Radio advertising - costs, response, etc?

[A790]

Does anyone have any experience with radio advertising in Calgary?

If so, estimated costs? Response? Etc.

I know it varies significantly in some areas but I'm trying to get an idea if it's worth my time looking into radio...

Thanks!

[ercchry]

last time i contacted x92.9 about a non-profit event the quote was ~$5k i think? i didnt get much farther than that :rofl:

EDIT: now that i think about it that was to have them on site broadcasting

[kvg]

I know 770 adverts tend to work quiet well.

[barmanjay]

I looked into 660, the package they proposed to me was $65k/yr (minimum was a 6 month contract)

I can't remember how many times my proposed ad would run. 20ish/week seems familiar.

Country 105 was more expensive

[heavyfuel]

Waste of money. That's all I ever got from Twitter was radio ad chicken hawks trying to get money out of me, shut 'em down every time. They use big words, demographic this, target market that, quarterly these, review those, yaddi yadda fuck off already lol

Radio advertising is fuckin expensive and none of it works. anyways.

[Xtrema]

Originally posted by heavyfuel
Radio advertising is fuckin expensive and none of it works. anyways.

Definitely doesn't work for pizza business. Known a friend did a push on 98.5 awhile back, business hasn't picked up at all. Don't know how much it cost tho.

[Masked Bandit]

I suspect it's one of those things that you have to really go over the top (think Spence Diamonds) for it to work. The last time I saw inside information on a deal was $30,000 for the year (don't remember how many times per week / day) and there were less than ten people that called to say "hey, I heard your add on the radio".

The station was Country 105 and the product was insurance (no, it wasn't me).

[Kavy]

I work for a company that does business consulting (we only consult for one company so im not trying to get business beyond mods), and to be honest radio is dam near the last thing I try when trying to increase brand awareness and traffic. When promoting a specific event it can be very beneficial but as an ongoing marketing directive the ROI is not there in most cases.

Normal spots are about 3k+ a week and the impressions are very low because the long time clients get the best time slots.

Even in the digital age print media (flyers, coupons, direct mailers) is still the single most effective marketing tool out there. That's why all the major players send you irritating flyer after flyer every week, and have done so for 20+ years.

[e31]

Radio advertising, in my opinion, is the lowest common denominator. Total waste of money.

Unless you are selling vodka soaked tampons to teens using 98.5, radio advertising is a dead end.

[HyperZell]

Is anyone here a real marketer, or is everyone just an imaginary expert?

Radio is another tool available for marketing. It works great for some things and poorly for others. Within radio, there are several different options as well, such as on-site broadcasting, prize sponsorships/giveaways, promoted spots, etc.

The best thing to do is to look at the target market of your product and reach out to the stations that appeal to that demographic. Account reps will be more than happy to send you demographic info, which you can use to pinpoint which station is the best for you. For example, I wouldn't pick Energy 101.5 if I was trying to target males (mostly female listening population).

After that's done, you can discuss various opportunities with the rep. Be warned that it does take several thousand dollars for most campaigns, though there are smaller spots (like traffic tags) that you can buy that won't cost as much. The tradeoff is "when". You want to hit rush hour? It's going to cost you. Plus, don't forget production costs. As I said, it works great for some businesses, but not for all of them, but to say that "radio doesn't work" is ignorant.

[CanmoreOrLess]

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[CanmoreOrLess]

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[kvg]

I know people that radio advertise on am radio and it really paid off. I Personally know one business owner that went from just over 100k in monthly sales to over 200k monthly after using 660 consistently, and his business had already been around for close to a decade so it wasn't just a new venture.

[topsecret]

In my experience radio only works if you are on it LOTS and offer some kind of deal, I have had the best luck with flyers, make sure its some kind of card stock and big so it doesn't just get tossed with the rest of the junk mail!

[HyperZell]

Originally posted by CanmoreOrLess



Radio is a dying medium as are newspapers and commercial TV in general. We listen to digi music, change the channels if FM/AM, TV we record and ffwd through the crap commercials (unless entertaining which is vv rare), read online for information and ignore the adverts. Creative minds have long since left the old school mediums, those remaining are cobwebbed in the head, they've seldom ever had an original or innovative idea. You are thinking like it is 1964 and we customers have no choices or power, Mr. David Ogilvy has left the building.

About the only thing that really works is product placement and some avenues which are entertaining. But it better be fucking great as we are not sitting through it again if it is insulting. I cannot recall a single radio or TV spot outside the Super Bowl, etc that actually had me captured. Colbert does some very good commercials within his show though. Marketing 101 is a dead pool of has beens, you cannot teach creativity but you can teach bean counting and this is what advertising is jammed to the gills with.

Click!

http://s3.amazonaws.com/rapgenius/my-mind-is-full-of-fuck.jpg

I would laugh this off as a troll post, but sadly, I don't think that's the case.

You are talking like everyone is exactly like you, which is the pretense of knowing a target market. There are still a lot of people that listen to radio; you just have to know who they are.

I'm not going to sit here and explain marketing any more than I already have as you seem so immovable in your mindset. But any one tells you that "x medium is dead, or x medium is all you need" doesn't truly know about marketing at all. You need to know what tools to use in different scenarios for different target markets - it's about adaptability.

[Kavy]

^^^^^

I agree that Canmoreorless post was ridiculous but why respond to a post by calling people "imaginary experts" when you know nothing about them?

I imagine you work or are in school for marketing which is fantastic, its a great place to be.
But please don't assume that because you have an opinion all others have to agree with it.

[kenny]

The thing with radio, like most marketing is that you have to a decent sized budget or else it just won't work. The listener has to be exposed multiple times for an ad to be effective and if you're campaign budget is going to be what the radio station sets as as the minimum, then don't even bother.

With that out of the way, if the campaign is copied over from another medium and not created specifically for radio it also doesn't stand a chance. A good example would be Plan-It Builders early radio ads. They were terrible because on the radio it sounded like "planet builders".

I'd say radio ads (and billboard ads) are the two mediums that is tough to get direct ROI from but are great for keeping your brand "top of mind". It should supplement other marketing campaigns, not be the primary marketing campaign.

[HyperZell]

Originally posted by Kavy
^^^^^

I agree that Canmoreorless post was ridiculous but why respond to a post by calling people "imaginary experts" when you know nothing about them?

I imagine you work or are in school for marketing which is fantastic, its a great place to be.
But please don't assume that because you have an opinion all others have to agree with it.

Kavy, I don't mean to say that nobody knows marketing, just that, according to the posts above, it seems that it's a bunch of people not involved in marketing that are throwing out opinions that suggest that they are (yours excluded, as you state you work in consulting). It's tantamount to a bunch of people who watch hockey give advice on how to actually play hockey at a pro level. You can imagine a pro hockey player listening to that and getting frustrated.

Anyhow, kenny is very correct. Nobody thinks about Spence because they had one bad (good?) radio ad; they've had several and it's keeping them top of mind. Don't hang your entire marketing campaign on radio, especially with small dollars.

[A790]

I would ask that only those with direct experience please reply. We will be running our own promotions via radio and can not base our decisions around opinion and conjecture.

Thanks to everyone who has replied already!

[HyperZell]

Originally posted by A790
I would ask that only those with direct experience please reply. We will be running our own promotions via radio and can not base our decisions around opinion and conjecture.

Thanks to everyone who has replied already!

So...that'd be me. What else would you like to know?

[guessboi]

I have to agree radio advertising is strictly for Brand Awareness...and not ROI...just like Bus bench advertising...you get your name out there and seen by many...would you get many leads? probably not.