Home |
Search |
Today's Posts |
|
#1
|
|||
|
|||
As a former radio GM, I am convinced that radio is the best buy for the
advertising dollar. It is very low cost and is very effective and I think 95% of businesses should spend at least part of their advertising budget on local and/or national radio. Many advertisers, though, feel like radio is not as glamorous as television, not as serious as newspaper, and not as timely as outdoor. Of course, I beg to differ on all accounts. And as someone who has dealt extensively with ad agencies, both as a seller and as a buyer, I know that agencies make their money as a percentage of both the media buy and production costs. I suspect, therefore, that most agencies tend to steer their customers toward the more expensive media outlets with the higher production costs. That leaves more inventory available on radio for folks who are savvy enough to take advantage of radio's enormous reach and effectiveness. Those weight-loss and gold-coin promoters are smart enough do so, and the radio owners are smart enough to accept their money. |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
On 29 May 2004 17:04:41 GMT, "lsmyer" wrote:
As a former radio GM, I am convinced that radio is the best buy for the advertising dollar. It is very low cost and is very effective and I think 95% of businesses should spend at least part of their advertising budget on local and/or national radio. Many advertisers, though, feel like radio is not as glamorous as television, not as serious as newspaper, and not as timely as outdoor. Of course, I beg to differ on all accounts. And as someone who has dealt extensively with ad agencies, both as a seller and as a buyer, I know that agencies make their money as a percentage of both the media buy and production costs. I suspect, therefore, that most agencies tend to steer their customers toward the more expensive media outlets with the higher production costs. That leaves more inventory available on radio for folks who are savvy enough to take advantage of radio's enormous reach and effectiveness. Those weight-loss and gold-coin promoters are smart enough do so, and the radio owners are smart enough to accept their money. Hmm, thanks, that does make a lot of sense. |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
As a former radio GM, I am convinced that radio is the best buy for the
advertising dollar. It is very low cost and is very effective and I think 95% of businesses should spend at least part of their advertising budget on local and/or national radio. Many advertisers, though, feel like radio is not as glamorous as television, not as serious as newspaper, and not as timely as outdoor. Of course, I beg to differ on all accounts. I'm guessing that when you were a GM the station(s) was/were owned by a company smaller than one of the mega-groups. Or maybe it was taken over by one of them. I think one of the reasons that so many advertisers are by-passing local radio stations is that there's a good chance they are not being called on by account execs who have any clue as to what they are doing. It seems to be the policy of both Clear Channel and Infinity (and possibly others) to fill their sales staffs with quantity rather than quality. Both chains hire herds of sales people, irrespective of experience or qualification. They field such large sales staffs that account lists get thinned out too much for many of them to earn a decent living. So most stations end up with a few successful sales people who call on their old reliable clients, and a revolving door of beginners and other lesser sales people who have neither the sales skill, understanding of radio, nor the ingenuity to convert the vast numbers of potential advertisers into paying customers. Lee -- To e-mail, replace "bucketofspam" with "dleegordon" |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
Lee, you were right about my radio group not being one of the big ones. It
was owned by a local businessman who had other business interests but no other stations. The owner's philosophy was similar to that of Clear Channel, To him, it was all about the bottom line, no matter what. When I went to work for him, he owned the top station in the area. Then he bought the competitor. And then he started dismantling both. He let all the high-paid jocks go, automated the stations and hired minimum-wage baby sitters to watch the computer and throw in occasional weather and liners. Obviously sales dropped, but since expenses dropped even more, then he remains happy. I got out on the way down, and I'm so thankful to be gone! Oh, the stations are a joke now. There's dead air on any at any given time. His son is the chief engineer, so no one is pressuring anyone for the sorry sound and performance. |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
Lee, you were right about my radio group not being one of the big ones. It
was owned by a local businessman who had other business interests but no other stations. The owner's philosophy was similar to that of Clear Channel, To him, it was all about the bottom line, no matter what. When I went to work for him, he owned the top station in the area. Then he bought the competitor. And then he started dismantling both. He let all the high-paid jocks go, automated the stations and hired minimum-wage baby sitters to watch the computer and throw in occasional weather and liners. Obviously sales dropped, but since expenses dropped even more, then he remains happy. I got out on the way down, and I'm so thankful to be gone! I'm guessing that one of the first things this guy got rid of was the copywriter, if there was one. Why not let the sales people write the copy. Here's why. Even the relatively few competent sales people are not necessarily competent copywriters. And the cluless ones are, well, cluless. One reason that advertising sales evaporate is lack of results. And pointless, boring, clumsy ad copy does not produce results for the adverser. If you are listening to a radio station and you hear "for all your (advertiser's product) needs," "(holiday or event) is upon us," "save, save, save," or just a mindless husband/wife or boss/secretary conversation crammed with stilted (client's business) jargon, you can be pretty sure that the commercial was written by the account exec or, worse, the client. Besides being generally ineffective advertising, the hours a salesperson spends agonizing over crappy copy add up to time not spent doing his/her real job: selling advertising. Lee -- To e-mail, replace "bucketofspam" with "dleegordon" |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
Lee... I am impressed! You are right. The first thing our owner did WAS fire
the copywriter. At that time, the station's commercials were so far ahead of any station within 100 miles. At first, I couldn't put my finger on the reason. Then I got to know our copywriter and found out that all those good ideas were coming out of that one young lady. Give her the facts, and she could whip out a commercial in a couple of minutes. And it worked! Those spots were dynamite! But it appeared to the owner that our copywriter was merely a drain on the bottom line. She didn't sell anything, didn't produce anything (that he could see), and only seemed to look busy maybe an hour or so each day. So he fired her. That's when it became real obvious just how important that copywriter had been to our station. After that, all the spots were at best, mediocre. Our sales people were stuck writing spots when they could be selling. And the ones they wrote were often worse than that of a grade school student. I tried writing spots myself, and I was so slow and terrible at it that I quickly abandoned that idea. Hats off to anyone who can write good radio. |
#7
|
|||
|
|||
Hats off to anyone who can write good radio.
It's easy. Or impossible, depending upon your skill set. g Lee -- To e-mail, replace "bucketofspam" with "dleegordon" |
#8
|
|||
|
|||
Lee, you were right about my radio group not being one of the big ones. It
was owned by a local businessman who had other business interests but no other stations. The owner's philosophy was similar to that of Clear Channel, To him, it was all about the bottom line, no matter what. When I went to work for him, he owned the top station in the area. Then he bought the competitor. And then he started dismantling both. He let all the high-paid jocks go, automated the stations and hired minimum-wage baby sitters to watch the computer and throw in occasional weather and liners. Obviously sales dropped, but since expenses dropped even more, then he remains happy. I got out on the way down, and I'm so thankful to be gone! Oh, the stations are a joke now. There's dead air on any at any given time. His son is the chief engineer, so no one is pressuring anyone for the sorry sound and performance. |
#9
|
|||
|
|||
Back in the late Fifties, when I was the CE for an Arkansas AM kilowatter, the
station had a big book of ad copy. All one had to do was to fill in the blanks. In return for my on call engineering service, I got a stipend and all the free ads for my TV service shop they could fit in. The DJs were students at the adjacent college. My favorite DJ, who had the best voice, loved to cut commercials for me. They were great. And their results were great, too! G In recent years, I heard an ad on a mom and pop station that came out of that book. It begins, "There's Spring in the air." So the book is still around. Bill in SE Texas |
#10
|
|||
|
|||
I wrote: In recent years, I heard an ad on a mom and pop station that came
out of that [ad copy] book. It begins, "There's Spring in the air." Oops! I meant, "There's MUSIC in the air!" I had a special deal to repair a radio with each TV I repaired. Immediately following the above pronouncement, the DJ put in a bar or two of lilting music before continuing speaking out the ad. Bill, K5BY |
Reply |
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
Display Modes | |
|
|