This month we're addressing two questions related to
radio advertising.
Q: I'm getting ready to start advertising on the
radio, and I'm running into the word "frequency,"
something no one can give me a formula to figure out. Is there a
way I can calculate how many radio ads I need to run per day, week
or month? My only other options seem to be either to blindly take
the word of the radio salespeople, or to take a wild guess at what
I need.
A: Frequency is the average number of times a person has
the opportunity to hear your message within any given schedule. It
makes sense that you would need to run more commercials per day or
week to reach a fidgety, channel-surfing audience than you would
need to run on a station with lingering listeners. Because the
listening habits of specific audiences are so distinct, the number
of commercials you need to run to get the best results will be
different for each station.
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What you want each rep to figure out for you is OES, or optimum
effective scheduling. The radio reps will calculate the turnover
ratio (which captures the amount of time spent listening to a
station for a particular length of time) x 3.29 (which researchers
deem is the necessary multiple for the equation to equal three
exposures per week). You can't do this on your own, as you need
Arbitron figures to do the math. Arbitron is the media and market
research company that measures radio audiences and their listening
patterns. Most radio stations subscribe to that service and will
have the information you need.
Q: A radio station wants us to run two ads per day, three
weeks per month, for three months. If I run one ad per day, two
weeks per month, for nine months, would the "frequency"
be the same?
A: No, since frequency is calculated per week--and in
your two scenarios you'd be running different numbers of ads
per week. But running one or two ads a day cannot be construed as
frequency in any form, especially not with one or two commercials
run willy-nilly, spread over morning, midday, afternoon and
evening. And asking for specific or "fixed" times for
those commercials, so they would continually hit the same audience
for a more focused target, can cost you double.
That kind of a schedule is going to be a waste of your money
unless you tie in to a sponsorship of some kind that will add kick
to the commercials. Sponsorships automatically provide
"fixed" times that will concentrate your efforts without
the extra cost. Sponsorships for weather, news or sports can be
purchased up to seven days a week and typically can be purchased on
a Monday-through-Friday basis for traffic reports. People listen
carefully to these features, so you get a more "tuned in"
listener who is more likely to hear your message. If you run a
sponsorship every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, for instance, the
audience will get familiar with you fairly quickly.
These are maintenance schedules (low frequency over a long
period of time). You should always run a small schedule like this
over a minimum of 13 weeks. You should expect to receive a discount
for running a sponsorship for 26 consecutive weeks (5 percent) or
52 consecutive weeks (10 percent).
A typical sponsorship will provide the following:
- You will be identified with a "verbal billboard" as
the sponsor of the weather, news, sports or traffic just prior to
the report. ("This traffic report is being brought to you by
the ABC Paint Co.")
- You will receive a closing billboard at the end. ("This
traffic report has been brought to you by the ABC Paint
Co.")
- You will receive a 10- or 15-second live commercial adjacent to
the report.
- You may also receive a 30- or 60-second commercial that will
play within the same "daypart" as the report. Radio
dayparts are: morning drive, 5 a.m. to 10 a.m.; midday, 10 a.m. to
3 p.m.; afternoon drive, 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.; and evening, 7 p.m. to
midnight.
Kathy Kobliski is the founder and president of Silent Partner
Advertising, where she oversees multimedia advertising budgets for
retail and service clients. Her book, Advertising Without an Agency, was written
for businesses owners who are working with small advertising
budgets and can't afford professional help. You can reach Kathy
via her website at http://www.silentpartneradvertising.com.
The opinions expressed in this column are those
of the author, not of Entrepreneur.com. All answers are intended to
be general in nature, without regard to specific geographical areas
or circumstances, and should only be relied upon after consulting
an appropriate expert, such as an attorney or
accountant.