RadioGuruPdx

A True Story: Weston Kia & Radio

THE MOUTH OF GOOGLE SAYS RADIO GETS RESULTS

So what does it take to convince you that Local Radio is big and continues to rock the marketing world. What will it take? I mean, Google the world wide search engine GIANT loves Radio and YOU are still convinced Radio won't work  to increase your bottom-line?  Local Internet and Local Radio are massively complimentary and reach even elusive audiences.

I've come to the conclusion that a strong marketing plan is all about the balance between broadcast and niche lifestyle segments. In other words, you need a FAT CAT (Radio) with a long tail (the Internet) to have a perfect balance. Every medium has a pitch and an opportunity but if you want to invest your money in to the "half of my local marketing works" category then commit to a message that has meaning and a strategic Radio/Internet campaign. Do it right and the rewards will astound you.

Melissa - RadioGurupdx

PS. Below is Google's pitch for Radio. Here is the link if you need to see it for yourself.

What are the benefits of running radio ad campaigns?

Radio advertising can be an important component of a marketing media mix and provide a great complement to Internet campaigns.

1. Radio Reaches Your Customers

Radio reaches 94% of all Americans over the age of twelve every week* -- almost half of the US population (46%) listens to the radio while driving, and over a third of listeners (38.4%) prefer radio to other mediums during the hours of the day.**

2. Radio Promotes Online Conversion

More than half (57%) of users who listen to the radio while browsing the Internet search for items they heard about on the radio. Additionally, nearly a quarter (22%) of online users make purchases after performing a radio driven search.

3. Radio Increases the Impact of Your Online Campaigns

Recall for a mix of one Internet and one radio ad is four and a half times as high as the recall for two Internet ads alone.*** Furthermore, a radio and Internet mix enhances website visitation, emotional connection, and aspirational lift.

4. Consumers Are More Receptive to Radio Advertising

Radio ads are well received by consumers - a significant 63% of listeners feel that radio ads do not get in the way of their radio listening experience.4 In fact, listeners are conditioned to expect ads for products that interest them.****

Enhance your AdWords campaigns with radio advertising

By running radio ad campaigns, you can reach more of your target customers both online and off, and enhance your overall AdWords results. Here's why:

1. Radio advertising is cost-effective.
   Ads are inexpensive to produce, and the cost of air time is relatively low, compared to other media. For example, radio ads created by professionals can be as low as $100-1000 per ad, whereas video or TV ads can cost upwards of $1,000-$5,000 to start. Lower costs allow you to increase the frequency of which your ad is aired, and it also allows you to customize ads for each of your target markets. You can change your ads more frequently to adjust to market conditions or competition.
2. Radio advertising is highly targeted.
   You can target consumers with a specific lifestyle and demographic by selecting the station types, locations, and day parts.
3. Radio advertising is the "everywhere" medium.
   Ads aired on the radio reach consumers where other media can't. The radio is accessible in so many locations -- automobiles, at home, at work -- so you can communicate with customers even when they are "on their way" somewhere.
4. Radio advertising has the ability to influence brand perception and appeal.
   You can audibly appeal to listeners' emotions with radio ads. Use humor to communicate messages, or appeal to other emotions. With radio ads, you can "tell a story" with music, voice, and other sound effects!

* Radio Advertising Bureau "Radio Marketing Guide & Fact Book (2006)
** Arbitron and Edison Media research "The National In-Car Study: Fighting for the Front Seat" (2003) & EMarketer - For 18+ population the year of 2007
*** Radio Ad Effectiveness Lab "Radio and the Internet: Powerful Complements for Advertisers" (2007)
**** Radio Ad Effectiveness Lab "Personal Relevance Two: Radio's Receptive Ad Environment" (2006)

Independent Auto Ad Guru's Endorse Radio

I went looking on the web for a respected agency, in the US, that solely focuses on the Auto Industry. And I didn't have any agenda on their thoughts on Radio. I found these folks.

Melissa, Radioguru - Portland

CASE STUDY

CBC / RP Study: Local Radio Still Packs a Punch for Automotive Advertisers

Faith Logan

...These findings highlight a newly released study by CBC Advertising, one of the nation's leading retail automotive ad agencies. For this study, CBC compiled data from more than 10,000 car buyer surveys collected between January and April of 2006 in its dealer client showrooms around the country.

The radio listening habits of dealer customers have held steady in recent years, but not all media sources have fared as well. CBC found 77% of respondents said they listened to local broadcast radio, while only 30% said they referred to automotive ads in a newspaper prior to shopping for a vehicle.

"In all the years we have worked with America's top dealers, one thing has remained constant: radio advertising delivers a better return on investment than newspaper advertising," says CBC co-owner Frank Drigotas. “The free fall in newspaper readership has dealers everywhere scrambling to reposition advertising dollars,” adds Drigotas. “Newspapers are no longer the dominant ad medium they once were for car dealers, yet local radio remains a powerful force.”

Even despite recent gains by satellite services, CBC has not seen a corresponding drop in traditional radio. “People are listening to both," says Drigotas.

The number of customers visiting dealer web sites is also growing rapidly. According to the CBC research, approximately 45% of respondents visited their dealer's web site prior to purchasing their vehicle.

“In recent years we've watched Internet usage overtake newspaper in almost every market we track,” says CBC Research Director Faith Logan. “Today's consumers lead very busy lives, and the Internet provides fast, easy access to the specific information customers want, exactly when they want it. Newspapers simply can't do that.”

Auto dealers are responding to this surge in Internet usage by making their web sites more useful for customers. "Car dealers have developed a much better understanding of what their customers want from their dealer web sites," according to Logan. "Dealers are building web sites that are more interactive, up-to-date and increasingly efficient for their users."

CBC has clients in over 100 locations across the Continental US, Canada and Alaska. Included in that group are some of the largest dealer groups in the country.

"We conduct intensive customer research in every one of those dealerships," says CBC co-owner Barry Morgan. “For years, car dealers have complained that half their ad dollars are well spent and the other half is wasted...the only problem is they can't tell which half is which!”

By collecting ongoing, in-depth information on the media habits of customers, CBC’s dealers actually eliminate wasted money in their ad budgets and concentrate on the specific media options that are most effective in their marketplace.

Adds Morgan, “Every market is different, but through CBC research, we're able to tailor custom media recommendations for all our clients."

From pod casts to product placements, advertisers today face more choices than ever before. "Deciding which of these options is best can be trickier -- and costlier --than ever," says Morgan. "If you're a dealer in this day and age, and you're not conducting some type of customer research, you might as well use a dartboard to decide where to spend your ad dollars." 

Saatchi and Saatchi Worldwide CEO Speaks

Kevin Roberts Talks About Radio and Love
Saatchi and Saatchi Worldwide CEO Speaks to Us

It could very well change the way that you look at your brand and your client's brand.

Doug Zanger owner of  Radiocreativeland and Xhang Creative speaks with Kevin Roberts, Worldwide CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi and "Lovemarks" author, about radio and, more importantly, love.

Listen to their chat. It's great insight and perspective from one of the true leaders and visionaries of advertising and branding.

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We All Need the Human Touch. Radio is Personal.

We live in the age of individualism. Personal choice is the mantra and customization is king. The technological age challenges the dominance of traditional television and newspaper whose once leading advertising appeal has given way to venues that connect to the individual. The impersonal nature of these media wanes in the minds of the new consumer.

In his book, The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell highlights the changing culture in today's marketplace - "People embrace more primitive social bonds and turn to personal networks run by Mavens and Connectors (or) turn to isolation - the need to limit social connections and media options to the trusted few." In this new era, radio is the only traditional media that flexes its multi-platform power and communicates directly to the intended audience of ‘The One.’

Wirthlin Worldwide’s recent study proves radio connects to consumers on a more personal and emotional level than television or newspapers. People trust radio and appreciate its companion like nature in daily activities.

Seven hundred people were asked about their feelings toward (newspaper, television and radio) advertising and how each medium impacts them. They were given perceptual statements such as, "provides me with last minute information about products/services before I shop," and they were asked to rate their level of agreement. Radio consistently ranked higher than television or newspaper in key categories such as "Trust" and "Honesty." The most significant findings were that listeners strongly supported statements such as, "I feel like the advertisements were directed toward me personally," and "Advertisers who use this medium care more about reaching me personally."

Radio advertising is relevant and accepted by consumers. Arbitron and Edison Media research, in their Spot Load Study 2005, found that, “Americans overwhelmingly felt commercials were a ‘fair price’ to pay for free radio programming.” Clearly, the personal relationship consumers have with their radio stations invite a higher level of advertising recognition.

The power of this unique relationship was superbly leveraged by MediaVest and client Proctor & Gamble when challenged to increase the market share of Gain, their popular laundry detergent, among young African American women in Philadelphia. MediaVest chose a popular hip-hop station that’s known for having a strong connection with this specific and elusive female demographic. The station, knowing these women often met at Laundromats, created a spot and event campaign hosting a series of ten "See Ya at the Laundromat" DJ parties. The hip-hop listeners were invited to bring laundry to local laundromats where they received Gain samples and were able to do their laundry for free. The parties, a huge success, often filled the Laundromats to capacity! Capitalizing on the station–consumer relationship, Proctor and Gamble documented a 14% increase in volume shipments during the ten-week promotion.

Radio is a personal medium. It speaks to the individual and cultivates a very genuine and emotional bond with the listener. The power of this unique connection wields heavy weight in the 21st century; while radio is a mature medium, it is tribal, it is community and it speaks to ‘One’.

That Sounds Good!

I have been dining out my whole life. As soon I as was old enough to sit in a high chair I was out on the town.  I say this because I think it gives me witness and wisdom in what I am about to convey to restaurant marketers. I have 40 years of listening to and being apart of the "What do you feel like eating?" dance.

It goes something like this:

Hungry One: "So what do you feel like eating."

Hungry Too:  "I don't know what do you feel like eating."

Hungry One: "Okay, what kind of food sounds good."

Hungry Too: "Ummm (deep breath) I dunno."

Hungry One: "Hey, does Mexican sound good?"

Hungry Too:  "No."

Hungry One:  "How about a burger?"

Hungry Too: "No, I had a burger for lunch."

Hungry Too: "I feel like something delicious at a place with a good atmosphere."

Hungry One: "Okay, how about the "local tried and true?"

Hungry Too: "No, I ate there yesterday."

Hungry One: "Alright, let's make a decision I'm starving. (mildly impatient) What about Chinese?"

Hungry Too: "No."

Hungry One: "Pizza?"

Hungry Too: "No."

Hungry One: "Italian?

Hungry Too: "No."

Hungry One: "How 'bout that place that serves that amazing chicken and dumplings on the river?"

Hungry Too: "Yeah, that sounds good let's go there."

Hungry One: "Cool, let go there." 

This "What to eat dance", of course, has endless variations and takes places everywhere (at home, at work, etcetera) moreover, the conversation will happen face-to-face as well as via texting, cell phones, home phones and on the computer.  Seldom are people sitting in front of their TV and watching your food ad on the tube and saying "let's go to there." In all my years of picking a place to eat with family, friends and co-workers this has never happened. Now, I'm not saying someone out there hasn't done it. I am just saying that it's NOT at all typical.

If you'll notice in the conversation above, the two repeated  words were "feel" and "sound" seldom do you ever hear people in the process of picking a place to eat use words like "look" and "see" as part of their food deciding vernacular. "Feel" and "sound" are important because they explain peoples proclivity to internalize and link feelings to sounds to the mental images of what they want to eat.

The average person interested in eating doesn't run around looking for pictures of food in order to decide what they want. They tap into their own mental Rolodex and make decisions from their emotional mind's eye.

Which begs the question:  Why do so many insist that your food needs to be seen in order to sell it?

Respectfully, I just don't understand.

Deciding where and what to eat is a process of matching emotion with relevancy, both of which radio has proven itself as a best-in-class medium in reaching these very common human facets. The visual part of food enters only in the delivery of your product to your customer. Your unique food experience is your best opportunity to visually influence your customer so they bank your food in their emotional and mental memory.

Strong advertising is a multi-pronged process of engagement and what better way to engage than to position yourself as the "music solution " part of "the dance"?  Radio's ubiquitous nature and interactive format  does an excellent job influencing listeners. Tapping into the connectivity assets the medium offers, such as it's ability to target specific parts of the day or leverage large audiences through real-time texting technology, can make your restaurant a community icon. What you need to do is be clear about what makes your establishment unique ( ie. the best chicken and dumplings in town) and relentlessly deliver that experience in everything you do.

The golden phrase to your revenue stream is "That sounds good!" and radio is the right medium to deliver your music to the endless "What to eat dance".

Advertising Does Not Grow A Population

What are realistic expectations for amazing advertising results?  Effective Advertising creates awareness and from that awareness comes choice. It entices and speaks to the population that is ready to buy in the moment. It also, primes the consumer who is about to buy and illuminates, for them, ideas of "where to go" and "what's possible" when they are ready.  It is a constant cycle, a merry-go-round whose success is determined by the realistic number of primed consumers captured in the population at any one time. 

When I started my first business I ran the numbers and thought I should get 300 people calling me a day and within a couple of years I'd be on my way to millionaire city. My budget was small but my targeting and messaging were keen so I placed inserts in local newspapers and I advertised on the Radio. When the campaign broke I received about 20 calls the first day. No one had ever seen or experienced my service  and 20 people bit and that continued over the month but I was disappointed. I thought my advertising wasn’t working. I didn't get 300 customers calling on the first day.

I remember that day, that month I was devastated and I was unrealistic. Ten years later with hard wisdom earned, I realize those 20 gained a day was “Phat” and successful.  I pulled the advertising after only a month and my business remained small, steady and never took me to easy street.  But what if I would have kept it going? What if tenacity had overridden my unrealistic expectations? Those first 20 people were invaluable to my slow and steady success, their referrals kept my niche business going. What if I stayed the course and enjoyed just 50 new people calling every week (generated by advertising) multiplied by 52 and then add the exponential word-of-mouth factor (each person has a sphere of influence of up to 250 people)? I will never know the answers, for sure, but I have a strong educated sense that my small business would have grown faster and become far more robust. 

I started with a dream - no brand, no reputation, and no trust in the marketplace but the public responded. What I didn't fully grasp then, was that Portland Metro's population is finite and the population that wanted my service, at any given time, was a fraction percentage of the fixed population and to that rolling fraction I had to remain commited. I needed to be relentlessly consistent with my message and I had to continue earning a first-class reputation, building my uniqueness and gaining trust in the marketplace. I was lucky that those first folks called with so many unknowns.

Advertising on the radio will not increase the local population or make water into wine.  But it will, if you are patient, connect with the right people (it can even persuade those that are not so right) and build your business provided you, are smarter that I was, and you chose tenacity over unrealistic expectations.

"It's what you say multiplied by how many times you say it."

By Phil Bernstein

Roy Williams said it and I tend to agree.

If you’re in charge of marketing your business, here’s something that won’t come as a shock:  it’s harder to reach potential customers than it’s ever been. Attention spans are shorter, the environment is more cluttered, and your prospects have more ways to filter out your message.

• Voice mail and the Do Not Call list have greatly reduced the effectiveness of cold calling by phone.

• The Internet is turning the printed newspaper into a dinosaur.

• Digital devices like TIVO allow viewers to skip your television commercials.

All of this means that when you accomplish the difficult feat of gaining your prospects’ attention, you’d better tell a story that rewards their interest and moves them closer to doing business with you. The quality of your copy is the most important factor in this, and yet it’s often an afterthought once the media buying decision has been made.

Consumers, always a moving target, are now more elusive than ever. Your job is to get them to stop whatever they’re doing long enough for you to make your pitch. The success, or failure, of your efforts will ultimately come down to the two factors Roy Williams cites:

1.The copy – “What You Say”.

2. The strength of your advertising schedule – “How Many Times You Say It”.

While fragmentation has definitely become an issue, the fact remains that a radio commercial on a major station in Portland will still reach thousands of people at once. They will do their best to ignore you, but a compelling message, delivered steadily for a long period of time, will ultimately break through their filters and cause them to act.

You’d better make sure that the story you’re telling is relevant to your prospects’ lives. If it is, they’ll stop and listen. If it isn’t, they’re gone.

Here are some questions you should consider before writing your copy:

1.    What problem is your customer having that you can solve?

2. What product or service do you offer that will solve that problem?

3. Why is your product or service the best choice to solve it? What evidence can you offer to support your claim?

4. How will your customers’ lives be improved when they’ve solved the problem?

5. What do you want your prospects to do after they’ve heard your message? Call your office? Visit your store? Log onto your web site? Define exactly what action you want them to take.

6. Why should they do it now instead of waiting for another time?

All of these questions need to be answered from your customers’ point of view – they will buy for their reasons, not yours.

Once you’ve answered those questions internally, make sure the person who writes your copy has access to them – and has access to you for any follow-up questions.

Fortunes have been lost by business owners who just told an untrained ad rep to “just bang something out.” Your copy  -- what you say – is too important to be left to chance.

If you’d like more on this topic, I’ve written a white paper called The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them. It's a study of some of the most common ways that companies waste their advertising dollars -- along with suggestions to make those dollars work harder and smarter.

First it's on Radio

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