How to Buy Radio

Article Summary

We don’t like to buy commercials, we like to buy ‘jock talk’ – commercials are a necessary evil but you should try to maximize all the other ’stuff’ a station can do – liners, giveaways, recorded station promotions, weather and traffic sponsorships, sponsorships of regular features/contests, etc.

Lots of short commercials are better than fewer longer ones – we did radio recently in atlanta and all we purchased were :15 commercials- it’s the carpet bomb approach – a lot of quick mentions of ‘fado’ at a very high frequency. Run commercials Wed-Saturday for weekend events.

Web stuff- make sure to get graphics for the promotion on the station homepage, get promotion in the station email, their FB page and Twitter feeds. Also, have them throw in commercials on their internet only broadcast (commercials that play on the air dont necessarily play online).

Make sure the proposal comes back with ‘reach’ and ‘frequency’ numbers for Persons 21-34. This is a measurement of what percentage of that local population will hear our message and how many times they will hear it. Aim for a 30% reach with a frequency higher than 3. That means 30% of people 21-34 who listen to the station will hear the message at least 3 times.

How to Buy Radio

Radio is best used for big events like SPD, outdoor festivals, etc.

Once you have the right station, here’s how to make radio work:

• Tie your promotion to a high profile morning or afternoon jock that is a fan of the Pub. They should record one of the :30 commercials you will run. They should be given bar tabs. They should be the voice and face of the promotion- they need to make it personal to make it work.
• Don’t just buy commercials. Schedules from the station should include as many of the following as possible (quantities for a 1 week buy noted as well):
• Live mentions from DJ’s (20x)
• :10 recorded promo’s or news/weather ‘billboards’ (15x)
• Recorded station promo’s (15x)
• On air giveaways (10x)
• Commercials (40x)
• Internet promotion on station home page – countdown clock to a big event is cool
• Email promotion week of event: use this to register people to win and sign up for fado email

Additional things to try for:

• Trade out a portion of the schedule for food and beverage at the Pub. Stations need places to entertain clients.
• On air interviews (usually works well if you have Irish or English staff to offer the station)

Rates

A bit arbitrary unfortunately. Work to bring down the total cost of the package, you can usually get 15% off through negotiations. It is usually easier for a radio rep to give you additional non commercial mentions (giveaways, traffic sponsorships, weather sponsorships) than it is to take deep discounts on their ad rates.

Duration and Timing

7 days out max with spots heavily weighted towards Wed, Thurs, Fri, and Saturday. Ask your rep to see the schedule the week it is to run. They will likely tell you they can’t provide it. They are probably lying, insist on getting it as part of the buy. The reason is, other clients (who are paying more) likely want the same Thurs, Fri, Sat inventory you do and the rep does not want to tell you this.

Frequency

Stations will quote you a ‘frequency rating’. If they don’t give you one, ask for it. Schedule should achieve a minimum frequency of 2.5 or up in the persons 25-34 demographic. This means the average person in that demo will hear your commercial 2.5x. There should be a Fado mention every hour (using all the items listed above) between 6a-7p on the Thurs, Fri, and Sat (if applicable) leading into the event.

Dayparts

75% of all mentions (commercials, live liners, :10 promo’s, recorded promos, giveaways) to run between 6a – 7p. Weekend spots should run late afternoon / early evening. Mentions after 7pm will target mostly kids under 21