The Problem with Superbowl Commercials

The Problem with Superbowl Commercials

In years past, when I was blogging on a daily basis, I would feature the previews of the national TV ads that were scheduled to air in the Superbowl.

No need to do that anymore, there are plenty of other websites that share those links and ads.

But there are two problems with advertising in the Superbowl.

First off if you are a local business, the quality of your ad is going to be pretty crappy compared to the national ads that spent millions in production costs.  That alone doesn’t paint your business in the best light.

2nd, if you think that spending your ad budget all on one day to ride the coat tails of the Superbowl is a good move, we need to talk.  For a local business to spend all their money on this is stupid.

Why?   I’m going to use a new Dodge Ram Truck ad to explain.

Watch, then contact me.  You can even get a free marketing tips newsletter in your email if you sign up below.

Enjoy the game.

 

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The Talk Radio Advantage For WOWO Advertisers

The Talk Radio Advantage For WOWO Advertisers

Not all advertising venues are created equal. The idea of an ad is an ad is an ad is like saying a cow is a cheeseburger is a filet.  Yes they are all forms of beef, but with big differences.

In Fort Wayne, I’ve worked in the radio advertising world since 2003.

I have created successful advertising campaigns for hundreds of companies using all formats of radio stations including both music and talk formats.  But this story is not about me.  It’s about what I have observed over the past 5 years that I’ve been on the WOWO Radio advertising sales team.

Quite simply, WOWO listeners pay attention to the ads on WOWO and respond to them like no other form of advertising I have ever seen in Fort Wayne.

This is a conversation I have several times each month.  It is about the mental state of people who are exposed to your advertising messages. 

We are going to look at the big picture and include many of the places you can spend money to advertise.

Start with television.  When you and I sit down to watch a show, we are paying attention to the show.  When commercials come on, most of us stop paying attention, at least not the same level of attentiveness that we have during the show.

Newspapers and magazines.  Unless it’s a fashion magazine that is chocked full of 50+ pages of ads before the articles start, we are not really interested in the ads.  We bought the paper to read the stories, get the scores, or see if someone died.

Social Media.  Facebook for example is a place to go to find out what’s happening with friends and family.  They have managed to work ads and sponsored posts into out timelines so we can’t help but seem them but we are not on Facebook to check out the ads.

Radio. Not all radio stations are created equal.  For this discussion, let’s look at the difference between music based stations and talk based stations.  The reason we tune in to a station that plays music, any music for that matter, is to hear music that we like.  In Fort Wayne we have country music stations, rock music stations, pop music stations and plenty of variations.

Every listener to a music radio station selects that particular station because they want to hear that particular style of music.  Anytime the music stops for any length of time, say 2 minutes, we pay less attention.  If the station plays 5 or 7 minutes of commercials in a row, we really tune out and pay less attention.  Some may even change stations.  The reason we listen to music radio stations is to hear music.  It’s to escape.  Anything other than music on a music station is an irritant.

Talk based radio stations are a different animal. Stations like WOWO which are a combination of News and Talk have listeners who tune in for information.  The programming on talk radio stations is brain food, not escapism like the music on a music radio station.  When the newscaster or program host is talking, listeners are paying attention to the words.  It’s the information that people want to hear.

So what happens when your commercial airs on a talk radio station like WOWO? 1st off, it’s not interrupting music, taking the place of your favorite song, so it is less of an irritant. Next, if your ad is a live endorsement from the radio personality, that is the very best kind of commercial because you have the credibility of the radio personality combined with the credibility of WOWO and a receptive audience that is listening to hear the talk, whether it is about politics or your business, it doesn’t matter.

If you air regular recorded commercials on a talk radio station like WOWO, you still get a receptive audience that is not turned off by talking on the radio and you are on WOWO which adds credibility to your business.

I discovered another way to use WOWO’s talk radio format to help your business and that is with our live 10 second sponsorship messages of news, weather, traffic and sports.  These are done live by the newscasters and program hosts and are embedded in the program and carry almost as much weight as a full endorsement.

This relationship between the WOWO listeners and the WOWO air staff with our news and talk radio format is one of trust.

For many it’s as strong a bond of trust as a trusted friend.  

You don’t get that with a newspaper ad.  You don’t get that with a TV commercial, You don’t get that with nearly any other form of advertising you can spend your money on.

This is the Talk Radio Advantage WOWO advertisers receive.   Want more info?  Let’s talk.

The Holi-daze Marketing Thought-Starter

The Holi-daze Marketing Thought-Starter

The Holi-daze are upon on and this is a weird and wonderful time of year.  I’ve created a few items that you as a business person or marketing person, or what ever kind of person you are, you can take a look at and use to help you navigate the last few weeks of this year.

If this is make it or break it time for your retail business, it’s time to suck it up. Just because you are having to work long hours and cover for the employees that are sick or you just are short handed because all the good people have jobs elsewhere due, remember your customers.

The customers who actually drove to your store really want to buy something that you sell.  Otherwise, we would have ordered it online.  Just the other day, my wife was working on a project and after making a couple trips to the store, she asked me to order a tool online. It took me less than 10 minutes on a Saturday afternoon and it arrived at our house Monday.  While that was convenient for my family, we are also a shop local family.  Of the $200 we spent on this project, $185 went to a local store and $15 went to Amazon.

That’s because we are consciously looking to support our friends and neighbors.  Locally owned coffee shops and restaurants get most of my food and beverage money every month.

The point is, the people who come to your store, have a choice to buy from you or someone else.  Super-serve them and keep them coming back.   Create a positive shopping experience for them and they will come back.  Make it a bad experience, and you may have lost them forever.

Advertising is the part of marketing that functions as the invitation to your company.  But advertising can’t fix problems that go on inside your company.

Last week I was meeting with someone who wanted to hire me to train his staff on how to upsell his customers in a manner that is not annoying, but instead is genuine.

Speaking of advertising, you really need to invite people to your store right now.  People are spending for themselves and for others.  They are overspending, maxing out credit cards this time of year.  While I don’t believe that is a good thing to do, I’m not their mom and they are grown ups right?

Advertising this time of year might be challenging if you haven’t planned ahead.

Using television ads means you need to get a fresh ad produced and that takes time and money. Also the television viewing is different this time of year due to the holiday specials on TV and combined with the changes in TV viewing habits, I recommend you stay away from TV unless you already have it planned out.

Print ads might be available in the daily newspaper, but with the dwindling number of readers, just say no.

Social Media including Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest might work, but you better have a professional managing it, or else you can waste time and money.

I offer some online advertising options through the Federated Digital Solutions division of my company, but again, it’s kind of late to plan for this Holi-daze season.  If you want to talk about it, let’s plan a campaign for the new year.

My suggestion is using radio advertising to capture customers right now for the Holi-daze season.

Within a couple of days, I can get your message in front of thousands of people right here in our city who are shopping.  WOWO radio continues to be one of the most listened to radio stations in Fort Wayne and it’s a hot time right now.  Our annual Penny Pitch drive is underway with money being raised for two local non-profits. Weekly events that you and your business can be associated with provide a feel-good connection.

I also can create room for advertising for a special event.  Earlier this month, I put together a radio advertising campaign for an event that was less than a week away.  I wrote the ads, we produced the campaign and in the 5 days leading up and including the sale days, over 50 ad invitations were heard by over 75,000 WOWO listeners.

If this is crunch time for you, let’s talk now.

Or if this is a slow time of the year for you because you are not part of the retail Holi-daze season, this is an excellent time to plan for the new year.  I can make time to help you with your planning, reach out and we’ll get started.

By the way, I have a couple of ideas for retailers that you can do right now for this Holi-daze season:

  1. This first one was inspired by Amazon.  I use Amazon to buy gifts for my relatives that are hundreds of miles away. I often spend a little extra to have Amazon gift wrap those presents. What if you offered to gift wrap purchases as an upsell to people who are in your store? Make it easy and just have a stock of gift bags and tissue paper, and charge them your cost plus an extra buck or two.  You can even partner up with a local charity and give the proceeds to them.
  2. This other idea also was inspired by something Amazon does not do. Sometimes I buy a gift ahead of time and I don’t want it to arrive before hand.  What if you offered a Santa’s Closet for people who want to buy presents now, but wait a few days or weeks to take them home?
  3. My last idea is something you need to start and continue forever.  Collect email addresses and text numbers and offer a program to customers who sign up to be notified of special events. Most major retailers do this and you should too.
The History of ScLoHo

The History of ScLoHo

Time to introduce myself, again for some of you that I’ve known for awhile, and perhaps for the first time if you are unfamiliar with this website and podcast.

This is episode 75 of the weekly podcast titled, The Genuine ScLoHo Media & Marketing Podcast.

Launched in early 2017 as a request from a couple of the managers at Federated Media in Fort Wayne, Indiana, they were asked to create a sales and marketing oriented podcast and they asked me if I would consider doing it.

See this ScLoHo thing has been around for quite awhile. On the ScottHoward.me website are over 13 hundred articles I have written, edited and published since 2011 and the Genuine ScLoHo Media & Marketing Podcast is simply an audio version of most of the articles I have created since March, 2017.

The history of ScLoHo however is much longer that that.

And before we dig into that history, I want to clear something up about what ScLoHo is.

ScLoHo began as an email address and grew into an online moniker, identity and nickname. I even registered a marketing company with the ScLoHo name.  ScLoHo is a made up word that takes the first two letters of my first name, middle and last names and mashes them together. Scott Louis Howard becomes ScLoHo. Look for me on Twitter, Instagram and nearly any other social media site that I am on as ScLoHo.  Before launching the ScottHoward.me website, I published over 10,000 articles on ScLoHo branded blogs starting around 2005.

So ScLoHo and Scott Howard, that’s me, are synonymous.

I began working in the media world as a teenager when my high school launched a radio station.  After school, I landed my first full time job on the air in Marion, Indiana at WBAT, followed by WIOU in Kokomo, WMEE in Fort Wayne, WKSY in Columbia City, WZWZ in Kokomo, and WXIR in Indianapolis.  At all of these stations, I worked on the air as a disc jockey and radio personality.

Life changed when I turned 26.  I crossed over to the advertising side of the radio business. I was impressed by the philosophy that  the Crawford Broadcasting Company had regarding the relationship between the listeners, the radio station and the advertisers.  I moved my young family to work for WMUZ in Detroit, one of a dozen Crawford stations at the time.  My job was to write and produce advertising campaigns.

I loved the challenge and learning that occurred during my 8 years at WMUZ. I also did fill-in work in the afternoon and spent about a year hosting WMUZ’s morning show in Detroit.  My first venture as an advertising salesperson was also at WMUZ.

The philosophy that I learned related to the trust factor we as people have.  WMUZ was and is a commercial Christian radio station that has a special bond with their thousands of weekly listeners.  Listeners trust the WMUZ radio personalities.  Those personalities often talk about their advertising partners and so that trust factor is passed along to the businesses that advertise.  WMUZ listeners trust that the businesses that advertise on their station are trustworthy.

My job was not just to create effective advertising campaigns, but to screen out the bad businesses from the good.  I carry this philosophy today as I consider which businesses I want to work with at WOWO radio in Fort Wayne.

In the mid 1990’s, we decided to leave Detroit and return to Indiana.  I worked on the radio again in Fort Wayne at WBTU, WFWI, WGL and WAJI. Between 1995 and 2003, along with some part-time radio work and voice over production I was doing, I took a few blue collar jobs too in the printing business, the plastics industry and even automotive.

2003 was the year that I returned to media and marketing full-time in Fort Wayne when I joined a group of radio stations in the advertising sales side of the business.  I spent 8 years rising as high as one could advance at that company before I was lured away to work for a website development company and later manage the social media for a $50 million dollar internet sales company.

Kevin, Ric and me. Picture snapped by my friend Ryan Recker.

I also served on the Board of Directors for the American Advertising Federation/Fort Wayne Chapter for 7 years. I taught personal branding seminars, guest lectured at a local university, was featured in some national publications including the Wall Street Journal, won a few awards and have had a lot of fun.  I have consulted and coached businesses doing newspaper and magazine ads, billboard advertising, social media and all kinds of internet marketing, along with television and event marketing. More recently I was featured on an international podcast for broadcasters to share what it takes to be successful in broadcasting.

I only share all this with you because I want you to have confidence in the Scott Howard dude a.k.a. ScLoHo, that I’m not just hear to sell you stuff.  I am here to help. I’m here to teach, to consult, to advise, to coach and even guide you through the process of marketing you and your business.

Human Relationship Principles are the heart of most successful marketing and advertising efforts and I can help you employ them with your business, organization, or event.

I have learned a lot from a lot of people and continue to learn more and more every week.  If you have any marketing or advertising questions or answers, I’d love to talk with you.

WOWO versus Local TV

WOWO versus Local TV

In my continuing informal series of information about advertising with the radio station I work for, WOWO, in Fort Wayne, Indiana, I am going to share more research info that attempts to address the question some local business owners face:

Should I buy radio ads or television ads?

More specifically:

Should I use WOWO Radio or one of the Local TV stations?

I have access to local radio station ratings but not local TV station ratings, so I keep an eye out for research that fills in the gap of what I know.

Let’s start with WOWO Radio.

Overall, based on the population figures and the listenership numbers, I know that between 25 percent and 40 percent of the total Metro Fort Wayne population listens to WOWO every week. In the spring ratings report that was released, WOWO has the largest audience of all the Fort Wayne radio stations again.

As a news and talk radio station, WOWO’s audience is adults, or grown-ups as I like to say.

I also know that 80% of our 100,000 weekly listeners are age 45 and older.

Compare that to TV viewing.

Overall, screen-viewing has increased, but the way we watch and what we watch has changed dramatically in the past decade.

Cutting the cord, or not having a TV at all was the trend of Gen Z and it has been moving to older generations too.

My millennial kids don’t watch local TV.  They get their news, weather, information and entertainment from a different kind of screen.  Netflix is huge.  So is YouTube. But local news? Nope.

Recently my wife and I were spending the evening with some older friends in their 60’s and they confessed the same thing.  They watch more on their iPhones (including full length movies!) each week than they do live local television.

I don’t have the figures for local TV viewership like I do for local radio listenership, but I saw a report that shows that my antidotal observations are part of a trend that is not going away.

MarketingCharts.com reports that  “Roughly Half of Households Headed by People Ages 55+ Stream Video”

Nearly 80% of 18 to 44 year olds watch streaming video, and while that is not surprising, the fact that older adults have moved to what I call “on-demand programming” has to be alarming to those in the television business.  At least the local TV broadcasters.

So here’s what my assessment for businesses that are considering television advertising to invite Fort Wayne area consumers to do business with them….

Be very, very careful and cautious.

Local Newscasts and a few sporting events are about the only television programming that is exclusive to the TV stations.  Everything else, we can time shift and watch on our own schedule.  When I watch a show like NCIS after it originally was broadcast by my local CBS station, I don’t see your local TV ads.

Ask your television sales person, “How many people will see my TV ad?”  Go deeper and ask them how they came up with that number.

If you want more help on deciding if an advertising campaign on TV is a good idea, contact me and I’ll gladly help you sort out the offer and teach you what to ask and look for.

Or better yet, let’s talk about inviting WOWO radio listeners to become your customers. We have 100,000 local listeners.  How many do you want as your customers?