Local radio advertising....can it work?

[stacks]

Considering committing to running a 30 second commercial on our local radio station. It's got a good coverage and the price is reasonable. Trouble is I'm having difficulty in justifying the spend and how to measure it's success.

I run moseyonline.co.uk an online home interiors/furniture shop and also have a small physical shop selling accessories (lighting, mirrors, soft furnishings..etc.)

The plan is to run a commercial that plugs the website address and as a by product also the shop (but the focus is to drive people to the website).

Has anyone here got any experience in this and can give mes some advice, can it work, do people respond to radio adds, should I see my hits do up straight away or will it take a few months for the message to sink in? Is it worth the money or are there better things to spend it on for a business like mine?

[flower123]

Considering committing to running a 30 second commercial on our local radio station. It's got a good coverage and the price is reasonable. Trouble is I'm having difficulty in justifying the spend and how to measure it's success.

I run moseyonline.co.uk an online home interiors/furniture shop and also have a small physical shop selling accessories (lighting, mirrors, soft furnishings..etc.)

The plan is to run a commercial that plugs the website address and as a by product also the shop (but the focus is to drive people to the website).

Has anyone here got any experience in this and can give mes some advice, can it work, do people respond to radio adds, should I see my hits do up straight away or will it take a few months for the message to sink in? Is it worth the money or are there better things to spend it on for a business like mine?


You need to think long term with radio advertising so it gets in the thought process of listeners. A catchy jingle would also help at the moment I have webuyanycar in my head due to the jingle on absolute radio

[davezzr]

radio advertising is notoriously difficult to get right and can be costly mistake.
a 30 second ad aired 10 times a day for a week for example will cost a few grand.
who are your customers? when do they listen to local radio? would drive time be the better option (rush hour) twice a day
lots of options available im sure but if you do go ahead with radio dont accept an anytime airing contract

[NICHOLASM1987]

i think radio advertising is for companies who can afford to do it all year round, for a small company to do it for a week or a month would be money wasted. I would spend the money on leaflets or something similar.

[stacks]

It would be a commitment for 6-12 months

[Arcadian]

I once sold radio advertising for a few weeks.The whole station had flu and I was dragged from my accounts desk to help out ...

It is a long term commitment, as others have said.You need to make sure you are being looked after properly by the station and not just treated as another ad. In particular make sure the contract does not allow them to run the ad at any old time during the night.It should specify time and frequency.This is referred to as traffic or trafficking in radio parlance just in case you hear that bandied about.

A lot of radio listeners actual listen - as opposed to using it as audio wallpaper - when there are competitions. Maybe you could offer a voucher for your shop as a prize in one of these. Even if they don't use it on air they might run competitions on their website.

A catchy song or a famous voiceover make the ad stick in people's minds but these can be expensive. I'd make sure your budget stretches to getting a good ad made as well as the run time.The radio station will have their own contacts but if you need help please PM me as I have a client who makes ads and might be able to help you.

[Gavin Harris]

Hi,

I've spent 10 years working in commercial radio, and have worked closely with sales, as I've created commercials for numerous companies (from small shops to household names).

Radio advertising can, and does work - as you'll notice listening to any radio station, they are rarely short of advertisers.

A few points:

Radio is rarely "immediate" in its impact. Off the top of my head, I'm pretty certain that someone needs to hear an advert on average 6 times before they act on it. If your business isn't well known in the area, then listeners want to hear your advert on air for a while to ensure you're not a "fly by night" operation. So don't be disheartened if you don't get any enquiries within the first week or two.
Make sure you choose the right station. That might sound obvious, but you have 3 radio stations that cover your area - Splash FM, Juice FM and Heart (formerley Southern FM). Juice I would suggest isn't suitable for your product as it targets a younger audience. Splash would provide you with the lower cost option (as it only covers Worthing and the surrounding area). And Heart would provide you with the bigger coverage area, but is more expensive.
Make sure your advert is right. You sell quality furniture - this isn't Ikea flat pack stuff - this is quality, expensive, furniture. The advert must reflect this - if it doesn't, you'll get leads from people looking for a £20 coffee table and actually miss out on those looking for high quality furniture.
Radio tends to be more suited to "high value" items - hence why you hear a lot of double glazing and car companies advertising on local radio.

So once you've got a price from the radio station for a campaign, work out how many sales you'd need to make per month to cover the cost of the campaign, and see if it is realistic. I personally take the opinion with any form of advertising that as long as it covers what it cost to do, then I don't mind doing it!

Hope that helps - feel free to run anything past me :)

[Alcsl]

radio advertising is about brand building. You shouldn't solely rely on it to bring you custom, but (as other comments here) if you're in it for the long-term then it can work out well. People local to you will start to recognise your name if there's a good jingle to catch their ears, and over time it could be a nice addition to your existing advertising.

What other forms of advertising are you currently running?

Al

[jane p]

we have been on local radio a few times but we didnt have to pay. They approached us and came to the shop to talk to us live on air.

[Ali-v-8]

local radio advertising works for promoting a promotion and is good during they day.
How ever i would not go on for 6 months as it would annoy people more than entice them.

[Be Known PR]

From a business perspective, where do you see you greatest income growth coming from, online or your physical shop?

If the answer is online then I would suggest that you reassess your marketing spend. Why focus on local radio when you could divert the budget to other activity that would give you a national and local reach.

I personally do not think that radio advertising is right for your products as you are up against too much big brand competition. Unfortunately you do not have the brand recognition that will make people remember your name and website - which is needed since the majority of listeners will be in their cars when they hear your adverts.

If I was you I would focus on visual media. If people see your furniture and like the look of it, that is what will drive them to your website or shop.

[D1TPT]

The chances of you getting customers from local radio are very slim.
When i listen to radio i think of it just as an annoyance not a chance to get something i need IE furniture.Personnally i'd go for Printed Ads or Internet Ads

[AngliaSolutions]

We had our local radio station out to us to pitch for a possible advert during the summer months. To be honest, they didn't listen to what we wanted at all and their copy was frankly, complete and utter crap. Furthermore, they wanted to run a 13 week campaign for thousands of pounds and would not guarantee the ad air times so our adverts could have been put out at 2am - totally missing our market.

Consequently, we decided not to go with radio advertising and were rather disappointed by their overall proposals. Hence, we are now spending a fraction of the cost on an Adwords campaign.

Personally, id say think long and hard about radio unless you have lots of money to gamble with.

[TFGtv]

Sadly, radio and local TV advertising are much not-understood mediums and, sadly, the sales departments (driven more by short term targets than long term goals) are prone to leave potential advertisers with the sort of experience described by AngliaSolutions...

As has been previously mentioned a Radio/TV campaign needs time to work at all. Minimally 8 weeks and ideally 13 weeks are needed before you can expect to see any real results... Likewise guraranteed slots are essential...

Unfortunately this isn't going to be cheap! And the Sales departments do have a will to fill those 'dead air' slots at obscure hours as well as impossibly isolated 'campaigns' which feature only a few runs of the advert and are insufficient to establish presence... They'll play to your ego too

A year or two back I watched in bemused horror as the college where I teach part time proudly announced its TV ad campaign. 10x10 second slots in the middle of 'Emmerdale' over the course of a fortnight... COMPLETE waste of time and money! It was a weak ad (graphics only) poor copy and simply not run often enough over a long enough period or in the middle of the right programmes to have any effect...

The only people who saw or paid any attention to that campaign were those who set it up and who's egos got a wee 'boost' by the novelty of seeing 'themselves' on telly... I don't think I've spoken to a single student who was even remotely aware that the campaign had run!

TV and Radio advertising DO work... but they need to be part of a much bigger, multi-pronged marketing plan and sufficiently funded. The stations just want to fill those slots, and I see no evidence that they're particularly bothered about what they fill them with...

[smecouriers]

Hi there just new to the forum i've been offered 65 adds a week to run day and night on a local radio station for 200 quid a week but after reading all these posts and other threads about radio advertising not working etc im not so sure i'll be going going ahead

Its an advert that will be sung with a decent jingle for 30 seconds any help on this will be much appreciated as soon as you can please as ive got to pay up for a month tomoro.

Thanks in advance for your reply's

[david9108]

£200 is really cheap compared to what I was offered by Galaxy FM, what station is that for and how many listeners have they got?

[smecouriers]

i'd rather not say the name of the station on here but i'll send it to your mailbox
its not that i dont trust anyone lol, its just these threads show almost instantly on google searches and i dont want loads of couriers all advertising next to me

but i can tell you its a northern one its got about 47000 a week they sent me rajar havent a clue what it says

[smecouriers]

ive sent you a link. but back to the question do u think it will work at that price can i lose or are you all talking about a much higher spend that members on here have paid

[Citrus_Digital]

What would normally be a typical rate for advertising? I thought is took the form of an auction bidding for slots, or is that TV?

[Gavin Harris]

i'd rather not say the name of the station on here but i'll send it to your mailbox
its not that i dont trust anyone lol, its just these threads show almost instantly on google searches and i dont want loads of couriers all advertising next to me

but i can tell you its a northern one its got about 47000 a week they sent me rajar havent a clue what it says

What does the RAJAR say - what's the weekly reach (both percentage and thousands) and average hours that it shows (and importantly, what RAJAR period is this from).

Feel free to drop me a PM with the station name, I can quickly give you a gut instinct based on my 10 years involvement with the industry.

Cheers

[popunder]

I speak to many local businesses about their advertising, and very few report measurable success from local radio campaigns. I think it can work if you get it right, and commit to a long campaign, but it's an expensive experiment if it doesn't.

I listened to my local station recently and out of 25 ads only 4 were for genuine local businesses, the rest were either for big brands or public information messages. Let's face it, if it worked well each station would be packed with ads as businesses stayed with them for years, in fact they're not because they have to keep replacing advertisers who drop out.

My feeling is for £200 a week you can do a lot of other stuff and reach many different markets, and also spend a bit of that money to track what works and what doesn't, so improving your marketing ROI over time.

[alana.corleone]

I sent you a private message. I can get you connected with the right person that has access to over 8000 radio stations in the world.

--Alana