Radio Advertising

[Chris-TT]

What are people’s opinions of radio adverting? I’ve already had a meeting with the local radio stations marketing team and have been offered quite an attractive package for 1 years adverting, with a set number of adverts every day and to sponsor there birthday requests (birthdays are our target market). Has anyone had experience with radio advertising and if so how successful did you find it? The good thing about this is if it doesn’t work out we can cancel at any time with 24 hours notice.

[ebonybailey]

Not personally, but I have not met anyone who has said that their radio ads were successful.

[Scott-CopyandDesign]

When I ran an Internet radio station our usual competitive rate was about £600 per month for medium scale website and broadcast advertisement distribution (providing the demographics were good of course).

It can be successful but it also can't be. I know someone who advertised on a popular north east radio station about selling spanish villas with a showcase on at a certain address. He bought a huge advertisement package but he only ended up getting four people through his door on the big day.

It really depends on the audience, what your service is and the demographics.

[Richard Glynn]

Hi Chris,

Providing you have an opportunity to get out of the agreement – and you say you do - I think radio advertising is worth a trial. Make sure there’s clear call to action and ask if you can get involved in the editorial section of the show. Maybe an outside broadcast from one of your outlets?

My personal problem with radio ads is that some advertisers get seduced by the idea of getting on the radio, when less glamorous muck and nettles marketing can yield better results. (e.g. flyers etc.)

When I was PR account director for the tenpin bowling company who I believe are on the same site (same building?!) as your Laser Quest, they got great value and a great response by running an exclusive reader offer in the local press giving an added value 2 for 1 (for example) valid during your off peak times.

If it’s on the radio people could text in to win a text voucher perhaps?

And I’m struggling to resist saying you’d get better value from PR, because you would!!

Richard

[Malcolm Cooper]

I used radio advertising when I had a bricks & mortar store. It's not as powerful as the sales folk will attempt to prove but I found it did have one thing going for it. I found it very immediate! Often people would walk into the shop minutes after a slot had been broadcast saying "we heard your ad on the radio". The downside is that if newspapers are tomorrows chip paper then radio ads are forgotten in seconds unless they address a specific and immediate need or desire in the listener. Like any advertising this is where repetition plays its part.

Radio stations will often want premium rates for drive time because of the exposure. Well unless you have something that's of particular interest to folks going to and from work I'd question the value. Equally there are often lower rates for say, Sunday mornings for example but If you were running a Car Boot sale that's exactly the time you'd want.

I'm concerned by this 12 month deal that allows you to cancel at 24 hours notice. Do double check that you're not tied into any sort of commitment. Maybe even try to negotiate a free trial. They'll be telling you how good it is. Suggest they prove it to over the course of a week and offer some advantage in return if it really does work for you.

[Hayles]

"I'm concerned by this 12 month deal that allows you to cancel at 24 hours notice. Do double check that you're not tied into any sort of commitment."

I'm concerned by this part too. Very unusual to be able to give just 24 hours notice.

I've worked for a radio station and some businesses were hugely successful because of their radio advertising, some didn't receive any response at all. If you can, then give it a go - it could be fantastic.

Hayles

[monarch supplies]

i addvertised on a local radio station and to be honest it didnt do what it said on the tin , radio marketing only works for larger companys that are already well known and trying to establish a small new business on this media alone will only empty the bank account , a complete waste of my cash!!!

[10 Yetis]

I have found them to be good for brand awareness and thats about it... I would not expect to see either a great hike in site traffic or direct enquiries as a result of a campaign on the radio.

Peak sections are drivetime or breakfast and I would avoid advertising on other timeslots.

[Media Jems]

Hi there

To be honest radio advertising is very hard to get right - take an example of a local company I know who have developed a national brand and spent almost all of their budget on local advertising! - very silly indeed!

Unless you have a substantial budget and products that are relevant for specific sponsorship posts such as a the traffic and travel or the back of radio stickers etc, then I am very reluctant to advise this as a major means of generating awareness.

However you can manipulate the radio coverage into your favour through some targeted pr and media relations activity. I've generated countless mentions on radio and tv for my clients through good quality press releases that have been picked up by the producers ( I have one guy who will be interviewed on BBC Radio Suffolk and BBC Radio Kent this weekend) - you get amazing exposure for a fraction of the cost of advertising.

If you need any help or advice with developing a media relations programme I would be more than happy to help.

Best wishes
Jenna

[i'm_not_a_farmer!]

I'm not sure which of your businesses you are in discussions with the radio station for, but I agree with several of the comments here that Radio Advertising is great for awareness but people overlook the fact that in marketing you should use a 'toolkit' of methods to acheive your goals. Never put all your eggs in one basket.

For several years I worked as a radio copywriter and have continued with radio for quite a few clients but I never advise them to advertise. Getting within the editorial is much more effective and cheaper. The best way to do this is through promotional radio.

For example, why not run a competition in the breakfast show or drivetime shows? This puts your product directly into the airtime, not the ad breaks, and it also gets kudos by being 'talked up' and promoted by the DJ's themselves. Make the competiton relevant to your product(s) and offer great prizes that will motivate your target market to call/text in to win.

If you want to chat further about this and pick my brains, pls don't hesitate to contact me

[++KATE++]

i agree pretty much with everything that's been said here. i have one more thing to add and please excuse me for being picky but here goes: your URL does not lend itself to radio easily. say it out loud. leisureadventures dot com. you'd better hope that all your listeners can spell!

the key thing for you is to drive traffic to your website so i'd think about e-marketing and keep in mind who your target markets are.

i said it was picky!

[Scott-CopyandDesign]

i agree pretty much with everything that's been said here. i have one more thing to add and please excuse me for being picky but here goes: your URL does not lend itself to radio easily. say it out loud. leisureadventures dot com. you'd better hope that all your listeners can spell!


If I couldn't spell leisureadventures I'd think about going back into junior school to be honest O_o

I do know what you mean but I dont think it's that bad, it does flow off the tongue decently.

[sjr4x4]

We are currently running a radio campaign with Mercia FM which covers the Coventry and CV postcode area for My local Services. It's only been going since August 01, but we have had some excellent feedback and some direct sales. Our main aim is as a branding experiment, so it was never meant to pay for itself through sales, but there is some good advice here, and certainly never rely on one form of advertising. There is no subsitute for getting out there and handing out the flyers!

The jurys out on whether we will extend the campaign as it is a very expensive meduim, but in our test area, we have supplemented it with a liveried taxi, which has produced some excellent results, including partnership deals from businesses that only became aware of us by seeing the taxi.

If you have the budget, and are happy to write it off against radio advertising, then go for it. If the budgets tight, then go for marketing that you can quickly see a return and results, such as buying in new business start up data, or mailing lists. For example, we know that if we buy in new business start up data, we can close 20% on average as sales. This makes this a far more productive use of budget and generates revenue, rather than burning it on radio.

So for us, its purely a branding experiment, if your budget is tight, there are much better alternatives.

If anyone wants to hear our advert, it's on our parent company site, and auto plays when on the home page. www.lowigroup.co.uk (http://www.lowigroup.co.uk) It takes a while before it starts as it has to stream an MP3 file. I personally love it, its annoying and tacky, which prob speaks volumes for me :)

[Chris-TT]

Thanks for all the advice, we have decided to give it a go, the advert has been made and is airing at the moment. I’ll let you know how it goes.