by Scott Howard | Jan 7, 2019 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
To kick off the brand new year, I am going to share with you stories of success that business owners from around the country shared last year. These are their stories of how they grew their profits using radio advertising to invite customers to their retail stores.
These stories can be applied to your business this year and if you want my help, we can tell your success story in about a dozen months too. These are radio advertising success stories that I found on a website for jewelry stores and the words are those of the owners.
Let’s start with London Smith. He’s one of the owners of a couple of stores in Oklahoma. Here’s what he says about advertising on the radio:
Radio is alive and well. About 20 to 25 percent of our advertising budget is dedicated to radio. We have our commercials on a variety of stations – 10 total. All the formats are covered, from pop-hits and classic rock to sports and talk. I’m 26 and I listen to the radio.
Jeffery Hess, owns stores in Florida and here’s his advice:
I’m a student of advertising and spend about $1 million on advertising each year. I strongly believe that radio is a very viable medium. Simply invest in airtime with the most dominant radio station in town and it will be very effective. And, be sure to hire the radio station’s strongest on-air personality to do your commercials.
Tammy is the V-P of Sales at Peter & Company Jewelers in Ohio. She says:
About 13 percent of our total advertising budget is dedicated to radio. If you’re going to do radio, you have to do it all the time. Own it. Use it frequently. Use the same station(s). And, saturate your market with your message. If you don’t, radio won’t work for you. For 15 years, we’ve advertised with a local station. It’s mainly talk radio with some sports coverage mixed in. People come in mentioning the station’s call letters. We feel it has been a good return-on-investment. Plus, the station has some very good voice talents to draw on. It costs a little more money, but it’s worth it. It’s been very good for us.
Tammy’s experience is similar to what WOWO radio advertisers experience when we have Pat Miller or Kayla Blakeslee do live endorsement ads. We have several advertising partners who use personality endorsement ads on WOWO year after year after year.
I’ve got one more to share with you from Connie who runs a jewelry store in Texas. Here is what she said when asked about advertising on the radio:
Radio certainly works for us. About six to seven years ago, we were invested in advertising on cable television. With people using DVR technology, they’d fast-forward through all of the commercials. Radio was our first choice when leaving cable. With radio, you have to really get your message out there a lot in terms of frequency and be consistent with your radio message. For us, seeing that we’re a suburb of Houston, we want a wide listening audience to know that we do custom work and sell quality diamonds. This helps us reach a broad age demographic of 30 to 60 with middle to upper middle class incomes. Radio makes up 30 percent of our advertising budget. With radio, you need to find out what message works and the demographic you want to reach.
Those are the words of Connie, Jeffery, London and Tammy. I figured you’d want to hear from your peers in the business world about the power of radio advertising when it’s done properly. Pretty sound ADvice.
And now I want to also invite you to check out a new newsletter that I am offering starting this year.
It’s also called Sound ADvice. Once a week, it will arrive in your email and be filled with Sound ADvice on how to make this year your best yet. The link is right below.
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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 19, 2018 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
There’s an old saying that the reason bank robbers rob banks is because that’s where the money is. While that may have been true in the last century, it’s not true anymore.
What is still true and a more honest way to make money is to invite people who have money to spend, to spend it with you and your business.
Generally speaking, my generation has both the money and the need to spend money. I’m talking about the grownups that are age 50 plus.
I was reading another article about this, I see them on a regular basis. Here’s a quote from Jacobs Media on the subject:
Logic suggest that advertisers and marketers are smart enough to connect the dots, and realize that today’s 50+ consumers are the most reliable – and have the most money. And every year, prognosticators (I was once one of them) maintain that as Baby Boomers age, their marketing strengths will become in vogue once again.
My wife and I have 5 adult kids from previous marriages, and that has led to a crop of 9 grandkids.
Right now, I have more disposable income than most of our kids. While they are saddled with college debt, the expenses of a growing family and all the stuff my wife and I went through when we were their age, we are on the other side of those financial burdens.
We are also making home improvement upgrades to the house we bought a few years ago. We continue to purchase cars and you know what else? We are planning on a few trips in the years ahead.
We are also helping out our kids financially on occasion and that includes the grandkids too. Recently one of my kids asked for a help to cover some expenses and I was able to ask how much and with the convenience of PayPal take care of it right away.
That’s part of my story as a Baby Boomer. Baby Boomers for a long time were the sought after generation for marketers because of the size of our generation, the biggest in human history. We were the original Pepsi Generation among other things.
Baby Boomers with money to spend are also the primary audience of WOWO radio. WOWO is a news talk radio station that is over 90 years old and as I continue to look at the research and hear the success stories from our advertising partners, I see that my wife and I are not alone in our spending habits.
I was talking with the marketing person at a dentist’s office the other day and discussed what forms of advertising and marketing they had done in the past and what worked best and heard the same thing that I hear over and over again.
Two of the highlights are:
- When we run specials on Groupon, we get new patients but they don’t stick around. In other words, they are getting people who are price shoppers and they are very fickle.
- We really would like to do full mouth restorations. We get a lot of satisfaction from changing a persons life and giving both a healthier life physically and emotionally.
So, apparently they have been inviting people to become one-visit patients based solely on price which is the opposite of their ideal patient in terms of the satisfaction they get as a dentist office.
Wouldn’t it make more sense to invite the people you really want to help and that will establish a long term relationship with you and even tell others about you and refer their friends and family to you?
The answer is yes. Invite People with Money to Spend with You.
Seems pretty basic, right?
Sometimes marketing and advertising is not as complicated as it might seem.
I blame the advertising sales people who either have been taught all wrong or just don’t care to keep it simple.
My job is to really dig in and help your business grow with the right kinds of customers, the customers that you want more of, the customers that appreciate you and value you.
Like I said at the beginning of this, I can help you invite WOWO radio listeners who have money to spend to spend it with you. Want to know more? Let’s meet.
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 | Dec 12, 2018 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Fort Wayne, ScLoHo's Media, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, Uncategorized, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
Not all advertising venues are created equal. The idea of an ad is an ad is an ad is like saying a cow is a cheeseburger is a filet. Yes they are all forms of beef, but with big differences.
In Fort Wayne, I’ve worked in the radio advertising world since 2003.
I have created successful advertising campaigns for hundreds of companies using all formats of radio stations including both music and talk formats. But this story is not about me. It’s about what I have observed over the past 5 years that I’ve been on the WOWO Radio advertising sales team.
Quite simply, WOWO listeners pay attention to the ads on WOWO and respond to them like no other form of advertising I have ever seen in Fort Wayne.
This is a conversation I have several times each month. It is about the mental state of people who are exposed to your advertising messages.
We are going to look at the big picture and include many of the places you can spend money to advertise.
Start with television. When you and I sit down to watch a show, we are paying attention to the show. When commercials come on, most of us stop paying attention, at least not the same level of attentiveness that we have during the show.
Newspapers and magazines. Unless it’s a fashion magazine that is chocked full of 50+ pages of ads before the articles start, we are not really interested in the ads. We bought the paper to read the stories, get the scores, or see if someone died.
Social Media. Facebook for example is a place to go to find out what’s happening with friends and family. They have managed to work ads and sponsored posts into out timelines so we can’t help but seem them but we are not on Facebook to check out the ads.
Radio. Not all radio stations are created equal. For this discussion, let’s look at the difference between music based stations and talk based stations. The reason we tune in to a station that plays music, any music for that matter, is to hear music that we like. In Fort Wayne we have country music stations, rock music stations, pop music stations and plenty of variations.
Every listener to a music radio station selects that particular station because they want to hear that particular style of music. Anytime the music stops for any length of time, say 2 minutes, we pay less attention. If the station plays 5 or 7 minutes of commercials in a row, we really tune out and pay less attention. Some may even change stations. The reason we listen to music radio stations is to hear music. It’s to escape. Anything other than music on a music station is an irritant.
Talk based radio stations are a different animal. Stations like WOWO which are a combination of News and Talk have listeners who tune in for information. The programming on talk radio stations is brain food, not escapism like the music on a music radio station. When the newscaster or program host is talking, listeners are paying attention to the words. It’s the information that people want to hear.
So what happens when your commercial airs on a talk radio station like WOWO? 1st off, it’s not interrupting music, taking the place of your favorite song, so it is less of an irritant. Next, if your ad is a live endorsement from the radio personality, that is the very best kind of commercial because you have the credibility of the radio personality combined with the credibility of WOWO and a receptive audience that is listening to hear the talk, whether it is about politics or your business, it doesn’t matter.
If you air regular recorded commercials on a talk radio station like WOWO, you still get a receptive audience that is not turned off by talking on the radio and you are on WOWO which adds credibility to your business.
I discovered another way to use WOWO’s talk radio format to help your business and that is with our live 10 second sponsorship messages of news, weather, traffic and sports. These are done live by the newscasters and program hosts and are embedded in the program and carry almost as much weight as a full endorsement.
This relationship between the WOWO listeners and the WOWO air staff with our news and talk radio format is one of trust.
For many it’s as strong a bond of trust as a trusted friend.
You don’t get that with a newspaper ad. You don’t get that with a TV commercial, You don’t get that with nearly any other form of advertising you can spend your money on.
This is the Talk Radio Advantage WOWO advertisers receive. Want more info? Let’s talk.
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