Did The Advertising Work?

Did The Advertising Work?

by | Apr 11, 2018 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, Uncategorized, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

A recent conversation I had with a new advertising partner included a variation on the question, Did The Advertising Work?

It’s not an easy question to answer if you don’t know how to measure and that’s why I ask questions that pertain to expectations and responsibilities.

Let’s take a moment and talk about this in more depth.

Advertising is limited in what it can actually do.

Advertising is about the invitation.

Any advertisement, I don’t care if it’s online, on the radio, TV, a poster in the coffee shop, a billboard, a magazine ad, they don’t sell stuff.  They are only invitations.

And everything I just mentioned, those advertising mediums, radio, TV, online, a poster, a billboard, and magazine ads are simply delivery vehicles of your ads.  Each has a different audience that they can connect your business with.

So what is it about advertising that makes money?

Advertising is not really a money machine, it’s simply the beginning stages of your money machine.

And what is this money machine I’m talking about?  It’s you and your business.

I’m going to a real life example.  A few years ago, on WOWO radio, I started a campaign for a coin and jewelry retail store.  Over the years we expanded and grew their advertising and these days their name is on WOWO every hour in the morning and every hour in the afternoon during our live shows.  That’s 7 times per day, 5 days a week.  35 times per week.  When we began, we were only doing about 10 or 15 times per week, but because they believed the advertising was working, we grew to the level that we are at now.

But as I mentioned, the advertising is just the invitation, WOWO is the connector between our listeners and the business, the real selling occurs when people come to the store and talk to the staff.  This is true with nearly all of my advertising partners.  Most of them cannot measure exactly their return on investment for the dollars they spend on advertising, but when we look at the big picture and anecdotal information, they know the advertising campaigns are bringing people to them.

The real answer to the question, Did The Advertising Work? is did the invitations to your business go out properly?

However, I personally go a step further then just making sure your ads ran… I also function as a marketing coach and consultant.  Marketing includes the advertising, but it can also include everything else that involves connecting with potential customers and converting them into happy buyers of the stuff your company sells.

The new advertising partner I mentioned at the beginning of this piece is going to get my help in converting potential customers.  I will be meeting with them to find out exactly how they interacted with the leads we sent them and give them some tips and tweaks for how to convert more of these leads into happy buyers.  I actually already did this last week when we were discussing pricing and profit margins.

What are the right questions you need to ask about your advertising?  Perhaps this piece has given you some insight on the subject.  Contact me directly if you would like my help with a personalized consultation.

 

You Are Throwing Away Money

You Are Throwing Away Money

by | Apr 4, 2018 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

If I asked you for $100 in cash and you gave it to me, and then I proceeded to tear that Bennie into about 15 little pieces like confetti, you’d think I was crazy, right?

Well, You Are Throwing Away Money every year.  Maybe not as obvious as what I just described but the dollar amounts could be much, much more!

What is this incredible pile of cash and how do you stop throwing it away?

It’s something called Advertising Co-op Funds.

According to information I was reading last month, there’s more than $50 Billion Dollars available in advertising funds every year in the United States, and at least 1/3 goes unused. Do the math and that’s over 16 Billion Dollars that is being thrown away because businesses are not using these funds.

Advertising Co-op funds are dollars that local retailers can use to help pay for their advertising.  Where does this money come from?  The manufacturers and distributors of the stuff they sell. For example, Kubota which makes farm equipment, construction equipment, mowers and related stuff has a Spring Sale they want to push and they are offering a minimum of $2600 to dealers who advertise this sale and fullfill certain guidelines. This particular program offers a 50% reimbursement, meaning that the dealer will need to also contribute a dollar for every dollar that Kubota pays.  And since it is reimbursement, the dealer will be getting the 50% co-op funds in a rebate or perhaps credit.

This is just one example I pulled from my resources that I have access to, as I mentioned there are billions of co-op funds not being used.  It’s estimated that in Fort Wayne, Indiana there is over 2 million dollars in co-op funds that are not being used each year!

Why not?  It’s something that many business owners and marketers don’t know how to use.  It’s one aspects of advertising that requires some extra work and frankly, you need someone who knows what they are doing to properly execute it.

You can’t see me right now, but I’m raising my hand and waving to you.

In 2017, I helped a couple of companies spend nearly $200,000 in advertising with WOWO radio and our digital marketing solutions that grew their businesses and a good chunk of that, half of what they spent, was rebated back to them.  They are doing more this year. Some plans offer 75% or even 100% reimbursement and if you want my help in uncovering advertising funds for your business, let’s talk.

The WOWO Radio Advertising Advantage

The WOWO Radio Advertising Advantage

by | Mar 21, 2018 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

Today, I’m going to share with you something that is unique in Fort Wayne, Indiana and that is The WOWO Radio Advertising Advantage.

There is a uniqueness that is rare in the advertising world that WOWO has and one other station in Detroit had it when I worked there a long time ago.

The WOWO Radio Advertising Advantage is about Trust and Credibility.

First off, WOWO radio is over 90 years old and while it has gone thru numerous format changes that you can read about or reminisce with at the History of WOWO.com website, WOWO is still one of the most listened to radio stations.

As a kid, I listened to folks like Bob Sievers, Chris Roberts, Ron Gregory, and Art Saltsberg. WOWO was a personality based radio station playing music in the 70’s and ironically, I had lunch with Bob a few years before he passed away, have talked to Chris a few times and am friends with Ron and Art.  Art recently went into semi-retirement, but still works nearly every week at WOWO.

In 1996, WOWO became a full time news/talk radio station and while there have been some changes in the line-up, we have a very stable crew.  Fort Wayne’s Morning News with Charly Butcher has more than a decade of being our news-jockey after spending a considerable amount of time waking people up as a disc-jockey personality on our sister station WMEE.  Pat Miller has been hosting afternoons on WOWO for several years and also has built quite a following.

Here are the three “layers of The WOWO Radio Advertising Advantage:

  1. WOWO radio itself has a trust reputation and respect in the community. With around 100,000 weekly listeners, it is one of the most listened to radio stations.
  2. WOWO’s news-talk format naturally lends to listeners paying attention to the words that are being said by the program hosts, the newscasters, the talk show guests and the callers.  Listeners develop a unique bond with the regular news and talk personalities that does not usually occur in any other media format including music radio stations, television, print publications, and certainly not non-media advertising.
  3. Pat Miller, host of the Pat Miller Program and Charly Butcher, host of Fort Wayne’s Morning News, will do a limited number of live, testimonial and endorsement ads for a select number of advertising partners that qualify. These ads are the equivalent of your best friend telling you which dentist, which mortgage company, which carpet cleaner they recommend and for these select, small group of advertisers, they have a real local, believable celebrity who is a friend (that has rock-star appeal), spreading the word about them and their business.  This is the highest and most powerful marketing message available in Fort Wayne.

More about those live, testimonial and endorsement ads.  We have some rules and limitations.  Pat and Charly will only be the exclusive spokesperson for one business in each business category.  As long as Pat Miller continues to endorse SteamTeam, he will not do live 60 second ads for any other carpet cleaner.  As long as Auto Collision Service continues their relationship with Charly Butcher as their spokesperson, Charly will not endorse any other auto body shop.

By the way, Charly and Pat have veto power when it comes to who to endorse.  We are protective of their reputation and the reputation of WOWO and only want to endorse companies that are trustworthy.

I call this Word Of Mouth With A Bigger Mouth.  Word of Mouth is the best form of marketing that your business can have because it is natural, it is honest, it is based on positive customer experiences and it is built on Trust.

This is The WOWO Radio Advertising Advantage and if you want to know if you and your business might qualify, let’s talk.

WOWO & The Boomer Women

WOWO & The Boomer Women

by | Feb 15, 2018 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

I came across some research that backs up something I tell people in person about WOWO radio and Baby Boomer women that I need to share with you.

First off, a couple of quotes from Mediapost:

Today, every fifth adult in the United States is a female over 50. They are the healthiest, wealthiest and most active generation of women in history who control half of the country’s discretionary income and 75% of the country’s wealth. That’s a lot of spending power for one generation of women.

and:

 Boomers are much more tech savvy than given credit for, actually spending more online than millennials—up to $7 billion annually.

one more:

In today’s world, our economy is heavily influenced by Boomer women. Marketers need to recognize that these consumers are not stuck in the “good old days” and that they don’t prioritize buying the brands with which they grew up. Take the time to build a relationship with these consumers. Make it clear that they’re important to you, and they’ll reward you with the $3.2 trillion they spend each year.

I’m a Baby Boomer who is married to one of these Boomer women, and yes, she doesn’t fit the old person stereotype that we used to give to previous generations that reached this age in life.

Now the WOWO Radio connection.

For years I have run into scores of women who tell me they listen to my radio station, WOWO in Fort Wayne.  One of the ways you should use radio to target your ads is to pick a radio station that has listeners that are your target demographic. 

I looked up the latest data to determine which radio stations had the most Baby Boomer women listening and used the demographic females age 50+ and included all the commercial radio stations.

At any given time of the day or night, 24/7, WOWO has more than double the number of Baby Boomer women compared to any other Fort Wayne radio station.  More than the music stations that are programmed to get Boomer women to listen.

So to tie this all together for your company this year,  Baby Boomer Women control 75% of the household spending and in Fort Wayne, WOWO radio is your best option to connect with them and invite them to spend those dollars with you.

Connect with me and I’ll help.

Name Your Favorites

Name Your Favorites

by | 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:

  1. Seafood (including shrimp, crab and scallops)
  2. Chicken
  3. 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:

  1. Everyone can name their favorites in many life categories
  2. 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.