by Scott Howard | Mar 21, 2018 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
Today, I’m going to share with you something that is unique in Fort Wayne, Indiana and that is The WOWO Radio Advertising Advantage.
There is a uniqueness that is rare in the advertising world that WOWO has and one other station in Detroit had it when I worked there a long time ago.
The WOWO Radio Advertising Advantage is about Trust and Credibility.
First off, WOWO radio is over 90 years old and while it has gone thru numerous format changes that you can read about or reminisce with at the History of WOWO.com website, WOWO is still one of the most listened to radio stations.
As a kid, I listened to folks like Bob Sievers, Chris Roberts, Ron Gregory, and Art Saltsberg. WOWO was a personality based radio station playing music in the 70’s and ironically, I had lunch with Bob a few years before he passed away, have talked to Chris a few times and am friends with Ron and Art. Art recently went into semi-retirement, but still works nearly every week at WOWO.
In 1996, WOWO became a full time news/talk radio station and while there have been some changes in the line-up, we have a very stable crew. Fort Wayne’s Morning News with Charly Butcher has more than a decade of being our news-jockey after spending a considerable amount of time waking people up as a disc-jockey personality on our sister station WMEE. Pat Miller has been hosting afternoons on WOWO for several years and also has built quite a following.
Here are the three “layers of The WOWO Radio Advertising Advantage:
- WOWO radio itself has a trust reputation and respect in the community. With around 100,000 weekly listeners, it is one of the most listened to radio stations.
- WOWO’s news-talk format naturally lends to listeners paying attention to the words that are being said by the program hosts, the newscasters, the talk show guests and the callers. Listeners develop a unique bond with the regular news and talk personalities that does not usually occur in any other media format including music radio stations, television, print publications, and certainly not non-media advertising.
- Pat Miller, host of the Pat Miller Program and Charly Butcher, host of Fort Wayne’s Morning News, will do a limited number of live, testimonial and endorsement ads for a select number of advertising partners that qualify. These ads are the equivalent of your best friend telling you which dentist, which mortgage company, which carpet cleaner they recommend and for these select, small group of advertisers, they have a real local, believable celebrity who is a friend (that has rock-star appeal), spreading the word about them and their business. This is the highest and most powerful marketing message available in Fort Wayne.
More about those live, testimonial and endorsement ads. We have some rules and limitations. Pat and Charly will only be the exclusive spokesperson for one business in each business category. As long as Pat Miller continues to endorse SteamTeam, he will not do live 60 second ads for any other carpet cleaner. As long as Auto Collision Service continues their relationship with Charly Butcher as their spokesperson, Charly will not endorse any other auto body shop.
By the way, Charly and Pat have veto power when it comes to who to endorse. We are protective of their reputation and the reputation of WOWO and only want to endorse companies that are trustworthy.
I call this Word Of Mouth With A Bigger Mouth. Word of Mouth is the best form of marketing that your business can have because it is natural, it is honest, it is based on positive customer experiences and it is built on Trust.
This is The WOWO Radio Advertising Advantage and if you want to know if you and your business might qualify, let’s talk.
by Scott Howard | Mar 7, 2018 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, Uncategorized, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
Last week I spoke with one of my advertising partners about some changes we are making to their marketing strategy and how Reach & Frequency Matter When Buying Advertising. Even though we’ve been working together for several years, they needed a refresher on what is Reach and what is Frequency and why they matter.
A lot of media salespeople rely on ratings to justify the advertising schedules they pitch and while some of the data in rating surveys for radio and TV are important, most of what the sales people talk about is stupid.
I was asked again about a reach and frequency formula and that reminded me that while my advertising partner knew that there was something important buried in those terms, they weren’t sure how it all worked.
So let’s begin with what those two terms mean.
Frequency is how many times an individual person will see or hear your ad.
Reach is how many of those individuals will see or hear your ad.
Two very different numbers that are not the same.
Let’s convert this into dating, not advertising.
You have time and money to go on 10 dates.
If you have 10 people you are going out with on a one-on-one date, your reach is ten people.
If you go out with each of them just one time, then your frequency is one.
If you decide to take those ten dates and only go out with 2 people, then you lower your reach and increase your frequency.
You could split up those 5 dates evenly between the two, or you might decide to go out 10 times with one person.
Now look at these three possibilities and you tell me… which option do you think will most likely result in a long term relationship:
Option A: 10 dates with 10 individuals. Reach is 10, but frequency is only 1.
Option B: 10 dates with 2 individuals. Reach is 2, but frequency is now 5 each.
Option C: 10 dates with 1 individuals. Reach is 1, but frequency for one individual is 10.
Unless you are a jerk or just not compatible with those that you are dating, the last option is most likely to result in a long lasting relationship. The individual person that you go on 10 dates with is the most likely to form a positive bond with you out of all of those options.
Option A is like the business that advertises a little bit here and a little bit there but not with enough frequency to make an impact.
Option B is better because you’ve increased the frequency, but if it takes 10 dates to really form a relationship, you’ve fallen short.
Here’s how radio and tv sales people often present their stuff:
We have 3.0 share in 25-54 households and the other station only has a 2.8 share.
Sorry, but those numbers are meaningless. Unless the radio or TV sales person can tell you the reach and frequency numbers, walk away from game they are playing.
As a side note, this is the way many media salespeople are trained to sell and they don’t know any better. But there is a better way and that’s why we are talking about this right now.
You most likely know basic information about who you want to target.
Teens or 50 year olds.
Homeowners or renters.
Anything that can narrow down your ideal customer, from “everyone” to something more specific.
Then once you have this information or at least the concept down, you can decide which advertising mediums match your ideal customer.
In the radio business, we have stations that have different formats and play different styles of music, or perhaps they are a news and talk formated station. These different formats attract different people and while there are some folks who listen to more than one station, they usually have a primary station they listen to regularly. Maybe the station that they listen to at work, or the station they listen to on the weekend, or the station they start their day with to get all the important info they want to know.
Radio stations can provide you with this kind of data about their listeners to help you decide if they are a good match for your business.
We, in the broadcasting world, also have an idea of how many people listen at different times of the day and what their demographics are. This information is what we call “Cume” which is short for Cumulative Audience.
It is the Reach number that we’ve been talking about.
Some stations reach in the 3 to 6pm weekday afternoons might be 10,000 listeners, while others might have 40,000 listeners. Big difference right? The station with 40,000 reaches more people per week than the station 10,000 listeners.
These reach numbers are also the MAXIMUM number of individual people that will hear your commercial.
Frequency is how often each of those individuals will hear your ad. I have some advertisers that are on every hour between 3pm and 6pm. 15 times a week covers the 15 hours per week between 3pm and 6pm. Realistically, an individual person is not going to hear 15 ads per week from that advertiser because realistically, they may only listen 30 or 90 minutes a day.
But the rating numbers that are often used to persuade you to buy ads are rating points and shares, which determined by multiplying the number reach and frequency numbers together and sprinkle some magic fairy dust and poof… a unicorn grows another horn, or get’s its wings or something.
Please, forget that stuff and keep it simple.
Remember the dating example I gave you.
You need to know how many people you can reach because of the size of the audience where your ads will be place. And the frequency that your ads will be played to see if you are going to build a healthy long term, top of mind relationship with your potential customers.
This applies to any advertising options including direct mail, billboards, print, email, and social media too.
That’s it. Want my help? Let’s talk.
by Scott Howard | Feb 15, 2018 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
I came across some research that backs up something I tell people in person about WOWO radio and Baby Boomer women that I need to share with you.
First off, a couple of quotes from Mediapost:
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. That’s a lot of spending power for one generation of women.
and:
Boomers are much more tech savvy than given credit for, actually spending more online than millennials—up to $7 billion annually.
one more:
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 with the $3.2 trillion they spend each year.
I’m a Baby Boomer who is married to one of these Boomer women, and yes, she doesn’t fit the old person stereotype that we used to give to previous generations that reached this age in life.
Now the WOWO Radio connection.
For years I have run into scores of women who tell me they listen to my radio station, WOWO in Fort Wayne. One of the ways you should use radio to target your ads is to pick a radio station that has listeners that are your target demographic. 
I looked up the latest data to determine which radio stations had the most Baby Boomer women listening and used the demographic females age 50+ and included all the commercial radio stations.
At any given time of the day or night, 24/7, WOWO has more than double the number of Baby Boomer women compared to any other Fort Wayne radio station. More than the music stations that are programmed to get Boomer women to listen.
So to tie this all together for your company this year, Baby Boomer Women control 75% of the household spending and in Fort Wayne, WOWO radio is your best option to connect with them and invite them to spend those dollars with you.
Connect with me and I’ll help.
by Scott Howard | Jan 25, 2018 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, ScLoHo's Fort Wayne, ScLoHo's Media, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, Uncategorized, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
If I asked you to Name Your Favorites in a number of categories, depending on the category, you could easily rattle off your top two or three, right?
Here’s an example:
Name your favorite food.
I’ll wait a second.
Depending on where in the world you live, and how specific you want to get, you were able to name at least three things you like to eat.
My top three list would include:
- Seafood (including shrimp, crab and scallops)
- Chicken
- Salad
Your list is probably completely different, but that’s okay. There are thousands of options. And yet each of us have narrowed our personal choices down to a handful or two.
Radio and Television is like this too. So is the internet but I’ll save the way this works on the web for another day.
I still have cable TV and with that there are over 100 choices. But personally, I stick to about 5 or 6 channels for most of my viewing. They are my favorites. Can you Name Your Favorites?
A dozen years ago, I was talking to a local auto repair shop owner about advertising. He hemmed and hawed and finally said there are too many radio stations out there for people and that was his reason for not picking mine.
I did a search for Auto Repair in my area and found there were nearly 10 times as many auto repair shops as there were radio stations and he conceded that he was wrong.
But no matter how many choices there are, we have our favorites in nearly any category.
Nielsen, the company that specializes in radio and television listening and viewing habits around the country recently released a study that shows how this works with radio listenership.
Radio listeners are either extremely loyal or extremely selective, depending on one’s perspective. Whichever it is, the data remains the same: listeners devote the majority of their tune-in time to their favorite station, according to a recent Nielsen study.
In fact, AM/FM radio listeners spend fully 58% of their time with their preferred station. All told, their three favorite stations combine for an impressive 86% of all their listening time.
Due to my working in the industry, I have access to specifics for Fort Wayne radio listener habits and here’s what I discovered:
News and Talk Stations have the most loyal audience according to the amount of time spent listening. WOWO radio and WBOI are the two stations considered news/talk. WOWO is the commercial station I work for and WBOI is the National Public Radio station in town. WOWO’s audience size (the number of people listening) is huge, more than double the public radio station, and the time spent listening to the shows on WOWO each week is also greater than WBOI according the the Eastlan Fall 2017 rating data.
What’s the difference between being someone’s favorite and their second or third favorite radio station?
- Nearly 60% of a persons radio listening is to their favorite station.
- Less than 20% of the time, a person listens to their second favorite station.
- They only spend about 10% of their radio listening time tuned into their personal 3rd favorite station.
A couple of takeaways for you to remember:
- Everyone can name their favorites in many life categories
- Radio stations have a core audience of listeners that are loyal to their favorite stations and you should keep that in mind when deciding where to advertise
And a bonus tip for you:
Some business categories have not been developed with clear leaders or favorites. There are multiple factors for this but mostly it has to do with creating a memorable brand and marketing it to buyers and influencers. Advertising can help establish your business as a favorite and if you want to know more, contact me.
by Scott Howard | Jan 10, 2018 | 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
Word of Mouth with a Bigger Mouth. That’s a pretty accurate description of the non-traditional advertising options I use with WOWO radio that go beyond what any other advertising medium offers.
Before I go into the details, I’m going to share a couple of highlights from the last Christmas holiday shopping season. A survey of 1000 Americans reported by Mediapost, looks at the WHO, WHAT, WHERE, and WHY consumers bought.
Despite the perception that “everyone is buying everything online”, just 44% of those survied bought that way and the rest went to traditional stores. In reality, most people do a combination. That tidbit of information is WHERE we bought.
The other insight I will share with you is the WHO, as in WHO influenced them to buy what they bought.
Despite all the sales and discounts that are in our face like Black Friday, Cyber Monday and all the other end of year offers, sales and discounts was not number one for deciding what or where to buy.
What about Facebook advertising or TV ads? Each of those barely scored 20%. Here’s what that tells me: Despite the big push the past several years for businesses to advertise online including social media, the power isn’t much different than traditional media advertising.
So what was the number one influencer for what to buy and where to buy?
Personal Recommendations continues to top the list. This is not new. Personal recommendations will always carry the most weight what we are going to spend money. Another term for Personal Recommendations is Word Of Mouth although not exactly the same all the time, those terms are often interchangeable.
Word Of Mouth refers to a recommendation from someone you trust. If there was a way to incorporate Word Of Mouth into a real advertising ad campaign… That could be gold!
That’s the non-traditional advertising options I have with WOWO radio. Word Of Mouth with a Bigger Mouth.
First, an important distinction that WOWO radio has over the other radio stations in Fort Wayne is the reason people listen. WOWO is unique as a News Talk formated radio station, compared to nearly all the other stations in Fort Wayne that play music.
WOWO has a solid reputation in Fort Wayne with a history of being on the air over 90 years including news and talk for the past couple of decades. WOWO itself has credibility that is passed on to the advertisers.
When we listen to a radio station for music, nearly anything besides music is a tune-out. We may not change stations, but we can easily mentally tune out as we wait for the music to return.
When we listen to a news and talk radio station, we are actively listening to what the news and talk hosts are saying. The news and talk show hosts on WOWO have their own trust and credibility factor that is similar to a personal relationship with a friend.
When Charly, Pat, Rick, or any of our news hosts mention an advertiser, their credibility and trust along with WOWO radio’s credibility and trust factor goes beyond what a recorded commercial does as far as influence. This is Word Of Mouth (and with the size of the audience of WOWO) Word Of Mouth with a Bigger Mouth.
This is just an introduction into the unique, non-traditional advertising options I use with WOWO radio that go beyond what any other advertising medium offers. I also have success stories I can share with you that demonstrate how powerful this can work. Want to know more? Contact me.
by Scott Howard | Jan 3, 2018 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
It’s your time, Time to Go BIG in 2018.
The last few years I have been with WOWO Radio, I have worked with and observed two very distinct types of business models.
There are the leaders and the rest.
The leaders are the ones that decided to take a leap of faith and commit to being the best of the best.
The rest, well they are the ones that lag behind, waiting for a lucky break.
At least that’s the way the rest think.
But I know that there are real and tangible reasons why the leaders are leading. It wasn’t luck. Nope.
It was a conscience decision to Go BIG and invest in themselves.
A part of that investment is stepping up their advertising and marketing. Not just haphazardly, but with a plan.
In the past I have refereed to a S.M.A.R.T. plan.
Here’s a link to what I wrote a couple years ago and today I’m going to update the S.M.A.R.T. plan concept with a couple of success stories
What I said in 2016 was:
I can help you with the marketing components. We will begin with a Custom Marketing Strategy. From there I will do what I do best and help you create a SMART Plan.
My philosophy is to help others be successful in business by helping them create a SMART plan:
-
STRATEGIC
-
MARKETING and
-
ADVERTISING plan using
-
RADIO and
-
TECHNOLOGY
One of my advertising partners that I started working with just a couple years ago was growing each year but at a snails pace. From 2010 to 2015, their compound annual growth rate was 5.92%. over 5 years. Then when I began working with them, in 2016 and 2017, their compound annual growth rate was 22.47%. over 2 years!
Before we started working together, their annual increases were basically flat because the cost of doing business was also going up each year. That’s a fact of life. But by implementing a plan we developed together, they saw a substantial growth that outpaced anything they had seen this decade.
We not only invested more in advertising and marketing with me and other venues that I helped them select, but we used a strategy that has helped them solidify their brand name in the minds and hearts of the current, past and future customers.
A couple other examples from last year include a couple of home improvement companies that were getting so many leads that we had to actually slow things down for them until they brought on more help.
I also have worked with a couple of niche businesses that quite honestly, I wasn’t sure if we could help generate enough leads, but we did and they are continuing their investment month after month this year too.
As I look around at some of the businesses that have Top Of Mind Awareness in Fort Wayne for their line of work, products and services, one thing stands out.
Sometime ago, they made the decision to Go Big and invite people to be their customers. Not everyone knows how to do this, or has the guts to move forward. There are other considerations that need to be put into place with your business and I can help you decide, even connect you with trusted professionals in the areas that you need to build a foundation for 2018 and beyond.
So tell me, is it Time to Go BIG in 2018 with your business?
Apple Podcasts
Google Podcasts
Spotify
TuneIn
Deezer
CastBox