FAQs

Actually Television advertising is the lowest cost per percentage point in every market we have purchase across the country. That sounds like a superfluous statement, however most people think of the cost of the Super Bowl commercials and relate that cost to their market. Our clients average spending $4,000 per month. With this budget we can reach 75-85% of our clients target client an average of 3 to 7 times over a three-month time frame. We know how to make Television advertising affordable and successful for our clients.

It’s a known fact the human memory is poor at best. Let me give you an example. When I first started in the advertising industry I was discussing a marketing plan with my client when a customer walked in the door. I sat waiting for my client to finish with his customer. As the customer was leaving the store, my client asked how he heard about his store. The customer said he saw the stores commercial on Good Morning America. My client thanked the customer. I asked my client when he started advertising on TV. He said he only used radio. It appears the customer may have heard the radio commercial at the same time the TV was on. The human mind is a wonderful thing, but it doesn’t do real well with total recall. We are bombarded with 1,000’s of messages daily. The best gauge to whether your advertising is working or not is what is happening with your new client base. If your new client base is lower than the previous month and year, it would be important to analyze the advertising you are doing. We are always available for a second opinion.

This couldn’t be farther from the truth. Depending on the market, a viewer could have as many as 400 TV channels in which to chose. Currently Neilsen Rating service says Cable channels are garnering upwards of 40% of all viewing audiences and over the air broadcast channels are getting 60% of the viewing audience. The big difference is the size of the piece of pie each are getting. Cable will divide it’s 40% with 395 networks. Broadcast TV will divide it’s 60% by 5 networks. Currently an advertiser can still reach 85-90% of their target audience with a broadcast advertising schedule. The most you can reach with cable in practically any market is 50-55% of your target audience. Of course there are a few exceptions but very few.

In some larger markets such as Chicago, broadcast television advertising can be prohibitive for clients who only have one location in the market. In situations like this we will use a combination of radio and cable advertising. Sometimes radio is the only viable medium that can be used because of the cable penetration in the particular market. With radio the maximum reach you can achieve is 60% in a particular market, if you were to use all of the radio stations in your market. However, to reach 60% of your target audience using only radio can also become cost prohibitive for an advertiser who only has one location in a large metro area. If cable is available in a market and their household penetration is over 60%, cable can be used as a stand-alone medium. Using Cable and Radio advertising in combination works almost as well as using broadcast television advertising in the larger markets where broadcast TV is prohibitive.

This is the most difficult question to answer. We as advertisers like to see and hear people saying, “I came to you because of your radio, cable or television advertising.” As a business person we keep track of all kinds of statistics. However, to make decisions on where people tell us where they came from is very detrimental to a business owner. Why? Because people don’t remember how they came about visiting or calling you. They think they do but in actuality they don’t. Take a minute to visit this Dateline program, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38154937. This will help you understand the complexity of the human memory.

One of the most important statistics is the increase in new customers. New customers are the life blood of any business. Is your advertising working? How many new clients do you have this month as compared to last month and last year. If the numbers are greater, then all is well. If not then we need to analyze how to solve the problem, whether the problem is in the message, the media schedule, how the customer is being greeted or if appointments are being made. There are a lot of components involved in a successful media campaign. The only thing we have experienced incredible immediate results with is the word “FREE” in any advertising. “FREE” will bring immediate results.