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Proper radio advertising schedule?

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  • Proper radio advertising schedule?

    What's the better type of weekly schedule to have for radio.... Have a low # of ads play early on in the week and get heavier towards the weekend, with the most ads playing on Saturday? Or to have more ads during the weekdays and less ads playing on the weekend?

    For 2 seasons, we've had many more ads on Fridays and Saturdays, than on any other day of each week. But sales aren't as strong as last year for us, and we're considering moving more ads to mid week and less ads on weekends.

    Your thoughts?
    Brad Bowen
    Owner/Operator of the Ultimate Fear Haunted House in Shreveport, LA
    www.ultimatefear.net

  • #2
    There are way too many variables to give you a direct answer. Are you established? How long have you been in business? Are there any other haunts in your market?
    I get more web hits on Wed. than any other day. It is safe to say that people are planning out thier weekend on Wednsday.
    If you are not an established haunt, then I would say that you should get as much frequency as you can. Rotators are the cheapest way to go. If you stack them up 10 a day, many of them will run during good times. Radio advertising isn't what it used to be, we find ourselves doing less and less of it. As an experiment this year, we dropped all local radio advertising just to see how much of an impact it would have. We fully expected to lose money, this has not been the case. We are exactly on track for what we did last year. Something that is even more curious, is that a big out of market haunt came to town and spent quite a bit of money on radio and billboards and again, it has had no impact on our numbers.

    If you are established, it might be a better effort to use a more precise way of scheduling your spots. Pick morning and afternoon drive times. There are many things to consider about the dying radio business. Active Rock and CHR stations are being dropped at an alarming rate in favor of adult contemporary and classic rock. I believe this is due to the economy, it doesn't really pay for the stations to go after the younger demo. Ad to this, pandora, slacker, and sirius and it is even more difficult for stations to hold a younger demo. When you consider that most markets are rated by diary, this compounds the problem even more. Young people do not fill out diaries.

    Because of all the things mentioned above, and more, I believe that the days of immediate gratification in advertising are gone for ever. In order to succeed I think that the focus should be brand building and any effective campaign needs to be planned out at least 3 years in advance. If this is the plan, I would go back to frequency over reach. Stack up as many commercials as you can afford. A good ratio for ad budgets are 8-12% of your gross. Good luck.
    www.haroldshaunt.com

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    • #3
      Best way is to have your ads hear is when people are actually near radios which is the morning commute or rush hour. If you're donating to charity have you told the station? One of the privately owned ones offered me a further deal on spots. Also stay way from 60secs it's not cost effective and people lose interest quickly.

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      • #4
        Biggest secret in radio. With the exception of news talk, the average time spent listening to a station is about 12 minutes a day. It is critical to have a good spot that doesn't get lost in the mix. I think that it doesn't matter if your spot is 15, 30 or 60 seconds as long as it is good. If you can stay away from Clear channel stations, the price is usually the same.
        www.haroldshaunt.com

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        • #5
          I normally do 60 sec spots and a few 30's this year i added some 10's and 15's also add 18 small billboards and a bunch of cable TV spots which i had never done before. Suppose to be one of the best radio buys i've ever had, spent more over all on the whole ad budget. and so far same numbers as the last couple of years. if things stay the same i will be at about 23% of my gross. Something is defently wrong

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          • #6
            Radio?

            We are for the first time ever not using radio. The numbers are just not there. The audience we are targeting is online. 80% of teens have a facebook and are connected through their phone. So to test this data we cut out radio all together and our number are better than we had in 2006. Social networks like facebook and youtube are what's keeping us going and it's working.

            The Haunting has been open for 17 years and we would spend up to 20K a year on radio. Now the only ad we have is in the local paper to help support it and no that ad isn't bringing in business but they write so many articles about my entertainment company I do it as a thank you. So essentially we are using fliers, website, youtube and facebook. Savings: $19,000 this year and the numbers are up way up.

            Every market is different and social networking needs a feeder system. So you may need some mass media to get it going but once the fire is lit you can scale it back. Where we live, the market is depressed and smaller. Communicating to the right audience can be done a bit easier. In a large metro area you will have to shout loud and become established to get the pump primed for a good social media campaign. Also before I go here, you need to plan way way in advance. This is a political season and some stations sell out of airtime. Just fyi.

            Good luck to you.

            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeYyo...feature=colike

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            • #7
              Originally posted by myhaunting View Post
              We are for the first time ever not using radio. The numbers are just not there. The audience we are targeting is online. 80% of teens have a facebook and are connected through their phone. So to test this data we cut out radio all together and our number are better than we had in 2006. Social networks like facebook and youtube are what's keeping us going and it's working.

              The Haunting has been open for 17 years and we would spend up to 20K a year on radio. Now the only ad we have is in the local paper to help support it and no that ad isn't bringing in business but they write so many articles about my entertainment company I do it as a thank you. So essentially we are using fliers, website, youtube and facebook. Savings: $19,000 this year and the numbers are up way up.

              Every market is different and social networking needs a feeder system. So you may need some mass media to get it going but once the fire is lit you can scale it back. Where we live, the market is depressed and smaller. Communicating to the right audience can be done a bit easier. In a large metro area you will have to shout loud and become established to get the pump primed for a good social media campaign. Also before I go here, you need to plan way way in advance. This is a political season and some stations sell out of airtime. Just fyi.

              Good luck to you.

              http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeYyo...feature=colike
              Very well said. I completely agree. I used to work in sales in both radio and TV and it was difficult for me to come to this conclusion, but numbers don't lie. What we need to do now is polish the art of social media marketing.
              www.haroldshaunt.com

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              • #8
                As a first year haunt owner this is a really interesting topic to me. I spent a decade helping manage an event with a three year break wandering. It is startling to me how much has changed in advertising in just five years. Your .com numbers are nowhere what they were. The power of Facebook is crazy. And the radio seems a hit or miss thing. Admittedly the light rock station ticket giveaways are doing better for me than the advertising. It just seems like nothing that would have been a “norm” for marketing 5 years ago is good now. The only constant appears to be feet on the street with flyers.
                http://www.innerfears.com/
                http://www.innerfearshauntedhouse.com

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