[dustdees]

Hi all,

I have an appointment with out local radio station, on Monday morning to talk about advertising our business in our local area.

Has anyone been down this route and if so what are your opinions? Useful one tho!!

Cheers

Denise

[garyj]

210FM ? , can't wait to hear it.

[dustdees]

Garyj,

No Darling!!

Reading 107fm!!!


Any comments or thoughts tho?

[garyj]

There is a chap who advertises his carpet cleaning business on Spire FM ( salisbury ) very regularly, so he must be doing ok from it because I would think its expensive.

I have thought of it a few times in the past,  it would give you a lot of credibility and certainly would get your name known very quickly. It has been talked about on here before and the general feeling seems to be its not worth it. I can't help but think its got to be worth a go, but of course it will depend how much it is.

Not 210FM, that is certainly the biggest one in the area, but at least you won't have your advert in the middle of Late Night Love with Graham Torrington and the cheesy records he plays.

[DP]

Radio advertising is very regional, and often represents a much larger catchment area then is practical to service leading to poor value.

It works better for larger companies who find no problem in spreading their wings or who already work those area's and can make the most of it.

It needs multiple broadcasts and as close to peak times as possible to be effective which is often reflected in the costs.

Its success rate is completely unique to an area and cannot be compared nationwide, so you need to ask those people who already advertise in your town.

After all if it was completely successful for everyone wouldn’t everyone be doing it

[garyj]

As not many people seem to be doing it, it seems a good way to advertise, especially if your based in Reading and advertising on Reading radio, not many people outside will listen.

[DP]

Especially if they dont have a radio or live in Reading. Then again if they lived in Bracknell and moved to Reading they might hear it, but only if they had a radio and switched it on.

[garyj]

A very good point DP  :

Wondered what happened to Sherlock

[DP]

I heard he took an overdose   

[ValueValeting]

Hi all,

I have an appointment with out local radio station, on Monday morning to talk about advertising our business in our local area.

Has anyone been down this route and if so what are your opinions? Useful one tho!!

Cheers

Denise

Could you keep us updated with this

Thanks

[dustdees]

Yeap, can keep you updated on this one, could be interesting.

Gary & Dp, how many people have the radio on in the car in the mornings?
How many people have the radio on in the office etc?

DOn't know how much it's going to be but I will find out on Monday!!

[George-Reid]

We tried it in Aberdeen on the local radio.
The problem was the local radio is still listened to up to 40 miles in every direction.
Most of the calls we got were out with our catachment area.
We broke even but only just.
I have to say it was really cool to hear my add on the radio but thats not a very good business reason.
I want be doing it again.

Cheers

George

[garyj]

George, would it be rude to ask how much your ad was, how long did it run for and how many times a day / week it broadcast. Thank you,
Gary

[George-Reid]

No worries

We took three weeks worth but did it every second week so it seemed to be on the radio longer. we had 9 slots a day 7 days a week.

We were quoted £1500 + vat but turned it down and excepted a so called special offer a few months later for £750 + vat

I can pay two canvesers 1 week wages each and bring in £3900 for this kind of outlay and still have change from my £750

Hope this helps

Cheers
George

[garyj]

Cheers, thats useful, how may times I have turned down advertising only to get a call later with a special offer, as a matter of principle I still always say no, no matter how low they go.
Do you think that it raised the profile of your company though and made later marketing stratigies more effective.

As you can gather I quite fancy hearing my company name on the radio now, but then I'm vain  :

[dustdees]

GARYJ,

YOU POSER!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[garyj]

  

[Fox]

I looked into this a few months ago and the costs were almost £3000 for a 6 week run 10 slots per day but most of the slots would not have been prime time.

I asked some of my clients what they thought of radio advertising and would they purchase services having heard an advert this way, they ALL said NO and felt that it would not be effective.

I think that this type of advertising is to 'brand' your company, get your name known and not necessarly to boost sales.  If you have the money to do this type of advertising and not expect much of a return then fine, otherwise I suggest you spend your marketing budget more wisely.

Fox

[garyj]

Fox, that works out to 420 advertisements for £3k thats just £7.15 per slot, cheap in any language.
Perhaps I will look into this further, I'll even do my own jingle and voiceover if it saves even more. I'm off to dust down my tamborine.

[Fox]

Garyj

Never thought of it like that - yep very cheap indead, that was for a 30sec slot so I suppose paying £858 per hour or 24p per second is good value!!

See I can do maths too! lol