Radio ads - Do they work?

[NightmareAftershockLLC]

For the past two years Sue from Graystone Haunted Manor and I have been doing local radio ads. Dick does the voicing, I do the editing, and we air then with radio station packages in her area Longview/Tyler/East Texas.

Is it worth it anymore? With the Internet radios like iheartradio, pandora, etc, I find it almost counter productive to spend huge wads of cash on radio ads that won't even really be heard by our target audience anymore, since the twenty-thirty somethings are now more plugged into the Internet than ever, I have a hard time believing that it's worth our money anymore.

I'd almost rather spend that same amount of money on billboards along a major highway...

Sue I'm sure will be watching this post, and I hope someone can give us some insight.

Thanks

Keegan

[austind]

I know that I was in a class and one of the very well known haunts was talking about they had a issue getting there radio adds in this last year, so they ended up doing none at all. He commented that it did not hurt them at all. Now they are a haunt that is well known in their area but they still saw no drop in attendance.

Phatman

[Deathwing]

Phatman,

I'm curious to know what haunt that was? You can pm if you prefer.

Thanks,
Jake

[austind]

I am half a sleep still but I think it was Randy Bates from Bates Hotel. Dont quote me on that there were 4 speekers there, but I think I am right. I am a coach for high school football and none of the kids listen to radio anymore and my son is in college and they dont either. Social media is where it is at right now, and most big haunts are moving away from doing a lot of radio and TV. Last year was a good time to test this, because ad space was very expensive due to the election buying up all the air time and raising the price.

Phatman

[BigT]

We are in rural USA. I put up a banner with our URL, and got no traffic. Why I wondered? Seems no one in this part of the country can afford Internet connections! But they can afford the $10 for a ticket at the haunt, and another $15 for a t-shirt!

We are going to place a radio ad with the local station that everyone seems to listen to. And we are going to have more banners on teh highway. As well as our online presence (we are on several sponsors pages, the local paper runs an article on us, and we appear in the online version of the local rag). We also have newspaper ads.

If I was in metro USA, I would be all over online media and nothing on radio, but it is so dang cheap here I cant afford no tto ($10 for 60s - yeah you read that right, $10 for 60 seconds).

[NightmareAftershockLLC]

Well in lieu of radio we are considering billboards.... I just don't see it panning out regarding old fashioned radio anymore...

[austind]

If you are looking at billboards I have a guy that can print a 14' x 48' for about $500 if you get like 6 to 10 of them.

Phatman

[UnDeRTaKer313]

it was brett hays from fear fair that dropped his radio

[freak 'n' stein]

Just weighing in. We did clear channel this past season and I wouldn't say it helped. I'm not a fan of billboards either, as we did that the year before this. Billboards are twofold in my opinion. We did split...standard billboards and the new digital. I'm NOT a fan of digital cause you have to share with some 5 other guys, so you have a smaller percentage of views rather than 100%. Standard billboards don't HURT...but my PERSONAL preference is mehhhhh. In terms of RADIO. I only listen to regular radio when a) don't have my aux in the car or am tired of my mix..b) I'm just gonna be in my car for a minute so radio is quicker...c) listening to morning shows. Other than that I'm streaming radio. GRANTED you can advertise on services like Pandora...but still. I HONESTLY heard our radio ad 2 times last haunt season and I INTENTLY listened. We just got our bill the other week and it had the list of every spot they played. Missed 98% of them. Any marketing is good marketing though, so if you can afford it, do ettttt.

[austind]

Thanks It was Bret, Those late nights turn your brain to mush. Glad someone else could think of it. Billboards work if you don't have to pay to much for add space, but here in Detroit they are costly. I do like the small local paper because if you drop some advertising on them the will give you a write up in most cases.

Phatman