Is advertising worth it?

Chuck said:

Who would want to pay to be #8 of 14 in a row?

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Who would want to be an artist whose song is the third in a set? Same thing. People tune in and tune out of stations during an hour. They don't tune in at the top of an hour. It's possible they will tune in during spot #8. At that point, your spots is the first they'll hear. It's all relative.

This argument about being the 8th spot out of 14 is completely irrelevant to the people who care, which are the advertisers. They have the exact same situation in the placement of their ads on TV. The spot sets aren't any shorter in TV, and around this time of year, you'll likely see multiple car spots back to back. Things will get even worse in December. Advertisers understand the context of their spots. They could pay more for fewer spots, they can buy the first spot in a cluster, or they could sponsor complete hours where they're the only advertiser. Those options are always on the table, and the advertisers prefer to buy what you're hearing. These advertisers are buying hundreds of spots. Sometimes they're the 8th spot, sometimes they're the 1st. They're buying frequency and impressions, and they don't care about placement. If they did, that's what you'd hear.

gr8oldies said:

Until late Tuesday, our car dealers, personal injury attorneys and just about everyone else was off the air because we had 14 political ads in a row. "My opponent's a scumbag" "No, MY opponent's a scumbag"

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We had the same issue with TV in Phoenix. Now that the political ads have disappeared for the time being (remember, the 2020 Presidential Election starts now), it's back to All Accident Lawyers All The Time.

I don't understand what the deal is with Florida. It seems I can't listen to a station in a major market in that state without hearing an add for a personal injury lawyer. Well I'm not sure that's entirely accurate as Miami and Jacksonville don't seem too bad, but Daytona, Orlando, and Tampa seem to have more personal injury lawyers per capita than any market I've ever heard.

I think it depends on the format of the station. If another similar format station isn't playing spots when your favorite is, you are likely to push the button and listen to your second favorite station. The sponsor's #8 in a row won't be heard. You are right though, that the sponsors, especially national buys, don't seem to care. They should, but always keep in mind that nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.

Chuck said:

You are right though, that the sponsors, especially national buys, don't seem to care. They should, but always keep in mind that nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.

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You also have to understand that most advertisers don't buy one spot. If they only buy one spot, and it's #8 in a cluster, it may not get heard. But if you're buying hundreds of spots, some will be #8, and some will be #1. If you buy from a good salesmen, there will be other elements besides a :30 spot, to further your message. The point is you're buying impressions. There are lots of ways to do that. So there's more to this than just focusing on the 8th spot in a cluster.

Chuck said:

...but always keep in mind that nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.

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Sears, Kmart, Howard Johnsons.....et al.

DavidEduardo said:

If you are listening to a stream, it may be that the PI lawyers are buying the stream only, and the station or its stream sales delegate, is selling those spots to replace on-air ads that have "no streaming" in the order or contract.

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That doesn't seem to be the case, as some of the stations I listen to from down there run everything including local commercials on their streams, and I do have some ota airchecks from Orlando with adds, though those particular airchecks don't seem to have that many.

bobdavcav said:

That doesn't seem to be the case, as some of the stations I listen to from down there run everything including local commercials on their streams, and I do have some ota airchecks from Orlando with adds, though those particular airchecks don't seem to have that many.

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That's David's point: Some advertisers and stations limit their spots from being web streamed for different reasons. Examples could include where a station sells their streamed inventory separate from the terrestrial. Some advertisers that use union talent to produce the spot are restricted to the market where the spot plays, or one pays a premium in talent fees for each geographical market the spots could be heard.

When Joey Bagodoughnuts Attorney at Law voices his own spot, he doesn't care whether it gets streamed too.

If not you, several people on this board have pointed that out, but at least in this case, I don't think that's the case, as I've heard these both on-air and on streams seemingly with a similar frequency.

My opinion advertising always works, the main thing is to determine the target audience. Radio advertising can be very effective for one business, but not for another. For example, advertising concerts, this type of activity is very effective advertising on the radio. Also through the service of mass SMS sent like BSG. And you need to understand well who will hear your ads on radio! Therefore, I advise to always put yourself in the shoes of your customer and present situation when and in what format, your ads would be informative for you!

We need to also consider advertising takes many forms. From top of mind awareness to price and item limited time sales and everything in between have attributable success but it is often hard to determine.

This really happened in an office I visited when doing sales: The office copier stopped working. The office manager didn't know who to call. One person mentioned a company name. Another employee said they had heard the name of the business before, so they looked up the number and called the company two people had heard of. Obviously it was advertising that made the name familiar. I remember that because I thought it was interesting nobody knew anything about the company but the name was familiar.

Familiar is a very big selling point. Familiar makes a consumer comfortable. If you're grocery shopping would you tend to go to a store you're familiar with or one you're not and when you buy a food item off the grocery shelf do you choose a brand you are familiar with or know nothing about?

Agree