Radio Advertising can cost as much and sometimes more (in cost per person reached) than TV. This can be said as a general statement just about everywhere. In markets where the cost of radio is lower, so too is the cost of TV. In a market like Los Angeles who has a huge traffic “drive time” there are more people trapped in their car listening to the radio. The demand for the drive time by many advertisers forces the price up.
The advantages of radio advertising are:
1) The cost of producing a radio commercial is FAR less than TV.
2) You can “target” a specific demographic group because most stations “format” themselves to reach specific demos.
What is effective Radio Advertising?
Sit ‘N Sleep the mattress store started with two stores in 1990 and used only radio the first four years. They started advertising only on KABC-AM from 12m-5am. They expanded on KABC to running all dayparts. Then they expanded to running on other radio stations. After four years they started running on television in addition to radio. Currently they run on both radio and television. After 10 years of constant advertising reported total sales were $50,000,000. After 18 years of advertising on both radio and TV their reported sales for 2007 were around $225,000,000 and they have expanded to 22 stores.
For an effective radio campaign in LA a client needs to spend at least $30,000 per month to see results. For TV in LA it needs to be about the same. Other markets have lower cost and schedules, but unless a client is willing to spend a minimum of around $10,000 per month in those markets they are not serious, long term advertisers.
