Getting the most out of your radio advertising executive

Though it may not seem like it sometimes, advertising executives actually do care about the success of their clients (wipe that shocked look off your face).

Every dance has two pairs of feet and part of the reason executives come across pushy is because they are often treated like dirt from the other side.  More than once, most reps have heard the line, "If you can't get me what I need, then I won't be able to buy your station."  In essence, "I don't care about the merits of your station unless you do exactly as I say."  You can see where this might jade a person.  Threats won't get you the creative talent of the person you're working with.

Here's what WILL get that radio advertising dude or dudette to work for you and provide you with good ideas on a consistent basis:

• Ask them for Market information and general tips on your business - A radio rep that feels needed is a radio rep that will respond positively when asked for good ideas or referrals.
• Ask them for their best ideas - This sounds so simple, but you would be surprised how few clients actually use their reps for new ideas.  Most stations sit around a table and brainstorm with 5-15 people at a time.  Think about that - Your business could have 15 professionals schooled specifically on their medium all feeding off each other to come up with a new creative promotion unique to you...That's powerful.
• Respect them - This should be a basic human standard.  Unfortunately, it isn't, so I am including it.
• If you disagree, tell them you disagree and tell them why - Just like anything else, collaboration is better than cooperation which is better than competition when it comes to teamwork.  Feedback isn't just a made-up word for "tell me yes or no."  Feedback means feedback.  What do you like, what don't you like?  Why exactly do you disagree with a promotion or idea not being a good fit?  Don't ignore your rep if you decide to say, "No, thanks."  Trust me, the extra time you put into feedback will save you time down the road.
• Ask for integration - Though "integration" is a buzz word, it is an important buzz word.  Integration means including the same message in radio as in TV as in print as in your social media, but it also means using a radio station's website with their on-air options with their on-site options.  Try to get it all.
• Give them 30 minutes - When they ask for a little of your time, don't play "High and Mighty."  Give them some time.  And don't be answering e-mails while you're on the phone with them or start taking calls when they come to see you in their office.  Give them your full attention.  This goes back to respect.  If you truly see them as a possible future partner (or have partnered with them in the past), treat them like a partner.  They will reward you with more attention to programs they build for you.

Monday Marketing Musing

"Next to doing the right thing, the most important thing is to let people know you are doing the right thing."

 - John D. Rockefeller

Banner ads and E-blasts are so 2005

I recently met with a prospective client who's budget wasn't huge, so most of our meeting was spent talking about utilizing a station's website to stretch the dollars more effectively.

So where did I point this person?  Banner ads?  Skyscrapers?  E-mail blasts?  A Poll Sponsorship?

No.  None of the above.

As the title of this post suggests, those elements are so 2005.  Banner ads and E-blasts are elements radio stations throw at companies for added-value which are now mostly ineffective (when's the last time YOU clicked on a banner ad on a website?).  What really makes these elements dangerous is that they are also the parts of the Internet that most people are familiar with (now that they've been around for a long enough time).

No, what we talked about was the very-popular (and often times overlooked) Listener Loyalty Programs that most stations are now using. Rewarding listeners for interacting with your brand and then allowing listeners to "buy" your stuff with their points is the new "rage."  And it works.  It's what marketers call "Participatory Marketing" and it is the absolute best way to capture targeted individuals for very little money.

E-mail blasts are better than banner ads, but there again, it is a spaghetti approach HOPING that people are in the market for what you are offering. Say a station's loyal listener database has 5,000 people - 3,000 may have opted-in to receive e-mail blasts and probably 1,000 at any given time actually open the blast. The numbers aren't as big as account executives make them sound (shocker...). In the Phoenix Market, listener loyalty programs could have anywhere from 10,000 to 100,000 people in their database, so e-mail blasts can be fairly successful in reaching a lot of people, but it is still not what low budget clients should be using to drive traffic.

The other downfall of E-blasts and banner ads (and poll sponsorships and the like) are their distorted measureability.  I use the word distorted because many times, these elements are sold based on impressions, not actual click-throughs.  If they were actually sold on click-throughs and held accountable, many fewer companies would be paying money for these elements.  Instead, they are sold as website traffic-drivers when in fact they are mostly branding methods.  If you are McDonald's and in the "branding" phase of marketing, that's all well and good, but most local business owners aren't spending money this way (especially nowadays).

Local radio station websites are still one of the most efficient and effective ways to target a specific audience in any Market, so make sure to keep them in mind in lower-budget situations.

I'll have more blog posts on Loyalty Programs down the road, but for now, just know that there are better ways to use radio station web properties than those "old" 2005 throwbacks.

Choosing your radio stations - looking past the rankers

Ok, so you've got your Rankers in hand and have a pretty good idea which stations fit your demographic profile.  So how do you choose those stations that you think deserve an initial meeting?

This is not so easy and is a little time consuming, but I will do my best to make it as simple as possible since it is such an important step.  Screw this up and you could be wasting a lot of time in meetings with account executives who will show you how their station fits your demographic when they don't.

A lot of the next steps relate to the nature of YOUR business and the two exercises you did before calling the radio station for the Rankers.  However, this exercise is easier if I use an example, so I will make up a scenario to help us along.

Let's say you are representing a client that owns multiple hair salon and nail spas throughout the city you are in.  In this case, I would infer the following using the exercises I suggested in the post about deciding on your target market.

1. The perfect customer is a 32 year-old woman.  This woman works in a white-collar professional industry, possibly in high-end marketing.  She has money to spend, she has little time for herself, and may or may not be married.  Either way, she is juggling a million things a day.  She is highly educated, most likely a Bachelor's degree or Master's.  She is smart, knows what she likes, and wants to look professional, be treated like a real person with unique qualities (as opposed to just another customer), and have her services not take too long.  She probably works out and eats right in order to look her best and may invest in beauty products more often than the average consumer.  She may eat out a lot due to client meetings and/or time constraints, but probably owns a better-than-average home for her age.

2. The perfect target profile in this case is a woman 28-38.  Radio Rankers of women 25-34, adults 25-34, women 35-44, adults 35-44, women 25-44, and adults 25-44 should be perfect for these purposes.

At this point, with Rankers in hand, the next few steps are critical:

1. Take the top 20 stations from every Ranker and look for patterns.  Which stations show up in every ranker?  Which stations show up in the Rankers that are most closely associated with your target demographic but not in the outlying Rankers (and vice-versa)?

Stations that are in the top 10 in your core demographics (in this case, women 25-44), but not in the outlying demographics (let's say, women 35-44 or adults 25-44) may actually be the best stations, depending on what shakes out in the next exercises.

Eliminate stations that don't fall in your core demographics.  Keep note of those stations that fall into all the Rankers that sit in front of you (but know, these might not be your final stations).

2. Take a look at the formats of all the stations in your city.  Wikipedia is actually a great place to get this info, since the radio landscape can change rapidly and it is updated constantly, but you can use any site you deem reliable.

The key here is format.  In Arizona, one of the easiest ways to eliminate stations is to decide whether or not you want ot advertise on Spanish radio or not.  There may be some high-ranking Spanish stations on your Rankers, but if you are only advertising to English-Speaking audiences, you can eliminate those stations right out (and of couse, the reverse is true).

3. Look for patterns in the formats that are highly-ranked in your core demographic.  In this case, you will see a lot of Hot and Rhythmic Adult Comtemporary stations.  You also might see some Country or Modern Rock.  Simply take note of these different formats.

Now, make some reasonable, common sensical assumptions.  Does rock-based music make you think of affluent proffestionals?  No.  Please know that I am not saying that affluent professionals don't ever listen to rock, but you are looking for the perfect fit for your money and stereotypical assumptions is the best form of process of elimination you have.  Use it.  Are people who listen to news talk radio usually well-educated?  Yes.  Are moms with kids constantly listening to rap and hip-hop?  No.  Use these assumptions to start eliminating stations psychographically.

4. Lastly, Listen to the top 20 or so stations for 10-15 minutes each.  Yes, I realize this is time consuming (if you haven't already done the math, 20 times 10 is 200 minutes of listening, which is over 3 hours).  Don't do this in one sitting.  But do it.  I assure you that your comfortability with this entire process will increase by taking the time to get this done.

Anymore, it's fairly simple to do over a few days, especially if you are at a computer for an hour every day (which most of us are).  Almost every station around the country streams live online, so just go to the website of the station you want to listen to and listen while you're answering those 235 e-mails.

Once you've finished this last step, you should have a pretty good idea which stations your target customer is tuning into on a regular basis.

Deciding on your target market and choosing the radio stations that fit

I am currently based in the 15th largest Market in the country: Phoenix, AZ.  In a Market of this size, there can be close to 100 stations battling for your advertising dollars, which can be daunting if you are trying to figure out which five or six best fit your target demographic.

Before you start the research into which stations you should be talking to, Marketing 101 tells you to first make sure you know your main demographic target intimately.  I just want to make a few suggestions here that might help in this:

• First, create your perfect customer.  How old is he/she?  Is it a he or a she?  What does he/she do for a job?  Where does he/she shop?  Does he/she have kids?  Does he/she workout/play guitar/read a lot?  Be VERY specific.  You can't spend all of your advertising dollars going after this one person, but it gives you a great place to start.
• Second, create an age and sex demographic range.  Make this a 10 year age range, NOT the usual 30 year age range I see every day.  If anyone tells me that their target demographic is adults 25-54, I know for a fact that they don't really know who their customers are (or they are just being lazy).  Women 35-44.  Men 20-30.  These are realistic and specific.

The above two exercises will help tremendously when looking at which stations to bring into a first meeting.

Once you know who you are trying to target, it is actually fairly easy to pick the stations you'd like to talk to.  You don't even have to do the research.  Hey, your time is valuable.  Find a station that you think is at least close to your target demographic (this should be easy...men=sports, women=adult comtemporary, news talk=older, etc.) and give them a call.

Ask for an account executive and tell them you are interested in getting some information about the Radio Market in your city.  The receptionist who is taking your call may not know exactly who to send you to, but eventually, you'll get someone on the phone with access to Arbitron ratings (this is like Nielson for TV).  Most likely, it will be a rookie radio representative since the Senior executives don't usually handle new inbound phone calls, but that's okay.  You're basically looking for a monkey at a keyboard.

Kindly introduce yourself, tell him/her you are beginning your research into radio, and that you would like to see some research.  Then, give this person a few specific demographics.  What you are initially looking for are Rankers, a basic media tool used to rank stations in certain demographics based on Arbitron surveying.

Here's my general outline for doing this:

Let's say your specific target demographic is women between the age of 25 and 34.  In this case, you want a separate Ranker for Women 25-34, Adults 25-34, Women 25-44, Adults 25-44, Women 18-34, and Adults 18-34.  Basically, you are taking the 10 year section you are sure is your customer and then widening it 10 years on either side (inlcuding full adult Rankers in ever demo).  This should give you a pretty good idea which stations are best at serving your specific demographic.

Okay, so once you have these basic Rankers, then what?  I am going to say this twice, because it is very important: do NOT just take the top 5 stations on the Ranker sheets.

Do NOT just take the top 5 stations on the Ranker sheets.

There is more to a radio station than a few numbers on a surveying Ranker.  However, at this point, you are in a pretty good starting place with those Rankers in hand, so we'll go over some of the specific ways to choose (and omit) stations in a later blog.

On a separate note: if the account representative is a good one, he or she will try to get a sit-down meeting with you to go over your goals, obejectives, etc.  That's exactly what you want, but you are not yet prepared for such a meeting.  Just tell the rep that exact thing.  Be polite and professional, but let them know that you are not yet ready to meet and that you will contact them in a week or two when you do decide to sit down with stations (and don't be afraid to let them know that you are meeting with multiple stations).  Finish by asking them to e-mail you the Rankers and to be sure to include all of their contact info so you can get ahold of them later.

Radio is more than "spots and dots"

If you've bought radio in the past, you've probably heard the term, "spots and dots."  This overused term is thrown around to describe the on-air commercials that are part of a radio schedule.  Many agencies, large and small, will routinely place orders for their business clients that are made up of "spots and dots" and little more.

You might be wondering, "So what?  Isn't that what radio is all about - the on-air commercials?"

The answer is a resounding and deafening, "NO!"  Any agency, business, or marketer who buys radio and receives an on-air schedule ONLY is doing themselves and their clients a huge disservice.

Here are just some of the other ways to use radio beyond "spots and dots:"
 - DJ endorsements
 - On-site station/DJ appearances
 - Station websites
 - Station media collateral
 - Station programming (inside programming, not inside commercial break clutter)
 - Live broadcast from a location
 - Third-party tie-ins with other station partners

And there are many more...

So what is the best way to utilize these services?  Do you have to come up with a promotion and pitch it to the station?  Do you have to know exactly what you want and ask the station for the specific services you are looking for?

Well, you CAN...but you don't have to.  In reality, the easiest way to find out what options are available to you is to meet with individual advertising executives from the different stations that you believe fit your target demographic (more on your target demographic and choosing your stations).  Just as you would interview someone for a position within your company, use these meetings to get to know who you're working with...and then give each representative an assignment.

In the first meeting with each rep, tell them your objectives, your goals, and your expectations and ask them to bring you promotions that fit those metrics.  Tell them you will look at anything.  Tell them that you are talking to multiple stations.  Tell them you want as much promotional help as is possible.

And then when they come back, be open minded.  Listen to what they have to say.  Use them as you would any of your other employees when looking for new ideas.

By the time you have this second meeting with each of the reps, you will know who truly understands your objectives, who is working in your best interests, and who is working hard to earn your business.

A few tips on these meetings:

• Try not to schedule more than two per day.  These meetings should have your full attention and will require at least an hour of your time.  You don't want to burn out by the third or fourth meeting of the day - that's not fair to you or the advertising representative. 
• Have a budget range in mind.  If your budget is $3,000 per month, you don't want a rep to bring you a proposal for $10,000 per month.  Be up front right from the beginning.
• Everything is negotiable.  Once you find an executive (or two) and some programs you like, know that most promotions are customizable to a certain extent and that price can be negotiated.  Most likely, a marketing rep will bring you something priced a bit higher than your budget anyway and you can kindly remind them what you were looking to spend - the price may come down without the program changing much.
• Be realistic.  If your budget is $3,000 per month, you are not going to "own" a station that serves hundreds of thousands of listeners.  And if your budget is $500 per month, you shouldn't be using mass media.