by Scott Howard | Jun 2, 2016 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
Trust. It’s what makes the world go ’round.
Trust is important in all of our relationships and business transactions.
When we spend decide to spend money, we do it because we trust the value in what we are buying. Doesn’t matter if it’s a $5 cup of coffee or a $75 dinner out on the town, we trust the people to serve us food and drink that it’s what we expect.
What does trust have to do with advertising on WOWO radio in Fort Wayne?
I have a not-so-secret tool in my advertising solution toolbox that helps your business earn trust.
Endorsement ads with Pat Miller, Charly Butcher, Rick Wolf or any of our news hosts.
image from http://media.21alive.com/images/NBC33_WOWO_Morning.jpg
Here’s how they work:
Last time I mentioned we have 97 one minute commercial slots each weekday during primetime available. Out of those 97, WOWO has a very limited number reserved for live endorsement ads. Just a few each hour between 5am and 9am and between 3pm and 6pm.
These are the most powerful 60 second ads on WOWO. For years, before I joined WOWO, these where the Gold-Standard for the very best type of advertisement your business could have on WOWO, because of the trust factor.
Here’s why they work:
I’ll use Charly Butcher as an example. Charly has been a radio personality in Fort Wayne for over 30 years. 13 years ago Charly moved from doing mornings on our sister station, music based WMEE, to host Fort Wayne’s Morning News on WOWO. Charly Butcher is a well known radio personality in Fort Wayne.
When Charly is interviewing the Mayor, the Governor, or one of our Indiana U.S. Senators or Congressmen, he is trusted and credible. When Charly and his morning news team are keeping us up to date on news, sports, traffic and weather, he is trusted too. That trust factor carries over to the advertising partners he endorses.
Live endorsement ads carry the full power of WOWO plus the added endorsement power of the WOWO personality. When Charly mentions Wicks Sugar Cream Pie, people know that they are good. When Pat Miller mentions Doc Dancer Heating, Cooling and Generators, people know they can trust Doc Dancer. When Rick Wolf mentions the specials at Milan Center Feed and Grain, people know the value because they trust Rick, Pat and Charly.
One other thing we do to protect the credibility advertisers receive when signing up for endorsement ads on WOWO: Exclusivity.
First off, we on the WOWO advertising sales team do our homework to find companies that are honesty and trustworthy. But the radio personality gets the final say on whether or not, he (or she) will endorse each company. Each radio personality will only endorse one company per business category.
A couple of footnotes before wrapping this up today.
We have both live and recorded 60 second endorsement ads. The recorded versions are usually used when Pat or Charly take time off and they can also be used at other times, contact me for details.
60 second endorsement ads are more expensive than a standard 60 second ad on WOWO. The premium price is well worth it, I’ve been amazed at the success stories from our advertising partners who tell us about the returns on their investments in this type of advertising.
Contact me if you would like more information and next time I’ll share another recipe for successful advertising with WOWO I created a few years ago.
by Scott Howard | May 31, 2016 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
Last week I began updating a series from 2015 on the price of advertising on WOWO Radio and in Fort Wayne, Indiana overall.
Today, an updated answer to the question: How Much Does A 60 Second WOWO Radio Ad Cost? 
$110 per minute is the new standard for a 1 minute recorded commercial on WOWO radio during primetime. Primetime is 6am to 6pm, weekdays.
Primetime is when WOWO radio’s audience is the largest. Compared to radio stations with a smaller audience, WOWO’s prices are appropriate. But hang on a second and I’ll tell you how WOWO sets our prices.
It’s not really about the size of the audience. The price of advertising on WOWO is based on the common law of supply and demand.
Each week, we update the WOWO rate card which list prices for the next 13 weeks.
Between 6am and 6pm each weekday, there are slots for 97 one minute radio commercials. Looking ahead over the next 4 weeks, there are only 4 slots open per day. That’s 93 of the 97 slots for a 60 second radio commercial are already sold. WOWO is 96% sold of one minute commercials in primetime for the next 4 weeks.
The demand is at an all time high.
What causes the demand?
The results that our current advertisers are getting. The radio advertising campaigns we air on WOWO radio are paying off for our advertising partners. It’s that simple.
As the demand stays high, the supply is low and the price stays high, just like any other business.
Because my rate card goes 13 weeks, I see that in about 10 weeks we are only about 75% sold out. But as each week goes by, we continue to fill those empty slots. We will be looking at being 95% sold out all summer long.
The price of an individual commercial is not really the best way of evaluating an advertising campaign, but it is an important factor that I have to take into consideration when creating your advertising campaign.
Questions? Contact me. And more coming on Wednesday.
by Scott Howard | May 25, 2016 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
This is the question that is on the tip of the tongue of any business owner when some ad sales person calls on them.
How Much Does It Cost to Advertise?
I’m going to update a series that I originally published in 2015 to answer that question.
It’s both an easy and difficult question to answer unless you are “just a salesperson“.
I detest the typical advertising salesperson, but I really enjoy what I do which includes selling advertising.
The difference is the approach and big picture. My approach is to discover what can help a business become more successful in marketing to present and future customers and often a part of that involves creating an advertising program on my radio station, WOWO.
The “just a salesperson” will attempt to sell you their stuff with very little understanding (or regard) for your big picture goals.
But wait, How Much Does It Cost to Advertise?
In traditional media, there are rate cards, some are publicly available.
In Fort Wayne, our daily newspapers rate card are online here. It’s confusing and unless you know about “column inches”, it’s not easy to understand. The link above goes to a rate card that is still available online, but their website has taken away the direct link.
KPC is another print media company that has some pricing online too.
At least one of the TV stations used to have a rate card you could find online but not anymore.
Radio stations have rate cards too that are either guidelines or very strict. However with most stations, these are a closely guarded secret. You have to talk to someone and often that someone is “just a salesperson”. Yuk, to put it politely.
The main reason I haven’t shared this publicly before, is two-fold:
- When I worked for other radio stations, I was not allowed to because of some fear that our competitors would find out. But this is a very paranoid way of thinking.
- The price of a 60 second ad should NOT be the main criteria for deciding who to advertise with.
Regarding the first reason, we at WOWO, really don’t care if other media find out what are prices are. I am not in a price battle with them.
And secondly, under most circumstances, the way I work goes beyond quoting prices. I work to create solutions to get the word out about your business, utilizing the tools I have along with the experiences and resources I have access to, all designed for you and your business goals.
Sorry to drag this out, but I need to set the stage and I promise to give you the prices and tips on how to buy advertising with me on WOWO.
Coming next, the price of a 60 second ad on WOWO.
by Scott Howard | May 18, 2016 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
I’m going to lay this out for you, Mr/Ms Business Owner in the Fort Wayne area:
WOWO’s Baby Boomer Audience Wants To Spend Money With You
A lot of attention is given to the under 50 crowd because, well, people over 50 are nearly dead, Or dead broke. Or drooling toothlessly in their soup, or…
I wonder what other myths you have about Baby Boomers? I found an article that addresses some of them. We’re going to look at them in a second. 
First the relationship between WOWO & Baby Boomers. WOWO radio was the radio station we listened to as school kids to find out if we had to go to school or if old man winter caused the school’s to close or delay. As a 6 year old when my family first moved here, we learned that Bob Siever’s was Mr. WOWO with all the answers in the 60’s and 70’s, (my youth).
Now in 2016 WOWO continues to have the largest audience in town of adults over 21 years old and the biggest chunk of those 100,000 weekly listeners are baby boomers.
Let’s break some Baby Boomer myths from the article:
Who’s got the money to spend? Boomers accounted for 70% of the disposable income in the United States in 2012, and they will continue to be the wealthiest generation in the country until at least 2030, when they’ll still have nearly 45% of the disposable income. 
Here’s 3 more from the article:
1. Baby boomers are not tech-savvy.
Both Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were born in the boomer years, and their generation was the first to experience the massive productivity increases that technology can drive.
Baby boomers are just as tech-oriented as are younger generations. Eighty-two percent of Boomers use Facebook, with 15.5% spending more than 11 hours per week on the site. Boomer women are also one of the fastest-growing categories on Pinterest. They also spend more time consuming and sharing content online than do other demographics.
2. Baby boomers are reluctant to spend money.
Adults 55-64 consistently outspending the average consumer in nearly every category.
In fact, if taken as their own economy, the 100 million Americans who are aged 50 and over would rank the third largest in the world behind the U.S. and China. When it does come to retirement, however, two-thirds plan to spend more time doing things like shopping, traveling and entertaining.
3. Baby boomers are old fashioned.
A recent study called Baby boomers “media-loving, eternally optimistic, self-indulgent consumers.” Now that they’re rid of burdens like college tuition, mortgages, and child care expenses, they’re looking to re-tool themselves and re-define their lives. Now rid of debts and obligations, they have the means to do it.
Want some examples of Boomers? Boomers are not your elderly grandparents. Prince was a baby boomer. So was David Bowie. Johnny Depp, Demi Moore, Madonna, Oprah … all baby boomers. Not a single, crotchety, old fogy among them.
Adding to the clear proof of Boomers’ immense consumer power, they drive almost 50% of all retail sales whereas Millennials represent a mere 10%.
Here’s the opportunity that you have with WOWO Radio. Want to see how it can work for your business? Contact me.
by Scott Howard | May 11, 2016 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Web World, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
If someone is looking for your business because they want want to spend money with you, or at least consider spending money with you, can they find you?
This is a problem with lots of businesses, big and small.
I have a friend who has a successful painting business that he’s been operating for over 30 years. But you can’t find him unless you know exactly how to connect with him. There are a couple ways to spell his last name and he doesn’t have a website, his Facebook page has less than 100 likes, etc.
I also have friends who have had a successful business for nearly 16 years that does pretty good. They are local owners of a world-wide franchise, so they can be found online. But they also launched a related side business and due to limited name recognition, they are not being found by people who want to hire them. I know this because I got an email from someone who was looking for them, but didn’t remember the exact name of the company. He tried to no avail but it was impossible.
Another friend who had decent exposure online, if you knew her name, but there was a Google Map listing that showed up with all the wrong contact information because she moved. I learned this old listing was over 5 years old and who knows how many thousands of dollars she has lost because she was “hiding in plain sight”?
This is just 3 examples of a dozen I could mention off the top of my head that I’ve seen this year. None of these people or businesses are out of business, yet…
I say yet, because the danger is there. If people don’t know how to find you, how to connect with you or simply can’t because your online presence is missing, wrong or inaccurate, You need to fix it.
Too busy? That’s a terrible excuse. Don’t know how to fix it? Hire a professional team that specialize in this. I’ve got one at Federated Digital Solutions and we can help. Contact me now with a text or phone call to 260-255-4357 or email Scott@WOWO.com.
by Scott Howard | May 9, 2016 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
I had a new co-worker ask me about this recently and decided to share it with you too.
This is different from the complicated way a lot of people attempt to sell advertising on radio and television. It’s also better and easy to understand.
We’re going to start with human behavior.
Nearly every morning there are a bunch of people who arrive at their office at 8am.
Right before they arrived at the office, most of them were in their cars and most of them were listening to the radio. A lot of them were listening to WOWO radio. Depending on how long their commute took them, we can assume that most hopped in their car sometime between 7 and 8am, and had up to an hour of time listening to WOWO. This is their human behavior 5 days a week.
Another part of our humanness is how we form relationships. Human relationships are built on trust and trust builds as we become familiar with someone. That’s how successful dating relationships work and it also applies to successful advertising relationships.
Let’s cut to the chase:
Advertise 5 days a week between 7 and 8 am and you and your company will build a positive relationship with the people who are listening to WOWO between 7 and 8am.
Do this every week, forever and you will become a trusted business and have top of mind awareness in the minds and hearts of those listeners that hear about you every day. 
Once you’ve committed to this advertising schedule, then add to it by adding a second hour, 5 days a week, forever. Then add a third hour, maybe a fourth hour.
This will work. I’ve done this since 1986 and refined it over the years to keep it simple and make it successful.
Let’s talk about your business and see how to apply it and create a successful stream of new customers for you.
Apple Podcasts
Google Podcasts
Spotify
TuneIn
Deezer
CastBox