Should Your Business Advertise on the Radio?

Should Your Business Advertise on the Radio?

by | Sep 8, 2021 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

The question for today is:

Should your business advertise on the radio?

The answer is:

A qualified Yes.

Now that may not be the answer you were expecting from the General Sales Manager of the Most Listened to Radio Station in town, WOWO.

You thought I’d say:

Definitely Yes, every business needs to advertise on the radio.

I know that there are people in my position that would say that because they believe any dollar is a good dollar.

I take a different approach here at WOWO.  I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago when I said that the focus of me and my sales team is to get results for the businesses that advertise with WOWO.

We want to partner with you if it makes financial sense for your business.

We want to come up with an agreeable and reasonable Return On Investment formula before we agree to take your money and but you on the radio.

I admit, that’s not always possible.  One of my favorite radio advertising partners hates the idea of tracking and measuring the return on investment.  They simply want to believe it’s working and because of the style of advertising campaign I designed for them, our listeners are vocal enough to let their sales team and their service techs that they listen to WOWO.  That confirmation gets back to the owners and that’s why they believe in WOWO for their advertising.

Borrell Associates shared another survey last month that talked about business owners plans for using radio in the future and part of their report mentioned the value of having conversations with local advertising people:

How do they buy those ads? Three-quarters say via emailing with a sales rep compared to 55% who say they meet with salespeople in person or talk to them by phone. Nevertheless, Borrell says three in four said they like having the option of having a face-to-face meeting with sales reps.

That is more than just being sociable. The survey data suggests that local businesses have a lot more respect for local reps than those selling national advertising. Three quarters of those surveyed said they find local reps more knowledgeable and 70% said local reps are a good source of marketing intelligence.

“Local advertisers see local media reps as knowledgeable resources who care about their business,” says the report. “They may not always help advertisers save money but they bring value in other ways.”

Comparing specifically radio advertising sales people with others, here’s what business owners said:

And as earlier reported by Inside Radio, the perception of radio sellers as expert marketers is higher than it is for any other type of sales rep, and the perception of digital savvy of radio reps is now also the highest. When buyers were asked, which sales reps are considered savvy about marketing, radio  topped all other forms of traditional media.

Advertising sales reps who worked for broadcast TV,  cable TV, newspapers, and direct mail all ranked significantly lower.  Radio people are also at the top of the survey to be considered digitally savvy.

When I took over as the General Sales Manager at WOWO Radio last year, I had a couple of radio experts on my team and a couple of guys who had experience in advertising or sales but not broadcasting yet. Now, 20 months later, everyone is becoming an expert with coaching, mentoring and a true heart for doing what is best for the businesses we work with.

Want to know more, contact me: Scott@WOWO.com

Not All Radio Listeners Are Equal

Not All Radio Listeners Are Equal

by | Sep 1, 2021 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

I’ve got a few decades of media and marketing experience and I hunger to learn more and more.

So this summer I was catching up on my reading and found a story that talks about 6 types of radio listeners and what they want and get from listening to their favorite station.

I’ve known that there are different reasons we listen to different stations, I’ve been preaching about the difference between talk radio listeners and music radio listeners for years.

Basically, when we listen to a music station, we listen to hear our favorite songs.  A radio commercial is not our favorite thing to hear on a music station, and when a music station plays 5 or more minutes of commercials in a row, we become upset.  Maybe not upset enough to change to another station but mentally we tune out.  Similar to when a commercial break comes on when we are watching sports on TV, many of us get up and make a trip to the bathroom instead of paying attention to the ads.

Talk radio stations, like the one I’ve been with since 2013, WOWO are a different animal. We listen to hear the words people are saying. So when a commercial comes on, it’s not that big of a deal.  Also when the ad is done by the radio personality that we are listening to, it adds extra power to that ad, as an endorsement or testimonial by the WOWO radio personality.

This is what I’ve been telling business owners for years and now I have even more information to share.

To get a deeper understanding of today’s radio listeners, Edison Research and NPR teamed up on a study that segments the radio audience based on what motivates their listening, their engagement with what they hear and what they’re getting from the medium.

Radio Heads (9% of radio listeners) Use AM/FM radio for everything

These are radio’s most engaged and heaviest listeners, using it for virtually all of their audio needs: music, news, personalities/talk, and sports. More likely to be female and under 54, they over-index in listeners who are African American. As all-around audiophiles, they go way beyond the AM/FM dial – 43% also listened to radio on their smartphone, 30% on a smart speaker and 29% on a computer in the past week. They’re advertiser-friendly – 72% typically listen to ads on AM/FM – and are more likely to be employed, have above-average income, and have attained a higher education than the average AM/FM listener.

Connection Seekers (16% of radio listeners) Listen to the radio for companionship

This group is more likely to be female, 55+ and White. Second only to Radio Heads in the amount of radio they consume, Connection Seekers over-index in listening to spoken word audio and listening at home – 64% tuned in at home in the last week.  Their listening habits are similar to the average listener in the devices they use to listen to radio, and the time of day they listen. Roughly seven in ten typically listen to ads on AM/FM radio.

 

Infomaniacs (18% of radio listeners) Listen for their need to consume news and information

The only segment among the six where men outnumber women, Infomaniacs are open to advertisements – 65% typically listen to ads on AM/FM radio and only 35% frequently avoid them. These are morning listeners with 69% tuning in from 6-10am, the highest listening in that daypart of all the segments. They prefer spoken word – 96% listened to AM/FM radio for news, 43% for personalities/talk and 27% for sports in the last week. While they’re not exclusively NPR listeners, they index extremely high for the service. Two in three (64%) have a college degree or higher and this segment over-indexes in the high income categories.

These top 3 categories of radio listeners make up the WOWO Radio News and Talk Audience.

Here are the other 3:

Rhythm Rockers (27% of radio listeners) Listen for their need to consume music

The largest segment of radio listeners, this music-first crowd leans heavily female (61% to 39% male). The youngest of the segments – three in four are aged 18-54 – they over index in listeners who are LatinX, under-index in White listeners, and over-index in low-income categories. While more likely to use online audio services, this group is also more apt to say radio keeps them company in the car.

Laidback Listeners (17% of radio listeners) Listen to radio only in the background

Skewing older and White, these radio-centric listeners are less likely to use other audio platforms and prefer listening via a traditional AM/FM receiver. They prefer music over spoken word and are more apt to try to avoid ads on broadcast radio than any other group.

Habitualists (13% of radio listeners) Listen to radio when it is the only option available

Skewing older, this group is not all that interested in audio. While they are less engaged with radio, they still spent three hours listening in the past week. Preferring receivers over streaming to get their radio, this group is the most apt to try to avoid commercials.

Before joining WOWO, I worked for music radio stations.  A popular Fort Wayne rock radio personality that I worked with, Doc West, was famous for saying his station was more than a radio station, it was a way of life.  And I saw those passionate Rhythm Rockers who lived that slogan.

However when it comes to using a radio station to get results from advertising your business on it, my money is on WOWO. Yours should be too.

Contact me, Scott@WOWO.com for help and more information.

Radio is Back On The Road

Radio is Back On The Road

by | Jul 28, 2021 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

It’s back.

Radio is back on the road.

In case you haven’t noticed this summer, a lot of us have been doing what we were discouraged from doing last summer.

Spring and Summer 2020 was the year of cancelled vacations, limited gatherings and working from home.

2021 has been much different.  Forbes magazine proclaimed:

As The Country Opens Up, Radio Listening Is Returning To Pre-Pandemic Levels

And it’s true. Here’s more:

The pandemic forced millions to stay-at-home as businesses were temporarily closed, curtailing commuting hours. As working-remotely became a way of life, some office workers moved away from central cities to sparsely populated outer suburbs and second homes. These workers relied on Zoom calls, emails, chat rooms with more “personal time” to consume media.

I decided to ask my team about the way they have been doing meetings now and 90% of the meetings that they would have done in person in 2019 they are doing in person in 2021.  What about the other 10%? Zoom meetings have created another option that they can used for meetings that is convenient in situations where time is a premium and distance would be challenging.

The Forbes article also addressed another issue that I’ve been hearing for years.

Even with the increase in web enhanced connected cars, the most popular source of audio infotainment in cars remains AM/FM radio. According to Edison Research in first quarter 2021, terrestrial radio accounted for 87% of all ad-supported in-car listening, followed by SiriusXM (6%), podcasts (5%), ad-supported Pandora (2%) and ad-supported Spotify (1%).

Our Federated Media radio stations, including mine, News/Talk WOWO have multiple methods for listeners to listen.  WOWO can be heard on 1190am in the Indiana, Ohio and Michigan Tri-state area and if you are local to Fort Wayne, Indiana, you can also listen to WOWO at 107.5fm.  Streaming online is another way WOWO listeners tune in, either on the WOWO App, or any of the other popular audio streaming apps, or by going to WOWO.com and click on the listen now button.  There’s even a WOWO Skill for Alexa and our other Federated Media stations.

Yes, I’ve wandered off the subject of radio is back on the road.  When you going wandering on the road this year, turn the radio on like nearly 90% of Americans are doing.  And if you run a business and want to explore how to get these commuters to drive to your place, contact me, Scott@WOWO.com

Brand Building in Dollars and Sense

Brand Building in Dollars and Sense

by | Jun 30, 2021 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

Did you notice the title of this article has a play on words?

Or did you think it was just a typo?

Brand Building in Dollars and Sense with the word Sense spelled not like the cents we use to refer to money but as sense, as it makes sense or common sense which people say isn’t common anymore.  I wonder if my grandparents said that too back in their day.

Anyway, I was reading a couple of different online articles, one from Roy H. Williams, the self proclaimed Wizard of Ads.  Roy is a couple years older than me, and has created quite a reputation for media and marketing over the past few decades.  He has a free weekly email called the Monday Morning Memo that I subscribe to and if you click on the picture in the email, you travel thru the rabbit hole created for that week.  It’s an interesting journey most weeks.

On Monday June 21st, as I traveled thru the rabbit hole of the Monday Morning Memo, Roy shares the story of a client of his.  I’m quoting Roy here:

One of my clients asked me to explain our marketing strategy to a guy from a private equity firm that is hoping to buy a chunk of my client’s company for a few hundred million dollars.

When we were retained 7 years ago, the company was bringing in barely $9m a year. Using radio as our primary driver of new business, we did nearly $250m in 2020 and are tracking to surpass $300m in 2021.

Did you catch that? In 7 years this company grew from 9 million in sales to over 300 million dollars this year and advertising on the radio is the primary driver of new business.

Here’s more of Roy’s story:

The private equity guy suggested that we should redirect our radio budget to online advertising because, “no one listens to the radio anymore.”

Now Roy goes into a lengthy and detailed explanation of how radio ratings work and how they know from the ratings service that the private equity dude is wrong.  Then he decides to use not just statistics, but the real life example of this particular company.

“The objective of a radio campaign is to become the name the listener thinks of immediately and feels the best about whenever they need what we sell. Today’s ads aren’t meant to sell customers today. Today’s ads are just one more tap of the hammer as we drive our message into their minds. We want to achieve automatic, involuntary recall. Scientists call it ‘procedural memory.’”

And here’s where it gets really good.  Roy asks the companies online marketing manager about the traffic they get to their website and she tells them there are just 10 search strings that make up most of the traffic to their website.  The top 9 all include the name of the business. That is what the radio ads are doing… Branding the name of the business so when a potential customer needs the product or service, they Google the name of the company to get their contact information.

That last search string that drives people to their website amounts to just 5% of their website clicks.  It uses a more generic search string that doesn’t include the company name.

Roy Williams continues:

So without the name recognition and goodwill built through radio, we would have done only 12-and-a-half million dollars last year instead of 250 million dollars.

That’s some real dollars there and it makes a lot of sense, right?

Don’t just take my word or the words of Roy H. Williams, the Wizard of Ads.  I also read about the benefits of branding from an article published in June from Nielsen that uses the classic buying funnel example.

WHEN IT COMES TO BRAND BUILDING, AWARENESS IS CRITICAL

The title of the article and the information point out why what Roy was saying works. Targeted online ads may be one of the ways that companies get traffic to their website, but unless their is familiarity of the company or product, we are not likely going to click on it.  This familiarity is  what brand building does and it’s at the top of the buying funnel.

This Upper Funnel Marketing is actually the foundation that will drive future sales because the future buyer is aware of the company before they have a need.  60% to 80% or more of your radio ads in most cases should focus on Upper Funnel Marketing.  You may never need to spend money on the Lower Funnel Marketing which is the conversion stage because if we as marketers do our jobs building the brand reputations, the consumers will actually convert themselves when they have the need or want.

Want to know more about building your brand and growing your business for the future, not just this months sale?  Contact me, Scott Howard.  Drop me a note to Scott@WOWO.com.

 

Audio Insights

Audio Insights

by | Jun 23, 2021 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, ScLoHo's Media, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

Of the 5 senses most of us are born with, some have different filtering properties.

Those 5 human senses are

  • Taste
  • Touch
  • Sight
  • Hearing
  • Smell

Some of these might diminish as we get older, the most common ones are sight and hearing. Others vary depending on the individual as my wife’s sense of smell is much stronger than mine.  

In the media and marketing world that I work with it’s usually the sense of sight and hearing that are most important.  And there is one huge difference.  

We can close our eyes and stop the visual messaging, but our ears are always listening.  Even when we are dead asleep, we can be woken by an unexpected sound, right?

A recent report  offers insights on different audio and why people listen to them.

Traditional AM/FM Radio,  Owned Music such as CDs, Vinyl Albums, Downloaded MP3s , Music Streaming Services and Podcasts were all examined.

In my role as the General Sales Manager of WOWO radio, a news/talk station that’s nearly 100 years old, I always find these independent studies interesting and they often confirm what I already know.

There has always been an interesting relationship between music radio stations and “record companies”.  When I worked for music stations we relied on the records/cds/mp3s for our programming.  The record companies relied on the music radio stations to play and promote their recordings because it led to sales of their product.  

There has always been a segment of the population that would find ways to get their music without either paying for it, or avoid commercials and the reality is that Never Radio group is actually a tiny percentage of the population.  Most of us are consumers of multiple sources of audio.

Let’s dig in to the research.

AM/FM Radio stands alone as the audio most widely used to ‘get information’ and ‘feel connected. Podcast listeners most commonly listen to satisfy their curiosity: they listen ‘to learn something new’ but also ‘to be entertained’ and podcasts are the only audio type where many also listen ‘to be inspired.’

WOWO radio accomplishes this with our news talk format and our Federated Media Podcast network includes both archived highlights and interviews along with original content.  On a personal or side note, the growing popularity of podcasts fits in with the current trend to On Demand entertainment that so many of us have been doing with TV viewing.

The top seven activities taking place while listening to AM/FM radio are: commuting by car, shopping/running errands by car, relaxing at home, working, doing chores/gardening, eating breakfast and driving kids to school/activities.

Traditional thinking has been that the most listened to times for radio stations is “drive times” because people are listening  as they drive back and forth to work. Looking at the rating data I have for WOWO radio however, our listenership remains strong all day long.

AM/FM radio again carves out a distinct profile, most frequently riding shotgun as listeners commute, shop or run errands in their cars. Listeners to the other types of audio are more homebound, being most likely to listen while ‘relaxing at home.’ Many listeners to podcasts and owned music also listen in the car, unlike music streamers where data charges likely get in the way. AM/FM Radio serves a particularly distinct set of needs and use cases, reaching listeners when they are seeking information and connection and when they are out and about.

Also unique to the talk radio format is what I call “appointment listening”.  Some of the most loyal talk radio listeners tune in daily to hear what their favorite talk show host has to share on WOWO.  Music radio listeners are less likely to do this and may tune out if the station plays a song they don’t like or too many commercials in a row.

Want to know more about how to invite our listeners to become your customers?  Contact me, Scott Howard  with an email. Scott@WOWO.com is my email.  I also have sponsorship opportunities for our podcasts along with on the radio, and if you’ve ever considered doing your own podcast, we have the tools and technology for that too.