Advertising Extreme

Outdoor advertising is a low budget and effective way of advertising a company’s product. Among the entire methods billboard advertising is the most sort after method, which has been proven to be the best sales strategy in the recent times. Nearly 5.6 billion dollar was spent on billboard advertising alone, in the year 2006, as analyzed by Outdoor Advertising Association of America.

Billboard advertising is the best bet in outdoor advertising and isn’t that costly. And with the amount of exposure the product gets the money is worth it. In the past few years several factors have triggered billboard advertising and cost effectiveness being one of the prime reasons. One of the reasons being if an ad is placed in the local newspaper or a television channel the advertisement gets noticed for only thirty seconds and when the same advertisement is placed on billboard, it gets noticed through out the day, for months. Thousands of people view billboard everyday on their way to jobs or home, it doesn’t get lost in the pages like an advertisement placed in a newspaper or magazine. There is a frequent and continuous delivery of message. No other advertising method can grab the attention of people like billboard advertising. It creates brand awareness and strong name recognition.

One of the reasons behind the cost being low is technology. In the early years the billboards were hand-painted due to which the labor cost was high. Now, advertisers design and print their advertisements on a huge poster board or vinyl board by a computer-aided printer, which is very cost effective. Creativity can be achieved to the highest extent, with ease and less money. The brighter, colorful, creative the advertisement is, the more eye-catching it is. With the advancements in technology, it takes very less time to design billboards with unlimited possibilities.

Before placing a billboard advertisement in a particular area it’s better that a research is done about the interest of the people in and around that area. Like if the advertiser desires to post a billboard advertisement on a highway, he can choose the advertisement on a motel, cafeteria, or gas station. Depending on the locality specific potential customers should be targeted.

The cost is really reasonable. It varies from $1,000 to $3,000 per month. Ten advertisements will cost around $ 30,000. It might look like a big amount, but it costs almost same if placing a full-page ad in a newspaper for only a day. And if the effectiveness is considered for both the methods, newspaper advertisements are not even half as effective as billboard advertisements. When an advertisement is placed in a newspaper or in a magazine, the customer should reach out to see the advertisement, but when an advertisement is placed on a billboard, it is like reaching to the customers.

Thus, Billboard advertising has high-impact on people and is a cost-effective method of advertisement. The above-mentioned advantages are few of the many advantages of billboard advertising. And that’s the reason why all types of companies and businesses are choosing to go with billboard advertising. From placing the billboard at a theater multiplex, highway, airport, and even pasting them on cars, any kind of product can be advertised to any kind of audience. And the effectiveness of it can never be underestimated.



By: Jerry Shannon

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THE PROGRAM CREATOR! Create Software in Minutes with NO PROGRAMMING EXPERIENCE

Media have been the most oldest and reliable means of advertising. Over the years, many businesses have taken the benefit of this source of advertising and have gained profits. Businesses spend a great amount of money for media advertising but their success also depends on choosing the best advertising media. It is advisable to select that type of media that is most suitable to the product and services offered by a business.

What Media Advertising Consist Of?

Media advertising consists of various ways of advertising the product. This includes newspapers, television, magazines, billboards, pamphlets, radio, Internet, yellow pages, and direct mails. The main motive of using media for advertising is to attract audiences and thereby generate more revenue by increasing the sale of the product.

Media Advertising Vehicles

Some of the famous ways of media advertising includes-

Television: Television is one of the most powerful sources of media advertising. TV has the maximum capability of reaching almost every home for the whole of 24 hours.

Newspaper: Newspapers also virtually reaches every home all around the world and is one of the major media components.

Internet: Among these, Internet has proved to be the most opted and successful media. Businesses can advertise their product through a website and can thus attract huge traffic to it.

Magazines: Magazines are also a good medium of media advertising. Magazines are limited to a specific category of people who buy them therefore the advertisements in these magazines are for specific audience only.

Essentials of Media Advertising

Customers easily get the information about the product through media advertising. Before advertising the product through media, a business need to keep in mind certain essential aspects that helps in attracting audiences. This include:

- A good media advertisement should consist of a good content, which should cover the features, usability, and benefits of the product.

- The content for media advertisement should be created by keeping in mind the potential market for the product.

- Putting a lot of money in advertisement does not guarantee success of the product. Therefore put a substantial amount of money only and give priority to content.

Media Advertising Agencies

Due to the presence various media advertising means, it becomes difficult for a business to choose the right medium. This is when the business needs to hire a business adviser or media advertising agencies, which help in choosing the best available media for the business. Over the last few years, the emergence of media advertising agencies has simplified the advertising process for the businesses.

Media advertising agencies consist of professional staff that is divided into different departments. Each department helps a business in taking care of each task of media advertising. The various departments include client service department, creative department, execution department, and public relations team. These departments work in accordance with the client’s needs and requirements to bring out the best results.

Changing With Time

Media advertising sources have changed and developed with time. Previously, TV and newspapers were the most sought out ways of promoting a product. Today Internet, telemarketing, and SMS advertisements have brought a drastic change in media advertisement scenario.



By: James Copper

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THE PROGRAM CREATOR! Create Software in Minutes with NO PROGRAMMING EXPERIENCE

"How much should I spend on radio advertising?" "How do I know I am getting the best radio advertising rates?" "What radio stations should I advertise on?" "What are good and bad radio advertising prices?" "How many spots should I air on a radio station?"

Every day at Radio Lounge, we hear radio advertising questions such as these.

Honestly, there is so much confusion about radio advertising floating around – we can’t blame you for asking these questions. Why is advertising on the radio so mysterious? The answer is – radio advertising is not mysterious. It just helps to know how it works.

Effective radio advertising relies on two major components – the message (the radio commercial itself), and the media (that the radio spot airs on).

The Message

Let’s look first at the radio commercial itself. Before even thinking about which radio stations to air on, or how much to spend on radio advertising rates, you must think about what you are going to say in your radio ad. For this article, we are assuming that all call centers, fulfillments, websites, etc. lead generation, and sales closing processes have been put in place by you, the advertiser. Creating a radio commercial that helps drive traffic is extremely important to the advertising process.

The advertising industry is full of voice talents, radio personalities, DJ’s and others, all claiming to create radio commercials. Be careful here. When entering the arena of radio commercial production, look for a radio advertising agency that has experience and a track record of successful ad campaigns. Anyone can create a radio ad, but not everyone can create a radio ad that pulls traffic. Some radio stations provide free radio commercials if you advertise on their station. Most of these free commercials are never based on strategy and are just one of several dozen commercials that have to be created by an overworked radio production person in a five to fifteen minute window of time. Remember, you usually get what you pay for.

The most effective radio commercials are built on a solid, proven strategy. The copy is written using time tested formulas that maximize potential response. The talent is handpicked to best connect with the end user and the production is based upon clear, quality, and easy to absorb audio.

So…what does the radio commercial production process cost? The majority of radio commercials that work best usually fall into the $500 to $1000 price range. There are always exceptions to the rule (lots of revisions to copy or audio, additional voice talents, celebrity endorsements, etc.) but this figure generally covers development of a solid strategy, copy from experienced copywriters, performance by high caliber voice talents, and the highest quality production services.

The Media

For many with questions about radio advertising rates, and radio station prices, here is where the mystery begins. We will try to simplify the mystery of radio media buying as much as we can in this small amount of space.

A good radio advertising buy focuses on a few different things:

* Finding the best radio stations in a market that match your customer’s demographics (age, gender, income level, etc.) and psychographics (interests, beliefs, hobbies, personality traits, etc.).

* Finding the dayparts that best reach your target customer. Mornings? Middays? Afternoons?

* Selecting the top radio stations that most efficiently reach the highest potential customers, the right number of times (defined as frequency), for the least amount of money

Usually, when researching radio advertising costs, many potential radio advertisers have a pretty good idea of the first two points. However, when it comes down to finding the best station (or stations) at the best price, the radio advertising process becomes a little more challenging.

Here is how we tackle the process at Radio Lounge and determine how much to spend on radio advertising costs. Within the market you want to advertise in, we find the radio stations that have the best potential to reach your target customer. This is based on the formats of the radio stations. Urban Hip-hop stations will target different demographics than a News/Talk, or Soft Rock station. After we select a group of radio stations, we contact those stations to let them know we are thinking about advertising on their radio station. We ask for specific data from the radio stations called "rankers". This is ratings data that most radio stations can provide based on specific requirements we have requested. From this point, we have a good idea which stations perform the best in our target demographics.

Once we have narrowed down the radio stations to just a few that will effectively reach our target customer, we then request a proposal based on certain criteria – dayparts, frequency goals, etc. From these proposals, we can see who reaches the target audience most efficiently – using tools like Cost Per Point (ratio of spot rate to ratings percentage), Cost Per Thousand (ratio of spot rate to audience category totals), etc. If a radio station is not competitive, we will often ask the station to resubmit a more competitive proposal. But, how will we know if all of the station’s radio advertising rates are too high. Radio Lounge has access to data that allows us to compare proposals against historical figures to determine if radio station prices are in line with market averages. We negotiate, and help execute the purchase.

Great…but what does this cost? It depends on the size of the market you wish to advertise in as determined by Arbitron (the radio ratings services). Radio advertising rates can be as high as $800 per 60 spots in a top market like New York City, or as low as $3 per 60 spots in Kerrville, TX. How will you know what to spend?

Here’s a valuable system we have used from our history of working with radio advertising rates. The system is based on a solid branding schedule that may run one spot per day in the morning drive, one per day at midday, and one per day in the afternoon drive – Monday through to Friday, and two spots on Saturday and Sunday. That’s nineteen spots a week at sticker price. This type of schedule is good for achieving a desired frequency level of three (meaning the average listener to a station will hear the radio commercial at least three times). Under these broad assumptions, you can use the following chart as a rough guide to budgeting your radio advertising campaign.*

*Note, these are gross rates and do not include production costs or agency discounts. These are market averages for the standard radio schedule mentioned above, actual costs may vary. Different combinations of dayparts on different stations may cost much less.

* Markets 1 -5 (ex: New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, etc.)

Expect to pay from $4000 to $8000 per week/per station for a top performing station.

* Markets 6 – 20 (ex: Dallas/Ft.Worth, Houston, Phoenix, San Diego, etc.)

Expect to pay from $2000 to $5000 per week/per station for a top performing station.

* Markets 21 – 50 (ex: Denver, Cleveland, Kansas City, etc.)

Expect to pay from $1000 to $3000 per week/per station for a top performing station.

* Markets 51- 150 (ex: Akron, Syracuse, Baton Rouge, etc.)

Expect to pay from $800 to $2000 per week/per station for a top performing station.

* Markets 150+ (ex: Myrtle Beach SC, Green Bay, Topeka, etc.)

Expect to pay from $500 to $1500 per week/per station for a top performing station.

You may be saying, "Wow! That can be expensive". Relax, these are standards and radio advertising schedules come in all shapes and sizes. Sometimes, schedules are smaller depending on advertising goals and objectives. However, we do recommend that you are able to commit to the range of minimums.

Leftovers?

Notice we have not mentioned remnant radio advertising here at all. Remnant advertising is the practice of buying unused inventory at deep discounts. Remnant advertising success exists more in theory than in practice. However, this is not to say that there are not advertisers who are having success with remnant advertising. If, and when, remnant advertising falls into your lap, we suggest you look into it. However, basing your entire radio ad campaign on remnant advertising may be shooting yourself in the foot. With the exception of a few times a year, most top performing radio stations do not have that much unsold inventory. Often, the largest advertisers have contracts that guarantee so many low cost/no cost spots that have to run. The reality is that if large advertisers (with the big dollar schedule) need their spots to run, or if another advertiser pays just one penny more than you did for your remnant spots – bump! You just got bumped off the air that day. You may pay for twenty spots and only get two that air. The stations will make it up to you, but what if you were counting on that advertising to drive sales. Or better yet, in the age of consolidated radio groups your remnant advertising might run on the third to the last rated station in the market. The result is NO RESULT and you have just wasted money for nothing. We really do believe that when it comes to radio advertising YOU TRULY DO GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR.

Now that radio advertising rates have been explained, you may ask the question, how long should I advertise? The type of radio advertising helps define the length of a campaign. Advertising for an event? We recommend shorter, more compact schedules to create buzz leading up to the event or launch. Branding a product? Often, long term schedules with a bit of breathing room work best. Maybe even flighting could work (on two weeks, off two weeks). Most of the time, the two things that will determine how long to run a radio advertising campaign will be advertiser goals (traffic numbers), and external factors such as sales cycles. Oh yeah, and usually budget affects the length of the campaign. It is not desired, but that’s reality.

The Total Cost

You may be thinking, "So if I want to run a spot on three top Houston radio stations, I should expect to pay $1000 for a commercial, plus $3000 per week per station…that’s $10,000 for one week’s worth of advertising!" That’s true, and may be just what it takes to reach over half a million potential well targeted customers. The real question is, "How much money can you make off half a million potential targeted customers?" Is it more than $10,000 a week? $40,000 a month? These are questions to ask yourself, because in the world of advertising, that is pretty good traffic.

It works even better when you let Radio Lounge reduce that cost even further. What if Radio Lounge was able to get you a great radio advertising schedule by providing an instant discount ABOVE the negotiated lowest radio station price?

Launch Your Radio Advertising Campaign

You may still have many questions about radio advertising. That’s why we are here. We want to help you get the biggest bang for the radio advertising buck. Radio Lounge has worked with thousands of radio advertising campaigns. We know what works and what does not. Let Radio Lounge help you with all facets of strategic development, creative development, copywriting, production, media planning, media negotiation, and monitoring of your radio advertising campaign.

Call for a free consultation. Toll free 1-866-4-AUDIO-9…that’s 1-866-428-3469.

Let Radio Lounge help you drive traffic with powerful radio advertising solutions.

http://www.radioloungeusa.com



By: M. Bruce Abbott

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Create, Sell or Give Away Branded Software in Minutes!

A recent research commissioned by Google and conducted by Clark, Martire & Bartolomeo has thrown up some interesting facts related to newspaper advertising. According to the report, consumers often research products and services on the Internet after they see them advertised in the newspapers. The study indicates that two-thirds of the people turn to the Internet to research for more information for the products advertised in the newspaper. Then again, 70 percent of the people from this group actually do make purchases following the research.

The results of the research aptly demonstrate the importance of advertising in newspapers and other print media to boost online sales. Earlier research on the subject also points to the fact that newspapers continue to dominate as popular mediums of advertising for consumers in the USA and the UK.

Confirming this trend, John F. Sturm, Newspaper Association of America (NAA) president and CEO, said, “The study also shows the trust consumers place in newspaper ads and the benefits of advertising in both mediums to reinforce consumer confidence in those products and services.”

All said, the study lends support to the belief that the print media plays a powerful role in driving and motivating people to conduct additional research on the Internet for more information. In other words, this means that newspaper advertising is an effective method to drive traffic to websites. Combine newspaper advertising with online advertising and what you get is more consumers purchasing your offerings. Both forms of advertising reinforce consumer confidence in the products and services.

One reason for the impact of newspapers in advertising is that newspapers form an integral part of people’s daily experiences. Given the type of consumer interactions that are now taking place online in social networking sites, it becomes all the more important to reinforce brand images and direct responses through newspaper advertising.

It is not without reason that more and more companies are today turning to the print media as an effective channel for their advertising campaigns. That newspaper advertising plays an important role in increasing web traffic, is reiterated by the figures released in the report. Of all the people who researched the product advertised in the newspaper, 67 percent went online to search for more information. Compare this figure to 48 percent who visited a store, 23 percent who called a store and 23 percent who asked a friend and you will realize the power of newspaper advertising in driving traffic to websites.

Around 48 percent of the people polled for the study revealed that their trust level towards a product advertised online increased manifold when they saw it advertised in the newspaper also.

Given the above, it becomes clear that if you want to succeed online you must advertise offline also. So if you want to increase traffic to your website, advertise your site in the newspapers and magazines. In the UK, you can advertise your services through Web Windows, an online company that ensures that every advertising pound you spend is spent wisely. Through them, you can have your advertisement placed in all major newspapers in the UK at very cost effective rates. So advertise your online business in all the major newspapers in the UK and see the results in the form of increased numbers of web enquiries, increase in sales, increased number of repeated purchases and improved customer loyalty and long-term competitive advantage.



By: Webwindows

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Brand over 300 Software Titles with your information

Banner advertisement is perhaps the oldest and most common mode of advertisement in the world wide web (www). In its simplest form - it acts like a billboard, spreading a promotional message and helping interested visitors to jump to relevant web-site.

Difference between a physical billboard and on-line banner advertisement lies in ability of the later to measure campaign effectiveness. Unlike traditional ad media like TV or print where measuring audience response is difficult - its possible to obtain clear and accurate measurements of success or failure of on-line ads through web traffic analysis.

How good is banner advertisement for your business ? Should you adopt this known and trusted method or go for new ones like search engine based PPC ? The answer lies in your requirement and an understanding of what banner advertisement can deliver.

Let us discuss various concepts associated with on-line advertisement and analyze how banner advertisement works.

What Kind of On-Line Advertisement Suits my Business ?

There are three major reasons for creating online advertising campaign. These are:

*Building brand awareness

*Increasing website traffic

*Creating leads and sales

You need to analyze your precise requirements and prioritize the objectives of planned ad campaign. If the objective is brand building or pure promotion - banner advertisement is ideally suited. However, if you are more keen on leads and sales - targeted advertisements such as search engine marketing could be better option. In many cases - a mix of banner ad and search engine marketing could be the answer. One can find more information on Internet advertisement, specially in the context of export import trade and b2b portals here .

Key Concepts Associated with On-Line Advertisement:

Before proceeding any further, it is important to understand a few key concepts associated with on-line advertisements in general and banner advertisement in particular.

Impression:

Impression is a measure of how many times an ad has been viewed. How many people have viewed a banner ad or received an “impression” by seeing the ad - is a measurement of responses from the ad delivery system. Once a visitor has viewed a banner on a web page - an impression is recorded. Banner views are different from page views in the sense that there may be multiple banner views within one page view. There’s another distinction between page

view and banner view - some banner serving software do not count a banner view unless the visitor stays on the page long enough for the banner to be fully downloaded from ad server.

CPM:

CPM refers to cost per thousand (M here stands for ‘Mille’ - the Roman numeral used to represent 1000). CPM is commonly used by the advertising industry to describe how many people have viewed the banner ad (ad view) or received an “impression” by seeing the ad. In other words, this is the price an advertiser pays for displaying his/her banner 1,000 times.

For example, an advertising rate of $10 CPM, means the advertiser is paying $10 for every 1,000 impressions, or $0.01 for each banner impression.

CTR or Click-Through:

When a visitor gets interested in promotional message of a banner, he/she clicks on it to learn more and is automatically transported to advertiser’s website. Every time someone clicks on the banner, it is called a “click- through,” and the “click-through rate” is expressed in terms of percentage of users who click on an advertisement (i.e. ratio of ad clicks to ad impressions). In other words, click through ratio is an indication of a banner’s effectiveness.

How Advertiser Pays for Banner Advertisement Universally, there are two modes of payment for banner ad - CPM

Click-Through:

In India - there’s a third mode of payment based on duration of time a banner is hosted on a web-site. Typically, special server-based software called ‘ad-server’ rotates banner ads in specified places of a web-site. It also keep track of impressions, click-thorough and other vital statistics.

In CPM mode of payment - advertiser pays for number of impressions based on an agreed CPM. For example, if a site charges US$ 9 per CPM - for $450 the advertiser gets $450 / $9 CPM *

1000 = 50,000 impressions

If percentage of click thorough is 2 - 4%, advertiser may expect ~ 1000 - 2000 new customers visiting his/her web-site. This is apart from brand building based on number of impressions.

In Click-Through mode - Advertisers pays a fixed fee for every click, no matter what is the number of impressions.

In time-based banner advertisements (typical in India), advertiser pays a fixed fee based on monthly or quarterly rate, irrespective of the number of impression or click-thorough.

Types of Banners Advertisements:

Traditional banner ads were static in nature - usually a .gif or .jpeg image file. With technology advancing - new modes of banner ads appeared in ad scene. Following are some of the popular modes of non-static banner ads

Expanding - Banner gets bigger on clicking - often have a button labeled “Expand”. Rather than jumping to another website - these banners simply open up and reveal more information.

Animated - Common mode of banner ad these days. However, too many images/messages may render such banners hopelessly large in size, slow and downright irritating. Exercise caution on banner design.

Drop-Down Menu - These have embedded HTML and allow the user to choose options from a drop-down menu. This mode of banner is ideal for co-op advertising where several businesses can advertise together.

Interstitial - These appear in a separate window as the website loads. These ads often contain large graphics, animation, and streaming presentations.

Java, Flash, and Shockwave - These allow for rich media presentation including video and audio. Common browser toolbars such as Alexa, Google etc. suppress this type of banners Floating Ads and DHTML - These banners float over the content a website and generally perceived as intrusive, although they do get a high click-through rate.

Unicast - These are just like little TV ads that run in a separate window.

Checklist for Banner Designers:

Here’s a few things to keep in mind while creating banner ad Make it smaller in size: preferably under 12K. This way - the banner will be quick to load.

Keep it Simple: Stay simple. Don’t get too complicated with heavy text and confusing colors.

Make it Easy-to-read:

Always use ALT tags for text display on those surfing without images Verify that the banner clicks-through to the appropriate page on your website Limit your use of animation Include a call to action (e.g. Order Now, Visit Web-Site etc.) Test your banners in different browsers at different screen resolutions.

Get your web designer to make your banner ads for you in a variety of standard sizes if you are not experienced in advertising.

Conclusion:

Lack of targeting and visitor apathy are two major drawbacks of banner ad campaigns. Because of large scale use or misuse - visitors today treat banners as necessary evil and pay little attention. Click through rate of banner ads are much lower compared to other forms of on-line advertisement such as targeted search engine marketing. However, banner ads are more effective in brand building and work very well when the creative is attractive and ad delivery systems can do some targeting.



By: Dr.Amit Kumar Chatterjee

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Create, Sell or Give Away Branded Software in Minutes!