ScLoHo’s Collective Wisdom | The Genuine ScLoHo aka Scott Howard

Why Your TV Ads Are Not Working

by Scott Howard | Jun 9, 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 not nice to bad mouth others and I try to avoid it.

I also want to be truthful.

Over the next few weeks, I am sharing some information that might sound like I’m bad mouthing others, however I am more interested in providing you with the truth about advertising mediums so you can be smart with your advertising and marketing plans.

Today we look at what has happened to the world of television and why you probably need to rethink your ad plan if you have been a fan of using TV to invite viewers to become your customers.

Trade publication Radio Ink shared some highlights from an article written by Pierre Bouvard of Westwood One. I have no connection to any of them but for your information some of the programming on our radio stations come from the Westwood One radio syndication service including the recently launched Dan Bongino show on my station WOWO from noon to 3pm in the same timeslot that Rush Limbaugh used to occupy.

Anyway, after reading the Radio Ink story, I also read what Pierre wrote and have some quotes and highlights to share with you.

Why Advertisers Need Radio? A big reason is the fragmentation and decline in Television viewership. According to Bouvard the TV landscape is undergoing massive change and that all works to radio’s advantage.

The details:

One out of four persons 25-54 cannot be reached on linear TV. AM/FM radio’s 89% weekly reach among persons 25-54 is much stronger than television’s 77%.

In just two years, comparing 2018 to 2020, there has been a huge decline in people watching traditional TV. Why?

“Worst year ever” for cord cutting: Pay TV lost 5.5 million subscribers in 2020. COVID-19 caused Americans to stay home and look to media outlets for information and entertainment. The ever-increasing number of video streaming services meant a step back from traditional TV for many American households.

It’s not that we have stopped watching content on screens, it’s that the way we get that programming content has shifted.

Cable buys miss 40% of America as pay TV penetration collapses.

2009 was the best year for cable TV with nearly 9 out of 10 homes hooked up to a cable service. Now only 61% of America subscribes to cable TV. And the major broadcast networks are suffering too.

Broadcast TV’s reach is down an average of -22% across FOX, NBC, CBS, and ABC affiliates. Since 2016, broadcast TV has reached fewer persons 18+ across the four major broadcast network affiliates.

The article continue with a solution but it uses a bunch of advertising agency lingo that I’ll interpret for you.

Pierre points to a study that uses consumer products giant Proctor and Gamble. Adding Radio ads to the TV ads increased the reach of their advertising messages 3 times more than if they simply bought more TV ads.

Weather Tech is another company that is using both TV and radio and the addition of radio ads increased their reach over 60%.

AM/FM radio makes your TV better by reaching light TV viewers. Light and non-TV viewers are a challenge for marketers. Advertisers can’t solve the light TV problem by buying more TV. AM/FM radio reaches 83%+ of the light TV viewer audience across all demographics.

So if you are a fan of using TV advertising, and you aren’t seeing the same results you used to, know you know why. And you also have a way to overcome this problem that I can help you with. Email me, Scott@WOWO.com

The Disappearing TV Audience

by Scott Howard | May 19, 2021 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

Not even a pandemic can save broadcast television.

As America opens up again after being told to stay home last year, we’re getting new data about some of the long term affects of the COVID-19 pandemic. And since I’m a media and marketing dude, not a doctor, I’m going to focus on what I know about. Get your health and wellness info from someone qualified to advice you.

I am qualified to talk about media and marketing because that is not just my passion but it’s been my livelihood for a few decades plus I have access to data that most of you don’t.

One of the predictions about 2020 was that media consumption habits were going to change due to our being stuck at home. Less people on the road would decrease radio listenership and TV would stop the slide in viewership that it’s been suffering for the past decade.

Well, radio listenership may have shifted a bit temporarily, it’s just as strong and healthy as ever. Broadcast TV, that’s a different story.

Here in Fort Wayne, Indiana, we have had 5 major broadcast TV stations since I was a kid. ABC was channel 21, CBS was channel 15, NBC was channel 33, PBS was channel 39 and FOX was channel 55. Those were the channels my Mom watched 20 years ago without cable and people of her generation are still watching broadcast TV, but not as many or as much because they are dying off (80 to 90 year olds), or they’ve done what my generation and those younger are doing and watching TV from cable or streaming services.

We have a collection of restaurants run by the Hall’s family in Fort Wayne that a friend of mine predicted would be out of business in 10 years because all their customers were old. He made that prediction 20 years ago and most of those restaurants are still here. Why? Because they keep making old people is my answer.

But there is more to this problem for broadcast TV because the TV networks are not creating shows that younger generations want to watch. The younger generations are finding them online or on streaming services, not ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS and Fox.

MarketingCharts.com shared data that compares July thru September 2020 with the same 3 months of 2019 and except for those age 65+, the trend for watching less broadcast TV that has been going on for more than a decade, continued despite being told to stay home.

This continuing decline is because of the habits younger generations have formed that simply can’t be ignored. Teens are now watching less than an hour of TV, that’s a drop of 21% in just the last year. The 18 to 34 year olds viewing habits dropped over 23% in the past year. The only age group that didn’t lose viewers were those 65 and older and they barely retained the number of viewers and time spent watching TV. It happened to the Yellow Pages of the phone book, it continues to happen to the newspaper industry as technology changes occur and consumer habits change, the decline continues and is happening to broadcast TV. Not even a stay-at-home order in the worst pandemic of our lifetimes has been able to save the TV stations from losing viewers.

I have a couple of questions for you if you are a business owner that has relied on TV advertising to draw in new customers.

How is it working for you compared to years ago?

19 out of 20 business owners I asked this question to at the end of 2019 (before the pandemic) told me that they have seen a decrease in their return on investment on advertising on traditional local TV. The other person had no idea because business was booming and he used multiple avenues to advertise.

The other question is would you like to see an alternative form of advertising that hasn’t become less effective, that can either work hand in hand with your other marketing and advertising or replace some of the advertising avenues that aren’t producing for you like they used to? Contact me, Scott@WOWO.com and I’ll put you in touch with someone from my team to discuss what can be done to make your business successful and growing this year and for years to come.

Set The Bait

by Scott Howard | May 5, 2021 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, Sound ADvice

Whether it’s fishing, hunting, selling, or advertising, setting the bait is key to alluring or attracting that which you are trying to capture.

Since the beginning of time, it’s been known that you only have one opportunity to make a good first impression and regardless of if it’s a fish, wild game, or humans, you don’t have very long to capture their attention.

Your advertising message faces the same challenge. What your ads say, how they sound, and how they are delivered in the first few seconds, dictates whether your potential prospects will tune in or tune out to your message, or continue to read the message.

Reporters and authors have long known that the headline and the first sentence are what dictates whether the reader tunes in and continues on with the rest of the story, or tunes out. In an effort to develop the all-important “creative hook” at the top of your ads on websites, many headlines end up with more “creative” than “hook”.

In order to get the maximum effect out of your ads, we recommend you carefully consider the first few seconds of every ad, blog, text, email, or post that you create.

Here is a bonus tip. Oftentimes, you will find that the best line of any ad or letter, or the best words/sentence, is in the middle. When you find it, move it to the first line, or use it as the headline.

To read the 8 Power Openings you can use to capture more attention for your marketing efforts, click here.

And to receive these Sound ADvice tips in your email every week, sign up for Sound ADvice in the box below

Radio Back On The Road

by Scott Howard | Apr 27, 2021 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

“Nobody listens to regular radio anymore”.

I’ve heard that myth every year for years.

My predecessors, heard a similar myth I’m sure when music became portable.

Phonograph records have been around for more than a century but in order to listen to them, you needed a record player which wasn’t very portable. This changed a few decades ago with the invention of 8 track tapes. My parents could buy an 8 track tape player for their car and listen to an entire record album while driving down the road. People thought that would kill off radio stations. But it didn’t.

8 track players were replaced by cassette tapes and eventually compact discs replaced both tapes and records. The audio systems in our cars continued to evolve as well as the prediction that radio was about to be replaced by these newer, portable ways to listen to music.

Compact Discs were just the beginning of digital music players as iPods and other MP3 players made it possible to have hundreds of songs in your pocket.

And of course the internet was supposed to kill off radio stations too, especially when our cars became connected to the online world.

I mention all of this history for one reason. Like I said at the beginning…

“Nobody listens to regular radio anymore” is just a myth.

1000 adults 18 and older participated in a survey a couple of months ago and here’s some of the details:

According to results from a national CARAVAN survey conducted by ENGINE Insights for Xperi’s DTS the pandemic has increased the importance of the personal vehicle and in-dash infotainment today, versus pre-COVID. The study says this is especially true for Millennials and Gen Z.

Now you might think that they want to be able to connect to the internet while they are driving. Not so fast.

According to the study, radio is indispensable or highly important to seven out of ten vehicle owners, with nearly 80 percent of Millennials valuing radio in the dashboard. Also, nine out of ten vehicle owners say it is important to have radio in their dashboard, with over half wanting it as the anchor of their media diet.

What about satellite radio? Wasn’t that supposed to be the wave of the future?

Four in five vehicle owners (79 percent) feel it is very important that listening choices in their vehicle are free (radio/podcasts/etc.) versus subscription based.

Surely podcasts then are going to kill off radio stations.

Nope, the vast majority of podcasts have a teeny tiny audience and last less than a year. Similar to what I observed when blogging was the hot new internet sensation 15 years ago. The podcasts that have staying power and a significant audience are those linked to broadcast radio stations.

It was ten years ago that I walked away from a successful job in the radio business and joined a website firm. I came back to radio less than a year later. I left radio again and worked full time in social media, but in 2013 returned once again in radio to stay. See, when I was working outside of this business there was something I continued to do.

Listen to the radio as I drove to my internet job.

Last month, my radio station, WOWO in Fort Wayne, Indiana had a birthday. WOWO turned 96 years old on March 31st and it’s not about to be irrelevant. Besides our news and talk hosts and anchors doing their regular radio shows, they have podcasts too. Not to replace what they do on the radio, but to supplement it. We also podcast the interviews so listeners can listen later or share too.

Want to know more? Contact me. Scott@WOWO.com

Lasting Change in Consumer Habits

by Scott Howard | Apr 24, 2021 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom

2020 was a year of change for multiple reasons including Covid, the Black Lives Matter movement and political division at an increased level.

The consequences of 2020 is that consumers habits have changed, some at an accelerated rate due to the way we had to adapt last year. Video conferencing was slowly becoming an option, but when it became the norm because we were not allowed to meet in person, that, my friends is an example of what I am referring to.

One of my top salesperson loves the video option because it saves her time traveling and I know that while we are slowly returning to more in-person meetings, video is still going to be a viable and acceptable option.

And there’s more…

Marketing Charts reports:

The vast majority (78%) of consumers have come to prefer online shopping for specific items over the course of the past 6 months, according to a Cheetah Digital report [download page] on the digital consumer trends that are set to outlast the pandemic.

Kroger, Meijer and Walmart are the major grocery stores where I live and we switched to ordering online and then picking up at a designated time for nearly a year.

Yes, Amazon benefited from the online shopping boom but other local stores learned to adapt and provided curbside pick-up or carry-out only to adjust to the restrictions imposed by safety precautions of the pandemic.

Climate change, political posturing and convenience seem to be big factors according to the report.

What about you and your business… what have you done in the past year that you are going to continue doing in 2021 and beyond?

I’d love to hear from you, drop me a line or leave a comment. Or if you would like some help and guidance, ask. My email is Scott @WOWO.com

Radio Listenership As The Pandemic Winds Down

by Scott Howard | Apr 7, 2021 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

What’s going on in the media and marketing world now that we’ve gone through the first year of a worldwide pandemic?

As an insider to information that you don’t have access to, I have some answers.

And let me preface this by stating, no the pandemic is not over, the virus did not disappear and the battle is still on. I lost a very good friend last month to complications that included Covid.

However, with the millions of vaccines being injected every week we are in a much better place than we were 6 months ago. Here in Indiana anyone age 16 and older is now eligible for the vaccine as long as the supplies are there.

Even before I dig into the media habits, a couple of observations regarding consumer habits.

My local stores no longer have shortages of toilet paper and disinfecting wipes. We have an abundance of hand sanitizer at my office, and the face mask business is preparing for a slow down, now that everyone has learned how to wear one, although too many people pretend they are just political statements or refuse to cover their nose.

What else?

I’ve got some quotes from Insider Radio to share:

One year after the coronavirus outbreak tuned the world upside down, the latest in an ongoing series of Nielsen Audio Consumer Sentiment surveys shows several key metrics are pointing in radio’s favor. Among them, 64% of Americans 18 and older said they agreed that it is safer than it was a month ago. .

That’s a comparison of March 2021 to February 2021. Here’s more:

Among the employed, two-thirds now work outside the home. That’s up nearly 70% since April. In addition, workers at home due to COVID-19 declined by more than half since April 2020.

There is the perception that most people are holed up, not going out, working out of their basement and it’s simply not true. And they are listening to their favorite radio stations.

The initial virus outbreak one year ago caused a rapid downturn in the number of people using public transportation. One year later Nielsen’s survey shows all groups are still using less public transportation due to COVID. What’s more, those spending an hour or more in vehicles shot up 150% since April, and heavy radio listeners are more likely to spend an hour or more in the car.

Yes, radio is still an effective way to reach people and invite them to spend money with your business.

Heavy radio listeners are more likely to make major purchases within a year, and are 18% more likely to purchase or lease a new or used vehicle, and 64% more likely to buy a new house.

My radio station, NewsTalk 1190 WOWO 107.5 continues to have the largest adult audience in our market of over 25 stations. We are one of two stations that consistently has well over 100,000 weekly listeners.

And I have a team of advertising and marketing specialists that can design and create the messaging and media campaign to help you convert our listeners to become your customers and clients. Contact me, Scott@WOWO.com and I’ll hook you up.