[cma-l] National Advertising

[Two Lochs Radio]

Hi Alan,

Yes, that was our experience too. That's exactly why I made the proposal for helping get more big agency ads to the community and small non-profit stations:

a) there has to be a single sales house through which the agents can place one booking for dozens of small stations

b) you have to lobby/educate their clients - the advertisers - to apply a little pressure to them to indicate that they (the clients) would like x% of the bookings to go in the direction of the smaller stations. 

Once they understand that at present their appointed agent has no incentive other than to do the minimum work they can get away with to meet the very broad targets they are set, and that this may be missing some very worthwhile demographics, the client may realize that hithertoo the tail has been wagging the dog a bit too much, and should be given a slight steer.

The ideal time to make this approach is of course when the time is drawing near for retendering of the contract for the booking agency - call me cynical, but rather like pre-election time or pre-BBC licence fee settlement, they become suddenly a bit more interested in social inclusion, public service etc. This strategy was successful in Scotland and I don't see why it shouldn't be on a greater scale for UK-wide bookings.

Alex

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Alan Coote 
  To: 'Two Lochs Radio' ; 'jaqui devereux' ; 'Phil Edmonds' 
  Cc: cma-l at mailman.commedia.org.uk 
  Sent: Thursday, May 05, 2011 10:49 AM
  Subject: RE: [cma-l] National Advertising


  Hi Alex,

   

  In our discussion with the main radio booking agencies in London and elsewhere, they were not really interested. We were talking about areas totally around 2 million people across a number of community stations. It seems as though reaching 80% of people for them was good enough. I see their point, as the remaining 20% would effectively take 80% of their total time - not very cost effective.

   

  While we weren't successful another approach may be of course.

   

  Alan

   

  Alan Coote

  Managing Director 

  The Bay Radio

  Office 01202 580200

  Studio 01202 571028

  Mobile 07801 518858

   

  Email alan.coote at thebayradio.com

  Web www.thebayradio.com

  The Bay Radio, 25B Elliott Road, Bournemouth, BH11 8LQ

        

   

   

   

   

   

     

   

  From: cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk [mailto:cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk] On Behalf Of Two Lochs Radio
  Sent: 04 May 2011 12:34 PM
  To: jaqui devereux; Phil Edmonds
  Cc: cma-l at mailman.commedia.org.uk
  Subject: Re: [cma-l] National Advertising

   

  Our surveys have consistently come in at more like 60-70% weekly reach, and several other Highlands & Islands stations have figures between 30-70%. I guess we benefit from having no other services than BBC in the area. We sell our adevrtising more on the basis of geograpical and socio-economic reach than absolute numbers, and the lack of RAJAR has not generally been an issue. 

   

  The main issue for the big spenders (eg COI) has always been that they outsource the campaign planning to a single company which would rather do the minimal work of dealing with only a small handful of airtime sellers that can deliver them a lot of radio stations for relatively little booking work. If there were an agency offering them the same sort of convenience for community-based and small stations, the picture could change, as it did for us with Scottish Government bookings.


  Alex

    ----- Original Message ----- 

    From: jaqui devereux 

    To: Phil Edmonds 

    Cc: cma-l at mailman.commedia.org.uk 

    Sent: Wednesday, May 04, 2011 11:07 AM

    Subject: Re: [cma-l] National Advertising

     

    Dear all

    Many community radio stations have done qualitative surveys to gauge audience size - the average result is fairly consistent in these at around 10% of potential audience.  When the CMA is asked about audience size, we quote that figure and also make the point that community radio reaches into the parts of the community that other advertising may well not - so talk about the quality of your audience and your reach into particular demographics, not just the size.

    NB RAJAR has its problems!  There is a small commercial station in the NW which appears to have digital listeners but in fact only broadcasts on FM, so we should not believe everything that is said...

    Hope that helps

    Jaqui
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