The Rush For Great Radio

January 5, 2012
By John Mountford | No Comments

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2012 has started with a stampede of new radio advertisers! It’s as if a gigantic cork has been pulled out of a bottle somewhere – whether by our blog (seen, re-tweeted and commented on throughout the industry) by SEO or just by word of mouth – anyway the resulting gush of enquiries has surprised us.

Not, it seems, that radio itself is witnessing a massive resurgence – more that agencies and individual clients have been surfing the web for cost-effective New Year radio deals.  And most of them are overjoyed they found JMS. Let’s examine a few of the questions we’ve had so far.

“DO I HAVE TO GO TO A RADIO STATION FOR A COMMERCIAL?”

This is the top FAQ – to which the answer is a straightforward ‘NO’. One advertiser confided that a station ‘threatened him with a surcharge’ if they had to transmit a production they’d not made themselves, but as we suspected it was one rogue salesperson and an empty threat.

“BUT DON’T I GET A BETTER ‘PACKAGE’ DEAL FROM THE STATION?”

Nope. A radio station’s primary aim is to sell airtime, which is what they have plenty of, what they’re expert at, and airtime is of course the most costly part of the deal. As long as they’ve structured a good airtime package for you, and the commercial works technically, they’re happy. A JMS production aims to make better use of that airtime – that’s all.

“IS IT CHEAPER IF JMS MAKES THE COMMERCIAL?”

Significantly. Although to be honest, we’d recommend that rather than pocketing the difference, you invest those savings into enabling us to produce more creative ads.

“WHAT IF I WANT TO GO ON MORE THAN ONE STATION?”

Brilliant! This is what we excel at! We can create a single commercial to go onto any number of stations at a realistic rate (and deliver them all). Or we can create a ‘core’ commercial – the same for all stations – but with a portion of the commercial tailored individually to each station or region (perfect for dealerships). There’s a slight extra cost to adding this information (we call it a ‘tag’) but its way cheaper than creating a new commercial for each station! The cost of airtime for the stations should be no different from usual.

“IS THIS A SALES PITCH?”

In exactly the same way a radio commercial is a sales pitch. If you’re in the market for the product we hope this will attract, then interest, then create a desire to purchase. If you’re not, it won’t. P.S. sales pitch or not, it doesn’t alter the fact that more new radio advertisers have contacted us recently than EVER before…

“WHAT DO I DO NEXT?”

Visit our blog for a straightforward explanation of the process, the practicalities, and above all the price.