Need advice about radio advertising!

[Darkblood]

Hey all!
I'm looking for some expert advice!
Anywho, we contacted our radio station here that owns 3 or 4 stations (Classic Rock, Country, Mix of Anything, Oldies) and asked about sponsorship or ads...they shoot back an email and phone call asking what our budget is so they can tailor it to us...I was thinking (before we respond) 'Uh, no...we're looking to give tickets and do giveaways and stuff with like a Station Sponsored Casket with a prize people guess in it that they can hype and a few other ideas...'
I don't know what to do?
Any anwers?

Thanks,
Kirk

[Jim Warfield]

Maybe?

You were talking to the wrong person that you should be talking to at the station?
Ask around if you can, maybe they all ready do some sort of haunt promos for tickets and now everyone else has to pay cash?
Or maybe they have their own Halloween house or dance, ball that they make alot of their money from and they will now make the "competition" pay for ads.
You seem to need to know more about these things I mentioned, I think...

[Boni]

I'm confused. Do you want them to provide their advertising to you in exchange for tickets, give-away's, promo spots, etc.

That will be a tough sell.

Most radio stations actually charge for promo's like you are talking about. Our local station charges $500 to have their RV come out to your site and do a remote broadcast. That is not something they are giving away to promote themselves.

You might be able to reduce the price a bit by offering tickets to their employees.

All this person was trying to do was determine your level of interest and their level of service they want to give you. If you tell them $1000 or more, you will get a good sales rep come out and see you. If you say $100, you may not see anyone, or their rookie guy at best.

As someone who has been in the advertisng business before, my advice is, don't tell them any $ amount. Ask them to provide you with some of their basic packages.

E-mail the guy back, ask for a face to face, and then discuss their options for you.

Right now is a good time to bargain. Once you design the package you want and they give you a price, ask them for a discount.

Some other things to bargain with or have them throw in, a link on their web page, tons of ticket give-aways, a spot during the morning drive where you come in and talk live to the DJ, a remote broadcast on opening night.

Last year I purchased 90 spots, I was able to have them give away 45 pairs of tickets which equated to 45 more spots as the give-aways were probably better than the real spots. I also got a live spot on the morning show on their rock, country and sports station. They also produced the ad for me and did a really good job.

[Darkblood]

Thanks for the advice guys!
Sorry I was probably vague but I was typing fast as I only had a few mins before I had to be somewhere.
Here's some more info...
My business partner called the lady he talked to the previous year (we paid money to be involved in a flyer that went around promoting all the haunts that bought in plus we were to be mentioned during the 'Fright Night' ad that listed them...well, they didn't put us on either that we ever saw and said something about it being too late (this is a big radio station mind you and monopolized 3 or 4 stations around here that are popular...okay...lesson learned and now I'm trying to make sure we get a good deal.
I understand we'll have to pay some...but when a station says "Give me your amount you want to spend and we'll propose something to you in that range..." I'm like NO WAY!
An update as of 2 hours ago...she contacted my partner and told him the 'normal price' for a month of advertising and would drop it considerably if we offered free tickets to giveaway...I had originally emailed her that we would like to do this plus other things (live broadcast/radio sponsored casket/etc.) and she said something about 2 hour live broadcast...well he told her yep and our ideas for tickets and to get back to him or I about what kind of considerable discount we could get.
I told him don't bring up any money on our part...let's see what THEY can do...
I guess I was asking for advice to help get the $$$ down and also if we were doing the right approach...we know we gotta spend to get some advertising...just trying to do it to our benefit!
There, I hope that's more info! Thanks Jim and Boni!

Kirk

[Mike Goff]

used to work for a radio station

There are alot of variable factors to consider, are you #1 in your market? Is the radio station #1 in your market?

Know this... Arbitron rates stations in the fall. radio stations call this "being in a book" When a market is in a book, the stations do what's called promotions. They do all kinds of crazy stunts and giveaways on air in an effort to increase thier listening audience, while they are in the book. Once the book is over they could care less about promotions.

The book is the single most important thing to a radio station, they base thier pricing on it. If you attract a large group of people to your attraction, it benefits the station to be there, far more than it benefits you. (FYI they will never admit this)

I don't pay for live remotes, I allow them to bring thier station vehicle out and park it, as long as they do live broadcasts. I don't give them tickets to give away, they trade me dollar for dollar, for advertising.

It was not always like this, but once we had a product that was valuable to the station, and once we understood a dollar amount of that value, the negotiating began.

Figure out what you have to offer, and what they are worth. There are 2 sides to radio, Sales and programming, the sales person will only want to sell you a schedule, and in most cases resent the program director for doing trade with you.

Pm me if I can be of any help

[Spookyfinder]

What we did is just paid for advertising. We gave them the length of the ad, airdates, times per day, etc. etc... paid that! Then we worked in stuff like station give-a-ways, etc. etc. Remember, your tix have value... so if you give them 100 tix to give-a-way and lets just say your admission price is $10... you just gave them $500!!!

So expect that much in ads back from the station(s). This could be more ads per day, live remotes, internet placement/ad, live call ins, station visits, etc. etc.

We paid $6K for our radio ads then gave them another $2K in tix... this scored us an AMAZING radio deal on several area stations (Top 50, Modern hits, Rock, etc.)

RIGHT NOW is the best time to secure spots, best price, etc. etc... don't wait until the best spots are sold to other businesses/haunts... get your ADS NOW!!!! -Tyler