Broadcast TV outlets have been bracing for a difficult year in advertising, with ad revenues expected to fall by 6% to 9% compared to 2014, according to a forecast by Moody’s Investor Service..

     Growth in national advertising has stalled as marketers shift their dollars to digital outlets and cable TV channels. Local advertising, the key driver for television stations, should offset the weakness in national advertising, according to Moody’s report released early Wednesday. However, the two-year outlook is particularly sunny.

     Next year should be a blockbuster year with political ad spending expected to reach record levels. Candidates for the U.S. presidency, Congress and state offices will spend large sums throughout the primary season and for the general election.

     “Political advertising revenue defies gravity,” Carl Salas, senior credit officer for Moody’s, told The Times.

     Television advertising, particularly at the local level, has long been cyclical. This year likely will be soft because of a lack of political campaigns. In addition, 2015 is an off-year for the Olympics, which attract hundreds of millions of TV ad dollars every two years.

     Political action committees have turbo-charged campaign spending levels.  “Next year will be the first time there is no incumbent since the Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling that eliminated campaign spending caps,” Salas said. “Everything will be up for grabs,” he said. “And PACs already have signaled their plans to spend heavily.”

     The surge is campaign spending to local TV stations explains the recent consolidation of TV station ownership groups. Several media companies, including Gannett, Tribune Media and Sinclair in the last two years have snapped up TV stations, in large part, to reap the bounty of political dollars.

     While Moody’s has not yet formulated an estimate, political spending in 2016 should top $3.5 billion, Salas said.

     That represents a 20% increase in the $2.9 billion spent in 2014 for the congressional and state contests.

     “A lot of money is being raised and earmarked for campaigns,” Salas said. “And two-thirds of that money goes for television.”

     Moody’s report said that advertising spending should not falter as long as the U.S. economy avoids a recession and unemployment levels remain below 7%.

     Core advertising sources — which include Hollywood movie studios, retailers, restaurants, beverage companies and automakers — have been fairly stable. “Core advertising remains the vast majority of spending,” Salas said.

operation.

Source: Meg James, LA Times  4/1/2015

     What is marketing? What is banding? How do they differ? There is a spectrum of opinions here, but in my view, marketing is actively promoting a product or service. It’s a push tactic. It’s pushing out a message to get sales results: “Buy our product because it’s better than theirs.” (Or because it’s cool, or because this celebrity likes it, or because you have this problem and this thing will fix it, etc.) This is oversimplification, but that’s it in a nutshell. This is not branding.

Branding should both precede and underlie any marketing effort. Branding is not push, but pull. Branding is the expression of the essential truth or value of an organization, product, or service. It is communication of characteristics, values, and attributes that clarify what this particular brand is and is not.

A brand will help encourage someone to buy a product, and it directly supports whatever sales or marketing activities are in play, but the brand does not explicitly say “buy me.” Instead, it says “This is what I am. This is why I exist. If you agree, if you like me, you can buy me, support me, and recommend me to your friends.”

Branding is strategic. Marketing is tactical. Marketing may contribute to a brand, but the brand is bigger than any particular marketing effort. The brand is what remains after the marketing has swept through the room. It’s what sticks in your mind associated with a product, service, or organization—whether or not, at that particular moment, you bought or did not buy.

The brand is ultimately what determines if you will become a loyal customer or not. The marketing may convince you to buy a particular Toyota, and maybe it’s the first foreign car you ever owned, but it is the brand that will determine if you will only buy Toyotas for the rest of your life.

The brand is built from many things. Very important among these things is the lived experience of the brand. Did that car deliver on its brand promise of reliability? Did the maker continue to uphold the quality standards that made them what they are? Did the sales guy or the service center mechanic know what they were talking about?

Marketing unearths and activates buyers. Branding makes loyal customers, advocates, even evangelists, out of those who buy.

Well-researched and well-executed marketing is an investment that pays for itself in sales and brand reinforcement. The return is loyalty. The return is sales people whose jobs are easier and more effective, employees who stay longer and work harder, customers who become ambassadors for the company.

Branding is as vital to the success of a business or nonprofit as having financial coherence, having a vision for the future, or having quality employees. It is the essential foundation for a successful operation.

Source: James Heaton, Tonvig Group

    

Clip Interactive has partnered with Beasley Media Group, Inc. to create custom branded mobile apps for the company’s portfolio of radio stations, located across all markets.  To download individual station apps, simply go to the App Store and enter in the call letters of the stations you’d like to download onto your smartphone, i.e. WNKS, WFNZ, WPEG, etc…  Clip Interactive also has developed a new and improved version of Beasley’s iRadioNOW portal application for listening and interacting with all Beasley stations and digital-only channels.

     This collaboration improves Beasley Media’s mobile footprint in the United States and develops new revenue streams for the stations owned and operated by Beasley.

     Beasley’s custom branded Clip Radio-powered apps give listeners a new way to interact with their favorite radio stations. Clip Interactive’s technology enables users to not only listen but also browse broadcast radio content from the past hour and have the ability to rate music, enter contests, access advertiser offers and more.

     “Beasley is a unique partner and thought leader who values the importance of creating rich interactivity for their broadcast stations and digital properties,” said Bill Freund, chief revenue officer at Clip Interactive.  “Our technology brings interactivity to all of Beasley’s audio sources, creating a unified user experience for their listeners and a single way to interact with all Beasley stations.”

     Furthermore, Clip Interactive has developed a new Listen Live Web Player, for all of Beasley’s websites. Equipped with Clip Interactive’s unique technology and design, this new interactive web player enhances users’ online listening experience. The updated Listen Live Player functions on all iPhone and Android devices.

     “Beyond the state-of-the-art features that the Clip Radio-powered apps and technology provides our listeners, the potential benefits for our advertisers are equally exciting,” said EVP and Chief Financial Officer Caroline Beasley of Beasley Broadcast Group. “This partnership enables us to offer advertisers an impactful and innovative way to reach our vast and diverse audience with interactive digital components tied to traditional on-air commercials.”

Source: Bizjournals.com

 

    She’s a tough old boot that radio. Every decade seems to offer her competition in the form of new technology, but she never fails to transform and bounce back. Since commercial radio broadcasting first exploded into our lives in 1920, it has been one of the constants in the way we receive information and entertainment. To this day, radio has an unparalleled ability to create debates, make us cry, laugh out loud and educate us.

     You might assume that, in the multi-device digital age, radio would be drowning. However, this is very far from being the case.  Audio content and radio stations are doing better than ever before, as the rise of podcasts such as Serial – the fastest ever to reach 5m downloads and streams globally – have demonstrated in spades.

     So why does it continue to thrive? Radio has taken advantage of what the digital age has to offer. In parallel to the existing FM stations, the opportunity to stream internet stations from around the globe has proved popular. Listeners have the choice of literally thousands of stations, from general pop music to very targeted speech and music shows.

     However, despite all this exciting and extremely well-targeted content, it feels as if the standard of the radio commercial creative has been left behind. I listen to a lot of radio, and I am finding it hard to recall a good commercial, let alone a great one that has been on air of late. As an industry professional I’m always listening out for the ads, but I find my brain drifting off and creating my to do lists until a punchy track interrupts my thoughts.

     So what is the solution? It takes a group of skilled craftspeople to create good radio. You need excellent writers, experienced sound designers, well-cast talent and focused direction to pull it all together. This inevitably means allocating (and safeguarding) sufficient budget to write and deliver a client’s messages in the most effective way.

     Whereas the digital age has had a positive effect on choice and content, overall it’s been negative for the radio advertising industry. Clients have too much choice and too many mediums, which has impacted the budget and use of the medium. With advertising budgets stretched across all of these mediums, brand managers are under more pressure than ever to deliver value in everything they do.

     It is a shame that the creative and production of radio commercials seem to have been affected by this. There are a lot of opportunities to deliver very targeted or bespoke messages, to the right audience, in today’s radio landscape. Maybe the key is spending budget on smaller, more targeted audiences, rather than stretching budgets to make more generic commercials to a larger group of listeners.

     Another way to potentially bring about a new golden age in radio advertising lies in getting a new generation of creative and brand managers excited by the possibilities of the medium.

     I don’t pretend to have all of the answers, but I do know that radio is as strong as it has ever been. The good news is that the digital age has enhanced it, rather than killed it. There is a real hunger for good content, and if brands want an audience, they have it. They just need to look at a better way of communicating their messages to them.

Source: Nicola Gilbert Thedrum.com 2/5/15

1. Don’t Underestimate The Power of Radio

     The voice is a wonderful thing. Used properly, it can move you to tears, unleash a fury of anger, sooth both physical and mental pain, irritate you like chalk on a blackboard, hypnotize you into the most embarrassing behavior, fire you up & motivate you to accomplish the most daunting tasks, fire up a nation to battle, seduce the most cold-hearted soul and yes, it can certainly convince you to happily part with your money. In fact, the people who make radio production their livelihood, are paid quite handsomely to get you to do things that are not on your priority list. Ever listen to a movie trailer? Listen to the announcer. His job is to get you to see that movie. Whether you realize it or not, the impact of that voice lasts longer than you may be aware of. You may remember the visuals, but it is the EMOTIONAL AUDIO IMPRINT that leaves you with a “I’ve got to see this when it comes out!” memory. It is the same subliminal effect that radio can create.

 

2. Get The Best Creative Production Possible

     Why do you want the best creative possible? Well, there are several reasons. 1) it makes your advertising more effective      2) the cost of your campaign can actually be lower if more people respond to a better commercial, as fewer spots are necessary to make the same impact 3) better creative is more memorable. 4) strong creativity entertains and sells at the same time 5) powerful creative radio spots get people talking about the spot & consequently the product “OK,” you’re saying, “but this sounds like it’s going to cost a fortune!” Nothing could be further from the truth. What will cost you a fortune, is a radio advertising campaign that falls flat because the production was not up to scratch! Remember, advertising is an investment if you eventually get back more than you paid. It’s a fortune if you don’t get back anything! In order to make sure that there’s a payback, I highly recommend you look at all the variables and creative production is high on the list!

 

3. Develop A Strategy & Stick With It

     There are many ways to use radio. Short campaigns, long campaigns, image building, promotions, product launches etc. The first thing to be aware of is that new advertisers have to develop name recognition with a station’s audience. This is crucial for first-timers. Well known advertisers are seen as reliable and trustworthy. The longer you advertise, the more favor you win with listeners. It is like money in the bank. I advise all new advertisers to start with an introduction campaign to highlight who they are, what their product is and the benefits of shopping at their store. This doesn’t mean that you can’t break the rules and have a grand opening with a fantastic door crasher special. Certainly that will work. But ideally, the best results for that type of scenario come when a “teaser campaign” precedes the grand opening. Let me state that much of the advice offered here is what I believe to be the “safe route” to effective radio advertising. Even under less optimal conditions, radio can be quite effective! What you want to do, however, is not succeed by throwing tons of money into your advertising, but rather cover all the essentials so that you have an effective and cost efficient campaign. Good planning goes a long way. 

Source: Radioadvertisingtips.com

 

Oscar winner and comedian Robin Williams died last week at age 63. We all know he was a great actor, but to honor him, here’s a small compilation of his best commercials throughout the years. There’s even a commercial from 1977 long before he was known in Hollywood… RIP!

SNICKERS: Coach Williams
In the well known “You are not you when you are hungry”-campaign from Snickers, Williams played the role of a hungry coach, in his typical hyperactive role.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BPLR9l0CYA

APPLE: Your verse
Apple broadcasted a commercial called ‘Your verse’ which was based on the monologue Williams did in “Dead Poets Society.” The voice in the commercial is his, you’ll recognize after a while. “We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race…”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiyIcz7wUH0

THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: Daughter
Williams named his daughter Zelda, because back in time, he was a giant fan of that particular game. The commercial ends when he says, “You are both as magical”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3wrNSovAA8

SKY TV: Giant Toy
Another beautiful commercial is one from Sky TV, where a little boy unpacks a surprise and suddenly Robin Williams comes out of it, as a robot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vejQ-bUUJsc

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: Wheel of misfortune
Robin Williams was also an ambassador of several non-profit organizations. This commercial is from 1993 for Amnesty International.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vsDIAVqFvo

ILLONOIS BELL: Funny voices (1977)
This is the oldest commercial we found of Robin Williams. He plays the role of a typical Robin Williams character, by doing all kind of funny voices..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSrNJ1mkvrQ

TOYS: Trailer
This commercial was for the movie ‘Toys’ from 1992, which was about a military general that inherited a toy making company and began making war toys.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zxANtv4gdU

ST. JUDE CHILDRENS HOSPITAL: 4 musketeers
Another not so know commercial of him, for the St. Jude Children Hospital, supporting children with cancer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fB3k2zK02o

Source: Creativecriminals.com

A good radio ad delivers a simple repetitive message. As much as radio people would like to believe that listeners are hanging on every word, they’re not. It’s is a message in the background, almost subliminal. The message has to be strong and simple. If you listen to national radio advertisers and how they do it, you’ll start to pick up on this concept. The best example I can give you of this is a radio ad Sears ran many years ago for Die Hard batteries. It was simply the sound of a car attempting to start. The starter would crank but no ignition. With each successive try the starter would crank for a shorter period of time until finally all you heard was a click. Then an announcer said simply… “Die Hard batteries, available at Sears.” This is the kind of radio ad that works. It’s relatable and it’s simple.
So, for local advertisers, I would come up with a concept. I would develop the concept in the first thirty seconds of a sixty second spot and then to appease the print ad minded advertiser, give him twenty seconds of details. Then for the last ten seconds of the ad, I would reprise back to the concept. This way I had a chance to make an effective ad and still give the advertiser his say.
With phone numbers in radio spots, they simply don’t work unless the whole focus of the spot is the phone number. For instance, a local Pizza chain a few years back put in a single number to call for all their locations to order Pizza for any location around the city. Naturally they wanted to promote this phone number. So, they had a jingle produced that simply said… “Call 895-1111, 895-1111, Call 895-1111 for Pizza Hut delivery.” That is all it said, over and over to a musical melody. Of course this was widely successful. A simple repetitive message and the catchiness of a jingle so it gets “stuck in your head.” Just an announcer repeating the phone number three times at the end of a laundry list simply doesn’t work.
Another good tip is when you give an address for a business… instead of just saying “at 333 Third Street,” you can say something like “at Third and Main across from City Hall.” It’s all about landmarks. Give them a point of reference.
In some ways, radio advertising should be handled much like Internet pay-per-click keyword advertising. Instead of broad terms about a broad range of products, pick one product to promote at a time. Get them in the store with a good deal whether they buy or not. Create “foot traffic.” It leads to sales.
Another common spot template that is ineffective is what we call in the industry a “hey honey I’m home spot” or “dialogue spot.” This is where there is an inane conversation going on between two bad actors that are talking in ways that no one does. Very stilted and filled with phone numbers and details. At best you will get attention with these spots only due to how bad they are as people laugh at your business.
In radio, it is important to use sound. Sound is the medium. You can use effective sound effects as in the Sears Die Hard spot or you can use “dry” text to stand out among all the noise. Just make the dry text slow, deliberate and powerful, and with a very simple message. I remember one many years ago like this for an acne product that said in a deep voice with no music or other sound… “a few more cents, a few less zits.” Very powerful.
I hope I’ve given you some insight into the subject of being creative with you radio spots. Look around you, notice what gets people excited about your product and find a simple message to get you noticed and then keep repeating it over an over. Be consistent.

Source: Colin Campbell, Yahoo.com

When people ask, “What’s the best length for a radio ad?” I always think of Abe Lincoln’s answer when asked, “How long should a man’s legs be?” His answer: Long enough to reach the ground. In other words, a radio ad should be exactly as long as it takes to say what needs to be said.

Use 60-second ads when:

•Your message is complex. Better to write a 60 that makes your message clear than a 30 that leaves doubts and questions.

•You need to include specific details to help persuade. Specifics are always more believable than generalities. Close the loophole. Answer the question lurking in the listener’s mind. But don’t bore your audience by answering questions no one was asking.

•You’re in a business category that’s new and not easily understood. If you need to create the realization of need before you can sell your solution, it can easily take 60 seconds.

Use 30-second ads when:

•Your product or service category is clearly understood and you’re making an easy-to-understand offer. Say it plain. Say it straight. Eliminate all but the most essential adjectives and adverbs. Replace clichés and predictable phrases with unanticipated wording. Focus on verbs and use as many as possible. Make one point per ad, but make it powerfully in the script. Whatever you do, don’t write a weak message and then try to compensate for it with powerful delivery (vocal inflection, dramatic music, sound effects.)

Use 15-second ads when:

•You have an incredibly powerful, simple message. Don’t screw it up by blah, blah, blahing for 30 seconds when you can say it more powerfully in 15. At least 25 percent of the 30-second ads on most stations would really work better as 15s. Tight, powerful ads are hard to write, but definitely worth the effort.

•You’re in a business category in which no one advertises but you. When path dominance has been acquiesced to you by your competitors and simple name recognition will likely be enough to make customers think of your name when they need what you sell, don’t be an idiot-buy 15-second ads and mentions.

Use mentions when:

•You sell a commodity in a crowded marketplace and your strategy is to go for top-of-mind awareness.

•You merely want to add additional frequency to a schedule that is delivering barely sufficient frequency of your 30- or 60-second message.

The most common mistake is allowing the ad budget to dictate the length of your ad. Never try to squeak by with 15s and mentions when you really need 30s and 60s. Reduce the number of people you’re reaching instead of cutting the length of your ad, or buy a less expensive time of day or from a smaller station. Always make your message exactly as long as it needs to be.

Source: Roy Williams, Entrepreneur.com

Let’s say you spent good money on a brochure.  Several pages filled with features, benefits, facts, figures, call to action, contact info…oh yeah, paragraphs about who you are, what you do….the different services you provide, your product offerings…and the list goes on and on.  Everything you believe a potential client would need or want to know about your business.  Now you are interested in advertising on the radio.

Here’s a great radio advertising tip – Don’t let your radio commercials end up like your brochure. Advertising on the radio works best when it is simple and effective.  First…a given.  If you are going to advertise on the radio.  Make sure you have a product that has demand.  In another article we discuss the topic of Direct Response Radio Advertising Mistakes: A Product No One Wants.  With that said, let’s move on to advertising on the radio assuming there is demand for your product or service.

Simplicity is the key to effective direct response radio advertising.  Face it, when you are buying fifteen, thirty, even sixty seconds worth of radio advertising, you don’t have the time to create an audio brochure. Radio advertising is a powerful advertising medium, but can it work for you?

Yes it can.  You just need to make sure your direct response radio advertising campaign is just that…DIRECT.  When advertising on the radio, get right to the point.  What is the problem your potential customers face?  What is the solution?  (Hopefully this is where you have inserted your company name). What benefit does your company provide that solves the problem?  And most important of all…what would make me choose your company?  Here is where the irresistible offer comes in.  Direct response radio advertising is rooted in a foundation of “what’s in it for me”.  Give me reason to call.  A free offer…free sample…free estimate…deep discount…money back guarantee…whatever your feel is important to your potential customer.  This offer helps “grease the skids” and provides a strong incentive to call or click.

And speaking of calls and clicks – If you are advertising on the radio, you must make your call to action clear, concise and memorable.  In other words, if you are driving to a toll free number, make sure you are not advertising some random ten digits that are difficult to remember.  Use vanity phone numbers.  Vanity phone numbers provide sticking power in the listeners mind.  What will you remember more – 1-800-I-ATE-A-BUG or 1-800-428-3228 (plus the extra useless digit)?  You can use a combination of vanity numbers or words and number for tracking purposes.  If you are directing your radio advertising campaign to a URL. Make sure it’s a simple domain name.  No long URL’s with dashes and slashes and long strings of weird variables.  Simple works better.  And again, you can use a variety of simple domains for tracking.  And make sure you mention your number or URL at least a couple of times throughout the radio commercial.

So what have you learned here?  When advertising on the radio, keep it simple.  Get directly to the problem, the solution, the benefit, the irresistible offer, and the clear call to action.  Keep this simple structure in mind, and your chances of success when advertising on the radio dramatically increase.

Source: businessvn.net  

Email is sometimes seen as the dreary cousin of Facebook who never gets invited to the marketing party.  It has this image of mundaneness because it has been around for decades and is all about work.  Often it is perceived as that necessary evil that that can’t compete on marketing terms with the rather fun Twitter chap.  YouTube or Pinterest is like a super model compared to the dowdy and buttoned up email dingleberry.

But if you talk to any serious marketer, blogger or online store owner who has been around a while, then building an email list from day one is a number one priority.  You own it and it is known to deliver!

It may not be the life of the party but it is that efficient PA that just gets the job done. It is like your accountant that understands the meaning of numbers.  Some of us have been too distracted by the shiny new marketing tool called “social media”

Email marketing is one of the basic principles of an internet marketing strategy. Often it was the only marketing tool available to bloggers when blogging was in its infancy.  It becomes essential whenever you are pursuing numerous leads for marketing your brands and products.

With so many tasks to manage, such as handling an auto-responder, managing subscriptions of your clients, sending out emails to your potential customers, and sending out follow up emails, email marketing can be a very daunting task. That is why partnering with a trusted outside source is key to maximizing profits for your businesses email marketing efforts.

How CBS Email Marketing Can Help

Let CBS Email Marketing handle the legwork for your email marketing in 2014, and get big returns on your investment.  Why CBS Email Marketing?

Target

With a email database of over 255 MILLION unique email addresses pulled from thousands of websites, CBS has the ability to target based on geography, gender, age, income, interests, etc… and can scrub our permission-based database with your house list to avoid duplication.

Hook

The powerful combination of zeroing-in on customers who have expressed interest in your products or services and offering them a compelling value proposition and reason to buy, provides the perfect
means to increase sales for your business!

Convert

Engaging emails – optimized for desktop and mobile devices – gets consumers to act.  CBS can deploy unique follow-up messages with special offers to recipients who’ve opened emails and to those who have not.  With open rate averages of 7-9%, CBS will redeploy any email that falls below the industry 3% average – at no additional charge!

To learn more about CBS Email Marketing, please contact Chuck Powell directly at (704)904-1218 or at cpowell@kiss951.com.

Source: Jeffbulla’s Blog 2013, CBS Email Marketing