Funny thing, I was selling in a town of about 30,000 with a franchisee in town. He was kicking in his percentage but nothing was being spent locally. Instead this huge ADI meant the dollars were spent 150 miles away. When the franchisee realized this he was furious and told them he wasn't sending them another dime for the advertising fund. They threatened, he threatened and an agency called to place a buy on my station...a nice one for our little market and the schedule stayed for years.
My only other 'success' was meeting the new manager at a chain clothing store. We talked advertising and he said it was taken care of by an agency. The agency flat out said no dollars in a stand alone market, period. I reported back to this new manager. It seems he had recently been place in that store to 'turn it around'. The company held quarterly contests with a bonus given to the winning store in each district. When he realized he was competing with the stores in the major market that got all of the ad dollars he wasn't too happy. His supervisor even called me to ask if I'd talk to him in the future since his manager was so upset. About 90 minutes later we got an agency placed order and we stayed on the buy sheet.
I struck out more than I won, but when I won, it was one of those 'cut anybody but this station' from the buy list.
We weren't successful with Kinney Shoes that was pushing the line 'the right shoe' at the time. To make an impression with the buyer we shipped the media kit with a Kinney Shoes right foot shoe with a letter saying Kinney Shoes has the right shoe and our stations were the right fit in the market. I thought it was clever. The buyer didn't see it that way. When we followed up we got an earful of a verbal lashing with plenty of 4 letter words. Never got those guys on the air.
So yes, the franchise and national chain is a real negative for radio in smaller markets. Quite frankly the franchisee is a pretty good bet at winning some advertising but the company owned and operated store virtually never gets any advertising dollars. On the other hand Galvcomm will be a non-comm and the company owned and operated might toss some goodwill dollars out to maintain a good image in the community, likely centered around some school activity.
