Radio is an old industry and to begin I will go a little bit into the history of radio advertising. It is not clear who or what station did radio commercials first but it all seem to have bubbled up in 1922. The first ever recorded was in March 1922 by Remick's music store (which published and sold sheet music) where one night a week they sponsored a programme on the station KFC, co-owned by an electric shop and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper. And on April 4, 1922, a car dealer Alvin T. Fuller purchased time on WGI, Medford hillside and he was stopped by the District Radio Commissioner, since at the time doing direct advertising was not permitted according to Herbet Hoover's interpretation of the DOC Regulation. Or was it the Queensboro Corporation of New York who sold real estate. It was developed by WEAF and it was a set of five programs over five days starting in August 28, 1922 and the cost was $50. So since then the commercialisation of radio was in effect, and since then there was a rush in competition as in those days there were not a range of radio stations.
Because radio only transmits audio, it is different from television. On radio you need to send your message as clearly using just words and/or music. Radio is what actually inspired studies into using the right set of words to advertise a product. Radio required you to lure the listener to your product using just words and/or music and using them creatively. There are a certain type of words that sound better when put together and further we want to hear them over and over again. Words like "happily ever after", "That's why," and the most popular, "you get." Using these words taps in our psychology and activate positive emotions, almost hypnotizing us and at the end of the advert they will call us to action. Either asking you to text message or call a number. And this is why there are radio advertising experts that know the kind of words they need to use to entice the listener to take action.
Most of the market then were advertising products and other new inventions, but today you can advertise almost anything. Today I was listening to a commercial by a telecommunications company who were advertising internet bandwidth, and it was quite catchy. They were advertising the new product of 126gig package and they used a surfer's perspective. They used this guy who is a semi-nerd and always on the computer, downloading videos, music and games. And most of all the bandwidth they were advertising was cheap, enough for me to pay attention. Once I heard the affordable price, I imagined myself using these bandwidth and me having an permanent smile. This is what they successfully managed to do, lure me to listen by imaging the perfect candidate for the product, outlined how he was enjoying and the price was the deal sealer.
Radio also is similar to television in terms of the slots. The most expensive slots are the morning from 6am to 9am and again in the afternoon from 3pm to 6pm. The adverts are charged by the second and they are determined by the average number of listeners around those time frames. The availability of radio in the cars also pushed up the number considerably and actually, the majority of the listeners are on their way to work and/or home in the afternoon and listening to their favorite radio programme, and these are called Drive Time shows. The number of ads that will be Aired are determined by the number of avails, which is the number of unsold units of time available for broadcasters to sell to advertisers. And radio is more popular on Bonus spots which are an additional spots provided to the advertiser at no charge to raise the overall audience delivery of the schedule.
Radio profitability is also done by interviews of a popular figure in the media and this is also done to raise the interest of a particular audience. And together with targeted adverts and social media as a feed to the show, radio has evolved to use the social media platform and it has proved to be profitable for radio and its listeners. It provides a cheaper option to provide feedback to the radio rather than calling in. Social media has infiltrated many markets and radio is not different.
There are many strategies used to make the shows profitable and these assist in determining the availability of the slots and the price. These with the number of followers, broadcasters are able to use a certain formula to determine the popularity of the show. And this means more income for the show. Off course radio has mostly transformed as a platform for music and employing popular music dj's and personalities is part of the strategy. And popular media personalities like Ryan Seacrest, Steve Harvey are just part of the strategy used by radio stations to attract listeners to their respective shows.
Next week I will discuss how you can use television and radio to increase your brand's strength and to attract your users to the brand. We will also discuss on how all this advertising is doing for your brand and why it is important that you advertise if and when you can. More radio advertising equals to more sales and if your product is relevant to the market.
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