Episode 28: Tips for Buying TV & Radio Advertising

0:00 [Music] hey everyone welcome back to beyond the scenes i'm andrea speck with my co-host melanie query today we're going to be talking about purchasing and buying tv advertising melanie is uh she's our resident guru when it comes to media buying for traditional and she has a lot of experience with television so she has a lot of insight that i think you'll find really valuable when buying tv or radio you really want to watch for the ratings but it goes way beyond the ratings it really really you want to watch for all cost efficiencies so the reach and the frequency so making sure that you're reaching enough people enough times which would be the reach and the

0:45 frequency so for example if you know someone came to you and said oh we have a great rate on a super bowl ad that would be great if you also had an ad campaign surrounding that super bowl ad because the super bowl ad would reach a lot of people but only one time so you're not getting reach and frequency you're only getting that reach so frequency is the number of times you see that ad exactly exactly and that's critical because we are bombarded with you know exposure ad exposure and in today's world the more times you can see something the more uh we're likely to buy that product or go to the store and pick that product up or you know a sale for example you don't just see it one time and then

1:32 that's it you see it on facebook and on instagram and you know maybe even on a website you're on and a tv commercial maybe a radio commercial and a billboard and so it's that whole ad campaign that really ties to that product and making someone take action that you want them to take and and uh you really preach research yeah we really research research research making sure that we're getting those ads in front of the right eyeballs do you mind me of mine touching on that sure so research is critical uh because you know i i like to laugh and say that media outlets are all number one all you have to do is ask them they're all number one and absolutely and so our job is to do the research uh as a third-party view making sure that the overall buy with

2:19 all of the pieces combined are effective and efficient so that you're meeting those cost efficiencies that you really want to meet so there are cost efficiency goals kpis within media that you're placing and the research is critical because each individual tv station for example or each individual radio station really has a niche audience and you want to make sure that you are grabbing that audience while they're watching or listening so for example in the radio world uh in in most markets the talk shows do very well in the morning and have very high ratings in the morning and then through the day it's more of an easy listening because typically you know uh outside of kovid you're

3:04 listening to easy listening during the office hours and then in the evening you're ready to kind of jam and and and maybe sing on your way home and so you might be listening to a country station or hip-hop or r b or something that's a little more upbeat so yes the research is critical because you could really spend a lot of money if you just put all of your eggs in one basket yeah and uh you know when i've through the years i've seen from small business owners they get like a package from a rep so rep comes to them with this package so can we talk about those packages a little bit and like there are benefits to those packages but there's also benefits in on buying it in a different way right so in in my experience having worked in the media and seeing a lot of these packages

3:51 unless you were in broadcast and cable i wanted both i did so tv uh is the most complex media to buy and so i really wanted to understand the ins and outs and the inner workings of both broadcast and cable so i did i worked in both and when you're putting together a buy it's really important that that package if you're interested in that is it fits your needs and your goals and your budget so the package is created by those stations for unused inventory and so they are a deal or a fire sale as a lot of media outlets would position it

4:36 uh to sell their own inventory that's just open well it might be open for a reason so you really want to be cautious buying a pre-determined package in our experience you can negotiate a predetermined package uh with that that more you know fit in line with your needs and let's just touch on uh one last point which is added value yeah so i know that's extremely important so you get your your your spots and you're making sure that the reach is there and then the number of spots are there but let's just talk about that added value what is that a value and how can we how can we really gain more of it sure so added value is what some people would consider earned media but they're very different they are very different um earned media in this respect is what we call added value it's a value add that that is

5:24 bonus that you're not paying for which is earned media typically but in this case it's additional dollars that you're not spending but you are gaining the exposure from so for example maybe additional commercials that you get as part of your overall plan uh maybe there's a web element that you get as added value that's a bonus that you're not paying for that generates web impressions on that or like a tag like at the end of a program that says sponsored by exactly so there's lots of added value opportunities sometimes stations will do production at no charge you know a lot of these things do have a true big value they also have a hard cost so every station is different and every station and every company that

6:09 owns those stations allow for different things so so any last words of advice what's your what's your parting word of advice for folks who are looking to buy tv advertising uh don't just don't just buy what's placed in front of you uh if someone presents something to you to buy from a tv or radio state uh standpoint i highly recommend that you know you do your own research and do a comparison and and try to dig as much as you can if you're not using a professional service that was really insightful thank you so much all right guys uh thank you and uh please subscribe to the channel if you haven't and also hit that like button it actually really does make a difference for us thanks so much and we'll talk to you next time [Music]