Is It Time To Fall Out Of Love With Digital Ads?

Is It Time To Fall Out Of Love With Digital Ads?

by | Jan 27, 2021 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, ScLoHo's Web World, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

It’s not all it’s cracked up to be.

The whole magical world of digital advertising online.

For the past decade plus, I’ve seen study after study after study that talked about the shift in advertising from traditional ads to digital ads.

As a point of reference, traditional ads refer to radio and television broadcast ads, newspaper and any form of print including direct mail and phone books, also outdoor ads like roadside billboards and even in-store signage, etc.  Digital ads are delivered digitally via the internet someway on webpages, apps, search engine marketing, you can even throw in search engine optimization.

Most of the predictions of double digit percentage increases in digital ad expenditures year over year have come true, just like the decrease in money spent on traditional ads have come true too.

But, has this shift in where companies advertise paid off?

According to a recent article in Forbes, the answer is either no, or not anymore, or no one knows.

There’s a lot of no’s in that last sentence.  And that should concern you.

When Big Brands Stopped Spending On Digital Ads, Nothing Happened. Why?

That’s the tile and here are some of the details from Forbes:

Proctor and Gamble was spending $200 million on digital advertising and turned it off.  Result = no change in business outcome.

Chase Bank was serving their ads on 400,000 sites and cut it 99% to just 5,000 and saw no negative impact.

Uber was spending $120 million and stopped and saw no change too.

The Forbes article lists other examples big and small of businesses that either stopped their paid digital ads completely or shrunk the budget significantly and actually improved their business.  They mention Facebook ads and Google Adwords along with other digital marketing activity and I believe I know the reason for this.

There’s a phrase called the “Zero Moment of Truth”.  It’s the time when a consumer decides to make the purchase.  The digital world likes to say they deliver buyers at that Zero Moment.  Maybe or maybe not.

What if you need to buy a new hot water heater?  That’s a purchase most people don’t plan for but when you wake up and need one, you don’t wait for days or weeks to decide to buy.  You are suddenly at the Zero Moment of Truth when you are in the ice cold shower.

Your brain is going to immediately start by telling you the names of companies that you already know that could be your problem solver.  Then your heart will kick in and screen out the companies you know but don’t trust.

How does your heart and brain know these things?  Ideally it’s because you have been exposed to advertising and marketing way before your hot water heater died.  And this is where certain forms of traditional media shine.

I call it intrusive media.  Over 90% of the American population still listen to the radio every week.  For my wife and I, we listen to the radio every time we are in the car which is at least 5 to 7 days a week.  The radio stations we listen to have ads.  Our brains hear those ads thru our ears and that reputation of hearing about a local business builds trust so our hearts are also impacted.

My parents never picked up the phone book as part of their casual reading routine, it was the Zero Moment of Truth when they grabbed the phone book if they didn’t know who to call, they’d flip open the Yellow Pages to search by business classification and see the ads for water heaters.  Or if they already knew who they wanted to call, they would open the White Pages which was the alphabetical listing of people and businesses and get the number that way.

The digital revolution has replaced the phone book in multiple ways, hasn’t it…

So why are the digital ads that I mentioned at the beginning of this article not needed anymore?  It’s because the impact has diminished.  The brands that are using digital to get the sale at the Zero Moment of Truth already have Top of Mind Awareness and consumers would buy from them anyway.

That Top of Mind Awareness came from traditional media over the years, and has continued as those brands keep showing up on TV and radio.

I’ve got one more quote from the Forbes piece:

Digital marketing works; but the vast majority of impressions and clicks are from bot activity currently.

I’ve worked in the digital world and I’ve done some deep dives into the Google Analytics and unfortunately, it’s true.  I can make you a promise that when you are listening to my radio station, WOWO in Fort Wayne, Indiana and we share with you the number of weekly listeners, those are real live people, like you and me, not bots.

Contact me for more info. Scott@WOWO.com.

 

Creating Success with WOWO Radio in 2021

Creating Success with WOWO Radio in 2021

by | Jan 5, 2021 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

As much as we want to kiss the year 2020 good-bye and move forward as if it never happened, we can’t. And we shouldn’t.

12 months ago all of us were planning on a very different year than what unfolded in 2020.  The economy seemed to be moving forward after a market correction at the end of 2019, but unemployment was at record low numbers and it seemed like we were going to have a boom of a year.

It boomed alright, just not with confetti.  More like a nuclear explosion.

Here in Fort Wayne Indiana, that boom hit around Friday March 13th, 2020.  The Governor of Indiana was mandating restrictions on businesses that would take place the next week and suddenly we all had to determine what was essential and why.   Many of my clients and advertising partners on WOWO radio were essential but some had to shut down for awhile.  It didn’t seem fair that the small local business retailers were not allowed to stay open while the bigger national big box stores were still able to allow customers inside.

At WOWO radio and our parent company, Federated Media, we instituted a Work From Home Policy that was designed to keep everyone safe and healthy. In Fort Wayne, we operate out of two separate buildings.  The south building is where the studios for WOWO, WMEE, K-105, The Bear, Big and the Fan are located.  Our engineer was able to modify studios and set up equipment so our on-air talent was able to minimize the risk including broadcasting from home in several instances.

On the north side of town, Federated Media Fort Wayne Sales and Executive offices were also affected but differently.  Our usual weekly in-person sales team meetings for WOWO were suspended.  Federated Media had already instituted a work from home policy for their local sales teams over a decade ago, which meant instead of having an office or cubicle at the Fed Med office to report to everyday, if you were on the sales team for one of our local stations, you only had to come to the office occasionally.

When people asked me about my job, I would tell them most weeks I have two hours that I show up to the office, the rest of the week is mine to use as I see fit to do what I needed to accomplish.  As a result, I spent between 10 and 25 hours a week in coffee shops.

Something else that was new in 2020 were some management changes at Federated Media in Fort Wayne.

At the end of 2019, our former market manager Jim Allgeier left Federated Media. After a nationwide search was conducted, they promoted from within.  Ben Saurer, General Sales Manager for WOWO, WKJG & WBYR took over to lead Federated Media in Fort Wayne as our Vice-President and General Manager.  For those of us who had been working directly under Ben at WOWO, it was a mixed blessing.  We had a tremendous amount of respect for Ben and believed that he was the right person to step up and lead all of Fort Wayne.  Yet we also knew that if he was promoted, someone else would take over the General Sales Manager position for the 3 stations he was taking care of.

So with the announcement  of Ben’s promotion, came another nationwide search that Ben conducted to hire his General Sales Manager replacements.  Initially Kassie Taksey was hired to become the Sales Manger of two of our smaller stations, WFWI & WKJG and shortly afterwards also became the General Sales Manger of the Bear.  All three of these stations had great potential and Kassie was brought in to create a local sales team that would live up to that potential and she has done an excellent job with that in her first year especially with Covid and the ramifications.  She took over our sports station when live sports were being cancelled and two of our music stations when concerts and events were being postponed or eliminated in 2020.  Hat’s off to Kassie on her teams accomplishments!

The WOWO General Sales Manager position was (in Ben’s words) “The Most Important Hire I Make”.  Here’s why:

Back in 2013, when I joined Federated Media, WOWO was one of the top 3 or 4 stations out of a dozen in Federated Media which operates stations in South Bend/Elkhart and Fort Wayne Indiana.  The past few years, WOWO  (under Ben’s leadership) became the top station in the company with a local sales budget that is nearly double (or more) than any of the other stations in our company.

The new WOWO General Sales Manager would be tasked with… Don’t Screw It Up.

Federated Media General Sales Managers have many roles but carrying their own list of accounts is not one of them.  Only during certain circumstances does that happen and usually for a short period of time.

Coaching is the most important role I believe because if the GSM isn’t selling, then his/her team is and they need a coach to help them be their best.

Let’s look at the 2020 calendar again.

Right before Christmas 2019, Ben is told by the Chief Operating Officer of Federated Media that he will be promoted to VP/GM of Federated Media in Fort Wayne, leading the entire management team in the sales, programming, engineering, and special teams support staff effective in January 2020 which is when the announcement is made company wide.

In January 2020 Ben begins his nationwide search for his General Sales Manager replacements and brings back Kassie to take over three of the four stations that need a leader.

It takes 6 weeks and multiple interviews with candidates across the country before Ben pulls the trigger and promotes from within his WOWO local sales team and I am offered the WOWO General Sales Manager position the week after Valentines Day 2020.

Earlier in 2020, Federated Media had our annual awards ceremony called the “Feddy’s” and I had won a couple of awards for being the top salesperson in our entire company in 2019.  Which presented a dilemma… does Ben take his companies top salesperson out of a sales role since that would not be my job anymore?

Throw in a couple more circumstances that I was not initially aware of in January 2020.

WOWO’s legendary salesperson and former air personality, Art Saltsberg was going to go into full retirement.  A few years ago, Art scaled back his work load and was now only taking care of about 6 or 7 of his favorite clients.  Art was now going to walk away completely in the first quarter of 2020. I remember listening to Art on WOWO when I was a kid in the 1970’s.

At the end of 2019 one of WOWO’s other top sellers decided to leave to take care of some personal matters.  This lead to Ben recruiting two brand new salespeople to the WOWO Local Sales Team, a process that takes a couple of months before the decision is made.

The same week I was offered and accepted the General Sales Manager position for WOWO was the same week Ben added Andrew and Blake to the team to join the rest of us on WOWO.

A month later COVID hit and we all had to scramble to figure out what to do for the best interests of our advertising partners, our company and everyone involved.  As weeks became months, most of us learned new ways of doing things.  One member of the WOWO sales team who didn’t, left after 4 years.  Meanwhile the WOWO sales person who has been with us the longest, had her best year ever due to learning how to adapt to circumstances.

As all of us reflect on 2020 and put together lessons to implement in 2021 there are a few items I want to share with you pertaining to working with WOWO radio to create success for you this year.

  1. We want to help your business be successful. Every member of my WOWO local sales team will focus on your success. 
  2. We don’t just sell advertising schedules.  This relates to #1.  We want to partner with you and learn & understand your marketing, advertising and overall business needs and goals to craft a plan that we all agree on for the long run.
  3. You are experts in your business.  We are the experts in ours.  It’s how we became the number one radio station in not just Federated Media, but in all of Fort Wayne with over two dozen radio stations.
  4. We work as a team.  This is one of the things I am most proud of regarding the WOWO local sales team. Tracy, Rob and myself have made ourselves available and are lending ideas, experience and expertise to Andrew and Blake who are completing their freshman year with WOWO.  Now that Chris is back, he too is contributing to the collaboration that goes into the planning process for our advertising partners.  We also have learned some ideas from Blake and Andrew too!
  5. We will be honest with you and only make recommendations we believe are in the best interest for you.  Want to sell Jordon’s on WOWO? We’ll connect you with one of our other stations unless you are a vintage collectors store that sells stuff our listeners would buy.
  6. Advertising Partnerships.  That is our goal. We want to create a bond between you and our listeners and it takes a commitment from you and us to make that work.  If you want to “test the WOWO waters” with just a short term advertising schedule, you are not likely our ideal advertising client.
  7. Flexibility. Or as I said last year, Pivot.  Doing business in 2021 requires that we all do things differently than we were at the beginning of 2020.  Yes, we can do Zoom meetings. Yes, we can change your message when circumstances change.  Yes, we can… was our motto last year and it still is.

Ready for our help?  Contact me: Scott@WOWO.com

Forget Politics

Forget Politics

by | Dec 1, 2020 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

Man oh man, has this been a wild year.  

Besides a world wide pandemic that we still don’t fully understand, we are winding down an outrageous political election season in the United States that on a national scale we won’t know the results of until after the special election in Georgia where both U.S. Senate seats are up for grabs. The outcome will determine if the Democrats or Republicans control the Senate which will impact the amount of legislation is passed and so on…

But I really want you to stop focusing so much on politics.  If you voted, thank you.  You did your part in making the United States of America the model for representative democracy around the world that people from all over the globe risk their lives to come to and be part of.

Numerous business owners have said that they were waiting until after the election to decide what they were going to do to advertise and market their business in 2021.

I say, Forget Politics.  You need to step up and plan using proven, timeless marketing principles.

Unless your business is in danger of becoming illegal, the determining factor in your success is not the government, it’s you.

A couple weeks ago I talked about the importance of putting together a marketing plan for 2021 and I wasn’t kidding.

The God’s honest truth is you need to invite people to spend their money with you.  You need a marketing plan to do that.  You need a business plan that includes the internal processes that are the machine that you and your team follow.  We learned this year that you will need to include some additional options that were not part of your business plan in 2019 or before.

But the marketing and advertising need?  It is always going to be there if you want to stay in business no matter what the political climate or health situation we face in 2021.

It may sound weird that the General Sales Manager of the most listened to radio station for adults in Fort Wayne, Indiana, WOWO whose radio format is talk radio, specifically conservative talk radio is telling you to Forget Politics, but for the reasons I just mentioned, for the future of your business, I want you to move forward.

And I also want to invite you to take advantage of our current political situation by using WOWO as the advertising media to help you reach the people you can have as customers.

Some people asked if the liberals win, does that mean your audience will decrease?  Nope.  Time has shown that no matter which side of the political divide wins the elections, conservative talk radio will have plenty to talk about and plenty of listeners.

I don’t care what your political leanings are, I simple care that you will do your very best to take care of our WOWO radio listeners when we invite them to spend their money with you.  Conservative, Liberal, Somewhere In Between, or None of the Above, all of us want to trust the people we do business with and that matter more than anything.

Contact me, Scott@WOWO.com for help. 

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Why WOWO is the Best Choice for Advertising (Part 3)

Why WOWO is the Best Choice for Advertising (Part 3)

by | Nov 24, 2020 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Fort Wayne, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, wowo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

As we move toward a new year, many business owners are attempting to figure out the best bang for their buck when it comes to marketing and advertising.

If you are in the Northeast Indiana region, specifically Fort Wayne, Indiana and nearby communities and you want to invite adults age 25 and older to buy from you, become your patient, or client, I urge you to contact me and my team at WOWO radio.

Marketing Charts dot com released a couple of articles that I’m going to use in the 3rd installment of my series this year of Why WOWO Radio is the Best Choice for Advertising.

About half of US adults say they trust the information they receive from reviews of products or services from other users or customers.

Also in this study, less than 25% of us, trust TV advertising.

One big trend that companies have been relying on is using Influencers on Social Media who have thousands of followers to convince their followers to buy the products they pitch online.  According to the study that marketing tactic only works on about 15% of us and nearly half of us distrust these so-called influencers.

Follow along with me as I relate this information to the capabilities of WOWO radio.

Besides WOWO having the largest weekly audience of adults, our news and talk format means our listeners are actively listening to the words our radio personalities are saying, compared to a music station that has passive listenership because music is often used as background music.

At WOWO, our morning news host Kayla and afternoon talk host Pat have the ability to connect with their audiences much more deeply than any other form of media as they share not just the latest news but also their personal lives too.

They have built a trust relationship with their listeners.

Imagine if that trust relationship could be transferred to your business. That would be incredible.  Pat and Kayla and the other WOWO radio personalities become friends with their listeners and in the same manner that you trust your friends to make recommendations, WOWO’s listeners trust them too.  I call it Word of Mouth with a Bigger Mouth,

Yes, many of the businesses that use WOWO also use Kayla or Pat testimonial endorsement ads and are seeing the benefits.

Now there was another article that confirmed the power of a host doing a live ad.

Host-read ads were also found to outperform non-host-read ads on several key marketing metrics. Most notably, they were found to produce some 60% higher intent to seek information, a 50% higher intent to purchase, and 50% higher recommendation intent. Additionally, host-read ads produced 67% higher affinity and 33% higher familiarity than non-host-read.

The data I just shared pertains to podcasts, but it is both reasonable and acceptable to apply this to WOWO.

Not every business qualifies for a testimonial endorsement from Pat or Kayla on WOWO.  When you contract with WOWO for this type of ad, you are category exclusive.  Ask me or my team for details on this.  We actually have a waiting list for some categories.

 

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Problems = Opportunities

Problems = Opportunities

by | Nov 10, 2020 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, Sound ADvice, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

Have you heard the classic tale of the two shoe salesmen who were sent to a remote third-world village to sell shoes? When they arrived at the village, one immediately sent a message to his office saying, “There’s a problem. No one here wears shoes. Will return tonight”.

The other salesman, upon arrival, sent a message back to the home office as well saying, “We hit the jackpot! No one here has shoes. Send lots of inventory immediately”.   

COVID-19 has caused one problem after another. However, for every problem it has created, it has also created an opportunity. 

A quote that every business owner should hang on their office wall is this: 

Problems = Opportunities

“It’s never a problem. It’s an opportunity to create a solution to a certain situation.”

The most successful businesses recognize problems as opportunities in disguise. After all, the first premise of marketing is “find a need and fill it”. The best companies and managers see those opportunities, while others are complacent and accept the status quo.

Robert Kennedy once said, “Others see things as they are and say, ‘Why?’ I see things as they could be and say, ‘Why not?” Do you see things as they are, or, as they could be?

At some point, hopefully much sooner than later, the COVID pandemic will ”officially” be over. But, in the aftermath of recovery impaired by closed businesses, displaced families, and increased competition, it can be easy to see people who “don’t wear shoes” versus people who “need shoes”. 

Many of our clients are busy multi-tasking, negotiating leases, hiring and training staff, buying and selling merchandise, wrestling with health and safety regulations or bankers, and more. While marketing is on their to-do lists, their hectic schedules can cause them to miss some of the opportunities that lie ahead as we sit on the threshold of our world post-COVID.

Often, we need a fresh new perspective to focus on opportunities and growth. Me and my team are here to help with that perspective.

Contact me, Scott@WOWO.com  to arrange a no-obligation appointment to explore how you can grow your business in the months to come.  

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Out with the Old, In with the New

Out with the Old, In with the New

by | Nov 3, 2020 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, Sound ADvice, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

In the old media world, 86% of advertising budgets went towards production and delivery costs that are totally unnecessary in the new electronic media age.

This archaic mode of communication came at the cost of harvesting trees, operating expensive pulp and paper mills, the printing process, and the entire delivery system, from beginning to end.

In the new electronic media age, none of those costs are necessary.

The perfect, and much more cost-effective, media mix today is the combination of internet, including websites, email, and social media, plus broadcast, which includes radio, TV, and mobile.

In this new media world, your media strategy is simplified and more effective. The strategy of many of the best marketers today use broadcast to inspire and internet to inform.

The “inform” side of the strategy is much more cost-effective than old, printed platforms. The internet is available at your customers’ fingertips 24/7.  It’s interactive, and it’s 86% cheaper because it eliminates the massive cost of harvesting trees and the process of creating, printing, and delivering the printed pieces.

Remember when you had to pay for color in old media? On the internet, color is free and there are no “deadlines”…you can change your message whenever it suits you.

On the “inspire” side of the new electronic media scale, broadcast is there to create an awareness and preference for your brand or business. It’s that preference you create in the minds of your prospects for your business that is the most effective S.E.O. (Search Engine Optimization) on the planet!

Research has proven your customers will go to the first name they recognize or are familiar with on a search engine page rather than click on one at the top of the page they have never heard of.

Better yet is to create such a strong identity with the broadcast half of your electronic media mix that your prospects Google your business name rather than what you sell. Googling what you sell reveals a list of your competitors while searching your name takes prospects directly to your website.

Click here if you would like to see our Ten Ways to Profit from Your Website in the new electronic media age.
 
 
What you just read is from this weeks Sound ADvice email newsletters that can be yours, absolutely free by signing up.
 
I want to expand and tell you how we have been adapting and moving away from the old and embracing the new at WOWO radio where I lead a team of advertising sales and marketing consultants.
 
1st off in the radio ads themselves, we are encouraging our clients to stop using phone numbers.  We don’t need them anymore.  Our smartphones will make the call for us without us ever needing to know the number.
 
Also stop with the WWW dot your website dot com.  It’s not needed.  Or if it is, then you need to get your tech support to clean up your website.
 
One more thing that I am entirely impressed with is how our morning show host has embraced social media for not just her own use but also for her advertising partners when appropriate.  If Kayla is your spokesperson and she has used your company, she’s going to share on her Facebook and Instagram accounts to all of her followers the wonderful your company has done for her.
 
 
Want to know more about using WOWO to draw people to your website and online activity?  Contact me, Scott@WOWO.com.

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