The Trust Factor

by Scott Howard | Feb 15, 2022 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

A couple of Thursday mornings ago, a couple things happened before 8am.

An email from Insider Radio that included the headline:

Americans May Love Social Media, But Survey Finds It’s Radio That They Trust.

Also it was the beginning of day 2 of a weather-induced work from home day as our area was getting non-stop snow with predictions of well over 15 inches which becomes much more severe when the winds kick in and “drifts up to 4 feet” were predicted by the national weather service.

(I heard that prediction listening to my local news/talk radio station WOWO.) We ended up with a little less and by Friday, I was back at the office and by Monday most of the rest of the city was back to normal.

Social Media has been the darling media that normal Joe’s and Jill’s turned to for communication to the masses. What began with MySpace and then Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram and numerous others became the bright and shiny new place for advertisers to run ads. Promises of “hundreds of people for mere pennies” and “trackable results” along with “targeted ads that produce less waste” were all made and continue to be made.

To which I can say, not really.

Look, I am speaking from a multitude of perspectives. Yes, I’ve spent the majority of my career in radio. However a couple of times I worked full-time in the online world. First time was 2011 when I anticipated never returning to radio and instead I was highly immersed in the digital world where we crafted websites that were built to convert traffic into sales. We looked at, what appeared to be heat-map technology and a deep dive into analytics to design websites that improved the UX or User Experience and so I know how that is done and not just the technology but psychology behind it all.

I also worked full-time for a multi-million dollar world-wide company that transitioned from a print catalog sales model to an e-commerce based outfit. I was one of a half dozen specialists in the Internet Marketing Department and my chief role was Social Media for our multiple brands.

Then there is my own personal success story of creating an online following and connections with the ScLoHo brand identity, so I am a believer in the power of online and if you and your business can’t be found online… well you simply don’t exist. Get your company a website now. Claim your social media profiles for you and your company. LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram at the bare minimum.

However, if that is all you do, the online stuff, you are being short sighted and leaving yourself very vulnerable.

It was just announced that Facebook actually lost members recently. That’s right the biggest Social Media company in the universe, saw a decline.

But that’s not the real reason you are vulnerable. It has to do with the Trust factor.

A dozen years ago I was giving a presentation to students at Huntington University and part of the discussion demonstrated the good stuff that was happening on Facebook. I used the example of my friend Heather who was looking for a new dentist for her family and so she asked for recommendations. Dozens of friends responded with both recommended dentists and a few to avoid. This was modern day word-of-mouth and crowd-sourcing done on a personal level.

However when companies tried to tap into the social networks by running ads, it just wasn’t the same. It was an advertisement, not a personal recommendation. Like so many other forms of advertising, except it started to become annoying because all we wanted to do was see what was going on with our friends and family and instead we were being served ads every few posts on our newsfeeds. I just took a look at my Facebook newsfeed and of the first dozen posts, numbers 2, 7 and 11 were ads.

Another factor creating distrust in Social Media is the political climate for the past several years. I think it has intensified online when we were limited in our ability to gather in-person due to pandemic restrictions.

Here are some quotes from the story I referred to at the beginning of our talk today:

A new MRI-Simmons survey finds that nearly two-thirds of Americans say radio is either “very trustworthy” or “trustworthy” with radio topping every other media type other than newspaper – trailing by a mere one percent difference.

Also:

More than twice as many adults consider radio trustworthy compared to social media. When it comes to fake news, it seems Americans have concluded it is not traditional media outlets that are the source, but rather online media options.

And finally:

In its analysis, Katz says the MRI-Simmons research shows why radio is an “ideal platform” for advertisers looking to make their voice heard and their message count. “Radio is a trusted environment with vested local connections to consumers across demographics, and all types of media users,” it says, adding, “Radio provides the best chance for messaging to break through, resonate, and not be mistrusted by consumers.”

Contact me for more information and insight.

Are You Living In The Past?

by Scott Howard | Feb 8, 2022 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

There is an old perception among TV people that “everyone watches the Olympics”. Because of this, the old broadcast networks of ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox usually air reruns of regular shows instead of new episodes. (NBC is the official network this year).

However there are millions of people who are not going to watch because they either have no interest, or time to watch. Our TV viewing habits from 40 years ago simply are not applicable in 2022.

Live TV viewership is a fraction of what it was. Screentime has increased when you count our phones, laptops and tablets but what we watch and how we watch is radically different.

In the middle of the 2022 Olympics we have the Superbowl. This one live sports event is guaranteed to have more viewers than any single event of the Olympics.

My take away for all this is to question things you are doing that may be outdated but you keep doing them anyway.

And since I write about media and marketing, this caught my attention because the couple of TV programs my wife and I like to watch are in their winter hiatus and it’s going to be a few more weeks before they present new episodes.

No, I’m not going to switch from watching NCIS to Figure Skating this month. I’ll find something else to do with that hour of my life. Much of the media I consume is by appointment. Not all, but nearly most of it when it comes to TV.

What is “by appointment”? It’s the ability to watch what I want when I want. The emphasis is on the when. As a baby boomer who grew up without this option, I really like it now. In our house we cut the cord a few years ago an instead use streaming services.

Amazon Prime I’ve had for years originally for the free shipping since we have many family members out of town, but we also use the video platform to watch stuff, “by appointment”. YouTubeTV is our main replacement for Xfinity and we have a choice to watch something live or recorded. The shows my wife and I used to watch live, like NCIS, we now watch on the weekend, at a time that works for us “by appointment”. Because of this, we don’t get any local TV commercials. If your business is trying to reach me by spending money with the local TV stations, it isn’t working.

My screen time is further divided up between other streaming services including Hulu, Netflix, HBO+, Paramount and Peacock. No, I don’t watch all of these, but they are coming into my house and maybe my wife has a show that she watches on these streaming services. The point is, you need to reconsider where you place your advertising and see if the expectations and results that you had in the past are even achievable today.

I’m not just picking on TV by the way. Printed media has undergone tremendous changes too. Newspapers, magazines and remember the phone book? Are you still paying for ads in any of these because it’s been traditional and you want to do what Dad and Grandpa did to build the business?

I must caution you however, there are some value to nearly any kind of marketing you do, but you have to understand the return on investment principles and other factors and not just continue because the advertising salesperson had a slick sales pitch. I’ll be talking more about some of the specifics in the weeks ahead, and if you want my help now, reach out to me.

The Scott Howard Genuine ScLoHo Media and Marketing Podcast

by Scott Howard | Feb 1, 2022 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

This year marks the completion of 5 years of creating, hosting, recording and producing a weekly podcast and it seems like an appropriate time to introduce myself or reintroduce if we’ve been friends for awhile. By the way, don’t worry when I say completion, I decided to use that word and not conclusion. I’m not planning on stopping my weekly articles and podcast episodes, it’s just that we are entering year number 6 of the podcast.

First off, my background. I grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana and as a kid dreamed of doing all kinds of professions. Astronaut and race car driver, gave way to television production by the time I was in middle school and then high school set the stage for radio. When I was growing up, I listened to Bob Sievers in the morning on WOWO Radio to see if we had school delays. Back in the 70’s over 70% of people in Northeast Indiana listened to WOWO in the morning. Some to hear about the weather and school closings, others for farm news delivered by Bob and farm director Jay Gould on the Little Red Barn radio show on WOWO. I also listened to Chris Roberts in the afternoon after school and Ron Gregory at night on WOWO as a young teenager and that was what planted the seed to be a radio personality.

WMEE was another Fort Wayne radio station that was influential as they played the Top 40 hits of the day. WMEE was AM radio station at 1380 in the 70’s and WOWO was also on AM at 1190. At the end of the 70’s WMEE moved to 97.3 FM where they have been ever since.

My high school, Concordia started an FM station when I was there and that was my first on-air experience. After graduating I began a full time on-air career at WBAT in Marion, Indiana, followed by WIOU in Kokomo and then I ended up on WMEE for 3 years. I returned to Kokomo, Indiana for about 3 years on the air and as Program Director at WZWZ until the station was sold. I worked briefly on the air at WXIR in Indianapolis before moving my family to Detroit and WMUZ where I first ventured into the advertising and marketing side of the business.

I did some additional on-air work both part-time and full time at stations WMUZ, WBTU, WGL, WFWI and WAJI. In 2003 I entered the ad world in Fort Wayne, working for a group of 6 radio stations for more than 8 years and it was during that time I began blogging using the online name ScLoHo.

ScLoHo is a mashup of my first, middle and last names. Take the first two letters on Scott Louis Howard and it spells ScLoHo. Many people have attempted to pronounce it without success. Often they leave out some letters or add extra letters. Not even Alexa knows how to pronounce ScLoHo.

I had multiple ScLoHo blogs on the Google Blogger platform and my friend Kevin challenged me to create an online reputation under my birth name of Scott Howard so in 2011, when I was working fulltime in the webworld, I launched the first version of the Scott Howard dot me website using over 10,000 articles I had already published as the foundation.

Ever since around 2004 or 2005, I have published a minimum of one new article per week. I used to do it daily and multiple times per day, that is how I ended up with over 10,000 articles in just 6 years.

15,000 articles and counting was what I was continuing to work on when I was approached in 2016 with a request to do a podcast.

More on the podcast in a moment, but first back to me and radio. In 2013, I was hired to join WOWO radio, not on the air, but as one of the Local Advertising Sales People. Official job title was Account Executive and I added Marketing Consultant too it because that was what I did besides selling advertising schedules. By 2019, I grew to be the top local advertising account executive not just at WOWO but in our entire company at Federated Media which included a dozen radio stations and nearly 40 A.E.’s.

At the end of 2019 and beginning of 2020, before the pandemic hit, Federated Media had a couple of management changes. My boss, Ben took over as the Federated Media Fort Wayne Vice-President and General Manager and I became to General Sales Manager for WOWO. These were not “automatic” promotions due to longevity. Both Ben and myself were promoted from within after our company conducted extensive nation wide searches to find the best leaders for management. Both Ben and myself are now in our 3rd year in our current positions with Federated Media.

Let’s go back to 2016. Ben and another manager, Suzee were given the task of starting an advertising oriented podcast for Federated Media. Podcasts were still an early adopter thing 6 years ago and Federated Media wanted to get in on the ground floor.

Ben and Suzee, were aware of my weekly articles I was writing about advertising and marketing on my website at Scott Howard dot me and they might have been aware that I had experience talking behind a microphone too, so they approached me to consider being the one to launch this podcast. After a little bit of thought, prayer and negotiation, I said yes and by March of 2017 The Genuine ScLoHo Media and Marketing Podcast was launched as a weekly audio version of the articles I was writing and publishing.

While the written form of this is article 15,000 and something. This is also episode 250 of the podcast.

Who chose the name of the podcast and why? I did. Because of my online identity as ScLoHo and the subject matter dealing with media and marketing, that’s why those words were selected.

Why is it the “Genuine” ScLoHo podcast? As a way to clearly claim my work. Several years ago when I was just publishing online under ScLoHo, I discovered someone was stealing my articles and republishing them on another website site without my permission. I also voice my own podcast and identify myself as Scott Howard in each podcast episode.

One change was made a few years ago with the advent of smart speakers. I discovered that Alexa doesn’t know how to pronounce ScLoHo so I amended the name to Scott Howard’s Genuine ScLoHo Media and Marketing Podcast. Now if you ask Alexa to play the Scott Howard Genuine Podcast, she usually knows where to find it.

Unlike the audio version of this article, nearly every weekly episode is less than 10 minutes. Just long enough to give you an update without eating up too much of your time.

As we move forward this year, I’m going to revisit and update some of the topics I have covered in the past along with keeping you current on the latest trends and thinking to help you with your advertising and marketing as you run your businesses.

There are some Timeless Human Relationship Principles that should be applied to your marketing and advertising and that is where we will start again in some upcoming articles and episodes.

Brand Building For 2022

by Scott Howard | Jan 4, 2022 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, Sound ADvice, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

When you own and operate a business and you live and breathe it, often, it’s difficult to see when things change. As they say, sometimes it’s hard to see the forest for the trees.

When is the last time you had a Brand Health Check-Up?

Only politicians can succeed without delivering on their promises, and only weather forecasters can make mistakes every day and still keep their jobs.

Unfortunately, you are neither, so you have to build your business and your brand by delivering on every promise and accurately forecasting how your customers prefer to be served and sold.

Some business owners mistakenly think that a brand is built simply around their business name, location, industry, employees, and their marketing. But your brand is the sum of everything your customers and prospects hear, see, feel, and experience when they do business with you.

Your brand is who you are, what you do, and how you do it! Reputation management is an ongoing, continual task, and regular check-ups are necessary.

Brands are the sum of the impressions you create at every customer touchpoint; from your advertising to the way you answer your phone, the cleanliness of your buildings, vehicles, and bathrooms, your warranty and return policies, to the way you empower your staff to resolve customer conflicts.

Does your business need a health check? Do you have a clearly defined mission and is it evident at every customer touchpoint?

Click here for our free Brand Health Check to ensure that you are walking the talk.

Wrap Up and Step Up

by Scott Howard | Dec 21, 2021 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

Twas the end of December and all through the land,

Lots of creatures were stirring, children, woman and man.

The hustle and bustle of the holidays are here,

And nearly everyone is attempting to be of good cheer.

The retailers are hoping to rake in more bucks,

While they alternate between taking care of customers and unloading trucks.

The advertising salespeople are doing their best,

to reach their customers, sell a few more ads, meet their budgets and then finally get some rest.

I could continue to write and talk in verse,

but honestly I’m not that talented, as a lyricist, I’m cursed.

So like many of you who are taking a break, this is my last column and podcast until 2022.

For those of you who are in the broadcasting business, I have an invitation for you to join me on Thursday, January 13th at 2pm eastern time for a live event called the 2022 Radio Sales Lift Off.

This event will be on the Clubhouse App, so you’ll need your smartphone, Radio consultant Loyd Ford reached out to me earlier this year to contribute to his Encourager series for people in the broadcasting business and I’ve been writing a monthly article.

This event on January 13th is the creation of Loyd and will be co-hosted by another radio veteran, Alec Drake. They asked me along with broadcaster Chuck Wood, I wonder if that’s his real name or an on-air name, to be their panelists.

Here’s what Alec said about it recently on LinkedIN and his own website:

We are all deep into thinking about next year’s sales strategies, so add this appointment to your calendar, “The 2022 Sales Lift-Off”. Join Loyd Ford from Rainmaker Pathway Consulting Works and me on Clubhouse for a panel discussion by frontline managers to discuss Q1, sales team recruiting, and actionable revenue ideas for 2022!

and…

Join us live on the Clubhouse app Thursday, January 13, 2022, @ 2 p.m. Eastern/11 a.m. Pacific for a revenue-focused event that will take place quarterly for sales managers, market managers, and local sellers.

Loyd Ford from Rainmaker PathwayConsulting Works along with Alec Drake will open up a panel of sales partners to discuss a strong finish to Q1, recruiting sales staff, and a closing roundtable with actionable items to help you and your team grow revenues. The Revenue Partners for this Q12022 Live Event:

Chuck Wood – VP/GM of Delta Media Corp., a multi-media media company comprised of seven television and nine radio stations in Broussard, Louisiana

Scott Howard – General Sales Manager at WOWO Radio/Federated Media, Ft. Wayne, Indiana

– Actionable sales ideas – Recruiting Strategies – Get Your 22 Momentum – Share and Learn

Have a safe, relaxing and prosperous end of 2021, my friends.

The Giving Time of the Year

by Scott Howard | Dec 7, 2021 | Really? The Personal ScLoHo, ScLoHo's Fort Wayne, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

Blessed to be a blessing is a phrase I heard a long time ago and right now I see a lot of it going on.

It’s a quiet Sunday afternoon as I compose these words for this weeks featured article on my website and podcast and I’m thinking about a multitude of things.

It’s now been 8 full years that I’ve worked for WOWO Radio, the first 6 as one of the Advertising Account Executives and for close to 2 years, as the General Sales Manager.

I grew up with WOWO, as thousands of others did too. In 2025 WOWO will turn 100 years old and when people hear I work at WOWO, nearly everyone has a story about WOWO to tell me.

It happened a few times this past Friday during the All American Stores #PumpForPennyPitch event.

But please, this is not about me, it’s just my personal story and the impact that WOWO and our listeners and our airstaff and all the supporting players have at this time of year.

Look, I started working in radio as a teenager and worked for our parent company, Federated Media in my 20’s, on the air at WMEE. WOWO was not owned by Federated Media back then, so while I’ve worked for our company a couple of times, it’s just been the past 8 years that I’ve worked for WOWO.

In between, I worked for other radio stations and some of them would do something nice around the Christmas Holidays for listeners.

But what struck me during my first week here in December 2013, was something that occured on a Friday afternoon when we were having our annual #PumpForPennyPitch event. I saw how at other stations, they gave cash and prizes away to listeners as an extra incentive for them to listen. But at WOWO, it was the listeners who were giving their cash to help others in the community.

The contrast, stuck with me and now every year, I make a point to come out and support our on air staff during the Penny Pitch events that occur over a 4 week period this time of year.

This year we kicked things off with a live broadcast of Christmas On Broadway and the lighting of the 40 foot Christmas tree on November 19th. Over 4000 people came to the event hosted by Steve Shine and it was our first opportunity for people to give to Penny Pitch this year.

Penny Pitch has been around for over 70 years and began when WOWO radio personalities Bob Sievers and Jay Gould received a letter requesting funds to purchase a special typewriter for a handicapped boy and they in turn asked for listeners to contribute their pennies. Penny Pitch evolved from helping individuals to helping local organizations that in turn help individuals.

My first Penny Pitch in 2013 was for the benefit of Turnstone, a local organization that wanted to raise funds to build ramps for handicapped individuals would needed them at their homes. I got to talk to Nancy, their CEO at the time along with some of the listeners who gave and hear the stories. As you can imagine, it was eye-opening.

Every year a different local charity is selected by the Penny Pitch Board of Directors. This is my second year serving on the board and it is not easy selecting from the numerous charities that apply.

The 2nd event each year to raise funds for Penny Pitch is the Bob Chase Memorial Hockey Game played on Thanksgiving evening at the Memorial Coliseum with our world famous Fort Wayne Komets Hockey team. WOWO and the Komets have a 60 year history together and the late Bob Chase was the voice of the Komets on WOWO until he passed away just a couple of years ago.

Event #3 is the gas station event that took place on Friday. We actually had it at 3 different All American stores in the area including on Lima Road on the Northwest side of Fort Wayne, just east of Fort Wayne at the All American store in New Haven and our live broadcast of the Pat Miller Program from 3 to 6 was at the Ossian All American store, just south of Fort Wayne. I decided to visit all three locations and got to talk with listeners and donors.

This coming Thursday and Friday is our big grand finale radio-thon for Penny Pitch. Both days, December 9th and 10th, our two local shows, Fort Wayne’s Morning News with Kayla Blakeslee and the Pat Miller Program will be broadcasting live from Sweetwater Sound, just like we did last year. Four hours in the morning and 3 in the afternoon each day with nearly all the program content focused on this years Penny Pitch recipient charity, the local Gigi’s Playhouse that needs to raise over $80,000 to purchase transportation to expand the services they provide as a downs syndrome achievement center. I bet we raise over $100,000 this year from our listeners.

When I titled this piece The Giving Time of Year, I know that WOWO listeners who can give a few cents will give again this year, just like the donors who give much bigger amounts. If you want to join them, here’s a direct link to give online: https://pennypitch.ejoinme.org/donate2021

Or perhaps you have other organizations you support. Perhaps it’s individuals that you give to.

All of us have something to give; time, money, an encouraging word, let’s all participate and you too will be Blessed to be a Blessing

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