Reaching the whole of the UK, How much??

[HomesWarehouse]

Opinions welcomed

Business partner any myself have an App idea, we have the idea in place, and a re brainstorming costs and the technicalities of following through,

realistically how much advertisement investment is required to reach the whole UK. I know this is a general question, the App is tradesman/workmen related and would be targeted to any tradesmen or business owners in this sector, would need to include Facebook/Google sponsored adds Radio and possibly even Television..

has anyone been through the process, any information would be greatly appreciated

 

[ethical PR]

You don't need to reach the whole of the UK - you just need to reach tradespeople and sector related organisations.

No-one is going to be able to tell you the costs without researching, developing and costing a marketing plan.

If it is a business to business app then social media or broadcast advertising probably isn't the way to go anyway.

You need to think about where your target market hang out? What communications channels do they use.

For example, when I worked agency side and we were promoting a service to tradespeople, we had a stand in the major trade outlets and offered bacon butties to help get the word out as part of a wider marketing drive.

Do you have any research that shows that tradespeople would use an app. The ones I have come across aren't terribly internet savvy.

 

[The Byre]

Forget radio and TV, as those are only for general products used by everybody and therefore your 'eyeball-costs' would be far, far too high. Effective TV campaigns start around £1m.

As the Ethical One states, trade shows and possibly, once the ball starts rolling, trade mags.

 

[Scott Davies]

TV is dead. When was the last time anyone here actually sat and watched TV? You stream what you want to watch, and fast forward through the advertisements.

Even if you're unable to fast forward, you pick up your phone, and look at that, until the adverts go away.

I disagree that social media isn't the way to go. 53% of the time spent on your phone is ON Social Media, and tradespeople use Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, etc as much as the next guy. Just because they might see your advertisement outside of working hours doesn't mean they are incapable of remembering a good idea when they see one.

Plus, if it's an app, you can have a "download now" button on your social media ads - because the customer is already ON the right device, and are just a click away, I would recommend that you went the Facebook & Twitter ads route.

You can drill down on demographic here and target age brackets, interests, etc so you'll waste LESS money advertising to the wrong peopl (like 16 year old girls, or 70 year old retired blokes)

I can tell you this; I've literally never even SEEN an advertisement in a trade magazine.

Best of luck with the project.

Scott

 

[HomesWarehouse]

thanks for the great advice guys

I am an ex tradesman and also a contractor in a past life, and I can tell you I used social media very regularly during work breaks and evenings, I am my own taget market, as my idea solves problems I have whilst working in this sector myself.

I agree with the tv being dead, the only thin I watch is a Kodi fire stick with ZERO adverts,

although tradies do tend to listen to radio all day so may be an idea

the facebook advertising seems like a good shout due to being able to specifically target age groups and trades business owners etc

 

[Mr D]

Bacon egg and mushroom baps free at a trade fair would be nice. Sell the sizzle...
Depending on target market there are trade mags in various sectors, some of which have advertising in them.
The various trade associations may be able to help you figure out how to reach tradesmen / workmen.

 

[The Byre]

tradies do tend to listen to radio all day so may be an idea

Radio is the Cinderella of the media business - but can be very effective, if used properly and with a good 'call-to-action' such as local events, special one-day offers, stuff like that.

But yet again, your 'cost-per-ear' when calculated only in tradies is going to be astronomical - only a very small percentage of the listenership are tradies and the reality is that the boss is less likely to be listening to the radio and that's the guy you need to buttonhole!

(Why are all painters & decorators addicted to electronic dance music at massive volume? One of the mysteries of life that we shall never fathom! Never mind sheets and rollers, air tools and pots of paint - first thing to go in, is a giant Makita DAB set, tuned to Absolute Radio!)

Another radio drawback is that much of the airtime is given over to networks who go through media-buyers and agents who, in turn, only deal in national campaigns. The local nature of a local radio station has been heavily compromised by international companies like Bauer Verlag, News Corp and Global Radio, who have spent the past 20 years buying anything and everything by way of local media.

(When I moved from Germany, back to the UK, I was surprised to discover that both the local newspaper and the local radio station were in many respects, very similar to the local paper and radio in Germany - I should not have been surprised, as they all were owned by The Bauer Media Group, owned entirely by the Bauer family!)

I would go for direct mailing, i.e. in the Royal Mail, combined with a total email campaign that tries to hit anybody and everybody. Emails need to be individually sent and addressed - or at least appear as such. P&D, sparkies, brickies, chippies, plumbers, roofers and all other animals do open their mail and read what is in there!

 

[ethical PR]

Hello - just to clarify when I talked about the campaign I did aimed at the building trade it wasn't advertising at trade shows - it was advertising a trade suppliers such as Perkins by having stands in key stores giving away bacon butties to incentivise builders to come along and see what we were promoting.

OP you are right that some builders use social media but how many buy building products through it?

Your problem with radio is unless you know which radio stations most use and have the budget to run sustained national campaigns, the advertising will have little impact.

It does bring a smile to my face when people make sweeping statements like TV advertising is dead. Of course it isn't it has just changed and adapted to the digital age.

TV advertising revenue in the UK totalled £5.27 billion in 2015, up 7.4% on 2014. Hardly dead.

 

[Scott-Copywriter]

People better hope that TV advertising isn't dead because a lot of the most popular channels and shows will cease to exist otherwise.

The only legal methods of watching ad-free entertainment charge a subscription, and the only legal methods of watching free entertainment have adverts.

That's never going to change as money to make these shows and distribute them does not appear out of thin air.

Either way though, adverts must still work, otherwise companies would stop buying them. They aren't carrying out a loss-making activity just for the fun of it.

 

[Mr D]

And how would you know a furniture store had a sale if there was no TV adverts?

 

[Scott-Copywriter]

And how would you know a furniture store had a sale if there was no TV adverts?

I think a better question is how would we know that a furniture store had stopped their perpetually endless sale without TV adverts.

At the end of the universe, the only things which will exist are black holes, dead stars and a DFS sale.

 

[garyk]

And how would you know a furniture store had a sale if there was no TV adverts?

Theres a sale on at the furniture store???? I never knew ...