by Scott Howard | Feb 19, 2019 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
Despite all the talk about the internet and digital media being the place to be with your advertising, it’s not time to dump traditional media.
That’s a one line summary of a report issued recently that summarizes where the advertisers and advertising agencies are choosing to spend their advertising dollars.
I’m looking at a chart that lists the factors that are most important in the media mix decision.
In plain english, what are the factors that these businesses and media buyers use to choose one advertising option over another.
At the top of the list, in a tie at 73% we have:
- Channels that have been successful in the past, based on research
- Channels that are preferred by our target audience, based on research
A little over half gave the following three factors for picking an advertising channel:
- Channels that are appropriate for a specific campaign
- Channels where our target consumers are most receptive to content from brands
- Costs and Budget
So far, the two of the most talked about factors for choosing one advertising media channel over another hasn’t been mentioned. But I’m about to.
Being able to measure Return on Investment only got a 44% rating while New Marketing Channels scored a measly 32%.
Those last two items, are the hallmarks of digital marketing and yet they are the two least important factors.
Let’s look at those top two factors again.
Channels that have been successful in the past. That sounds like a safe bet. But you also need to know if those channels are still the best choice and that’s where the other top factor comes in. Channels that are preferred by our target audience.
The good news is if you want to consider using WOWO radio, I have dozens of advertising partners that have been using WOWO radio for years, even decades successfully. I also have details on who listens to WOWO and all the other local radio stations so when we meet we can see what advertising channels your target audience is listening to.
Reach out to meet to set up a meeting and in the meantime, sign up for my free Sound ADvice marketing tips newsletter using the form below or send an email to Scott@ WOWO.com.
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by Scott Howard | Dec 27, 2018 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
What’s the status of radio broadcasting as we prepare for a new year?
That’s a question I hear in various forms from friends, family and others who hear I work in the radio advertising business.
Last month, I spoke to a marketing class at a local university and did a Q & A about radio advertising and marketing overall, and the question came up.
I talked with a couple family members who I had not seen in months and they asked too.
The good news is, radio broadcasting is strong and healthy, profitable for both the company I work for and for the businesses that advertise with us. The unfortunate news is that the public perception doesn’t match reality. Westwood One, and Edison Research released a study this month that I want to share with you along with some inside information about the station I work for, WOWO radio and the Fort Wayne media market.
First off, advertising agencies and major advertisers overall don’t know the truth about the impact of music streaming services compared to traditional AM/FM radio broadcasting.
A simple question was asked: “Please estimate the audience share of Pandora, Spotify, and AM/FM radio.” The perceptions? Spotify has a 23% share, Pandora has a 21% share, and AM/FM radio has a 36% share.
The truth is Pandora only has a 4% share and Spotify has 2% nationally. Only 6% of people listening to what we call audio are using Pandora and Spotify to listen to their favorite music.
Perception among the people who should know was that these internet based music channels had nearly half the audience and listening to the radio for music was history. Not a chance, my friend. Another wrong perception is that those Pandora and Spotify listeners must listen all day long, right? Wrong again. Pandora get 12 minutes a day and Spotify get 10 minutes a day on average according to this study. Meanwhile radio listeners are tuned in nearly two hours daily. Mindblowing to those who thought that everyone is listening to music online.
But here’s the really important part for businesses that are looking for a place to advertise that will be effective and profitable.
Listening to music at home used to mean albums and CDs. Today, that has shifted to Spotify and Pandora. Now listening to music at home means audio streaming is playing softly in the other room. According to a MARU/VisionCritical study, only 54% of Pandora and Spotify listeners actually pay attention to the ads.Background music like this was never meant for advertising.
So if your business is advertising on Pandora or Spotify you are likely reaching a fraction of the people who you could reach using traditional AM/FM radio, and the odds that they are listening when your ad is one is a tiny fraction of that number, and to make it even worse, nearly half are mentally tuning out when your commercial comes on.
There are actually two versions of Pandora and Spotify. The free version that includes ads and the paid version that is ad free. The study shows that while the ad free version of Spotify is growing the version of these services that your business can use to advertise on, is losing audience. What about Sirrus XM Satellite radio? That audience is still tiny. Only about 1 out of 10 people have Sirrus XM.
Traditional AM/FM Radio stations continues to reach over 70% of adults every single day and over 90% every week.
Two newer forms of audio listening are growing, podcasts and smart speakers. Fortunately WOWO Radio and the other Federated Media owned radio stations have been using podcasts as a standard part of our offerings for out audience.
Miss an interview on WOWO’s Pat Miller program? You can listen later by subscribing to our podcasts. We even have podcast only programs for our radio audiences.
And the smart speaker revolution has increased our audiences because now, instead of a tabletop radio, or stereo system in your home or office, you can tell Alexa to tune into WOWO Radio and poof, it’s there.
I told you I would also share with you some inside information about WOWO and Fort Wayne Media. In August, WOWO radio’s long time morning show host, Charly Butcher passed away unexpectedly on vacation. This was a major blow to everyone as Charly was our anchor and host of Fort Wayne’s Morning News for years and previously was on our sister station WMEE.
Management expected WOWO’s advertising revenue to decline and not make our budget in 2018. Instead of declining, the advertising sales team at WOWO had a record year. This was only possible if the advertising campaigns we ran on WOWO produced results for the businesses that invested their ad dollars with us. It’s not just a tip of the hat to the sales skills of my co-workers, but to the entire staff and listeners who continue to make WOWO radio an important part of their day and support the business who they hear on WOWO.
In 2019, we expect more growth at WOWO in listenership, in our relationships with our listeners, and in connecting those listeners to the businesses that they want to spend money with. As always, I am here to help you become one of those businesses.
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by Scott Howard | Dec 17, 2018 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
This is a ScLoHo extra report that is not included in the Genuine ScLoHo Media and Marketing Podcast series.
Radio broadcasting is considered traditional media. So is TV broadcasting along with print (newspapers & magazines), and if we expand to look at traditional advertising platforms, let’s toss in the phone book and outdoor billboard signs.
What’s not considered traditional in the media and advertising worlds? Internet related stuff.
The digital marketing options that include platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, etc.
Heck, digital includes apps, websites, search (both SEO and SEM) and the blending of these digital technologies.
So, the set up is traditional media and advertising, versus digital media and marketing. Which is better for your business?
I happen to work with both and have tons of hands on experience in both worlds.
I have concerns about the future of several of the media and marketing platforms and their ability to be profitable and deliver a Return On Investment for their supporters, (that includes investors and businesses that advertise with them.) I’m talking about both traditional and digital.
One that I am betting my future on is radio. Not all radio, but specifically my radio station WOWO.
3 items came up this past week that I’ll share with you:
One of my advertising partners hosted a very nice luncheon for his media partners from all over Indiana and the head of an ad agency that does mostly television, asked the question: How’s the radio business doing?
My answer was that our audience is as strong and responsive as ever. A lot of changes have continued to evolve in his world of television that has made buying TV advertising and getting the results that they used to get, a bit of a struggle.
Those changes have to do with how viewing habits have been changing tremendously, just in the past 5 years, let alone 20 years. Cord Cutting (the loss of Cable TV subscribers) and the On-Demand viewing habits have really changed the landscape for television advertising. Now with Smart TV’s that have the ability to deliver ads based on who is watching at the time, there are a lot of bugs to work out and with these changes comes challenges that are still being worked out.
Business people and media buyers simple want to know that there advertising messages are being seen and heard and bringing them customers. You really don’t care about the technical details.
I also saw this national story from Radio Ink, a media publication. The story states that radio advertising is still a favorite with new media buyers planning on trying radio for the first time. In my experience, I’m seeing people who were told that they should be using digital media for advertising are now also exploring advertising on the media they consume, and WOWO radio is one of the most listened to medias in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
One more insider article that I read the other day, shows that the News and Talk formated radio stations like WOWO continue to be HOT.
For the eighth year in a row, news/talk is radio’s top format. Buoyed by a nonstop cavalcade of news stories – from the midterm elections and Supreme Court nominations to natural disasters, social media scrutiny and widening cultural debates – the format’s 6+ Average Quarter Hour share crept up to a 10.0 (January-November) in 2018, from a 9.9 in the same period one year earlier. In fact, 2018 marks a fourth consecutive year of growth for news/talk.
And this growth in listenership is paying off for my advertising partners too. In another client meeting I had this month, I learned that they experienced 150% growth this year, their 2nd year of advertising with WOWO.
I just published this story on the Talk Radio Advantage for WOWO Radio Advertisers that goes into more detail of some of the specifics that makes this kind of growth possible with WOWO radio. And Before the month is up, I’ll share an article on how radio is still in demand for 2019 and beyond.
Lastly, I want to share with you how WOWO is actually using both traditional and digital platforms to serve our audience and our advertisers. Along with our 50,000 watt 1190 AM signal, and 107.5 FM signal (the traditional media), WOWO radio can be heard online with our streaming service for years. WOWO has been using Facebook, Twitter, Text, Instagram, including all the updates and and Live features. We’re smart speaker enabled including Alexa.
And Podcasts. Boy, do we have Podcasts. You can listen to multiple web exclusive podcasts and we also have archives of many of our on-air broadcasts and interviews that air on WOWO radio.
Contact me for more info.
by Scott Howard | Sep 17, 2018 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Web World, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
If you don’t own it, you and your business are at risk. Years ago, my friend Kevin Mullett and I had this discussion and it’s true. Don’t Be Social Media Stupid with Your Business.
Let me explain.
Facebook is the world’s largest Social Media platform and they offer a multitude of ways for people like you and me to start a business, promote and grow a business, even become independently wealthy with a business that lives on Facebook.
The problem is if your business relies only on Facebook, you are eventually going to be hurt.
Facebook is your virtual landlord. Except when you have a real landlord relationship, there are contracts that you read and sign. Promises made by both parties and some guarantees for a period of time.
That’s not the way it works with Facebook or any of the other social media platforms.
Facebook can make changes and you have no say in the matter.
Does anyone remember reading the “Terms Of Service” when they signed up? Over 98% of us blindly just click on the checkbox without reading.
NBC news recently featured an article that included this story about a small business owner that relied on Facebook.
Holly Homer, an entrepreneur from Texas owns the Facebook pages for “Quirky Mama” and “Kids Activities.” With over 3 million followers, Homer’s Facebook page had become so popular she hired five employees and her husband quit his full-time medical job to help with the business. Homer showed NBC News a chart of interactions with her Facebook page that shows a decrease in February when Facebook implemented changes to News Feed.
As you can see, she was all-in when it came to running a Facebook based business. And that is where the problem lies. I did some of my own investigating and her Facebook page is Quirky Mama, but her website where she makes money is KidsActivities.com . But Holly is using another short cut that echos the mistake she made with Facebook. Her KidsActivities.com domain isn’t really her own website. Sure she owns the domain, but it’s actually just a sub-website on the Maven domain. Just like Facebook can change the rules, Maven can make changes and Holly will really be up the proverbial creek without a paddle.
I know this is sounding technical, so let’s talk in everyday language. When you lease a car, you don’t own that car. There are some benefits to leasing over buying but because you never owned that car, the only value is the immediate value of having that car to use. You can’t sell it, because you never bought it.
If your business is built on someone else’s platform, like Facebook or Maven, in Holly’s case, she and her entire company are at risk of losing it all. Holly says:
One of the Facebook policy changes that kind of went under the radar and it went into effect in February was the branded content policy. And it decreased my income from Facebook by 60 percent, overnight. No explanation.
Facebook cares about Holly and doesn’t care about Holly. They walk the fine line of working for the greater good. Their priorities begin with #1, that’s Facebook itself. Second on their list is their stockholders and then we have the users. Facebook users fall into multiple categories. There’s you and me as a couple of individuals in the total Facebook universe of over a billion active users.
Holly and her business fall into another category. Facebook is free for you and me to use, but not so much if we are using Facebook to promote our business. Holly and other businesses have to pay to get their Facebook posts seen by the masses. Same is true for any organization that Facebook believes has money to spend to promote their message.
In the summer of 2013, I ran the social media department for a $50 million dollar e-commerce company. Our average sale was under $100, so we had a lot of customers to make up that $50 million each year. That summer, I saw Facebook make a change in their algorithm that reduced the number of people my Facebook post were reaching by 75%. Fortunately, I knew what to do, move some of my budget around and spend a little more.
Facebook is constantly making changes. All you can do is figure out how to adapt. But there is something else you really need to do too.
Own your own online presence. If your only online presence is a Facebook page, Instagram account, Twitter handle, LinkedIn account, Snapchat account, or a free WordPress or Blogger website, prepare to lose it all.
That was part of the lesson I learned from my conversation with Kevin Mullett in 2011. I had made a name for myself with a few marketing blogs that were hosted free on Google’s Blogger platform. They are living there, you can find them if you Google ScLoHo.
However in 2011, I also bought my own domain and website hosting service for ScottHoward.me It’s where all of my content lives. I update every week still with a new story and article like this one.
Facebook and all the other social media platforms have a purpose still. They are being used simply as a marketing tool, not a place to host a business. Websites were around before social media. A website without any publicity is not going to get any visitors. Use social media as a tool to draw people to your website if you want, but please don’t confuse the two.
One more item from the 20 year old in my family, Jake. He posted this on Facebook the other day:
Hey friends and fam ,
I will be deleting my Facebook account or at least the app because I have been really wanting to change my daily habits and my phone is not a good one .. so I will not be on here for at least a couple months but I hope each and every one of you continue to strive to be the best you can be each and every day.
Jake is Gen Z. He’s in college. He and others of his generation don’t care about or even trust Facebook anymore. This is a another warning sign. I have advertising partners on WOWO Radio that use WOWO to drive traffic to their website.There are other ways besides social media to drive people to your website and we’ll talk about that soon. In the meantime please remember this: If you don’t own it, you and your business are at risk.
Want help in figuring all this out and creating something more stable? Let’s talk.
by Scott Howard | Sep 7, 2018 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Web World, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo
Just a quick FYI. The Genuine ScLoHo Media & Marketing Podcast is moving our weekly release date to the beginning instead of the end of the week and so this is a teaser to the next episode titled, Don’t Be Social Media Stupid With Your Business.
I really, really, really, yes REALLY want you to make a change in your business that will cost you less than $100 a year.
Get a professional email address.
I’ve had one for years. It is Scott@ScLoHo.net.
Mine is part of Google Suites, so it looks like a Gmail account to me, but to anyone sending me an email, with my own domain, it is a step or two or three above Gmail.
The past couple of months, I have seen businesses with email accounts from HotMail, Yahoo, Gmail, and even AOL.
What this tells me is that these folks either don’t take their business seriously, or they are really, really behind the times.
And having one of these old email domains for your business hurts your credibility and the trust factor we want to have in you.
But I’ve had my hotmail email address for years, all my customers use that, how will they reach me if I change?
Easy. You can have your current email addresses forwarded to your new email address.
While you are at it, your website probably needs an update too, but that’s a subject for another day.
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