« THE LANDSCAPE IS CHANGING, ARE YOU READY? | Home | Green Giant Arborvitae for Landscapes of Sellersville Pa. »
Navigating the Radio Advertising Landscape for Maximum Performance
By | July 1, 2008
<em><strong>Understand Fourth Quarter Hazards to Maximize Profit and Strategic Advantage</strong></em>
Like all mediums, radio has various structural characteristics that make certain times of the year more or less favorable for advertising performance. Knowledge about these aspects of radio advertising is of tremendous value in maximizing campaign profitability and achieving long term success.
<strong>Don’t Miss Q1</strong>
The first quarter is nearly always the best quarter of the year for radio advertising performance, mostly because of factors that lead to an abundance of inventory supply. That oversupply forces radio outlets to be aggressive in pricing their inventory. As a result of this dynamic, Q1 is always an important time of the year. You want to “get while the getting is good”, so to speak, and Q1 is certainly that time. Strategically speaking, Q1 is also a time when campaigns can either grab a foothold or be displaced by a competitor who has come well-prepared to do battle.
So how do you make the most of the favorable conditions in Q1? The most important thing is to make sure that you’ve spent Q4 testing and refining both media and creative variables so you can be very aggressive when the first week of the new calendar year arrives. Most importantly, you want to avoid going into Q1 with “tired” creative.
<strong>Challenges in Q4</strong>
However, while Q1 is one of the best times of the year, Q4 is one of the most challenging. In Q4, a number of factors combine to increase demand for radio advertising, which reduces the quantity of inventory available and sets a higher bar for remnant rates. October marks the start of the political season, when political groups advertise heavily leading up to the mid-term elections. In November, we experience the fall TV sweeps when the TV networks and local stations look to radio advertising to draw viewers in an effort fatten their ratings. Then Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the holiday season, a period that extends for the most part through the New Year’s holiday. During the holiday season, retailers are advertising at their highest levels to capture the potential of their most important time of year.
All of these factors necessitate a very diligent campaign profitability approach and careful navigation of the quarter on a weekly basis. As we’ve said, Q4 is an important time for testing to ensure you’re prepared to make the most of Q1. That means you can’t simply sit on the sidelines because the advertising landscape is peppered by politicals, TV sweeps, and the holidays. You still have to test and prepare for Q1 if you want to maximize success.
<strong>Tips For Success</strong>
The key to testing during Q4 is to understand how the various Q4 challenges impact performance results. You can do this by looking at historical data for your category and/or product. This information is something your agency should be able to provide for you. Once the impact is understood, Q4 testing results can be “calibrated” or normalized so they can be compared to historical testing from other times of the year to identify the relative performance of the variables (creative or media) that you are testing.
Intelligent navigation of the challenges in Q4 will allow you to conduct the testing that is necessary for taking full advantage of the favorable conditions in Q1. While conducting a campaign in Q4 is not a simple task, the rewards for those who approach with discipline and determination are large.
About the Author
By Jeff Small, CEO, and Brett Astor, Vice President of Strategic Media, Inc. Together they have over twenty years of experience in direct response advertising. Learn more about direct response radio advertising strategies at www.strategicmediainc.com or by calling (207) 871-9958. -
In Newtown, Bucks County, most residents considers their yard and garden an extension of their home. We look for sanctuary and privacy there. Plants help by making natural barriers to establish seclusion and privacy. Trees and plants can create living walls, which are especially important in neighborhoods where homes are often packed close together in clustes. Whether you can wait 10 years for the screen to grow in place, or if you need a screen today, you have many choices. For best results, consider these suggestions: Buy fast growing..deer resistant..pest free plants. Integrating plant material with fence sections along a property line is a pleasing solution to a dull, repetitive property line. A backyards, when surrounded by a solid fence, easily becomes claustrophobic. Fences are also expensive and go down in value with age. Integrating plants with fences and property lines can reduce the overall cost of the landscape project and will develop a more open feeling in your landscape. Use a solid wood fence only for areas where absolute year-round screening is a must. Trees and shrubs provide screening for less critical areas and reduce the dullness of long fences.
If you must put up a boarder you will probably want something that grows fast, is durable, deer resistant, and ….CHEAP. This calls out out for the Western Red Cedars. These are fast growing hardy, deer proof plants sure to be loved.
If you want to plant along your properety line a plant other than an evergreen, how could you not consider the Viburnums? These are among the easiest to grow plants that are found in the landscape yet they are seldom over used such as the arborvitae.
Viburnums will provide all season interest with color, texture, and with some fragrance. Birds will love them too. These plants range from 2′ shrubs to 20+ foot trees. Each spring I look forward to their fresh growth and flowers and in late summer berries that form.
Don’t forget that…Natural Fences Can Save You on Your Fuel Bills A well placed natural fence can both cool your house in the summer by giving shade and warm it in the winter. Sort of like a big woman.
Yep, there is plenty of evidence out west with what are called shelter belts. Trees can disrupt cold winter winds and protect you home from direct blasts of cold air. The best tree to grow on a property line for fast growth and easy upkeep is the Green Giant or the Spring Grove arborvitae.
About the Author
Bill has been growing hedge and buffer plants for 25 years. Sign up for his nursery newsletter-email and help line at http://www.seedlingsrus.com/123456signup.html This newsletter gets you free information and coupons for nursery stock and surplus stock that is available from 6 Bucks County PA nurseries.
Tags
Topics: yard-maintenance |
Comments
You must be logged in to post a comment.