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BUYERS VS LISTENERS

D

drtylawndre

Guest
As an advertiser I care more about demographics than ratings. Are ditoheads buyers of my product or service? Polls usually show college grads tend to be more liberal and they make more money.

On the other hand --if I was a military recruiter I would advertise on a "young" country station before a talk show station with it's old demographics.
 
> As an advertiser I care more about demographics than
> ratings. Are ditoheads buyers of my product or service?
> Polls usually show college grads tend to be more liberal and
> they make more money.
>
> On the other hand --if I was a military recruiter I would
> advertise on a "young" country station before a talk show

> station with it's old demographics.
>
Excellent point. AAR bashers love to point out that the overall (12+) ratings of WLIB in New York are no better now than they were when the station played Caribbean music. But the "liberal elite" that conservatives keep talking about have considerably more disposable income than Caribbean immigrants.
 
> As an advertiser I care more about demographics than
> ratings. Are ditoheads buyers of my product or service?
> Polls usually show college grads tend to be more liberal and
> they make more money.
>
> On the other hand --if I was a military recruiter I would
> advertise on a "young" country station before a talk show
> station with it's old demographics.
>
I can't quote any numbers, but it seems to me that fair amount of younger
folks do actually listen at some times to talk radio, be it Rush or AirAmerica or even Coast To Coast AM.

However, putting your ad $$$ in "todays country" is not a bad buy either.

(Gone are the days when the Army Reserve would send out free 30 minute programs
to the country/oldie/soul(r&b) stations for gratis play.
I recall Alison Steele, "The NiteBird" and "Cookin' Country" with Lee Arnold.)<P ID="signature">______________
"Be seeing you..."</P>
 
<div align="justify"><font face=arial size=3>
"As an advertiser I care more about demographics than ratings."

I subscribe to the Roy Williams (aka The Wizard of Ads) philosophy that too much time, effort and money is wasted on reaching "the right people". (As opposed to making sure your ads say the right thing) Says Mr. Williams:"The reason business owners keep doing what they’ve done before and expecting a different result is because every one of those hundred and twenty thousand sales people will sing a beautiful song whose chorous line is "The secret of successful advertising is to reach the right people, and our people are the right people for you!" Once again, the logic of "reaching the right people" is extremely appealing, mostly because it’s common sense. The problem with advertising is that it so often defies common sense. Full text here.

"Polls usually show college grads tend to be more liberal"

It sounds plausible since my personal, yet scientifically unverified, belief based on anecdotal evidence is that college professors are more liberal. So it wouldn't be much of a stretch for me to think that they might influence their students in that direction. But life experiences have different affects on different people and some people drift away from liberalism after graduation. I'd have to see the polls before deciding if I would accept it's conclusion.

..and they make more money.

True, but correlation is not causation. It is entirely possible that more people with the intelligence and drive to earn good incomes tend to go to college, instead of that college degrees tend to increase income. This is a notion supported by part of Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford commencement speech last week. "So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting." Full text here. The message is not "drop out of school". But it's too bad that so many see a college degree as a way to get ones ticket punched in order to achieve a high income.

But if you're not convinced and want to make an advertising buy based on income, I can tell you that News Talk stations of any kinds index extremely high for education and income. I wish I could post a report or quote numbers but of course it's all protected by copyright.<P ID="signature">______________
Jerry

"Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts" - late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan</P>
 
> > As an advertiser I care more about demographics than
> > ratings. Are ditoheads buyers of my product or service?
> > Polls usually show college grads tend to be more liberal
> and
> > they make more money.
> >
> > On the other hand --if I was a military recruiter I would
> > advertise on a "young" country station before a talk show
>
> > station with it's old demographics.
> >
> Excellent point. AAR bashers love to point out that the
> overall (12+) ratings of WLIB in New York are no better now
> than they were when the station played Caribbean music. But
> the "liberal elite" that conservatives keep talking about
> have considerably more disposable income than Caribbean
> immigrants.
>
Great topic...very deep...but great. Advertising on the radio is so complex. However, radio sales reps try to dumb it down and many times do not understand it themselves. There are many factors including reaching the "right" people, running enough commercials that people will hear it multiple times (frequency), creating a creative spot with a solid message, making sure enough people (reach) hear the message.

Talk radio offers these benefits sometimes. The "right" people is a tough one. More generic formats like Hot AC, AC, Country, etc. attract a wide range of listener demo and psyco-graphics. More targeted formats such as Christian Contemporary, all sports, or Spanish certainly do have audiences where a specific message may work well. (Hey sports geeks, football is right around the corner...get your line-up ready for fantasy football at www.XXX.Blah.)

Talk Radio has really made a shift from a mainstream format with huge audiences (cume) of all walks of life. It used to be a very broad audience. Then the phenomina of putting a second talk station on to the large AM station in many markets began. Like a WKRC to the huge WLW in Cincy. Like WPGB-FM to the large KDKA in Pittsburgh. With the beginning of both conservative talk stations and now Progressive Talk stations (in addition to Salem's conservative talk with Christian slant) the format has become much less mainstream and is more pigeon-holed.

Is this bad? Not really. AAR with WLIB in NYC will make a lot of money. Why? Because the people who listen (although not the biggest audience) will respond well to advertisers. They will want to patronize a business who is sponsoring their belief systems. Same with all niche formats. This will make niche type stations work well.
 
I think Jobs made some good points...as much as people like to think of rags to riches, stand and deliver advancement through education...wealthy parents can send their kids to college ---so the college demo, despite scholarships, etc is probably better off to begin with....as mommy and daddy can provide their kids with money and connections after they graduate, etc. (jobs being an exception)

I saw data that showed Boston, Silicon Valley/Bay Area, New York had the Nations highest percentage of graduate degrees...and off course these are liberal places..

A few fat cat listeners can go along way --look at Mrs Ray Crock and NPR
 
> I think Jobs made some good points...as much as people like
> to think of rags to riches, stand and deliver advancement
> through education...wealthy parents can send their kids to
> college ---so the college demo, despite scholarships, etc is
> probably better off to begin with....as mommy and daddy can
> provide their kids with money and connections after they
> graduate, etc. (Jobs being an exception)
>
> I saw data that showed Boston, Silicon Valley/Bay Area, New
> York had the Nations highest percentage of graduate
> degrees...and of course these are liberal places..
>
> A few fat cat listeners can go along way --look at Mrs Ray
> Crock and NPR
>
 
> As an advertiser I care more about demographics than
> ratings. Are ditoheads buyers of my product or service?
> Polls usually show college grads tend to be more liberal and
> they make more money.
>
> On the other hand --if I was a military recruiter I would
> advertise on a "young" country station before a talk show
> station with it's old demographics.
>


The polls I saw after the election actually showed college grads were the most likely to vote for Bush. However, those with post graduate degrees (along with high school dropouts) were most likely to vote liberal.

If liberals do have more money than conservative talk radio listeners (not necc true), why do they always bash the rich???


I have also seen reports that show conservative talk radio listeners (and talk radio listeners in general) are more likely to have college degrees than music radio listeners, so some of your generalizations could be off.

Country radio listeners do tend to be very patriotic and pro-military. However, there really aren't too many "young country" stations these days. Most country stations appeal to 35-54 year olds, country listeners may love the military but most are too old to join (or are retired from it).

I would guess active rock is a great format for military advertisements, just because the audience is so heavily concentrated with young males. I also have no doubt that the military advertises on urban/hip hop stations.

Young people are least likely to vote and least likely to consider themselves liberals or conservatives. Despite efforts like "Rock the Vote" and "Vote or Die", most young adults continue to be politically apathetic. So I don't think the military does or should consider politics when placing radio advertising.
 
Can't forget the Wolfman!


>
> (Gone are the days when the Army Reserve would send out free
> 30 minute programs
> to the country/oldie/soul(r&b) stations for gratis play.
> I recall Alison Steele, "The NiteBird" and "Cookin' Country"
> with Lee Arnold.)
>
<P ID="signature">______________
"There ain't no reason to fight over a woman. There's two more down the street!".."Senisble Don", 700 WLW</P>
 
>
> Is this bad? Not really. AAR with WLIB in NYC will make a
> lot of money. Why? Because the people who listen (although
> not the biggest audience) will respond well to advertisers.
> They will want to patronize a business who is sponsoring
> their belief systems. Same with all niche formats. This will
> make niche type stations work well.

Makes me think carefully.....since AAR seems to be getting some involvement on the podcasting/sreaming end...you would think there would be huge demographic benefits from mining possible advertising in that area...id love to see an AAR ipod promotion.....

Makes me also think that we need a "1984" Mac commercial in radio so desperately to jolt the advertising part from moribund to energetic....again.....but i agree that niche markets are begining to be targeted as possible/future cash cows...
 
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