the blending of these digital technologies.

So, the set up is traditional media and advertising, versus digital media and marketing.  Which is better for your business?

I happen to work with both and have tons of hands on experience in both worlds.

I have concerns about the future of several of the media and marketing platforms and their ability to be profitable and deliver a Return On Investment for their supporters, (that includes investors and businesses that advertise with them.)  I’m talking about both traditional and digital.

One that I am betting my future on is radio.  Not all radio, but specifically my radio station WOWO.

3 items came up this past week that I’ll share with you:

One of my advertising partners hosted a very nice luncheon for his media partners from all over Indiana and the head of an ad agency that does mostly television, asked the question: How’s the radio business doing?

My answer was that our audience is as strong and responsive as ever.   A lot of changes have continued to evolve in his world of television that has made buying TV advertising and getting the results that they used to get, a bit of a struggle.

Those changes have to do with how viewing habits have been changing tremendously, just in the past 5 years, let alone 20 years.  Cord Cutting (the loss of Cable TV subscribers) and the On-Demand viewing habits have really changed the landscape for television advertising.  Now with Smart TV’s that have the ability to deliver ads based on who is watching at the time, there are a lot of bugs to work out and with these changes comes challenges that are still being worked out.

Business people and media buyers simple want to know that there advertising messages are being seen and heard and bringing them customers.  You really don’t care about the technical details.

I also saw this national story from Radio Ink, a media publication.  The story states that radio advertising is still a favorite with new media buyers planning on trying radio for the first time.  In my experience, I’m seeing people who were told that they should be using digital media for advertising are now also exploring advertising on the media they consume, and  WOWO radio is one of the most listened to medias in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

One more insider article that I read the other day, shows that the News and Talk formated radio stations like WOWO continue to be HOT.

For the eighth year in a row, news/talk is radio’s top format. Buoyed by a nonstop cavalcade of news stories – from the midterm elections and Supreme Court nominations to natural disasters, social media scrutiny and widening cultural debates – the format’s 6+ Average Quarter Hour share crept up to a 10.0 (January-November) in 2018, from a 9.9 in the same period one year earlier. In fact, 2018 marks a fourth consecutive year of growth for news/talk.

And this growth in listenership is paying off for my advertising partners too.  In another client meeting I had this month, I learned that they experienced 150% growth this year, their 2nd year of advertising with WOWO.

I just published this story on the Talk Radio Advantage for WOWO Radio Advertisers that goes into more detail of some of the specifics that makes this kind of growth possible with WOWO radio.  And Before the month is up, I’ll share an article on how radio is still in demand for 2019 and beyond.

Lastly, I want to share with you how WOWO is actually using both traditional and digital platforms to serve our audience and our advertisers. Along with our 50,000 watt 1190 AM signal, and 107.5 FM signal (the traditional media), WOWO radio can be heard online with our streaming service for years.  WOWO has been using Facebook, Twitter, Text, Instagram, including all the updates and and Live features. We’re smart speaker enabled including Alexa.

And Podcasts. Boy, do we have Podcasts. You can listen to multiple web exclusive podcasts and we also have archives of many of our on-air broadcasts and interviews that air on WOWO radio.

Contact me for more info.

 

 

Invest In Your Online Identity

Invest In Your Online Identity

Just a quick FYI.  The Genuine ScLoHo Media & Marketing Podcast is moving our weekly release date to the beginning instead of the end of the week and so this is a teaser to the next episode titled, Don’t Be Social Media Stupid With Your Business.

I really, really, really, yes REALLY want you to make a change in your business that will cost you less than $100 a year.

Get a professional email address.

I’ve had one for years. It is Scott@ScLoHo.net.

Mine is part of Google Suites, so it looks like a Gmail account to me, but to anyone sending me an email, with my own domain, it is a step or two or three above Gmail.

The past couple of months, I have seen businesses with email accounts from HotMail, Yahoo, Gmail, and even AOL.

What this tells me is that these folks either don’t take their business seriously, or they are really, really behind the times.

And having one of these old email domains for your business hurts your credibility and the trust factor we want to have in you.

But I’ve had my hotmail email address for years, all my customers use that, how will they reach me if I change?

Easy.  You can have your current email addresses forwarded to your new email address.

While you are at it, your website probably needs an update too, but that’s a subject for another day.

Audience and Frequency Talk

Audience and Frequency Talk

To be perfectly honest with you, I was in the middle of writing a 3 part series on the 3 R Formula for Advertising Success and I’ve decided to switch things up a bit.

First off, the 3 parter was turning into a 4, 5 or 6 part series and while the information is important, I have other important information and stories to share.

So today, I’m going to dig in and give you the 2nd and 3rd R’s in the formula which goes like this:

Right Message + Right Audience x Right Number of Times = Success

Once you know what the Right Message needs to be, you need to deliver it to the Right Audience.

Now, more than ever in human history, there are more options to deliver your message, but unless you deliver it to the Right Audience, you are wasting your time and money.

I work in both the digital media and traditional media worlds and have seen marketers flock to digital online advertising as they reduce their involvement with the traditional.   The thinking is:

With digital media marketing, I can pinpoint the delivery of my ads to precisely the Right Audience and track everything!

Nice theory, but it’s really just a hyped sales pitch. And it’s one part of the 3 R’s Formula for Advertising Success.

Digital Media can deliver ads to highly targeted audiences.  But there are plenty of flaws.  Sometimes the targeting is too narrow. Sometimes the targeting is too broad. Sometimes people click on an ad by accident.  Sometimes the people running the campaigns are amateurs or they don’t understand the differences in “boosted posts”, “dark posts” and well, you get the idea.

A couple years ago, I noticed a company that specialized in Social Media Marketing was doing a terrible job but they were getting paid big bucks by their clients who didn’t know any better.  This stuff happens.

I’m not against digital media marketing, I just want to warn you that it’s not the only way to reach your Right Audience with your Right Message.  So let’s define what the Right Audience is and then you can decide which advertising mediums to consider.

When I am working with a business owner and I ask them, who they want to reach, too many will say “Everyone!”

So I dig deeper.

Think about the big, mass appeal companies.  Walmart, McDonald’s, Google, Amazon to name a few.

While Walmart and McDonald’s have become leaders in their respective businesses, there are plenty of people who will never go to Walmart and plenty who won’t go to McDonald’s.  Google and Amazon seem to be taking over the world, but there are still plenty of people who avoid them at all costs.

Reaching the Right Audience with your Right Message is a two part exercise.

Part one begins with you.  Who is going to buy what You are selling?  Teenagers don’t buy adult diapers.  Vegan’s don’t buy hamburgers. You get what I’m saying…

Part two of reaching the Right Audience is finding the advertising vehicle that matches part one.  In other words, first determine who your best customers are and then get your Right Message on the advertising medium that will effectively reach your best customers.

Last week I had a conversation with an organization that is looking for volunteers to deliver meals at lunch time to home bound residents.  I asked, “Who are your best driver’s now?” and the answer was people between the ages of 50 and 70.  While they have some volunteer drivers in their 20’s and 30’s, they are not as stable as the older ones.  It’s nothing against them, but in reality, we are going to be more successful recruiting older drivers for this organization.

There are a few advertising options available for reaching this age group and it happens that the most cost effective is going to be my radio station, WOWO radio.

The last part of this 3 R Formula for Advertising Success is the Right Number of times. Remember:

Right Message + Right Audience x Right Number of Times = Success

In this changing media world, I see the Right Number part of this formula being abused.

The Right Number should apply to each individual advertising medium you are using.  Don’t add up the total number of TV ads, and Radio ads, count each broadcast channel separately.

In the radio business we often operate with the idea of getting a “3 frequency”.  The theory is that it takes 3 times for a person to hear a message before it sinks in.  Using insider ratings data, advertising sales people can tell you how many ads it will take to achieve this, but I have a simpler method that I’ll share one day.

Buying one radio ad or one TV ad, or one newspaper ad or one Facebook ad is never recommended. The highest frequency of one ad is always one.

However, I’ve also seen the opposite.  Too many ads delivered too frequently.  That’s because of not understanding the process or using an automated system that over-delivers to not enough people.

I see this over-delivery on screens, for example watching a TV show on demand that has limited commercials but the same commercials every time.  Or another offender is digital display ads that have three or four or more ads on the same page for the same product, company or service.

Determining the Right Number of Times your Right Message needs to be delivered to the Right Audience is the difference between building a positive relationship with your customers or annoying them to the point where they avoid you.

When you are considering inviting people to spend money with you, you need to talk to marketing professionals who understand this entire advertising formula and how to apply it to you and your business.

If you are in Northeast Indiana and want that kind of help, reach out to me.

Here’s links to the other two articles in this series:

The First R in Advertising Success – Part One

The First R in Advertising Success – Part Two

 

Radio Advertising is the Real SEO

Radio Advertising is the Real SEO

I offer both radio advertising services with WOWO radio in Fort Wayne, Indiana and digital marketing services via our Federated Digital Solutions division. But today, I’m going to break the hearts of my digital marketing friends with the declaration that: Radio Advertising is the Real SEO!

Every week I have someone tell me that they want to increase their Google rank, which means that they want to be at the top of the Search Engine Results Page when someone Googles their business category.

While that may be a worthy goal, I’m here to tell you, it’s kind of a stupid goal.  I’ve been around the advertising world to remember when the printed yellow pages were still being used by consumers.

The Yellow Pages was what our parents and grandparents would use to find a phone number for a business before the internet made it obsolete. This annual publication would list businesses that bought ads in each category and in alphabetical order.

For example let’s say you want to order a pizza.

This is a real pizza from Acme’s FB page

If you don’t have the phone number memorized, ah yes, we used to memorize phone numbers, now I don’t even know my kids phone numbers.  Anyway, if you wanted a pizza you got out the phone book and if you were not sure which pizza place to call, you’d look in the Yellow Pages under the category Pizza.  That’s where all the pizza joints would be listed in alphabetical order, at least the ones that bought an ad in the phone book.

It was better to be named Acme Pizza than Zoli’s Pizza because Acme was in the front of the listings.  Sort of like looking up Pizza on Google, Acme would automatically rank number one on page one . That is until someone opened up Ace Pizza.  Because alphabetically Ace Pizza comes before Acme Pizza.

I’ve had pizza from the Acme

That’s how our parents would find the number or address to all kinds of places, the phone book, because they didn’t have the internet.

But you know what was even better than being found in the Yellow Pages with all the other Pizza shops?

Having your customers remember your pizza place so they could look in the white pages instead of the yellow pages.  The white pages of the phone book listed everyone in alphabetical order instead of by business category.   If my parents wanted a pizza from Zoli’s pizzeria, all they had to do was open the white pages of the phone book, flip to the Z’s and find Zoli’s.

How did businesses like Zoli’s become well known so that people would look for the number for Zoli’s Pizza and not any other pizza place?   They developed Top Of Mind Awareness.  Their customers knew that Zoli’s was where they wanted to order their pizza from and they did.

This Top Of Mind Awareness is a Human Relationship Principle that I talked about recently.  We develop preferences and those preferences are on our short list of consideration.  So when someone says, “let’s get a pizza!” we don’t have to wonder, “who can sell me a pizza? and start searching the yellow pages, or to move this scenario up to today, we don’t Google “Pizza”, we Google “Zoli’s”.

Top Of Mind Awareness can help set a business apart when we look online in other ways too.

Because sometimes we do Google “Pizza” and Google gives us about 10 results on the first page of results.  Let’s say Zoli’s is on that first page, but they are number 7 and the first 6 listings are for places we either don’t like, have never had, or never heard of before.  Top Of Mind Awareness will motivate us to call skip past those first 6 pizza joints and call Zoli’s because just like in the old phone book days, we know we are going to like a Zoli’s Pizza.

A very old ad for Zoli’s

So back to that statement, Radio Advertising is the Real SEO? How does that work? Radio ads can create Top Of Mind Awareness.  Even when we are not thinking about pizza, when the radio station plays an ad for Zoli’s Pizza, we hear it and it reinforces the idea in our head, hearts and stomachs that the next time I want pizza, it’s going to be a Zoli’s Pizza.

I’m going to use a real life example, hamburgers. McDonald’s is the most recognized hamburger brand around the world because they continually advertise to keep that Top Of Mind Awareness going.  You can buy a better burger and spend more money than McDonald’s, heck you may never eat at McDonald’s but they certainly have Top Of Mind Awareness, right?

15 years ago when businesses were jumping on the “I gotta have a website for my business” bandwagon, I helped several companies be found online by promoting their website in their radio ads.  We still do it.  Because it works.

When a business owner tells me that he gets all his customers from Google, we dig a little deeper and discover if they actually had Top Of Mind Awareness when his customers went online or are they just one in a thousand in the search results.

I can help you become the preferred choice for your customers, want my help?  Let’s talk.