The State of WOWO Radio Fall 2024 Edition

The State of WOWO Radio Fall 2024 Edition

by | Sep 16, 2024 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Media, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

About once a year I share some insider information about the state of radio, specifically WOWO radio, the primary radio station I’ve represented since 2013.

Today’s the day for an update.

A lot has happened the past 11 years I’ve been here. WOWO  had their 90th birthday in 2015 and we turn 100 next year.  Most of those 100 years WOWO has been on 1190am and occasionally also on FM.  92.3 was the FM home for WOWO when I started and then we brought music back to 92.3 for a few years. Big 92.3 was a classic hits music station for a few years until May 2023 when WOWO returned to 92.3FM.

For close to 3 decades, WOWO has been a News/Talk radio station and when we put music on 92.3 a few years ago, we added two more ways to listen to WOWO on FM that are still available.  Some of you can pick up WOWO at 107.5FM, that’s a low power FM signal with limited range in the Fort Wayne Indiana area and as vehicles started adding HD radio, we also included WOWO programming on 97.3 HD2.

So ever since May 2023, we’ve got multiple ways for listeners to listen to the News/Talk programming on WOWO including:

1190am

92.3 FM

107.5 FM

97.3 HD2 FM

and the streaming platforms including the WOWO app, Alexa, Google Home, your laptop, and others like iHeart, Spotify, and TuneIn.

Let’s take a look at what’s going on now and I’ll start with some public information from Nielsen, the ratings company that measures all kinds of data including radio listenership.

In Fort Wayne, we have two annual rating periods, Spring and Fall and then it takes a few weeks to get the results.

The public data is picked up by various news sources and I saw this graphic from Radio Online dot com.

WOWO is listed as the number one radio station this year with a 9.5 share.  This means that of the 20+ radio stations listed nearly 1 out of ten people listen to WOWO.

Considering there are over 20, but I’m just going to count the top 20 stations, if listenership to each station was equal, each station would have a 5 share because when you do the math, 100 divided by 20 = 5.

According to this WOWO has nearly double the number of listeners, and when we step back to the Spring 2023 numbers, it’s an 86% improvement.

However, here’s what’s really important and while I can’t publish the numbers publically, I can share privately the exact data.

WOWO has 4 daytime shows we call primetime because the primetime for radio listening is during the day.

Fort Wayne’s Morning News with host Kayla Blakeslee continues to grow.  It was 6 years ago that Kayla took over after the unexpected passing of our legendary beloved morning host Charly Butcher in 2018.  Kayla has increased total number of listeners and they are tuned in longer compared to a year ago.

Next we have national syndicated hosts Glenn Beck and Dan Bongino in the middle of the day and they continue to win.  Glenn’s listeners from 9am to noon are growing and the same can be said for Dan’s show from noon to 3pm.

What’s new is WOWO’s long time afternoon host moved to a Saturday only show and around the 1st of February this year, Casey Hendrickson took over the 3pm to 6pm slot.  Casey is from our sister station in South Bend and currently does most of his shows from their studio but is increasing his time in Fort Wayne and using the WOWO studio to do his show that airs on both our stations.

Originally there was some loyal listener push back.  Pat has been doing afternoons on WOWO for over a two decades and Casey also has been with Federated Media, our parent company for 13 years.  When one of them would take vacation days, we would broadcast the other persons show for the last 10 years, so our WOWO listeners had a little bit of familiarity of Casey.

During the last couple of years of Pat’s afternoon show, there was some declines but he had a very loyal fanbase.  When we got the rating information for Casey in the afternoon on WOWO this summer, it conformed that this was the right move to make.  Listenership is up and like the rest of WOWO, loyalty measured by the amount of Time Spent Listening is also up.

WOWO continues to be a dominate radio station for listenership and also for advertising.  The advertising is what pays everyone to keep doing their jobs and in turn the advertising has to produce a Return On Investment for the businesses that invite WOWO listeners to become their customers.

What’s the Value of Your Name?

What’s the Value of Your Name?

by | Sep 12, 2024 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

Just a quick word of caution today about your company name… it’s more valuable than you think.

A story about the Campbell Soup Company wanting to change their name after 155 years hit my inbox this week and I hope that they handle this carefully.

Mediapost.com’s headline: Campbell’s Soup Aims To Drop ‘Soup’

and the story:

After 155 years, an iconic and historic brand is considering a name change that will help communicate the diversity of its product offerings. 

“At an investor event Tuesday, Chief Executive Mark Clouse revealed that the storied company would ask shareholders to approve a name change, from Campbell Soup Company to The Campbell’s Company. It is a significant shift that underscores how much transformation has occurred since Clouse took over in January 2019,” according to The Wall Street Journal. 

Nearly half the company’s sales come from snacks, including such brands as Goldfish crackers and Kettle chips.

“Clouse told Wall Street at its investor day that Campbell’s is focusing on 16 top brands across its meals and beverages and snacking division including Goldfish, V8 beverages and Prego sauces,” according to Reuters. 

A Campbell’s representative tells Today.com that, if approved, its current web address — which still contains the word “soup” — will also change, but that doesn’t mean it’s forgetting the source of Andy Warhol’s inspiration. The representative also confirms that, despite the proposed name change, the company will still be known as “Campbell’s.”

“Last year, Campbell’s snack sales grew 13%, while its soups grew 3%,” reports CNN Business. “Legacy food companies like Campbell are pivoting to gain a larger share of the snack market, valued at more than $200 billion by market research firm Circana. Nearly half of Americans say they eat at least three snacks a day, according to Circana.”

Campbell recently acquired Sovos Brands, which includes Rao’s sauces, Michael Angelo’s frozen entrees and Noosa’s Yoghurt.

“The $2.7 billion deal will bolster Campbell’s food and beverage line in which soup remains important but is a smaller portion of the portfolio,” according to USA Today. 

If this name change is only at a corporate level and not a rebranding marketing plan too, then this isn’t all that important to their sales and future branding.  Some companies have done this successfully such as Google became Alphabet and Facebook became Meta.  What’s important is both Google and Facebook continued with their original brand names despite having a new corporate identity.  Other companies such as Twitter threw away their identity with the renaming to X.  Of course Elon Musk’s involvement changed the whole identity of Twitter and X is very different from the Twitter platform I first joined in 2008.

Some brands name change evolved more organically, as Chevrolet earned the Chevy nickname decades ago.  Kentucky Fried Chicken became KFC when Americans were told that we should not eat fried foods, but some people already referred to them as KFC before they officially rebranded to just the three KFC letters.

The smart thing for the new Campbells company to do is to retain the legendary brand names that they now own and continue to promote those.  That’s what Proctor and Gamble has done.  The dumb thing would be to rebrand those iconic brands like Goldfish, V8 and Prego, dropping those names and replacing them with the Campbell name.  Those names have value and despite a corporate name change Campbell means soup to the consumer.

If you’re considering a name change for your business or starting a business and need to pick a name, contact me first.  I’ve seen multiple successes and a few failures in this area and can help guide you.

The Talk Radio Advantage

The Talk Radio Advantage

by | Sep 9, 2024 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

Are you annoyed by ads?

Most of us are, and that creates an interesting conundrum for businesses that need to invite potential customers to spend money with them via advertising.

In the early 1980’s when I was a top 40 rock and roll radio disc jockey on WMEE, I remember when we introduced “20 minute commercial free music sweeps” and even though I was all about the music and not really caring about advertising, this bothered me.

This was the beginning of conditioning our audience to perceive advertising as bad, as undesirable, as something to avoid.

Radio stations that played music would stop the music up to 4 times, maybe 6 times an hour to play a couple of commercials.  These commercial free music sweeps were to prevent listeners from changing stations when the ads played because the ads played less often.  The problem was that many stations still played the same number of commercials per hour but now instead of two in a row, they would play 4, 5 or 6 commercials back to back.  I recall about 15 years ago when a local music station promised to only stop the music once an hour.  I listened and counted 18 ads playing back to back to back for over 10 minutes.  Yes, they played 45 minutes of music back to back but all of those ads back to back created so much listener annoyance that people either switched stations when the ads came on, or they mentally tuned out.

Television suffered the same fate as ads became an irritant and people spent money on ad-skipping devices such as VCRs so we could record a show and play it back later and fast-forward past the ads.

What’s that have to do with Talk Radio?

Last month I was meeting with a new advertising partner and she was telling me why she believes Talk Radio is the best play for her ads.

To paraphrase what she told me, her perception is that when people are listening to Talk Radio, they are wanting to hear what is being talked about and they are more engaged than music radio.  When a commercial break comes on as she is listening to music radio, she’s no longer invested in that station because they are not playing music and whatever song they play after the ads, she may or may not like.  However when listening to Talk Radio, the conversation that she’s listening to will likely continue after the ads and she continues to be invested in that conversation.

There’s also the less annoying factor of ads on Talk Radio.

The theory is that I’m already listening to someone talk so when the talking on the commercial starts, I’m already accustom to talking on the radio.

I’ve got fresh radio rating data that I’ll share in a few weeks that show me the listening habits of listeners of all the 20+ local radio stations here in Fort Wayne, Indiana. This data doesn’t tell us the why behind the ratings, but combined with my personal antidotal research over the years and some other studies, we can understand the Talk Radio advantage for advertising.

By the way, I can help your business reach Talk Radio listeners now on three radio stations…

News Talk WOWO continues to be my primary station, and I also have Sports Talk radio, 1380 The Fan that is filled with live play by play and commentary for sports enthusiasts. There is also one more radio station that has a 4 hour talk show every morning, 98.9 The Bear, home of Jason Lee and Kluck in the morning until 10am.  The other 20 hours a day The Bear is a rock music station, but those morning drive hours are an excellent spot for your business to connect with Talk Radio listeners.

More in the future…

 

 

Generational Changes and Media Use

Generational Changes and Media Use

by | Aug 12, 2024 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

Frequently I’ve pushed back against generational stereotypes with the simple premise that activities and behaviors that are being assigned and labeled according to what generation a person is, are really due to lifestyle and life-stage.

And while many of that is still true, there are some big swings in media consumption that still can be broken down by generation due to the technology changes the past couple of decades.

Even the past 10+ years that I’ve worked for WOWO radio have seen a shift that should not be ignored.

MarketingCharts.com released an article on social media use that actually has a misleading headline: Most US Weekly Facebook Users are Gen Xers and Baby Boomers.

However looking at the actual chart and data from YouGov, the headline should have been Most US Weekly Facebook Users are Millennials, Gen Xers and Baby Boomers.

Those three generations make up 84% of Facebook users in the United States.  The Silent Generation, which are those still alive born before the end of World War 2 make up 1% and the youngest Generation, Gen Z account for 13% of Facebook users.

Overall, Facebook still is king with more users than any of the other social media platforms but it appears YouTube is close although many of us “older folks” don’t consider YouTube to be social media.  But with the popularity of video content verus still photos or no graphics, YouTube should be included even though they were not listed in the survey and article

So I decided to do a double check on the current ages of Gen Z and as of right now, 12 to 27 year olds are Zers.

The youngest most marketers usually target is around 12, so Gen Z is a real, viable target market for companies that produce products and services for teens and young adults.

To put that in perspective, 10, 11 years ago when I joined WOWO radio, some of them were still in diapers and none were old enough to vote yet.

IF that’s the age group you want to reach, you should dig a little deeper into social media and the various platforms and targeting potential.

However, here’s a reality that is back to the lifestyle and life-stage argument….

Most significant purchases are not made during the teen years or even by 20 year olds.  Look at age 35+, or even older like 45 or age 50+.

Gen Z is inching to that age but for the next decade, unless your consumer is in their 20’s and younger, you need to really continue to focus on older adults.

I call them “grown-ups” . They’re in their late 30’s, 40’s and 50’s making significant purchases for themselves and for their families.

My primary radio station, WOWO is a news talk formated radio station and we’ve seen wonderful results for our advertising partners.  I’m not arrogant enough to say that traditional radio ads are all you need to do.  I usually offer a number of items off the menu of messaging options that include traditional AM/FM radio ads, streaming, emails, texting, and social media including Facebook.

Do you want help sorting all this out to help you decide where to invest your ad dollars?  Want to talk with someone who’s got the experience in crafting solutions that are appropriate for your business and that sometimes includes connecting you with others that I trust?  Let’s talk.  Email Scott@ScLoHo.net

What Not to Expect from your Advertising

What Not to Expect from your Advertising

by | Aug 5, 2024 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

There are a lot of misconceptions about advertising that I find myself addressing repeatedly especially with new business people who ae taking their first steps into an advertising investment.

Last month I read a column in Radio Ink by Pat Bryson that I’m going to use today because her examples are spot on and very much in line with what I’ve been preaching.

First off, let’s define Advertising.  Advertising is paid messaging that usually includes a call-to- action, and or branding message.  I can simplify that further and tell you that advertising is a paid invitation from a business to a potential customer.

That’s it.

When you send out invitations, you are attempting to communicate a message to potential customers.

What happens next is entirely in your hands.   Here’s the words of wisdom from Pat:

What factors determine if a warm body makes a purchase? Several important factors must work together to complete the sale and turn that prospect into a customer that returns again and again:

  • Personnel that are well-trained and friendly
  • Value: price related to perceived benefit
  • Parking that is convenient and accessible
  • Seasonality
  • How does the store look?
  • Are the floor displays attractive? How are goods packaged?
  • Are the restrooms clean? (a surprisingly big factor especially for restaurants)
  • Where is the store located? Easy to get to?
  • What are consumers wanting to buy?
  • Competition: today both bricks and mortar and virtual
  • Is the store known for good service after the sale? How’s their reputation?
  • Advertising (finally!)

All of these factors must work together to produce a sale. Unfortunately, many times we get potential customers in and the client doesn’t sell them.

This is true no matter what form of advertising you buy.  There is only so much that that ads can do and the rest is up to you as a business owner.  Now I know that most advertising sales people don’t take the time to work with you to help you understand the consumer journey that help you improve it so your ads are more effective.  Wait, let me rephrase that.  It’s not making your ads more effective that I’m talking about, but the buying process that follows once the ads do their job.

Again, what’s the job of advertising?  It’s not to sell your stuff.  It’s to invite people to you so you and your team can help them buy your stuff.

Advertising is a simple paid invite.

If you want help with any or all of this, let’s talk.

Planning In Advance

Planning In Advance

by | Jul 29, 2024 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

Most of us plan in advance.

Not everything, but even the least organized and most impulsive have a tiny bit of planning that they do.  Could be as simple as having clean clothes, or paying a bill.  Or it’s a routine that you follow that could count as planning.

I’ve got a friend who is bringing back a restaurant that he used to own and operate a couple decades ago and he’s created plans for just about everything needed to open his doors this year including how to invite potential customers to his new place in a new location.

I also have some clients that plan their marketing budgets on an annual basis and won’t deviate from those spending levels until the next year.  Interestingly, a couple of my clients that are like that also want me to continue to present them new opportunities as the year progresses.  I know that if I present an opportunity that hits one of their hot buttons, they’ll consider pulling the trigger on additional spending.

We’re around 100 days away from the next national election and our media company is getting ready to launch a non-partisan informational website to provide visitors details about voting including candidate information, and voter registration info too.  I have room for 4 businesses to receive a bunch of brand awareness exposure on this website, thru radio ads, email blasts and social media posts for the 3 months leading up to election day.  Cost is minimal.  The way this years presidential race has gone is downright crazy with unpredictable happenings including a terrible debate performance and attempted assassination.

I’m doing my duty to offer sponsorship to businesses that want to be on the website and some businesses are saying thanks but we’re locked in to our spending levels for the remainder of the year.  Others have asked to have some time to think about it.  The reality is we’ll find 4 businesses that go above and beyond what they were planning and add this sponsorship to their marketing and branding.  I don’t know who will say yes, so I’m offering it to anyone I know.

Something else happened this month regarding advertising planning.  I have a client that uses an ad agency and every couple of years I’d sit down with the agency 6 months before the current agreement expired and work out details for the next agreement.  Well, the client switched ad agencies this year and the timeline for planning next years agreement has moved from a 6 month process to a 2 or 3 month process.

Besides all of this advertising and marketing stuff I do, there are 3 or 4 non-profits that I’m involved with that uses timetables and planning to make sure things are accomplished on time for the best results.  I also finalized my third personal trip planning for out of town travel that required some research and lastly my wife and I have stepped up some financial planning with a professional in a way that we hadn’t done previously.

Can we agree that planning in advance is a good thing?

Besides having clean clothes and paying our bills on time, the value of a plan with many of our life choices, be it personal or business can be considered priceless. Part of our planning should include an “Extra” line item.

For personal planning, the experts recommend we have a stash of cash that can be tapped into for unexpected stuff.  It could be to replace a vehicle that suddenly becomes inoperable, or for good stuff like a chance to take some time off to visit out of town family which is something I’ve been doing this year.

On the business side, those extra funds can be used to take advantage of items that would be good for your business but weren’t even on your radar months ago when you formulated your annual budget.

The key to all of this actually goes into deciding what is important and then creating a plan that includes flexibility as opportunities come up.

Do you have a plan or do you wing it?  Let me know and if you want help with developing a plan for your business, I have resources for helping you create a marketing strategy and connections with other professionals that can provide you with guidance and expertise in the other important areas of business too.