cars or climb mountains. Radio brings a sense of urgency to its listeners that is second to none.
Contrary to the predictions of doom during the advent of television, radio is alive and well today, and radio advertising is a major part of the plan for advertisers of every size and description.
In its pre-television days, radio was the national advertisers' most economical way to communicate with
millions at a time. Syndicated programs of music, drama and
news were a common part of the American life-style. With the advent of television, radio moved to the automobile and the beach.
Along came the transistor and radio moved to the shirt pocket. Today radio is every where. Millions awake to the sound of clock radios, and for many the radio is the last sound they hear before going to sleep. How can a small business use this sound-only medium for effective advertising? Only by understanding it and capitalizing on its strengths.
Today's radio station is judged on its effectiveness not
only by the number of its listeners, but also who those
listeners are. Many of today's stations have positioned
themselves to reach a selective audience instead of a total
market.
In one marketplace, one station may play only country-western
music, another rock music, a third only religious music,
while others feature 24-hour news broadcasts or talk shows.
As an advertiser, format programming allows you to buy
advertising on stations whose listener characteristics most
closely coincide with the profile of your firm's customers.
Buying time on a given station also can help you reach
audience segments that you may want to target to help expand
your firm's total market segment thus enhancing your direct
response method of marketing.
Radio advertising is sold on the basis of time. That time
can vary from an entire program, which includes your
commercial announcements, top spot announcements ranging
from 10 to 60 seconds.
Price ranges are higher during drive time (the hours in the
morning and evening when the maximum number of people are
in their cars going to or from work, school or other daytime
activities) and lower during the time when more people are
watching television.
Most stations offer package rate plans with a specified number
of commercials guaranteed within a particular time slot.
Also, consider buying flights of commercials, i.e., an
intense saturation of 30-second or 1-minute spots in a
relatively short period of two or three weeks. Repeat this
flight technique during key promotional times of the year.
The sounds you can employ on radio include not only the
monologue of a man's or woman's voice, but dialogue and
dramatic conversations, vocal and instrumental music, and
sound effects of every imaginable nature, used individually
or in combinations.
The size of radio's audience, like the circulation of newspapers,
is audited by independent organizations and available to
advertisers through station sales representatives. Arbitron,
one of the auditing firms, conducts its survey by having a
sample number of households keeping a written diary of the
radio listening habits of each occupant during a pre-determined
period (usually one week).
Arbitron then summarizes the various stations' listeners by
time of day in 15-minute segments by sex and age of listener.
An advertiser can use the Arbitron data to select the station
or stations that best cover the desired target audience.
Radio advertising frequency is as high as you can afford.
Many stations now broadcast 24 hours a day, seven days a
week. The number of commercial minutes any station can air
in each segment of programming is limited by the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC), but there is still the
opportunity to have a message repeated frequently in any
given period. It is also possible to have the radio station
come to your business for a remote broadcast with customer
interviews, prize giveaways and other crowd-drawing
techniques.
About The Author
Abe Cherian is the founder of Multiple Stream Media, an advertising network company that helps online businesses find new prospects and clients, who are anxious to grow their business fast, and without spending a fortune in marketing and advertising. www.msmedianetwork.com
Web's #1 business automaton and list management service. http://www.imediamarketingtools.com/
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