by Scott Howard | Apr 2, 2019 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
Are all advertising options equal?
Of course not.
Is a burger off the dollar menu at your favorite fast food joint equal to the $20 burger you can order for lunch at your local restaurant?
Of course not.
Today, I am going to do a comparison of advertising on WOWO radio in Fort Wayne with advertising on a local TV station.
Along with the insider details I have because I work for WOWO radio, I also have information that I saw from a local TV station and data from a research study comparing TV and radio audiences.
Here’s a spoiler alert. Advertising on WOWO Radio, with my guidance will generate superior results compared to what the TV people are trying to sell you.
First, some of the figures from the research study:
When you advertise on television, about 20 percent of the viewers are heavy users of TV. The other 80 percent of people who watch TV each week, consume way less TV per person. Given the way we watch TV in 2019, this makes a lot of sense because we have some many viewing options that are not local broadcast TV, television viewership of any particular show has been declining for years.
We will look at these heavy users of TV, the ones that your advertising messages are reaching.
First we’ll look at the age demographic using a scale of 100 being average. That means anything below 100 is below average and above 100 is that many percentage points above average.
A25-34: 21
A35-44: 40
A45-54: 95
A55-64: 165
A65+: 226
What this means is that the average TV viewer is above the age of 55. The person seeing your TV commercial is twice as likely to be over the age of 65. Trying to reach a 30 year old, 40 year old, or even 50 year old with your TV commercial? It’s not very likely.
Using that same 100 point scale, here’s the numbers for household income of heavy users or viewers of TV:
Under $25K: 158
$25K-$35K: 152
$35K-$50K: 118
$50K-$75K: 113
$75K-$100K: 74
$100K+: 70
The less money they earn, the more time they are watching TV. Families with an income of $35,000 or less are more than 50% more likely to see your TV commercial.
One more statistic from this study deals with education:
Less than 12th grade: 169
High School: 132
Some College: 108
College+: 64
The heaviest TV viewer is 69% more likely to have less than a high school education than the average.
In summary, the people most likely to see your television commercial are the least educated, have the least available income to buy what you are selling and are definitely not the 25 to 54 year olds that TV advertising salespeople try and convince you that you will reach when you advertise on their TV station.
I know what the TV salespeople are doing because I have known a few and have seen some of the information they use to try and persuade my WOWO Radio clients to drop their ads and switch to TV instead. It just doesn’t add up.
Now in case you are unfamiliar with the specifics of WOWO Radio, here’s a brief rundown…
WOWO has been a news and talk station for 20 years and altogether has been on the air over 90 years. WOWO has consistently been one of the only stations in Fort Wayne to average over 100,000 listeners every week for years. As a talk radio station, our listeners are upper income, better educated adults who place a lot of trust in the WOWO radio local and national talk show hosts and newscasters, as evidenced by the antidotal information we get from both listeners and advertisers.
WOWO News/Talk Listeners scored:
194 for advanced college degree (nearly twice as likely than the average) compared to the 64 for the TV audience.
140 in income over $100,000 compared to 70 for the TV audience. In other words, WOWO Radio listeners are twice as likely to have money to spend to buy your stuff versus the person sitting at home watching TV.
There’s more I could share with you but that’s enough for the moment. Want to know more? Let’s connect.
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by Scott Howard | Feb 5, 2019 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
At the end of last year, I saw a few reports on the state of media and marketing for 2019 and want to share some insight from others again. Because, I can tell you plenty about the success of WOWO advertisers, but how about what others are using radio and other media to bring in business?
People are spending more time with media than ever before, says MarketingCharts’ newly-released 5th annual “US Media Audience Demographics” report, a data-driven resource that can aid marketers in their strategic decision-making. The study sizes up the media landscape, then delves into the age, income, and racial/ethnic composition of several media types across 3 sections: traditional; digital; and social media.
Starting with Traditional Media:
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The broadcast TV audience is slowly graying, but it’s the cable TV audience that may be getting there more quickly, says the report.
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Terrestrial radio stands apart from other traditional media in its appeal to middle-aged adults and to those in the mid-to-high income range.
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For the first time, fewer than half of US adults read a print newspaper on a weekly basis.
Regarding Digital Media which I take includes internet based media including video and websites:
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Almost half of online TV program viewers are ages 18-34.
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Although digital media types tend to attract younger audiences, people ages 55-64 are actually above the online average in visits to magazine and newspaper websites.
Social Media gets it’s own category in this report with these observations:
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Snapchat may be thought of primarily as a youth-oriented platform, but its appeal with higher-income adults is also notable.
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Closely following Snapchat in a tilt towards youth, is Instagram.
While this kind of data is interesting and for folks like me who work in and study these medias, I urge you to not try and figure out how to apply this on your own to your business.
Another study I was reading regarding TV viewing from Nielsen, the television ratings and research company. They listed the top network TV shows and one of my favorites, NCIS was in the top 10, # 4 actually last year with over 16 million viewers. But of those 16 million, nearly 7 million are not watching it when it airs on Tuesdays on CBS. They are time shifting, watching on demand. This means that if you were to advertise on your local broadcast station, over 40% of the regular NCIS fans are not going to see your ad on Tuesday night.
These are just consumer behaviors, not marketing effectiveness which isn’t the same thing. I am here to help, just ask.
And have you signed up for a new newsletter that I am offering, called Sound ADvice? Once a week, it will arrive in your email and be filled with 30 seconds of marketing Sound ADvice on how to make this year your best yet.
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by Scott Howard | Feb 21, 2018 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo
It’s important to note the difference between real long term changes and short term flukes. Just like it is important to know the difference between a new trend and something that is historically predictable.
Since I write about advertising, media and marketing, I’ll limit this article to those subjects.
A couple of stories I read this month inspired this. One was claiming that the new trend in 2018 would be to tell the truth. This is not a trend.
Telling the truth is what often makes the difference between a short term fluke and long term success.
The Human Relationship Principles that I often talk about that we need to apply to our marketing and advertising starts with Truth Telling. Telling the truth builds trust. And as humans, we want to trust the people we are dealing with and the products and services we spend money on, are of value, at least as much value as we are spending our money on.
Next week, I’m going to share a recent experience I had buying a new car and how trust and value played a critical part in my purchase.
But back to today’s topic, another story I read showed survey results of peoples reactions to advertising in general. The survey was conducted last year with several thousand people from 45 countries across the world. This bothers me a bit because the results can be skewed when you include so many various conditions. Some countries allow more advertising than others and perhaps some have had increases due to changes in regulations. Here in the United States alone, advertising regulations are different from state to state.
So as I share these numbers, remember that there are too many variables to make this a trend.
4 out of 5 people surveyed say Ads Are Appearing In More Places compared to 3 years ago.
This next stat is probably closer to the truth.
3 out of 4 people said I See More Advertising Now compared to 3 years ago
Also a majority of those surveyed said that Ads Are More Intrusive compared to 3 years ago.
Here’s what is most likely going on:
As digital technology evolves and we in the digital marketing world can now deliver ads targeted to the people we want to see those ads, those folks are noticing. The ads were always there but they weren’t as relevant as they are now. Our brains tuned them out. At least that’s one theory of mine.
Besides digital ads stalking us, we also become much more aware of certain things around us when our lives change. Years ago, when I bought a Mercedes, I started noticing other Mercedes on the road. Same thing when I bought my last car from Honda. We become more aware of things that were there all the time, but we didn’t notice.
Two more items about advertising from the survey.
Advertising Now Fits Together Better Across Different Formats and Ads Tell Better Stories Now compared to 3 years ago.
Not everyone agreed with that last one however, because 36% felt that Ads Are Now More Confusing.
The information here is not surprising. It is mostly likely a combination of changes that I mentioned and also our own perceptions. And as we try and remember what advertising was like 3 years ago, our own view and memory is skewed and faulty.
Which brings me full circle back to my other point. Tell The Truth in all your advertising and marketing. That is not a trend, it’s the only way you should be operating.
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 | Nov 21, 2017 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
How to fix your marketing problems, seems like an answer that nearly every business person and entrepreneur would love to have, right? Today I’m going give you the big answer and give you an example.
The big answer to fixing your marketing problems is:
Be Curious.
Seek Answers.
Talk to Real People.
Read more.
In short, A. B. L. which stands for Always Be Learning.
You can apply this formula to anything that you want to do.
You and I are already doing this.
Take for example the last couple of big purchases I made for my wife and I. Phones and Computers.
I did all the above.
I was curious, I sought out answers, talked to real people, read reviews, etc.
It’s the way most humans decide on what to buy.
I apply it to my advertising and marketing expertise too
Just last week my son sent me a link to a podcast about CSA Farm Marketing. I’m actually writing this a few minutes after he sent me the link, but by the time this article gets published and I create the podcast version, I will have listened to the podcast he sent me.
I am not a farmer. I had an Uncle Ed when I was a kid who had a farm that I visited a few times but we never really talked about farming. My son Josh on the other hand runs an organic CSA farm in South Carolina. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture and it’s a way for small farmers to create a sustainable business model by selling shares of the harvest ahead of time. It’s a pretty cool concept that I had not heard of or thought about until my son started working for one in Ohio years ago.
I will share some specifics lessons from the podcast in an upcoming article and podcast, because at first glance there are some golden nuggets of marketing wisdom tucked in that podcast.
This Always Be Learning concept is something I’ve been applying to build my marketing and advertising expertise for over 30 years because I was curious. In 1986 when I moved my family to Detroit and spent 7 years creating successful radio advertising campaigns; it was a huge learning experience for me as I got to interview dozens and dozens of business owners to find out what they did, why they did it, and how it worked. I was driven by curiosity.
I also read, researched and applied the concepts I was discovering into a working laboratory of marketing experiments with my advertising partners in Detroit.
This passion continued when I started doing this in 2003 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. (By the way, in between say, 1993 and 2003, for about 10 years, I got to work outside of the advertising and marketing world for a living and simply experience marketing and advertising from a consumers stand point. This ability to look at both sides of the marketing transaction, I know gives me a unique ability to see both the big picture and little details from both the business side and the customer side.
A friend of mine told me she was going to spend $20 to take a two hour marketing class offered by the small business administration and a local college. Good for her, I thought. But I’m curious as to what she will be told. Hopefully she’ll get some valuable tips. More importantly, she is starting the process that I mentioned at the beginning of this piece:
The big answer to fixing your marketing problems is:
Be Curious.
Seek Answers.
Talk to Real People.
Read more.
In short, A. B. L. which stands for Always Be Learning.
If you are in the Fort Wayne, Indiana area and want to do this, contact me. I work for WOWO Radio and Federated Media and may have some help in marketing your business available thru those resources. But my true passion is to help you on the right path whether you buy something from me or not.
Let’s talk.
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