by Scott Howard | Nov 7, 2017 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, ScLoHo's Fort Wayne, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
Women and WOWO radio, a topic that I’ve talked about for nearly 15 years. Today, I have some insight that business owners, especially retailers need to know.
When I started in the radio advertising business in Fort Wayne, Indiana in 2003, I worked for a competing company, not WOWO radio. I spent over 9 years trying to convince people not to advertise with WOWO.
It was this radio station for old white guys was my usual argument, and you want to reach people who have money to spend, right?
A few years ago, I wised up. In November 2013, I started the process to join WOWO and it has been fantastic for multiple reasons but the one I’m going to focus on right now is about the audience of WOWO.
Is it really a bunch of old white guys that listen to WOWO?
Well, yes and no. There are a significant number of men age 50+ who listen and they are important people to reach with your advertising messages. However, the number of women who actively listen is impressive too.
The Women of WOWO are likely to be Baby Boomer age and I’ve got a couple of reasons why that is important that I read in an article from Mediapost. This article emphasizes why you should invite Baby Boomer Women during the holiday season, but it’s appropriate year round. 
Here’s a couple of quotes from the story:
Today, every fifth adult in the United States is a female over 50. They are the healthiest, wealthiest and most active generation of women in history who control half of the country’s discretionary income and 75% of the country’s wealth.
Okay, think about that for a second. 75% of the country’s wealth is in the hands of 20% of the adults in this country. And these are not the grandmas of the past, these women are the healthiest, wealthiest and most active generation of women in history who control half of the country’s discretionary income. 
Wow, that sounds like the perfect group of consumers to aim my advertising and marketing to, right? Problem is most retailers are not inviting these Boomer women to spend money with them.
Instead, they spend less than 10% of their holiday marketing budgets targeting Boomers.
Retailers should devote somewhere between 50 and 75% of their marketing budgets to reach Baby Boomers!
One reason marketers and retailers ignore Boomer women is the belief that they’re not tech savvy enough to keep up with the changing retail environment. With so many businesses moving to online models, the focus is on younger audiences, particularly millennials. But Boomers are much more tech savvy than given credit for, actually spending more online than millennials. Many may prefer the experience of shopping in a store, but they’re perfectly comfy with e-commerce.
The Mediapost article gives some impressive numbers regarding the online habits of Baby Boomer Women. One that really caught my eye was the number who use their smartphone daily for shopping. 
Let’s address another ageism myth and that is that by a certain age, we become blindly brand-loyal. Not true. If you take them for granted and don’t continue to invite them to be your customer, they are ripe for the picking.
Being ignored for years has resulted in many Boomer women abandoning brands to which they’ve been loyal for decades. And now those brands are in the position of having to figure out how to win these consumers back. An excellent first step for brands and retailers wanting to reclaim their loyalty is to take the time to understand what drives Boomers to make a purchase. What are their needs, and the emotional triggers that prompt a purchase? Believe it or not, their needs are similar to those of other generations. They want convenience, an emotional connection to the brand, and to hear a great story that resonates with their lives. And a loyalty program that offers real benefits and lets them know you appreciate their business.
There’s more you need to know:
Sure, Baby Boomers are tech-savvy and often purchase online, but many still prioritize good old-fashioned service above all else. Marketers and retailers can provide that service by sending follow-up emails that provide the opportunity for Boomers to give feedback and make their voices heard. They need to set aside their preconceptions and stop looking at Boomer women through dated stereotypes. Most importantly, they need to recognize that these women are not one homogenous group. All Boomer women are not grandmas or caregivers. Engage them, and let them know you want to build an ongoing relationship with them. 
In today’s world, our economy is heavily influenced by Boomer women. Marketers need to recognize that these consumers are not stuck in the “good old days” and that they don’t prioritize buying the brands with which they grew up. Take the time to build a relationship with these consumers. Make it clear that they’re important to you, and they’ll reward you.
And now let me circle back to the Women of WOWO radio. I took a look at the latest radio rating information I have access to and asked how many women in the Fort Wayne area that are Baby Boomers listen to WOWO and all the other radio station in the survey.
27 radio stations were in the list. I bet you didn’t realize there are that many radio stations in the Fort Wayne area, and actually there are more than that, but the others didn’t have enough Baby Boomer listeners to qualify to be on the list.
WOWO radio is at the top, with over 30,000 Baby Boomer Women listening every week. Number two on the list only has around 20,000. Everyone of those other radio stations have just a fraction of what WOWO has. I can share this list with you privately if you want to see it. 
So to wrap this up, Baby Boomer Women control 75% of the wealth in the United States, even though they only make up 20% of the population. Locally the very best way for retailers to invite them to spend their money with you is with WOWO radio.
I can help you with that. Just ask.
(By the way, the women’s pictures in this article are from my Facebook friends, some of whom I’ve know since we went to high school together 40 years ago, all are Baby Boomers, and one is my bride.)
by Scott Howard | Sep 26, 2017 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Media, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
What is the very best form of advertising? I was asked a similar question recently.
I belong to a business networking group that limits membership to just one person from each business category and I sort of occupy two categories. Radio Advertising with WOWO Radio & Digital Marketing with Federated Digital Services.
If I had to choose just one, not both of those categories, which one did I want to hold onto, is what I was asked to consider. I was even told that I don’t need to decide now, but in the future that might be a choice I have to make.
I knew the answer without hesitation and this may surprise you.
But before I share with you, what I told them, I’ve got a little story that demonstrates the why behind my answer.
The purpose behind your advertising and marketing is to build profitable relationships.
I have a retail store that has consistently used my radio station, WOWO for three years. Before I met them, they would never commit to any advertising to more than 2 months. This business is over 40 years old, but moved to a new location a few years ago. So why do they advertise with WOWO every month? Because our listeners tell them that they were told by Pat or Charly to visit their store.
Here’s another story:
I work with a Doctor who took over two practices last year. We started by using a Custom Audience Targeted Digital Display advertising campaign and he saw his practice grow. I could show him the number of visits to his website that were produced by his digital advertising campaigns. Then we decided to expand and add a few ads on WOWO radio. I visited him 10 days after his radio ads began and his first words to me is that he has people telling him that they heard about him on the radio.
I could tell you a few more stories but I think you are starting to catch on.
If I had to pick between selling only radio advertising campaigns on WOWO or selling only digital advertising campaigns online… I pick WOWO Radio for the Win.
This is not to downplay the power of the digital marketing campaigns that I’ve run for some of my advertising partners. Earlier this year, one of my advertising partners was able to track 482 leads in just a couple of months that were generated from the Custom Audience Targeted Digital Display advertising campaign we created. This was more than they could handle and leads were not being handled properly. That company wasn’t prepared to take care of the business we were sending their way. Digital can work when properly executed from beginning to end.
But let me remind you:
The purpose behind your advertising and marketing is to build profitable relationships.
And for some businesses, getting clicks and leads online is exactly what they want. However, most local businesses that I work with want reassurances that their advertising investments are good investments and when you get people telling you they heard your name on the radio, that is reassuring.
Face it, most of us are not going to tell a business person that we are in their store because we saw their digital ad. Digital ads aren’t personal in that way. At least yet. One day, I’ll probably get served a digital ad that says something like, “Scott, are you ready to buy this phone? Click here.” That will be kind of creepy.
The reason for the success of many advertisers on WOWO is the human relationships that are developed. Our loyal listeners feel a fondness for our talk show hosts who are on the air every day. They connect because they are what we call actively listening which is different than passive listening like you often do with a music radio station that is simply playing in the background.
That fondness matures into a trust factor between the WOWO listener and the radio station and the station personalities. On a scale of 1 to 10, our WOWO radio personalities score 7’s, 8’s sometimes 9’s or 10’s with listeners on the friendship and trust factor. That’s higher than some of the people you have as Facebook friends, right?
Every other form of paid advertising simply doesn’t rank as high in creating trust. Television could come close if the local personalities could create an authentic advertising message, but that is rare. Newspapers don’t connect and bond, neither do most magazines. Billboards are just signs but rarely do they make a human connection that includes an emotional bond that happens with our WOWO radio hosts.
The answer to the question of what is the very best form of advertising, for all the reasons I just mentioned, I firmly believe in most cases it’s a message on WOWO Radio for local businesses in the Fort Wayne area.
Digital advertising is growing, it’s the bright and shiny object that more and more businesses are pouring money into but as you see, there are plenty of challenges.
And there’s more to your advertising success than just running ads on WOWO.
Here’s what I told my friends last week. In my left hand I held my smartphone which represents digital advertising. In my right hand I held a piece of paper with the WOWO logo, to represent the radio advertising options I offer.
If I had to choose, please cut off my left hand (digital) and leave my right hand (radio). I’m right handed and to be forced to write with just my left hand could get messy.
Fortunately, I can offer both hands.
But more important than what I have in my hands, the radio and digital advertising options, is what’s in my head and heart.
That’s where I have the knowledge, wisdom and hands on experience of the last couple of decades to help craft a marketing plan designed specifically for your success. And that’s the heart of it all.
Want help? Ask me.
by Scott Howard | Sep 13, 2017 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Fort Wayne, ScLoHo's Media, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
NewsTalk 1190 WOWO Radio in Fort Wayne, Indiana is going to be 100 years old soon. Despite the most recent doomsday report that AM and FM radio stations would be obsolete before WOWO hits 100, I’m here to present some real reasons that the report is both right and wrong.
Broadcast radio is struggling to remain relevant as consumers embrace streaming platforms, according to a groundbreaking study that examines the disruption to radio caused by digital services.
These trends are crippling radio, which is witnessing historic declines in its audience and its relevance to listeners and advertisers. To survive, radio must innovate, learn from other media, and take control of its path forward into the third decade of this century and beyond.
That’s the intro to a 30 page report that says radio stations like the ones I work for are going the way of the phone book. Here’s a direct link to the entire report if you want to really dig in.
A dozen years ago, I was making the same prediction. Music radio was going to be a thing of the past. At the time I worked with legendary Fort Wayne WXKE Radio Icon Doc West and Doc knew the answer to the problem of music radio stations losing listeners to streaming services and satellite radio stations. Live and Locally Relevant. That was the mantra that Doc used to stay at the top of the heap of radio personalities back then.
WOWO radio used to be a music station when I was a kid and the most listened to radio personality before Doc West was Bob Sievers. His morning program on WOWO had 90% of the available audience tuned in. Farmers for the farm reports, kids like me, waiting to hear the weather, well, actually the school closings and everyone else listened to Bob on WOWO to know what was going on. Bob and WOWO were Live and Locally Relevant.
My reason for predicting the demise of AM & FM radio back then was the digital age as auto manufacturers were adding internet to their vehicles. More options for drivers to listen to their favorite music. I knew it would be an evolving change, simply because it would take time for these internet connected cars to replace the older vehicles.
Your Car, a “radio on wheels”
But then something else has kicked in that I didn’t foresee. The Internet of Things.
The IoT as it is called is the interconnection of stuff via the web that we didn’t need to have connected to the web previously.
The ability for your phone to respond to voice commands was a preview of what we have now with Alexa and the other digital personal assistant devices that are becoming common place.
But back to my headline for this story:
Why WOWO Radio Will Outlast The Naysayers
WOWO radio and our sister stations at Federated Media are embracing the digital age. They were the first in Fort Wayne to jump in and offer the radio programming to listeners on what ever digital platform the listeners wanted. Then they went a step further and began producing content that goes beyond what you can get by listening to the AM & FM radio signals. Podcasts, Videos, and plenty of on-demand content that you and I can read, watch or listen to when we want, where we want.
Listen to what you want, when you want
Our music stations, in Fort Wayne including WMEE, K-105 and 98.9 The Bear have been Live and Locally Relevant for decades! WOWO Radio with our News and Talk format for the past 20 years has a couple of national talk shows in the middle of the day, but every 30 minutes, we have Live and Locally Relevant news updates. Fort Wayne’s Morning News with Charly Butcher starts the weekday and afternoons with the Pat Miller Program, bookend each weekday with Live and Locally Relevant programming.
In case you still need another antidote as to the importance of local media, during tragic events like Hurricane Harvey, it was the local Texas radio stations that were the dominate source of information. Television isn’t portable but radio is.
But what about the radio audience overall? Is it shrinking?
After the report from the naysayer, two more reports came out to counter his claims. You can read them here and here.
But what I care about and so do the businesses I work with who use WOWO Radio to advertise by inviting our listeners to become their customers, is what is the state of radio listenership in Fort Wayne Indiana?
I researched it for this story. I have access to the Eastlan radio surveys from 2013 thru today that measures radio listener habits every 6 months in Fort Wayne.
Between 2013 and 2017, the total number of people age 12 and older who listen to a radio station in Metro Fort Wayne has grown by 25,000.
Boom.
Mic Drop.
396,000 weekly listeners in the spring of 2013.
421,000 weekly listeners in the spring of 2017.
How’s WOWO doing? Every survey that I have access to (including before 2013) show that WOWO radio continues to lead the pack with over 100,000 listeners every week, and 98%+ are grown ups.
In about 8 or 9 years WOWO will be celebrating a century of service. Now is the right time to join the other advertising partners who benefit from being on WOWO. Contact me to find out how.
by Scott Howard | May 16, 2017 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, ScLoHo's Media, ScLoHo's Web World, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
Yesterday I was reading an article from MarketingCharts.com so you don’t have to, no, really I do enjoy looking at this kind of stuff and pulling out some of the highlights.
It relates to an upcoming podcast episode and article I wrote that will be debuting in a couple days, too.
Here’s the highlights:
- We are spending more time with “Media” than ever before. Over 12 hours a day. Technically this would have been impossible a few years ago, but not now. Which brings us to the second highlight:
- Multi-tasking is in full swing and for media that means watching more than one screen at the same time. Those smartphones are being used by more and more of us instead of staring at the TV screen like zombies when the commercials come on.
- Print Media is shrinking. Not just the number of pages or the number of readers, but the time spent reading newspapers and magazines by each person is dropping. Over the last 5 years, each of us who still read print spend 15 minutes less every day.
- Radio listening, according to the report is steady. More on this in a second.
- Time spent with Digital media continues to grow. No surprise to any of us right?
Those last two items, Radio and Digital are the two areas that I work in and can help you craft an effective plan to use radio and digital to grow your business. Want to know more? Ask me. Also check out this weeks Genuine ScLoHo Media & Marketing Podcast episode Thursday on this website. Here’s a link.
by Scott Howard | Feb 16, 2016 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, ScLoHo's Media, ScLoHo's Web World, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
My radio station WOWO Radio in Fort Wayne, Indiana, just released a new smartphone app as one of our improvements for 2016. You can find it here for Android and for those of you Apple fans, go here.
We just revised our website this year too with a cleaner, less cluttered look than our previous site. The WOWO App and the website are continuously updated with the stories and interviews minutes after they first appear on the air at WOWO radio. You can also listen online from the website or the WOWO App.
Why the changes?
Multiple reasons but a big one is the continued growth of smartphones, both iPhones and Androids. Nearly 80% of us have one now.
This means if your website is not mobile friendly, you are annoying, no, let me say it stronger, you are pissing off 4 out of 5 people because you are behind the times.
Need help with an upgrade? Contact me. Like Yesterday.
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