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New England Ad Agencies

R

ray ting

New England air talent keeps losing jobs. But is it completely the fault of the radio station owners?

I'll place a ton of the blame on ad agencies. They're stuck in the past. What's the demo they buy? 98% of the time, it's 25-54. That's 1995 thinking.

Today, the bulk of the population is 35-64. And yes, they do brand switch, unlike a generation ago. ("50 is the new 40", etc.)

As for those 25-34's? Unlike a generation ago, according to a new article in the Christian Science Monitor: "Today, some 29 percent of 25 to 34-year olds either never moved out of their parents’ home or say they returned home in recent years because of the economy, according to the Pew report."

AND THESE ARE THE "DESIRABLE" DEMOGRAPHICS THAT AD AGENCIES DIRECT THEIR CLIENTS TO? Please.

Here's a link to the whole article:

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Societ...s-live-with-parents-highest-level-since-1950s

Now tell me. If YOU own a mainstream business here in New England, do you want to target 25-54... or 35-64?

Oh, but those same agencies buy print consistently. Which is read mostly by 45+.

Agencies aren't evil. They're not stupid. They're just way behind the times. And the first agencies that wake up are going to profit richly.

<end of rant> :)
 
AND THESE ARE THE "DESIRABLE" DEMOGRAPHICS THAT AD AGENCIES DIRECT THEIR CLIENTS TO? Please.
Click to expand...

Actually, with no rent, no car payment, and other expenses. That group has money to spend.

If they are collecting unemployment, and public assistance. They have more money to spend ;D. (sarcasm)
 
Don't think I've heard the NAPA spots, Ed. I'm retired from radio, so I don't pay attention quite as much as I used to.

Can you refresh our memories?
 
The usually use a female VO with a snooty accent that would be snooty even for NPR. Everytime I hear it I think somebody's daughter needed a job. Sometimes the spots have phoners from local franchise owners talking about deals of the month. In march they had a "pot of gold" promotion, and every time that phrase was read it had overdone reel-to-reel type echo.

Sorry if this sounds picky and cruel, but they are some of the worst spots on the air, and a real pet-peeve of mine. Either I'm totally out in left field, or no station has the stones to tell the agency or the client they are burning money on good stations with bad spots.
 
Ether I'm totally out in left field, or no station has the stones to tell the agency or the client they are burning money on good stations with bad spots.

Oh, I'm sure it's the the latter (massive eyeroll)

Anyone remember the mid to late 80s spots with Cwazy Gil Bailey from the White Birches near the Ellsworth/Hancock line?
 
I do, I remember hearing those on Kiss about every 20 minutes, it seemed. I liked them. He had personality. Come to think of it, I liked Danny Webb with the corny jingle too.
 
I recall a story in Billboard about 10 years ago....about how the 35-64 was the overlooked BUYING demo. Jeez, they're the BUYING demo....on the low end it's that people are waiting longer to have kids....40 year olds are buying diapers TOO....and the older? EMPTY NESTERS....kids are gone? I'm redo-ing that room....I'll buy a new CAR, with TWO doors....CONVERTIBLE. Nine times out of ten when a sports car pulls up beside me, the driver has silver hair. AND, people are working longer, waiting to retire until their 70's, BUT, as someone else explained, the ad agencies hire kids straight out of college to decide the buys....and they're still teaching the 25-54 as the buying demo in college. SO, if you're a radio station that relies heavily on your national buys, and ad agency buys....well? Own that 25-54. WE know the chick with silver hair, who loves Fleetwood Mac has money to burn. BUT, makes no difference with the ad agencies.
 
ray ting said:
I'll place a ton of the blame on ad agencies. They're stuck in the past. What's the demo they buy? 98% of the time, it's 25-54. That's 1995 thinking.
Click to expand...

Ad agencies do not choose the demo. They are directed to buy a demo by the manufacturer of the product being advertised.

If an auto manufacturer introduces a hot new sports car, they will direct the ad agencies to target all media 25-34 or 25-44. The ad agencies are simply doing what their clients require of them.

Nick Seneca
 
Nick, neither one of us is totally wrong. There are some instances where a client actually knows what demo they're trying to reach.

But to say that the client always directs the demo choice -- at least in radio -- is to ignore that literally over 95% of the radio buys in New England are made based on Persons 25-54. What logical reason could there be for that?

The unfortunate reality is that most advertising agencies focus first on print and television. And when radio comes up in the discussion, they simply tell the client, "Oh yeah. Radio. Ummm... 25-54." Most agencies have no focus on radio, so they just lazily fall back to what they were told to buy 20 years ago.

I'm basing this discussion on my continuing present friendship with many regional ad agency people.

Here in New England, there are few advertisers big enough to have an internal marketing department in tune enough to call out what demo they want to reach. Instead, they seek out an ad agency to just plain sell their wares to as many warm bodies as possible.

So they spend a pathetic 7% of their budget on radio. On the wrong demo. And they wonder why TV seems to work so much better for them....
 
Despite the Over-54 crowd being large (as we're baby-boomers), and despite the fact that we spend $$$, the big agency hang-up with appealing to us is that we are wiser. We are more set in our ways... therefore we are not as easily swayed by advertising. Pure & simple. -
Unfortunately the situation reverses fast when folks reach their 70's and are starting to have medical conditions. Therefore the TV networks' evening news is loaded with big-pharma ads, and sadly really older folks fall easily for all those Doctor-Feelgood 'products' sold through radio (and TV) program-length commercials.
 
You know what makes me want to cry?

Even the very brightest among us, like JIBGUY, are dancing dangerously close to swallowing the Ad Agency Kool-Aid that says that if you're over 50, you're an immutable old fart and that you've stopped listening.

Let's see what a recent Forbes article says:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/gyro/2012/04/12/five-misconceptions-about-marketing-to-boomers/

The idea that 50+ consumers will not brand switch is embarrassingly outdated. Okay, maybe people with rotary dial telephones will not switch. But that's where it ends.

It's not 1957 anymore, everybody!

But if active radio people will not stand up to the reality of marketing in 2012 -- i.e., if you're older than 50, you might actually listen to logic and switch a brand -- then how will the 20-something agency time buyers who are living in their parents' basements ever wake up to reality?

Don't give up... READ up! Get current. It's a new world out there.
 
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