by Simona Covel
• Take advantage of market conditions. If the local economy is slowing, chances are the airtime available on local television stations is aplenty and you can negotiate some terrific deals.
• Look for fire sales. It doesn’t happen often, but if stations have excess slots because of local or national advertising conditions, it presents an opportunity for small businesses. Quite often, they will include programming you would otherwise not be able to afford.
• Participate in auctions. When you purchase advertising via an auction, you will need to pay up front, and may not have a clear understanding of what time slots you’ll be receiving. Because of the uncertainty, rather than base your entire television schedule on auctions, you may want to use the auction to complement your schedule.
• Buy remnants. You can purchase inexpensive remnant packages with a range of flexibility; the more flexible you are, the more savings you will receive. A remnant package generally puts you on a kind of “auto-fill” schedule, where your ads might appear just about any time, on any day of the week. That can feel risky, but you may end up scoring a placement during a popular show that can easily pay for the package.
• Negotiate added value. When booking airtime, you can almost always negotiate for extras or “a value add,” Hroncich says. “We did a cable TV buy for one of our clients recently and we got some free advertising on their website as a value add and some public service announcements at no charge.” PSAs are ten-second spots to air when available during your flight (the schedule of advertising for a period of time). Hroncich notes that advertising agencies can often help negotiate these value add deals better because they’re aware of what the stations have offered other advertisers in the past.
• Negotiate a media mix. Ask if the television station has a website and see if there are any potential promotional activities on that website if you buy TV advertising. Maybe your ad can run on-site or maybe you can create a corresponding banner.
How Measurable Is It?
It’s tough. You can measure visits to your website after your commercial airs, or look for a sales boost. But specific, detailed metrics are nearly impossible to collect.
Can I DIY?
When it comes to producing your commercial, DIY is a tough path to go down. It takes a certain amount of expertise—not to mention equipment—to script, direct, and shoot a commercial, no matter how short. A freelance TV producer may be able to help for an hourly rate. Or your local TV stations may offer their own in-house production services for a relatively low cost.
RADIO
Though it’s one of the oldest forms of mass media still in use, radio remains a useful and profitable tool for marketers. According to a recent study from Nielsen, 59 percent of U.S. music listeners listen to traditional or online radio.2
Even in the digital age, radio offers certain unique advantages. It remains the best way to reach consumers as they commute, giving it a leg up for certain local businesses. “It is still really relevant, but a lot depends on the market. If you’re in Atlanta, Washington, D.C., or Los Angeles, where a lot of people still drive to work, it’s a good platform to get your advertising message out,” says Capitol Media Solutions’ Hroncich.
Over and over, studies show that radio remains effective for marketers. In 2014, Nielsen reported that radio ads drive 5.8 percent of U.S. retail sales.3 Considering that more ad dollars are spent on TV, Internet, and print ads than on radio ads, 5.8 percent represents a pretty good return on investment. Put another way, each dollar of radio ad spend generates an average sales return of $6—though returns tend to be higher for local businesses like retail stores rather than national products.
How Much Does It Cost?
Like TV, your cost will vary based on the size of the market you’re advertising to. You may pay as little as fifteen dollars per play for a thirty-second ad in a small city market, or a few hundred dollars per play in a large one. Contracts are often available so you’re paying a flat fee for a certain number of plays over the course of a month.
Often, radio stations will help produce the commercial for you as part of an advertising deal. You generally can give them copy and they’ll create the ad. That may be included in the price, or you may pay an additional fee: Find out before you sign the contract.
Radio stations will also often offer package deals that include banner advertising on their website or mentions in newsletters they send. Those options may add a few thousand dollars to your advertising package. Pricier options may include a popular DJ endorsing your product or the sponsorship of a local event.
Getting a Bargain
Just like TV, you can save by planning ahead and committing to the long term—often thirteen to twenty-six weeks. Plus, generally your rate will be guaranteed, even if there are rate increases.
If you don’t purchase your radio campaign in advance, you are at the mercy of supply and demand, and rates may increase as inventory decreases. You may not be able to run your campaign at all if a station is sold out during busy months.
“Negotiation is key. You have to go in and negotiate what you want,” says Hroncich. “There’s a lot more to it than placing a simple print ad. You have to look at the target audience you’re looking to reach, the size of your budget, and the ratings of the stations you are interested in purchasing.”
Get Creative
Radio broadcasters are open to creative arrangements such as bartering for airtime, says Tara Hartley, an advertising consultant. In one deal she put together, for example, a client swapped $250,000 worth of excess retail inventory for $100,000 worth of radio advertising over a four-year period. The station used the goods for listener giveaways as well as for in-house sales incentives. “In broadcast—radio and TV—there are all kinds of opportunities to go beyond the rate card,” she says, including free bonus spots, or commercials that use the on-air talent to endorse a product, which has the added benefit of getting union-mandated actor fees waived.
Consider the Rotator
Run of station (ROS) commercials, otherwise known as rotator spots, are lower-priced commercials with a broad window of airtime—although there are usually no guarantees when your commercial will air. The most popular, and thus most expensive, times to run radio ads are during the morning and afternoon “drive time”—the rush hours, when lots of listeners are commuting. But an ROS commercial may air anytime from 6:00 a.m. to midnight. If a station happens to have availability, you may be able to get that lower ROS rate for high-demand times, but it doesn’t happen often. One strategy to consider is to purchase some guaranteed times and supplement those airplays with rotators.
Fringe days or times are when ads are less in demand, or not as highly rated as other time slots, and are priced accordingly. Consider midday, evenings, or weekends, when rates on many stations are less expensive than during weekday drive times.
Buy a Remnant
Like TV, remnant packages are available if you’re flexible about when your ad airs. Natalie Hale, CEO of Media Partners Worldwide, a radio remnant dealer based in California, says in the Los Angeles market she can get a sixty-second spot that normally goes for $300 for somewhere around $50. But those discounts aren’t for everybody. Hale says she won’t work with a client unless they’re willing to spend at least $5,000 to $10,000 per week.
Can I DIY?
Probably. Radio stations target local businesses and have the infrastructure to help get your ad produced. You will, though, need to do the legwork to make sure your audience lines up with the station’s. Advertising agencies are often hired to do the research and the bidding for you, and can often negotiate more “value added” features to a contract.
How Measurable Is It?
Like TV, it’s tough. You can measure visits to your website after your commercial airs, or look for a sales boost if you advertise a time-sensitive promotion. But specific, detailed metrics are nearly impossible to collect.
OUT-OF-HOME
Plastering your startup on a billb
oard may not be the first thing you think of when it comes to advertising in the twenty-first century, but for some businesses, it can be quite effective. Placing small billboards in novel or unexpected locations can be a smart way for cash-strapped businesses to stand out in a world increasingly cluttered with ads. One reason out-of-home ads can be more effective than other forms of advertising, such as TV commercials, is that they often have a captive audience that can’t simply change the channel or head to the kitchen for a snack. That’s why consumers are more likely to remember ads placed in venues like sports arenas and bowling alleys than those that appear on television—they’re staring at that ad for an extended period of time, and may be absorbing its contents without even realizing.
What’s more, people who are already on the go are more likely to stop off at a new restaurant or shop than those who are already in their robes and slippers—making strategic out-of-home ad placement smart for local or neighborhood-driven businesses.
Take the famous “Got Milk?” campaign, which lasted an astonishing twenty years before being retired in 2014. Media planners bought billboard space near grocery stores and convenience shops—a timely reminder for shoppers and passersby who were inspired to pick up a gallon on their way home from work or school.
Highway or local billboards aren’t the only option. If your target is an urban market, like New York, Washington, D.C., or Chicago, subway ads may fit the bill. If you have a B2B product, think airport advertising. Revisit your customer profile and figure out where they go and what their needs are at that time.
“People coming home from work around 6:00 p.m. are hungry and very susceptible to our message,” says Matt Maloney, founder and CEO of online food delivery company Grubhub. “We figured this out when we advertised on mass transit in Chicago. We had noticed that the person managing the outdoor ads was really bad at taking them down, so we knew if we bought a month of space, we’d get five. That placement worked very well. It has been a staple of our advertising ever since.”
While billboards are about as old school as you can get, projecting a static piece of marketing to a crowd, new technology is changing that. The technology is called targeted Digital Out of Home (DOOH). It can capture smartphone IDs, which are then matched to existing advertising IDs that catalogue online search and social media data. The result is an immediate profile of a whole crowd.
That means that if a particular crowd is comprised of college students, or high-net-worth dads, or Spanish-speaking professionals, the signs will serve up an ad that’s targeted to that audience. That doesn’t mean that billboards will suddenly begin to serve ads based on your specific profile, but it will aggregate your profile along with the rest of the crowd, coming up with messaging that’s tailored to a certain demographic, offering a huge new potential opportunity for this old-school medium.
Speaking of old school, if the majority of your business is done locally, don’t overlook one of the oldest out-of-home tactics around: Leaving flyers around town is a nearly free way—you just pay for the printing—to drum up awareness. Handing them out in person is even better, and it gives you an opportunity to tell people about your company and give them a face to connect it with. Flyers are especially important if your business is new and you know the market exists, but you’re having trouble tapping into it.
How Much Does It Cost?
Highway billboards may cost as little as $1,000 for a four-week period, or as much as $15,000, depending on the size, the location, and the number of impressions the ad is likely to get.
In New York City, your startup can cover the interior of an entire subway train for about $17,000 a month (the industry calls this a “spectacular”), or an entire subway station. Your startup can also own every commercial image in an entire station, like the busy Columbus Circle subway station, which costs about $200,000 a month.
Can I DIY?
You can. But a marketing agency can help on two fronts. First, they will have expertise in negotiating out-of-home contracts, which can be hugely helpful if you’re navigating a complex market like New York City or you’re looking for national exposure. An agency can also help you craft the most compelling creative possible. With just a few seconds to grab consumers’ interest, it can be surprisingly tough to craft a message that’s simple—ideally fewer than ten words—and easy to digest and remember.
CASE STUDY
Steven Singer Invents an In Joke
DRIVING DOWN I-95, NONRESIDENTS of the Philadelphia-New Jersey-Delaware region may do a double take. The billboard is black. Scrawled across it in angry white capital letters is the simple message “I HATE STEVEN SINGER.”
Any local will tell you that Singer is the owner of a self-named jewelry shop in Center City, Philadelphia, who has reveled in hate for nearly two decades. Around here, the story is legend. Around 1999, a man bought his wife a Steven Singer diamond ring to celebrate their twentieth anniversary. Nine months later, he returned with a newborn baby and some loud invective about the business he blamed for his unplanned, late-in-life fatherhood. A delighted Singer thought the contrarian message of hate would stand out in an industry soggy with declarations of love.
At first “none of the radio or billboard companies would take our ad,” says Singer, who opened his store in 1980. “When one of the radio companies did, it made me pay in advance, even though I had been advertising with them for a decade. They thought we were going to go out of business so fast they might never get paid.”
Singer started with one billboard to make it seem like the work of a single irate customer. (Today, he typically has 10 or 20 billboards at a time.) The first radio ad featured the guy who inspired the campaign telling his story. In a bit of luck, that guy happened to be Dennis Steele, recognized by locals as the actor who does ads for the Phillies, the Pennsylvania Lottery, and the Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper. Steele remains the company’s voice.
Over the years, Singer has changed up the campaign with different haters and motivations. Husbands hate Steven Singer because their spouses get angry when they offer anything other than one of Singer’s diamonds as a gift. National competitors (Singer names them on the billboards) supposedly seethe when Steven Singer beats them on price.
The campaign, says Singer, has a very local attitude. “It’s representative of the atmosphere and the climate in Philly,” he says. “The working man, Rocky kind of thing. If you are looking for Tiffany’s, we’re not that.”
And locals love being in on the joke. Every time Singer passes through the airport or takes out his credit card, people gleefully inform him of their animus. Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney once interrupted a speech he was giving before the local Chamber of Commerce to announce, “I hate Steven Singer,” after noticing the jeweler sitting on the dais. “Everyone thinks they are the first to say it, but I hear it fifty to a hundred times a day,” says Singer. “I love it.”
How Measurable Is It?
Not very. A company could have a unique phone number or URL on a billboard, or even a special offer, but it would be hard to figure the true number of “generated actions” that resulted from it. Even if you’re asking customers whether they saw the billboard or what brought them in, you can’t always count on their answers. Many may mention modes of marketing your business doesn’t use. So, while it’s worth asking, bank on this question providing utterly skewed ROI statistics.
In some cases, out-of-home can be a powerful form of branding—albeit one without a measurable return. When email marketing company MailChimp took out billboards, they offered no keywords or calls to action. Instead, early billboards simply depicted the company’s monkey mascot, winking at passersby. More recently, MailChimp has used its Atlanta billboards as giant canvasses that feature the work of local artists. They may not be able to directly track sales to the strategy, but when it comes to positive brand sentiment, the results are priceless.
OTHER OLD-SCHOOL ADVERTISING
While you don’t hear much about it these days, buying pr
int ads in newspapers or magazines is still a viable strategy for some businesses. Ad prices have come down in recent years, and most small businesses start out buying print ads in their local, neighborhood newsweeklies. But that’s no longer necessarily the only safe option. Another smart way to get your feet wet in print advertising is to buy remnant space available through different dealers. Like on radio or TV, remnant space is the ad industry’s equivalent of last-minute super-savers; publications with an extra page or two to fill will sell it off at a much lower price. This has become more common as newspaper ad sales have plummeted over the last decade.
An ad in a newspaper may range anywhere from a few hundred dollars for a quarter-page in a small-circulation paper to several thousand for a paper in a large market. While few startups would rely solely on newspaper ads these days, they can be an effective strategy if you’re trying to reach a local audience at a certain time—for example, to advertise a time-sensitive promotion or event.
NO MATTER WHERE YOU’RE ADVERTISING . . . REMEMBER
You need to have a clear understanding of what it is that you want to accomplish with your ads. Make sure that you write these goals down: They should govern the decisions you make with your ads. Do you want new customers? How many? Do you want more visits to your website? Are you looking to get people to register for your event? The more specific you are with your goals, the more you can tailor your ads to help you reach your goals, and the more you can track your progress to make necessary tweaks to your ads.
