10-4-2013
My clients across America currently air 52-week schedules on more than 700 stations, so it can rea?sonably be said that I?ve spent a few hundred million dollars buying airtime during the past 25 years. But I?ve never explained how the stations are selected. Today I?m going to reveal all.
Does it surprise you that I have no idea of the spot rates on any of the 700 stations we buy? I don?t know the spot rates because I don?t care about them. And I care about cost-per-point even less.
Advertisers think and talk about spot rates because radio salespeople think and talk about spot rates. This is due to the fact that sales managers think and talk about spot rates, because owners think and talk about spot rates. This is strange to me because no advertiser has ever wanted to buy a spot. If advertisers wanted spots, they?d always be happy after their schedules aired. But they?re not always happy, are they? This is because their secret desire is for your listeners to know about them, their company, their products and services, and how those products and services can impact the world of your listener if your listener will only give them a chance. This requires good copy and a schedule that delivers frequency and consistency.
I?ll take responsibility for the copy, but I?m counting on you to deliver frequency and consistency.
I rely on excellent salespeople in radio. But the qualities that define a salesperson as excellent to me will probably surprise you.
1. Excellent salespeople listen and try to understand what you?re saying.
2. They believe you when you?re telling the truth.
3. They would rather hear the media buyer?s sales pitch than have the media buyer listen to theirs.
4. Excellent salespeople send you the TAPSCANs you requested instead of the ones they?d prefer you to see.
The following criteria may seem incomplete and overly simplistic to you. They might appear to be horribly full of holes. So be it. But please keep in mind that my clients tend to become huge successes, and they stay with my firm for decades. My income is tied strictly to the growth of my clients, and I tend to put the entire ad budget into radio. ?Media mix? doesn?t exist in my world.
So far, so good, right? Here?s the part I warned you about:
1. Formats, demos, and qualitative data are largely irrelevant.
2. At least two-thirds of all the stations in a market would be ?a perfect fit? for my advertiser, no mat?ter who that advertiser might be.
3. Format will never get a sta?tion included in a buy, but it will occasionally cause them to be excluded.
4. All advertisers air a ?typi?cal week? 52 weeks a year.
5. All TAPSCANs must reflect adults 18+ for a one-week schedule. (We?re paying for all your listeners, so we want to know exactly how many you?ll deliver. I?m not just trying to reach ?my target customer.? I?m trying to reach all my customers? influencers ? their friends and family, co-workers and acquaintances. Everyone counts.)
6. I want to see persons in every TAPSCAN, not ratings points or shares.
7. The components of this ?typical week? ? the number of ads, the days of the week, and the times of day ? will be chosen and submitted by the radio station salesperson, based on the follow?ing criteria:
? The typical week must achieve at least a 3-fre?quency in a diary market. In a PPM market, we might consider a 2.5-frequency if there are no better options within our budget. But every tenth of a point above 2.5 wins the seller extra con?sideration. This ?typical week? frequency is our biggest non-negotiable.
? Net reach in persons for the one-week schedule is the second thing we look at.
? Cost of this one-week schedule is then multiplied by 52 to determine cost per year.
? Cost per year is divided by the one-week net reach to create the only metric that really matters. We call this metric, cost per person/per year.
? Broad rotators are never allowed. The meridians a daypart cannot span are 6 a.m., 7 p.m., and midnight. 6 a.m.-7 p.m. is an acceptable daypart. 5 a.m.-7 p.m. is not acceptable because it crosses the 6 a.m. meridian. 5 a.m.-10 a.m. is not accept?able for the same reason. 9 a.m.-8 p.m. is not acceptable because it crosses the 7 p.m. meridian. 7-p.m-midnight is OK. Noon to 4 p.m. is OK. Midnight to 6 a.m. is OK. Never cross the merid?ians in your dayparts.
Roy H. Williams is president of Wizard of Ads Inc. E-mail: roy@wizardofads.com
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