The Effectiveness of Your Advertising

The Effectiveness of Your Advertising

by | Aug 25, 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 recently got into a bit of a “discussion” with the owner of an advertising agency regarding a client that we both have.

It was interesting because the owner of the advertising agency didn’t understand the effectiveness factor of the ad campaign we’ve been airing on WOWO Radio the past few years.

What was also eye opening to me, was the differences in the goals that the agency had compared to what our goal has been at WOWO.

The agency’s buying power is what they like to use as the reason to sign up with them if you own a business.  In the meeting, the agency owner kept emphasizing the price of a commercial, saying he could buy it at a lower price than buying directly from WOWO.  I had to point out that this was not true, at least with WOWO radio, and the owner of the company, our client, was also sitting in this meeting watching this exchange.

Meanwhile, I pointed out the emphasis of what we do at WOWO is Results.

Return on Investment.  Not how little an advertisement costs.

The owner of our client company has been telling the agency owner to leave his WOWO campaign alone because it is working.  And I had to point out to the agency owner, he can’t buy ads for the prices he was claiming on WOWO without throwing away the advertising campaign that has been working.  It would actually cost more for the business owner to have the advertising agency place the advertising schedules that we’ve been airing on WOWO.

That’s enough about this particular meeting I had earlier this month, but because of that meeting and a story I’ve been saving about the effectiveness of radio ads, I have some interesting information to share with you today.

There was a study conducted in January by Edison Research and National Public Radio that concluded:

 AM/FM listeners are more engaged with ads on radio than TV viewers and social media users are with ads on those platforms… Nearly two-thirds (64%) of people who reported listening to AM/FM in a week prior to the survey say they typically stay tuned in for the ads…They are doing more than just hearing ads, they are engaging with them.

Nearly 1/2 the listeners to commercial radio stations and non-commercial public radio stations learn about new businesses by listening to the radio.  Meanwhile less than a third of TV viewers are learning about new businesses.

At WOWO radio, we are a news and talk radio station located in Fort Wayne, Indiana and we also have a special, unique and effective way for advertisers to build engagement with our audience that is the “secret sauce” of success that the previously mentioned advertising agency cannot buy from us.  It’s Live Testimonial and Endorsement ads from our morning news host, Kayla and afternoon talk host Pat. There are all kinds of stipulations and requirements associated with them, ask me personally if you want to know more. Scott@WOWO.com is my email.

Next week, I’ll share more information from this study and point to a few more reasons all the advertising on WOWO is more effective than on typical music based radio stations.

In the meantime, reach out to me if you would to learn how we can help your business grow by inviting WOWO radio listeners to become your customers.

 

8 Principles to Improve Your Life and Business

8 Principles to Improve Your Life and Business

by | Aug 11, 2021 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, Really? The Personal ScLoHo, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

A couple of weeks ago, I was reading an article on Medium.com titled: 8 Pillars of a Satisfied and Happy Life.  Here’s a link to it: https://medium.com/mind-cafe/8-pillars-of-a-satisfied-and-happy-life-847d98707e81

It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon as I read it and decided that I wanted to add my spin on the 8 Pillars with both insights on how to apply this to you business and also reflections on how I do it personally.

On the business side of my life, I am the General Sales Manager of WOWO Radio, in Fort Wayne, Indiana.  I lead and coach 6 full time advertising sales people on our Local Sales Team.  I moved into this position at the beginning of 2020, a few weeks before Indiana went into lock-down due to the pandemic.  This is my 8th year with WOWO and I’ve been in the media and marketing world most of my life, although I do know how to drive a forklift and run a thermoformer too.

On the personal side, my wife and I have been married for over two decades and our 5 kids from our 1st marriages of made us grandparents multiple times.  The people on my Local Sales Team at WOWO range in age from my age to my kids age and so I know most of what they go through both personally and professionally.  The term, “Been There, Done That”, applies however the world has changed since I was a new Dad, some for the better, other changes not so much.

Pillar Number One from the Medium story:

1. Allow Yourself To Be Happy Before You “Succeed”

Absolutely.  As you grow, you need to learn to enjoy the journey.  Starting a new business is challenging all the time, not just in extreme circumstances.  Give yourself credit for doing the work.  One of the ways I measure the activity of the sales team I work with is the types of activity they are doing and how much they are doing.  I know that if they do certain benchmarks, success will follow.

Similarly, my wife likes gardening and it makes her happy.  It is hard work and the rewards take time to grow, but in the meantime, she is happy doing the work.   How about you? Do you have benchmarks in your business or life that you use to measure success before the financial success comes in?

2. Have A Clear Vision

Goals need to be both short and long term.  My team has a big picture goal that I shared at the beginning of the year, and then each month I break it down into smaller chunks for each person.  Together I work with each of them to help guide them to achieve those smaller goals which will add up to the original long term goal for our team.

I’ve worked for others who had no vision or they were continually changing course which creates frustration and confusion.  As a business owner, make sure your team understands the vision for your company too. When my wife and  I plan a trip either for ourselves or to visit family, we agree on the important elements and then also plan the details.  I learned several years ago how we best travel together and perhaps you and your spouse have learned what works best for you too.

3. Devote Yourself To Something Meaningful

I really dislike most advertising salespeople.  At least the way they do business, too many are focused on themselves, not on their clients success.  That has been the secret to my success.  To help others succeed, using the wisdom, knowledge and experience I’ve learned.  That’s one way I devote myself to something meaningful.  I also am involved serving on a non-profit organizations board to give back to the community.  How do you and your employees give of yourselves?

4. Become a Lifelong Learner

The day I stop learning is the day I stop living.  My formal education is not documented with college degrees but I keep getting invited to speak at numerous higher education colleges and universities.  Be curious.  Learn from others, listen and ask questions and figure out how to apply it to your life, your business or the people around you.

5. Do Not Settle For Less

I’ve done this a couple of times.  I’ve walked away from the world of advertising and took a break, but then I returned.  Some people decide not to return to their dreams and by doing that they never know if they could accomplish what they once sought.  On the personal side of life, this is very personal.  On the business side, you are going to have to decide what is important and what isn’t.  I used to work with an auto repair shop that was going to be open 24 hours a day.  Then when the owner discovered that it wasn’t a sustainable way to run his shop, he settled for less hours.  He also discovered how to merge what his customers really wanted with his vision and came up with a business plan that was unique, and he’s doing great now.

6. Remember To Have Fun

I took my WOWO Local Advertising Sales Team out for a morning of golf and lunch last month.  It was a team building event but it was more than that.  It was a time to set aside time to just have fun.  It wasn’t a reward for hitting a certain goal, it wasn’t earned based on performance, it was simply a guilt free way to hang out on a day when others were working and have fun.

At work, at home, having fun is something we all need to include in our lives regularly, not just special events.  How do you accomplish this?

7. Take Care Of Yourself

At the end of 2020, I decided to improve my health by dropping a few pounds and lost 20 pounds in about 6 months. I’ve maintained that and am slowing dropping a few more this year.  Stress is the silent killer for everyone it seems.  99 out of 100 people you see this month have something stressful going on in their lives that you may never know about.  You need to take care of your health, and encourage those who work for you to do the same.  Physical, Mental, Emotional and Spiritual health are all needing our attention. The H. R. Department  at WOWO’s parent company, Federated Media sends out reminders about this and also provides resources that members of my team have made use of.

8. Cherish Those You Love

This is the last pillar from the Medium.com article, but it’s not the least important.  I’m blessed to have loving relationships with my family and we work at making sure we stay in touch and express that love.

While the dynamics are usually different in a business setting, how would the culture improve if you really told your staff individually what you appreciated about them?

They need to know that they are appreciated and why.  The companies that have problems retaining employees are the ones that have the worst company cultures.  As a business owner or manager, you set the example.  A genuinely positive work environment is also appreciated by your customers and clients too.

I hope you’ve learned a few things today, and perhaps go back and answer those questions I mentioned to see how 2021 can be even better for you and those around you.

 

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

Follow The Leader Off The Cliff

Follow The Leader Off The Cliff

by | Jul 7, 2021 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom

Are you a Follower?

Or are you a Leader?

A couple weeks ago I read a statistic about advertising spending that didn’t surprise me but kind of made me sad.

It’s estimated that this year, digital advertising will account for nearly 67% of all media spending.

That was the opening line in a story from Mediapost that actually advices that going all digital is dangerous to the health of your brand and company.  Their headline reads: 5 Reasons To Keep Traditional Media In The Mix.

Radio, TV, newspapers, they are considered traditional media compared to digital media when has been around for nearly two decades.

All media can have some value for advertisers but you have to understand the way people use them and have the right expectations for what you are wanting to do.

Coupled with the rise of digital, the media landscape is increasingly complicated. The best approach is an integrated one — utilizing both digital and traditional tactics.

The reason I titled this Follow The Leader Off The Cliff is I have seen too many business people abandon traditional and go all digital, only to suffer the consequences or wake up and return to radio, print and tv.  National companies like Proctor and Gamble did it, and I have a friend that was nearly put out of business when Facebook shut down his Facebook page.

Let’s dig in with the 5 reasons from Mediapost:

More real estate. Smart traditional media placements can complement your digital campaign, in many cases offering additional real estate for comprehensive storytelling. 

Added value. Traditional media offers far more opportunity for added value than digital. 

 

Content alignment. Traditional broadcast and print media offer more content alignment opportunities, allowing the message to complement what audiences are already seeing. Negotiating fixed positions adjacent to this content through sponsorships and specific placement can help brands avoid getting lost in the clutter.

 

Endorsement opportunities. Endorsements promote credibility, particularly for campaigns meant for diverse audiences. By leveraging endorsements with “original influencers,” from DJs to on-air broadcast personalities, messaging is delivered by people whom audiences already trust, allowing paid content to come across naturally.

 

Internal alignment. It’s normal to want to see a campaign in-market once it launches. However, clients and their internal teams may not always be the target audience for a digital campaign, therefore not ever seeing it. 

 

While digital media is a critical component of paid campaign strategies, traditional media tactics still have unique strengths. Depending on location, demographics and other key qualifiers, there can be an argument made to focus on one over the other. Integrating both digital and traditional together can expand reach and engagement, while also increasing impact.

 

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.