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147Chapter 10: Mastering Advertising Basics and Media Planning

ߜ Targeted audience: Auditing services provide demographic research
to help you determine whether a station reaches those who fit the age,
gender, and lifestyle of your prospect. You can target your buys based
on listener profile, geographic reach, time of day, and program format.

ߜ Last-minute decisions: As long as ad time is available (which isn’t
always the case during Christmas and political campaign periods), you
can schedule your ad up to hours in advance, and you can update your
ad almost to the last minute before it airs.

ߜ Immediate: Many listeners are in their cars when they hear radio ads,
which is why live remote broadcasts work to build traffic for advertis-
ers. Radio also delivers immediate messages in support of other media
advertising. For instance, your ad can say, “Check out our ad in Sunday’s
paper,” or “Check today’s mail for our half-off coupon.”

ߜ Ad length choices range from sponsorships (“This weather report is
brought to you by . . .”) to 15-second, 30-second, and 60-second ads.

ߜ Intrusive and involving: Especially if ads are creative and well pro-
duced, they can draw listeners in, create mental images, and advance
direct offers. Most good ads include a clear call to action.

Radio advertising does have its drawbacks:

ߜ Now you hear it, now you don’t: The listener can’t rewind to hear your
phone number again. If the listener was tuned out when your ad played,
you can’t reach him or her until you pay to re-air the ad.

ߜ A distracted audience: Listeners have access to many commercial sta-
tions, plus they can opt to tune into public radio, satellite radio, Internet
radio, CDs, or personal digital music players.

ߜ Repetition is necessary and costly: Most advertisers pay to air their ads
many times weekly on a number of different stations in an effort to reach
target prospects at least three times each. They also invest in the pro-
duction of several ads to avoid boring the market with a single ad played
over and over again.

ߜ Station switching: The listener can change stations if your ad isn’t ade-
quately compelling during its first few seconds.

Television

Sometime in the late 1950s the television replaced the fireplace as the center
of the household, and homebodies have been transfixed by it ever since. It is
the most intrusive, costly, and powerful advertising medium of all and as an
advertising medium it requires careful thought and commitment.