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Mixing Station
Media Mix Conspiracy
The Media Mix Conspiracy
By Duane Christensen
I love a good conspiracy. Have you ever seen the movie Conspiracy Theory? It’s one of my favorites. But there’s a conspiracy that’s been going on in the advertising and ad agency world for a long time. It’s the Media Mix Conspiracy.
A media mix doesn’t work if you can’t afford it.
A good media mix is super-fantastic if you’ve got cash like King Tut. With a good media mix you get to “touch” people in many different ways. They hear your message on the radio, they see you on TV, they see your logo in print, and they see your name attached to charity events and such. It’s a good way to get into people’s heads.
So…why do I think media mix is a conspiracy? Because MOST businesses are not that big and don’t have the ad budget to DO everything. But we’ve been brainwashed into thinking that we have to REACH every living, breathing soul.
Let me give you an analogy of trying to reach everyone with a small budget. Let’s pretend that 6 people are your media vehicles. 1 is Newspaper, 2 is TV, 3 is Billboard, 4 is Radio, 5 is Direct Mail, and 6 is Bus Bench. And in order for your 6 people to work the best for you they need have their THIRST quenched. Let’s pretend your 6 people each have an eight ounce cup in their hand and they need water. Your ad budget is a 16 ounce bottle of water. So what happens when you try to take that water and fill up your 6 people’s cups? They each get about 2 and 2/3 ounces of water. They drink it up, but is their thirst quenched? No. They’re still thirsty. They don’t want to work when they’re thirsty. But your ad budget (water bottle) is empty. You would have been better off giving all of that water to one person so at least that ONE person can start working for you.
And I didn’t even mention the different segmentation of those media outlets. Hundreds of TV channels, hundreds of billboard locations, multiple radio stations, tons of direct mail options and zipcodes, oodles of magazines and other print options, and too many bus benches to count. It’s daunting.
Giving your “water” to all of those “people” is what small businesses all over the country believe is the right way to advertise. There are certain marketing philosophies that can be shared between small biz and BIG biz. But Media Mix is NOT one of them.
Ad agencies love to charge for their creative services for many different types of media. They make more money if you use more media outlets. In my experience, they especially like to start you off with TV because TV production is where the real money lies. But once you spend half of your budget on making a fairly decent TV ad, you barely have any money to air them. Don’t get me wrong – I love TV. You just need enough budget to get a “non-cheese-o-rama” commercial, and run it in specific programs enough times so the same person sees it 3 to 5 times a week – to begin the branding process (but that’s a whole other article, book, library, etc.)
Here’s what I would do. FIRST, I would make sure your “message” and ad strategy is created before you decide WHERE to advertise. Make sure your message will differentiate you from your competitors. And stop using clichés that nobody believes anyway – “best service, knowledgeable staff, your ____ headquarters, second to none, yada yada”. Be REAL. Don’t make your ads sound like ads. Everyone is too used to them. They either annoy people or they don’t get heard or read at all.
WHERE to advertise? I would start out with a broadcast media. Sound is important when you want advertising efficiency. Radio and TV are intrusive. We can shut our eyes, but we can’t shut our ears. Right? And it’s a lot less money to produce a radio ad and still have it sound good…versus a TV ad. You can’t hide bad acting and production work on TV. So…that let’s start with radio. Can you tell I’m a fan of radio just a little bit? Why? I know it works with even the smallest of budgets. Do you have the idea that you HAVE to be on TV if you’re going to be a “player” in the game of luring in new customers? Get that out of your head right now. In fact, it’s important that you forget about all the stuff you’ve ever heard about how to advertise. De-program yourself.
Listen to some radio stations (or sample whatever media you choose). Get familiar with where you might want to advertise. Then, call a few radio stations and give them a basic rundown of who your target customer might be. They should give you two or three radio stations that would be a pretty good fit. But don’t overanalyze demographics of a radio station. It’s important. But not as important as you might think it is (You do the majority of your “targeting” within your advertising message). When, you say interesting things to people, it’s amazing who will listen, and become your customer.
Once you have a few radio station recommendations, listen to them some more. And ask around about which stations everyday “Joes” and “Janes” are listening to. I’m telling YOU to do this stuff because usually your typical ad rep is not going to shoot you real straight. He or she will have “the perfect station” for you. Yea, right. But if you happen to talk to an ad rep, and immediately you know that this person is brutally honest with you…hang on to them.
When you decide which one or two or six radio stations you want to advertise on…you call your ad rep back. You tell them to give you the best price on airing 24 ads a week 6am to Midnight for 48 to 52 weeks a year (depending on your industry, competition, etc.). Now, of course this is a long-term schedule. It will knock the socks off of a series of short-term schedules moved around and dabbling here and dabbling there. With a long-term schedule you get to “talk” to the people that need your product or service right now…AND you start the branding process with the other 97 or 98 percent of the listeners that don’t need you now…but they will some day. And so will somebody they know.
24 ads a week gives you the frequency you need so that the average listener hears your ad about 3 to 4 times per week (This will be different with TV scheduling). You need them to hear your ad at least 3 times a week because of something our brain does while we sleep. It “tosses” out all of the crap that we see, hear, and experience every day that isn’t important enough to take up valuable brain space. It purges and organizes to protect us from overload. Or in other words, it protects us from going totally bonkers and experiencing “brain-fry”.
Are you with me? The 3 times rule per 7 nights sleep is how you can start implanting your advertising message within your radio listener. It’s branding. It doesn’t happen in one day, one week, or even one month. You need patience. But patience will bring you the advertising success that you never thought was possible.
Take a look at the radio scheduling options that the ad rep gets back to you with. Take them home to do some number crunching of your own. Can you advertise on one complete station with your budgeted dollars? Maybe two? Awesome. If you can’t afford even ONE of his or her stations. You need to find a smaller one in which you can maintain the radio spot frequency of about 24 per week I talked about.
But you’re probably thinking “Yea, but I want to REACH a lot of people”. You start with who you can afford to reach effectively with the proper frequency. Even if it’s only 5% of the population. Once you “own” mindshare within that group of people, good things happen. And then your business grows and so does your ad budget. THEN, you can start looking for the next radio station’s listeners to “talk” to. But never switch stations. Add stations. Why? Because you can never predict WHEN someone is going to need your product or service. And there are always new people moving in and out of your community, and they are always going through different events in their lives. Don’t try to predict when they might buy…just make sure they REMEMBER you when they need you. That happens with the proper ad frequency…and when you say the right things to them.
Oh…and be sure to ask that ad rep for a little better deal. Or to throw in something extra for free…like overnight ads…or a free LIVE remote…or a free sponsorship of some kind. Especially, if they have unsold inventory somewhere.
So, if you’re a small business owner, when you hear the term “Media Mix”, raise one eyebrow up…put your thumb and index finger on your chin…and be very cautious.
About the Author
Duane Christensen is a radio ad/campaign writer and strategist for a unique radio group. His passion is helping each one of his customers' businesses thrive.
Why is there not a AM/FM Death Metal station in Orange County, CA?
I know that there is one one Sirius Radio but mine broke.......
I think it is kind of odd that there is not a station that just plays metal because there are a lot of people that listen to metal around here.
Occasionally other stations will play some soft metal like Metallica mixed in with sh*ty alternative and R&B , but i want to hear bands like Suffocation, Deicide, Vital Remains, and Devourment.
You may think lots of people listen but they don't...at least not enough to be attractive enough to advertisers even in a market as big as LA/OC.
If your satellite radio broke get a new one, they're very cheap especially on Ebay.
I've been in radio 26 years and have never heard a station that mixes Metallica and R&B.
My sw mixing station