Radio Advertising Spending Declines for the 10th Quarter in a Row

Monday, November 23, 2009 by Britain O'Connor
Radio advertising revenue is still on a big decline, being down by 16% during the third quarter. However, that was an improvement over both the first and second quarters, when revenue was down by 24% and 22%, respectively.

Radio advertising has been declining since early 2007, when the most recent month of year-to-year growth was recorded.

But the latest report shows some areas of improvement when compared to last year. And, generally speaking, the comparisons are getting better. Last year radio advertising saw a massive decline in the third quarter, when the economic crisis peaked during the fall, and dropped by about 9%.

Radio advertising has now seen 10 straight quarters of year-to-year declines.

Overall, third quarter revenue came in at $4.15 billion, with local advertising revenue down by 19%, to $2.8 billion.

National spots declined by 17%, to $639 million, and network dropped by 11%, to $253 million. Even off-air, which was well off last year, decreased by 11%, to $335 million.

Digital was the only category to increase, being up by 14% to $126 million.

The Cash for Clunkers campaign gave automotive sales leads a bit of an increase. The auto industry had its best quarter of the year as manufacturers increased their spending to support the federal rebate program.

General Motors' spending went up by 101% over last year, while Kia increased by 145%, and Volvo increased by 26%. Hyundai also went up, increasing by 65%.

Yet still, the auto industry's spending remained down from 2008 and has fallen from the top category to the third category.
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Why and How to Advertise During a Recession

Monday, November 2, 2009 by Britain O'Connor
Most companies were quick to cut advertising budgets as the recession took hold of the economy. To most people this seemed to be the rational choice. Historically, however, the data indicates that it is better to maintain a strong advertising presence through an economic downturn. Understanding this counter intuitive phenomenon will be helpful to companies who want to weather the storm and come out stronger than they started.

The best reason for any company considering advertising is a simple fact: the competition isn't advertising. When a company stops advertising because of a recession, the market essentially is left open to its competitors. Customers will still need services irrespective of the recession. Your company can be the one the customer chooses because you've made your presence known.

Another positive from advertising through difficult times is creating a long term position for your company. The visibility of your product increases during a recession because of drop in advertising of your competition. Even if consumer spending has dropped, when a consumer does make a purchase your sales will drop if your product is not on their mind. Gaining the customers that pick you through difficult times can turn out to be a benefit in the long run. This underlying trust between consumers and your company is invaluable. There are some very good examples of this i.e. Pepsi rose to prominence during the great depression.

The bad economy can also be helpful in certain aspects. Television advertising, radio advertising, and internet advertising prices have also taken a hit. What better time to advertise than when you spend the least for a time slot! Use this time to make contacts in the advertising industry as well. An Account Executive can be your crucial contact to get your ads in prime placement, negotiate good deals on rates and even get extras thrown in for your ads.

Use this opportunity to talk to your customers directly. Customers react favorably when a company makes available products that help the consumer weather tough times. In the auto industry, companies have come up with great automotive marketing ideas and programs that protect buyers from the impact of losing jobs. These programs have reflected as positive growth in automotive sales leads. An example is Hyundai, who achieved a growth of 4.9% in sales with their assurance plus program. Toyota on the other hand has taken a 36% drop in sales.

In spite of seeing the obvious benefits of advertising through tough times we still face one question. Where do we get the money to sustain an advertising campaign in this economy? This is where we look deeper into budget advertising.

There are a few options available to a small business to advertise without hurting their bottom line. Here’s a look at few of them.

If you have a TV commercial for your product, post it on YouTube. It costs nothing to upload a video and it effectively increases your ad's shelf-life.

Going back to the basics of traditional media is always a prudent choice. Issuing flyers and coupons can definitely help create a buzz. It's a relatively low cost initiative and by implementing programs that offer a discount to those who bring in a flyer can bring in new customers.

Maintaining a website is crucial. Even if you do not engage in selling products online, having a virtual presence goes a long way. People searching for local businesses will notice your competition if they have a website and you don't.

Radio advertising is a good way to reach out to local customers and give you the ability of choosing a target audience. Taking time to find out which stations and the time slots in which a particular set of people will be tuned in will help increase efficiency of your ads.

Co-op advertising is a great cost-effective way to get your name out in the public. The cost is shared by several related businesses. For instance, a bath fitting company can advertise with furniture dealers and reach out to common audiences. This increases exposure with limited need of expenditure.

At the end of the day, a bad economy does not necessarily mean bad business forever and effective advertising does not have to be expensive  There has never been a better time to be innovative and reap the rewards.
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How the Experts Use Direct Mail Part 3

Tuesday, October 27, 2009 by Britain O'Connor
In the last post I talked about using direct mail to get clients in non-traditional spaces, or spaces outside of the office. In this post I will talk about using targeted, relevant direct mail in order to address your potential customer's grievances.

Direct mail is the backbone of your marketing campaign, but to ensure that it fulfills all of its potential, every part of it should be customized and relevant. You need to be able to find out what is important to your audience. You can use that information to take your prospects through the buy cycle with meaningful, relevant messages that pertain to their needs and wants.

You need to be able to find out your prospects needs/wants/grievances and address them in their language. How do those grievances relate to your product/service? By answering that question, you can solve your prospect's problem with relevant messaging. You can even integrate relevant white papers (for business-to-business) to help your prospects identify with your company/business, which in turn will make them more likely to become your customer. For example, for us, we would distribute a white paper with our automotive marketing ideas, if and how they failed or succeeded, or if they increased automotive sales leads. Since our audience is mostly of the automotive industry, that white paper would be highly relevant to our prospects, they would identify with it since they probably have the same problems, and they would most likely be interested in our service since we know how to solve the problem.

Knowing your prospects' problems is the first step in being able to solve them. You can address those problems with proposed solutions through direct mail advertising. Getting their attention right away is critical, and this will help you to do just that.

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Cablevision Releases Optimum Select

Wednesday, October 21, 2009 by Britain O'Connor
Cablevision on Tuesday took the wraps off Optimum Select, a new advanced telelvision advertising service that includes a call-to-action application.

Among the first clutch of clients to sign on as Optimum Select partners are: Unilever, Gillette, New York-based retailer Century 21 and Benjamin Moore.

First announced last month, Optimum Select went live in early October, with an opt-in execution for Gillette’s line of body wash. Cablevision subscribers who clicked on an on-screen overlay were issued free samples of Gillette’s shower-gel product.

Gillette provided 30,000 samples for the promotion. The stockpile was depleted in a week.

In a second initiative, paint brand Benjamin Moore sent a coupon for a free two-ounce color sample to Cablevision subscribers who pressed the “select” button on their remote during the spot. Similar premiums are available to viewers who interact with ads for Century 21 and Degree Fine Fragrance Body Mist, a Unilever brand.

“Unilever has been enhancing our television advertising spend with interactivity whenever possible, and it’s a proven element in our overall marketing mix,” said Rob Master, director of media North America for Unilever. “We applaud all new developments that add further scale and consumer involvement to the existing iTV footprint.”
 
In addition to the RFI wrinkle, Cablevision also allows for telescoping long-form content from standard 30-second spots, which presents an opportunity for marketers to more fully immerse viewers in their brand messaging. Automotive clients are particularly well suited for telescoping ads, as this will increase automotive sales leads.

Cablevision is also tinkering with addressable ad units and for the last few years has offered dedicated advertising channels like the VOD showcase Disney Channel on Demand.

“We’re extremely pleased by the initial response,” said David Kline, president of Rainbow Advertising Sales Corporation. “Advertisers recognize the extended brand experience enabled by Optimum Select, where direct marketing meets TV and transforms the traditional media ad model to offer qualified lead generation, brand engagement, enhanced measurement, insight and learning.”

While Cablevision didn’t disclose how it was pricing its Optimum Select units, the operator said advertisers will pay a premium for the interactive spots. For the first stage of the deployment, the interactive ads have been activated on 25 major cable networks.

Local ad sales account for a tiny fraction of Cablevision’s overall revenue haul. In the second quarter of 2009, the MSO took in $26 million in ad sales, down 13 percent from a year ago ($31 million). That works out to 1.4 percent of the company’s total Q2 revenue of $1.88 billion.

Cablevision will begin pitching Optimum Select to media buyers and marketing companies later this week.

--Source:  MediaWeek
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An Experienced Automotive Ad Agency is the Best Ad Agency

Wednesday, September 23, 2009 by Britain O'Connor
By now, all you car dealers must know that having an internet presence is necessary for your business to succeed.  It's certainly not enough to just have a website.  You need an entire comprehensive internet marketing strategy.  A good automotive ad agency will offer a greatly scalable website, SEO capabilities, an SEM campaign, and e-commerce solutions, all tied together with trackability.  But how do you know which advertising agency you should go with?

The first thing that comes to mind is experience.  Has the agency that you are considering had enough experience in the marketplace?  Is it capable of innovation when it comes to new and exciting automotive marketing ideas.  Agencies with experience have had the time to develop strategies to keep up with the pace of the marketplace.  These are usually the agencies that are leaders in their areas of business.

The second thing is, of course, the services that the automotive ad agency offers.  Does it just offer website hosting, or just website creation?  Does it offer an entire comprehensive package of internet marketing tools?  It would be best for you if you can consolidate your internet marketing strategy into one agency and not have to go to a number of separate agencies for each internet marketing service.  Again, larger companies with more experience will most likely fit this bill.

Finally, the agency's reputation for increasing actual automotive sales leads should be the deciding factor if you're still on the fence.  Being able to carry out a comprehensive internet marketing strategy is all well and good, but if it doesn't increase your sales leads then what are you really paying for?  The ability to increase sales leads should always be the bottom line for any full service ad agency.

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Blogging for SEO to Get Sales Leads

Wednesday, September 16, 2009 by Britain O'Connor

Blogging is not just for running public relations campaigns.  It can and should also be used for SEO, or search engine optimization.

Search engine optimization is a way to get your business at the top of a Google or Yahoo search results page. This is the most effective form of search engine marketing, or online advertising. If you use Google to search for the service/product that your business provides, does your business show up on the first page of results? How about the second page? Maybe the third page? Does it show up at all? Chances are that your business is nowhere to be found.

Most people these days use search engines to perform product/service research before they buy anything. And more than half of the activity on the Internet is on search engines. So what does this mean for your business? You need to get indexed on search engines so people can see your business when they are searching for a product/service that they need. If you do get indexed, then you will probably have an almost exponential increase in business since the marketing potential of the Internet is unlimited.

So how do you get indexed? well, that’s where blogging comes in. But first you must understand how search engines work. Suppose you go to Google and search for “automotive sales leads”.  Without getting into the technical aspect of it, especially since that would take up a couple of blog entries itself, simply put Google will run through the entire World Wide Web and find the sites with the most occurrences of the phrase “automotive sales leads”. “Automotive sales leads” here is a keyword.

If you blog for your company, then you can utilize relevant keywords so when people search for the service that you provide, your business will come up. So the point of blogging is to win those specific keywords that are relevant to your business. And since blogging is very frequent, it is easy to win keywords since you can use them over and over and over again.  Industry experts, like these guys, agree that blogging may be the most effective form of search engine optimization.

But getting indexed on that first page of Google isn't the last step.  After you've run a successful blogging campaign, which can take a while, your website needs to be able to convert prospects.  Let's say your an automotive dealer.  Once you've been indexed on Google and someone searching for "used car" clicks on your site, your site needs to be able to make the sale or get that person's information.  To get the maximum amount of automotive sales leads, you can have people fill out submission forms for email newsletters, videos, and other things of that nature.  Then you can simply follow up on all your automotive sales leads.  But that's a story for another day.

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The Importance of Updating Your Website

Tuesday, September 15, 2009 by Britain O'Connor

The internet is a great forum to cultivate A.D.D. habits. Most people using it get bored very quickly. A big reason why a lot of websites start out good but then fall off the radar is that they are not updated. Any online marketing consultant can tell you that your website's structure, layout, and content plays a big role in your online marketing efforts.  As a result, your website needs to be updated regularly. That doesn’t mean that you need to constantly add new content every second. But it does mean that it heavily depends on your industry.

Let's say that you are a car dealer.  One of many great automotive marketing ideas is to keep your website updated with new car models, new deals, or even future concept cars from the manufacturer.  Your website's job is to keep the audience interested and entertained.  Imagine if all the car enthusiasts in your area went to your website.  Even if they go there to just be entertained (by any interactive media you may have on the website, or just videos) chances are that they will buy from you when looking for their next car.

If you regularly update your website with new content relevant to your industry, you can seem like THE industry expert.  Most people don't want to be sold, especially by any random schmoe who doesn't know about the product/service itself, but rather knows only how to sell the product/service.  Most people want to know that they are getting solid, factual information from people who know what they are talking about.  By keeping your website updated regularly, you can be that person/business.  Your website can be THE place that people go to for information regarding your industry.  Take us for example.  We are part automotive ad agency, part retail advertising agency, and part public relations agency.  As an internet marketing best practice, we keep our main website, which is our blog site, constantly updated.  We blog about marketing techniques, marketing services, and current events in the world of advertising.  Even though we really just got the ball rolling, by updating regularly we will soon have enough content on our site to be considered scholars or experts in the industry.  Once we've accomplished that goal, once we've established ourselves as industry experts, converting leads to sales will be much easier.  When people think that you are an expert in your industry, they rightly assume that you know what you are doing.  You will no longer have to go out of your way to sell, as your expertise will sell itself.

So, depending on whatever industry your business is a part of, you’ll need to update your website daily, weekly, monthly, or whatever consumers of your industry demand (aren’t we all at the mercy of our customers). But beware, once you start updating your content more quickly, your site visitors will expect the content to be updated in that same frequency for the rest of your site’s lifespan. So be like the tortoise, start out slow and pace yourself. You can regularly update your site with new content such as pics, videos, or even text. That way, your regular visitors won’t abandon your site completely.

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