sowny.net | The Southern Ontario/WNY Radio-TV Forum


You are not logged in. Would you like to login or register?

June 14, 2020 2:34 pm  #1


640's Odd Contest Targets Sponsors Not Listeners

I've heard of radio stations offering prizes to listeners, but I can't recall ever hearing anyone offering a contest for sponsors. Still, that's what Corus' AM 640 is up to, offering $20,000 in free ads to businesses that enter their new giveaway. 

I suppose it's clever. At a time when ad inventory is way down, those who enter but don't win become fodder for the sales team to follow up. The entry blank asks if you want the ad time on 640, CFNY or Q107 - or all three. 

But if I read the rules right, there's a catch to this free airtime and it's pretty significant. According to the Contest Rules section (italics are mine):

-Prize must be redeemed between June 1, 2020 and August 31, 2020. (But who knows if everyone will have been allowed to reopen by then?) 

-Prize is based on inventory availability. (I'm guessing there's a great deal of inventory for sale.)

-All on-air produced promotional announcements will air Monday to Sunday, 5:00 a.m. to 1:00 am ET and are 100% pre-emptible. (Anyone want to guess how many of the freebies will air before 6 in the morning on a Sunday?) 

And just how many spots will $20-grand buy on the Toronto stations anyway?

Anyway, I'll give them credit for at least trying something new to attract would-be advertisers. And I suppose if someone wins and business picks up, that firm could then be persuaded to actually pay for future ads, so I guess there's not that much to lose.

Back To Business Giveaway – 640 Toronto 

 

June 14, 2020 2:55 pm  #2


Re: 640's Odd Contest Targets Sponsors Not Listeners

$20K on 640? Given their numbers, that's enough to buy spots until the day after the Rupture. What if Tom wins? I don't want my great great great grandchildren being tortured like that.

 

June 15, 2020 11:50 am  #3


Re: 640's Odd Contest Targets Sponsors Not Listeners

it seems to be a contest they are doing nationally with Corus.   I have seen them push this in KW as well. 

 

June 15, 2020 4:11 pm  #4


Re: 640's Odd Contest Targets Sponsors Not Listeners

This was announced a while back. I think it is brilliant, especially if Corus attracts some non traditional radio advertisers. A great example of this would be Monaghan Lumber. Lumber specialty outlets like Monaghan are not normally radio advertisers, but this company is all over the dial and has been for years. Obviously radio has been working for them.

There is a whole layer of potential non traditional advertisers that have never used radio and this is a perfect opportunity for them to do so at no risk or cost.  Also for Corus it is a chance to build a relationship with a new potential customer.  Smart radio companies know the value and importance of relationship selling. 

 

Last edited by paterson1 (June 15, 2020 4:14 pm)

 

June 15, 2020 4:52 pm  #5


Re: 640's Odd Contest Targets Sponsors Not Listeners

Are you saying Corus is a "smart radio company"? Then explain why they let 640 stay as a talk station when their ratings are barely above the Aboriginal station. Exclude tax write off as that's pure nonsense.

 

June 15, 2020 6:14 pm  #6


Re: 640's Odd Contest Targets Sponsors Not Listeners

Stingray and Central Ontario Broadcasting too

https://stingraystimulus.com/
https://stimulus.cobroadcasting.com/

 

 

June 15, 2020 7:00 pm  #7


Re: 640's Odd Contest Targets Sponsors Not Listeners

Tickle Trunk wrote:

Are you saying Corus is a "smart radio company"? Then explain why they let 640 stay as a talk station when their ratings are barely above the Aboriginal station. Exclude tax write off as that's pure nonsense.

From an advertising perspective, with this program yes they are a smart company.  This has nothing to do with the format for AM 640 or any other Corus station.  It is an advertising initiative, and given the flat market for all media  right now, this is a very smart move. That's why, as Aaron pointed out, others are doing something similar.

Why compare 640's ratings with 106.5 elmnt fm?  A more appropriate and realistic comparison would be with other  AM stations like TSN 1050, CJCL Sportsnet or AM 740.  640 has a larger daily cume than any of these three AM competitors.  For what it is worth they have a larger daily cume and audience share than 8 other GTA stations.

We know for a fact that 640 is a tax write off...or just assume it is?  Drop the talk format...to be replaced with??
It could be the station revenue wise, in normal circumstances, is doing a little better than some think.

 

June 15, 2020 7:23 pm  #8


Re: 640's Odd Contest Targets Sponsors Not Listeners

Of course this has to do with format and ratings. Why would I advertise on such a low-rated station? Regardless if it's free, who will hear it? In terms of "there's more listening than some think", that doesn't matter. What matters is what Numeris concludes from their surveys.

My comparison is just: comparing a low performer to another low performer is valid. In the end, I would like some concrete proof that it's a "write-off" other than speculation here.

Replace it with? How about nothing -- surrender the license and save money on hydro for the transmitter. Sadly, most of the air staff won't work anywhere in Toronto with the possible exception of Kelly. Stafford would never be rehired at RB after years of calling it the "seniors home".

 

June 15, 2020 7:26 pm  #9


Re: 640's Odd Contest Targets Sponsors Not Listeners

paterson1 wrote:

We know for a fact that 640 is a tax write off...or just assume it is?  Drop the talk format...to be replaced with??
It could be the station revenue wise, in normal circumstances, is doing a little better than some think.

Well that's just it...there's nowhere to go.

The big companies used to view some of their lesser AM as placeholders to keep the lights on until ownership limits were relaxed or a new technology (DAB or HD) caught on, giving them an even playing field. It wasn't about 640 or whatever, but the license itself that was viewed as golden. With those options mostly faded away as the technologies haven't caught on and space on FM non-existent in most markets, we may see some of the weaker ones go dark. 

 

June 15, 2020 8:46 pm  #10


Re: 640's Odd Contest Targets Sponsors Not Listeners

Tickle Trunk wrote:

Of course this has to do with format and ratings. Why would I advertise on such a low-rated station? Regardless if it's free, who will hear it? In terms of "there's more listening than some think", that doesn't matter. What matters is what Numeris concludes from their surveys.

My comparison is just: comparing a low performer to another low performer is valid. In the end, I would like some concrete proof that it's a "write-off" other than speculation here.

Replace it with? How about nothing -- surrender the license and save money on hydro for the transmitter. Sadly, most of the air staff won't work anywhere in Toronto with the possible exception of Kelly. Stafford would never be rehired at RB after years of calling it the "seniors home".

Numeris really only matters for agencies and national advertising, not local campaigns.  

Why would I advertise on such a low rated station? Who is going to hear it?  Well using that theory why would anyone ever advertise on a low rated station then?
 
I guess those advertisers feel they are getting results and reasonable value for the money spent?  They likely have seen new customers and some would comment on their radio ads. Some of these new people that the radio ads brought in have become customers, possibly big customers.  It's simple. 

Corus, as I  mentioned before, may be trying to attract advertisers that don't use radio often or at all.  So they could be looking for non traditional radio advertisers like Monaghan Lumber.  They will also be able to point out that this company has been a successful advertising client on their various stations for years. 

So again, the radio formats and ratings will not be the central part of the sales presentation. They are giving potential advertisers a great opportunity to reach hundreds of thousands new people, just at a time when the advertiser really needs new customers and reach their established base.  And if the client is chosen in this promotion, it is no charge for them. For Corus this is a great chance to prospect for new clients and develop new business relationships.  And this is what what smart companies do.

Unless AM640 is a losing money pit with no chance of ever making money or breaking even, then I guess they could try to sell the station or close it down. Although Corus seems to be finally pushing their Global News Radio stations across the country, and moving with towards some "network" programming, so the timing would be strange to close their Toronto talker.  And besides 640 overall is a good talk station.

 

June 15, 2020 9:10 pm  #11


Re: 640's Odd Contest Targets Sponsors Not Listeners

The greatest "advertise on the radio" campaign I ever heard was a work of pure genius – although admittedly, it happened on a highly rated Top 40 station in the 70s and not the lower echelons of an AM 640.
 
At the bottom of every hour, WGAR in Cleveland would do a station I.D. that sounded like this, fronted by a big voiced announcer: "1220 WGAR, Cleveland, a Carl Molton station!” followed by a jingle into the next record. Every hour on the :30 this thing would run, and the name would be repeated for 24 hours straight. The next day, a different moniker would appear for another entire day.
 
I used to listen to the station after dark and always wondered who these people were. I just assumed they were shareholders or upper management types. Turns out, I couldn’t have been more wrong. Years later, I became friends with one of their jocks and finally got the chance to ask him what those announcements were all about.
 
He told me they were the idea of the sales department. They’d go out seeking sponsors, and despite their rating success, be turned down as being either too costly or told ‘no one listens to the radio.’ So the unsuccessful sales guy would come back to the station, submit the reluctant client’s name for the bottom of the hour I.D., then sit back and wait.
 
Well, you can imagine what happened. The guy’s phone would start to ring at his home and his wife would answer. “I just heard your husband’s name on the radio!” her neighbour would exclaim, wondering why. More calls would come in, and she’d spend a good part of the day trying to explain why the man she married kept being mentioned on the radio. 
 
Then the guy’s kids would come home from school, where their friends – who all listened to the biggest Top 40 station in the city – would come up to them and say, “I just heard your dad’s name on WGAR!”
 
By the time the business owner got back from work, his family would be telling him non-stop about his name being on the radio. That would often change his mind about ‘no one getting the message over that medium.’
 
It didn’t always work, but many times, it would land WGAR a sale they wouldn’t have had otherwise. The cost: absolutely nothing. The reward: potentially huge.
 
I’m actually surprised no one’s ever tried this today. It’s brilliant - and it's free.

     Thread Starter
 

June 15, 2020 10:03 pm  #12


Re: 640's Odd Contest Targets Sponsors Not Listeners

One of the most successful radio jingles and campaigns anywhere was right here in Toronto. It was so simple and so effective back in the 70's and into the 90's.  Still used today and many have copied it over the years.  One of the most recognizable jingles for decades in Toronto and it all started with a simple radio jingle.

967-11-11 Call Pizza Pizza, hey hey hey... That jingle established and grew the chain, sold hundreds of millions of dollars of pizza. At one point Pizza Pizza was the most successful pizza chain in Ontario, maybe it still is.

The radio jingle was so effective, that the US border patrol and guards in Detroit, Buffalo, Port Huron would occasionally ask Canadians from Southern Ontario what the phone number of Pizza Pizza was. Supposedly if they had any doubts about where you were from, they figured everyone in Southern Ontario and the Toronto area would know the number.

It was easy to use in a sales situation too. If the client said that nobody listens to radio or commercials or remembers them.  When you would casually mention Pizza Pizza you could tell by the expression on their face that they were thinking about the jingle and phone number that they had heard many times and many years ago on the radio.