Survey: Agencies Still Wonder About Social, Video ROI

2-21-14

A Strata survey of advertising agencies found that while social media and online video were "major areas of focus" for advertisers in Q4, those agencies aren't really sure they're getting value for their clients from those channel. Still, 87 percent said they were interested in using social media in client campaigns, and nearly all -- 98 percent -- said they're just as interested -- or more -- in streaming/online video compared to a year ago.

Facebook is still the leading social media channel for advertisers; 81 percent of respondents said they'd use Facebook in clients' campaigns. Other popular channels are YouTube and Twitter, with a "big shift in sentiment toward Pinterest," Strata reports.

Meanwhile, 54 percent of respondents said they'd buy more social media if the value was "more obvious," while 41 percent said they'd be more open to social media with changes including an easier process, more obvious effectiveness, lower minimum volumes, and less complex targeting.

Strata EVP Joy Baer said, "In the advertising industry, the buzz often comes before the payoff. Everyone wants to buy social media and online video because it's the way the industry is heading, but the real ROI is more complex to define. It's a science that is still being developed."

And traditional radio? Strata found interest has dropped 67 percent since 2010, but "interest in streaming radio is growing tremendously, with 58 percent of respondents more interested in the medium than they were a year ago."

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(SALES) Working With Independent Insurance Agencies

7-19-2013

Here?s a five-year marketing and advertising plan worth a million dollars for a local insurance agency.

Family-owned independent insurance agencies make great local direct customers. Their money comes from commissions paid by the insurance companies. Gross margin of profit after the cost of labor is 30 percent. Average sale for auto insurance for a two-car family is just under $1,000 per year. Most family-owned local insurance agencies depend on sales of automobile coverage because auto premiums give the agency the chance to up-sell and also get the customer?s home, life, health, business, and other policies.

The local independent agent?s biggest problem is the plague of national discount companies competing for his auto insurance business.

Consumers are concerned about escalating insurance premiums. But an even deeper concern is that the insurance company will fight the customer on claims. Most people are under-insured. It is in the client?s best interest to educate the people on how best to use his services. But first the client must convince consumers that he is trustworthy and will assist the customer when it?s time to pay claims.

Get the owner to come to the station and share his stories about what happens to people who are underinsured or have no insurance at all when a crisis hits. He probably has hundreds of good stories. Let him tell them without reading from a script. Record them and edit them, leading with the most provocative thing he says. Again, no scripts. Let him tell his stories in his own conversational way, the same way he?d speak to the people if they were sitting across the desk from him.

Agency owners usually become very animated when they?re telling their stories. Here?s what one independent agent told me. ?When it?s time to get the claim paid I?m right here to represent my people. The folks in this town know I?ll help them when they have a claim. In fact, I love filling out claim forms. It?s like a hobby. And, I?ll stand by my customers when the claims adjuster comes to make sure my customers get exactly what they deserve. When you go with one of those national discount companies with a claim good luck. I mean, who are you going to talk to? A lizard??  Wow. So, working with him is like having an insurance policy inside an insurance policy.

He also had this to offer. ?Hey, I?ve got news for you. You?re the bread-winner and you?re going to die. That?s a fact, my friend. You?re going to die and what is going to happen to your dependents when that happens? Have you thought about that? Getting over your death is bad enough. Are you going to send them the poorhouse too? Ninety percent of the people in this town are UNDER insured. Do the right thing and cover your assets.? He put emphasis on the first syllable of assets.

And this. ?If you?re a renter, I?m telling you, get renters insurance. Do it. I see people every week who come to me after they?ve already lost everything to a thief or a fire or a flood and it just breaks my heart.?

Or this regarding disability insurance. ?I call it ?paycheck insurance,? because that?s exactly what it is. If you?re disabled this policy pays you up to 75 percent of what you were making before you were disabled. I sold a policy to a man in his 40s. All he had to do was sign the form and write me a check. He kept putting me off. For his birthday he bought himself a motorcycle. He was hit by a truck within the first week and was paralyzed from the waist down. The first thing he told his wife was that he had never signed the disability insurance policy I left him.?

He also mentioned that, ?Whether you want to see me or not, I make it a point to visit our customers at least once per year and photograph all of their valuable property. We put those photos on a thumb drive and keep it in a bank safe deposit box so that if you ever have a claim, we?ve got evidence for the insurance adjuster.?  That?s another important service difference that deserves to be mentioned.

These stories bring to life intangible products like insurance policies. And they deserve to be told and heard.

Paul Weyland is a local direct sales trainer. He works with station groups and broadcast associations to bring more long-term local direct business to broadcasters. You can reach Paul at 512 347 9883 or paul@paulweyland.com . Paul?s new book ?Think like an Adman, Sell like a Madman" is available at amazon.com.

For more articles by Paul Weyland, go HERE.

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(SALES) 5 Tough Tactics To Tackle Ad Agencies

2-25-2012

As a boy, I used to play Stratego, a two-person, war-type board game. The object was to uncover the opponent?s flag before yours was found. Whenever a confrontation occurred between one of your pieces and one of your opponent?s, the hidden number behind the player was revealed. This decided who won that battle.

The same tactics apply when working with agencies. You must understand how they work, and you must find out what it is they really want. You must "uncover their flag.?

Here are five tactics you should understand when dealing with agencies:

1. Bring Ideas: Agencies want good ideas. Tom Haynes, who is now the Director of Strategy for Acuity Marketing, spent more automotive money than any agency I can recall in Houston, Texas. According to Haynes, his No. 1 need was fresh ideas for clients.

Many agencies are insecure about someone else taking the credit for a good idea. When an agency understands that you are trying to work with them and not against them, this can only enhance your relationship.

2. Understand the "15 Percent Rule": If the goal from the agency is $90 a point (CPP/CPM-points vary depending on the media), in most cases they have a spread to work with, and their real goal is usually 15 percent over what they quoted. They want you to give them a reason to come in over their original goal.

Sell the value of your media company. Can you deliver an exclusive audience they can?t get anywhere else? Following the event you tied their client into, do you put together a promotional recap? Do you run their schedules and placement of ads as they ordered them?

3. Build a Relationship With The Agency: Do you know the principal of the agency? The media planner? Account supervisor? Most importantly, the AE? We usually have a relationship with the agency?s media buyer, who in most cases is taking orders from her higher-ups.

If buyers ever change within the agency, you want to make sure you have relationships with people who can help you stay on the buy. Because they are used to working with you, this will also give you power in situations where you can?t meet CPP or CPM goals.

4. Know the Client: Who pays the bills? Clients change agencies quite often. Don?t get too caught up in having the relationship with just the agency. We overlook who we really need to cultivate the client. If the agency is too insecure about you going to see the client, it?s their problem, not yours. In the long run, the agency that?s like that tends to lose the account.

5. Provide Exceptional Service: Buyers want you to be the eyes and ears for their agency. Are you sending them industry trade articles from magazines that pertain to their client?s business? Have you ever walked the client?s business and done an in-store survey, noticing trends, demographics, and the psychographics of the business? Agencies want knowledgeable sales reps who are in tune with business.
Uncovering the flag in Stratego is no different than uncovering the real reason agencies will keep working with you. They want you on the team to help the clients achieve their goals, not just CPP/CPM goals.
Sean Luce is the Head National Instructor for the Luce Performance Group and can be reached at sean@luceperformancegroup.com.

(2/25/2013 9:44:23 AM)
So according to Luce, a radio station is supposed to provide the agency with the IDEA that motivates the client to buy the station, and let the agency take credit for the idea, with the client. Then, we are supposed to let the agency take 15% off our rates, and usually give the agency discounted rates also. Wow. Talk about a one-way "relationship."...
Empowering small-time "agencies" that basically do NOTHING, is precisely one of radio's problems right now.
(2/25/2013 9:21:26 AM)
Nothing to add here except that a huge missing part of the equation is the talent dynamic. It still gives me the heebie jeebies to reflect on some of the calls and conversations I've had with buyers over the years who got their butts chewed because some unprepared, under-qualified, over-zealous agency conquistador from a radio station caused mayhem inside the agency.

I believe that navigating the five points is a no-brainer in theory. In practice, it really requires a tremendous amount of care in talent selection & development with those specific goals in mind. Creating a trust-based agency/station relationship is all about touch, tactics and being seriously committed to the partnership--not just to getting the potential billing to fall in the quarter we need it to.

Being a true partner requires patience, a reciprocal trade of business intelligence, creativity and flawless execution that delights the client (and by association, the agency). When that happens...what a feeling!

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What Advertising Agencies Really Want From You

10-2-2012
Carol Grothem is the vice president and associate director of media investments at Compass Point Media, a unit  of Campbell Mithun. Grothem has been with Compass for 17 years and was recently named to her second term as a member of the national board of  directors of the Alliance for Women in Media. The Compass Media client roster includes SuperValu, Land O?Lakes, Schwan?s, General Mills, and Toro, among others.

What does Compass Media specialize in?
The goal at Compass Point Media is to ?Make Everything Talk.? Making everything talk for Compass Point Media involves the seamless integration of strategic planning, tactical planning, and negotiation, resulting in greater effectiveness and efficiency for our clients. One key element in our success is the experienced depth and breadth of our team. We have more than 125 media strategists, analysts, and negotiators, covering all media forms.
All are located in our Minneapolis office to maximize integration and effectiveness across disciplines.

How do you use radio for your clients? Or do you?
We develop and execute effective audio/radio initiatives for all of our clients. Our strategy is to negotiate the best rates and best inventory available. We also secure and coordinate significant on-air, online, and at-event promotions tailored to each client?s initiatives. We have also emphasized the importance of streaming audio and online radio in our radio campaigns. We are in the top 15 in radio spend in the country.

Could you use radio more?
Yes. We have key partners ? Katz Radio Group and many major ownership groups ? across the country that create new and innovative ideas to bring to our clients. A creative idea will always sell.

What is radio?s strongest quality when it comes to using it for your clients?
Engagement. Targetability. Immediacy. Creativity. Local. Personality radio is still one of the most impactful ways to communicate a client?s message. We are strong proponents of ?radio triggers,? such as cold- or warm-weather triggers. It?s a strategy we use for two of our clients that has produced excellent results.

When do you know a client campaign is just not going to work on radio?
It all begins with our marketing/creative strategy meetings. Although our team is a huge advocate for radio, there are certainly times when a plan proposal doesn?t make sense.

Does radio play too many commercials per hour?
It depends on the format of the station. Some formats, such as News/Talk/Sports, have a more active listenership that is more apt to stay with the station during their commercial breaks. It is important for advertisers to make sure that their creative keeps listeners engaged so they won?t tune out.

Are you satisfied with radio?s ratings service?
I think PPM measurement is the way to go, but they need to have more panels in each market in order to give us a more accurate sample of listenership. We wish they could measure engagement of the listener. Satisfied? Yes. Could it be better? Yes.

What can radio reps do to serve you and your clients better?
We have some great reps calling on our agency. The reps we really respect are good listeners, proactive, creative, and they value integrity. One thing we have always encouraged is for the reps to make sure they provide us with comprehensive recaps that we are confident we can forward directly to our clients. These recaps need to merchandise the effort the stations have put into these promotions. This would include photos, videos, detailed information on schedules, and promotional mentions. In a perfect world, all reps would provide us with a glowing recap of every promotion we execute. A good salesperson needs the support from their upper management. Ownership managers need to make sure they have strong leaders in their markets. Let them lead, and give their salespeople the tools they need to get out and sell.

What should they stop doing right away?
Stop the blame game. People need to take responsibility for their actions, and that goes for both sides of the desk. That?s where being proactive and creative is so important. I also think it is very important for everyone in the industry to be aware of their own brand, both offline and online. Determine what your brand message is, and then live and work by it.

Reach out to Carol Grothem at cgrothem@compasspoint-media.com
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(SALES MEETING PODCAST) Understand How Agencies Think To Get More of The Buy

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8/15/2012

Like it or not, until radio changes the way it is rated, agencies all across the country are going to set the rules for how much money they spend with us. You can play the CPP and added value game their way or you walk and leave money on the table. To at least be considered for more of a buy it's important to know what these agencies are thinking of us as a medium and you as a rep. What do they expect from you and are you delivering that? Why are we treated differently than TV? How can you really pitch them digital so you are getting additional money and not just bringing a digital order back to the station that you would have gotten with spots anyway.

In this weeks Radio Ink Sales Meeting Podcast, we spoke with Kara Hocking, the owner of Hocking Media in Detroit. Hocking spent over 25 years at an advertising agency in Troy before opening up her own shop in 2008. Her accounts included Blue Cross Blue Shield and Comercia which accounted for over $30 Million annually.

In our interview Hocking says she uses radio to great success for her clients because of radio's ability to engage the consumer. On what radio salespeople need to improve, she doesn't hesitate, "customer service." She believes radio plays too many commercials, it's more difficult to track than Pandora, Clear Channel should sell ads on iHeartradio should sell ads and reps do not understand how to speak the language of digital.

Here is our interview with Kara Hocking of Hocking Media.

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Agencies Sign Renewals With Arbitron

7/20/2011

Arbitron says it has signed a multi-year ratings and software contract renewal with  Starcom MediaVest and ZenithOptimedia, part of Publicis Groupe, one of the largest brand communications organizations in the world. The contract provides access to the monthly reports in all Portable People Meter markets, the data reports for all diary markets, as well as RADAR, Nationwide and TAPSCAN Web services. Eight Publicis-owned companies are also included in the agreement and will receive some or all services.  All companies are part of Publicis Groupe, based in Paris, France.

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