Twin Creek Media Blog Marketing Blog by Twin Creek Media

by James Shaw and Amelia Penner

Radio Advertising in the Okanagan - Part 1 of 2

For local retailers and service providers that market to the general population, advertising on the radio can be very effective.  Success or failure on the radio can be attributed to factors such as relevance, repetition, brand awareness, call to action, measurement, and creativity.  As with any other media, it’s important to integrate your radio campaign with other online and offline efforts.  An integrated campaign is greater than the sum of its parts.  For a primer on Integrated Marketing see: Engaging Customers: From Bored to Boombastic!

The Basics: What Station?  When?
Below are the basics of what you should already be doing with your radio ads.  If you cannot check off all of the following things, you need to address them before applying the other changes we suggest.

• Are you advertising on the radio station(s) your target audience listens to?
• Are you advertising during the times that your target audience is listening?

Relevance: Know Your Audience
The key to any marketing effort is understanding your audience.  Who are they really?  Are they 46 year old men who like sports, outdoor living, and drive trucks?  Are they 34 year old time-starved females with 2.5 kids, who believe mini-vans should have their own lane?  What radio station is your audience listening to?  Throughout Vernon, Kelowna, and Penticton there are a variety of stations that target different age groups and genders.  Unfortunately, the variety of stations creates overlap which makes it harder to choose between them.

Time of Day
Typically the best times to run your ad are when people are driving to and from work.  These would be 6am to 10am and 4pm to 7pm.  The theory is that there are more listeners during these peak periods.  This is balanced by the fact that these spots may be more expensive and there could be more ads crowded together, making it easier for your ad get lost in the noise.  Eg. if your spot is 6th in a series of 7 spots back to back, has your audience already flipped the station before hearing it?


Kelowna Radio Stations

Station	Format	Core Demographic	Affiliations	Basic Rate	Relative Popularity
SunFM (99.9FM)	Top 40/Pop	Teens, Women 18-35	Astral Media	$35 per 30sec	High
K96.3 (96.3FM)	Classic Rock	Males 35-54	Sun Country Cablevision Ltd.	$15 - $60 per 30sec	High
Silk (101.5FM)	Adult Contemporary	Women 35-64	Astral Media	$35 per 30sec	High
Power104 (104.9FM)	Rock	Men 25-54	Jim Pattison Group	$10 - $50 per 30sec	Normal
The Juice (103.9FM)	Mixed	Adults 35-49	Vista Broadcast Group	$15 - $30 per 30sec	Normal
AM1150 (1150AM)	Talk Radio/News	Adults 50+	Astral Media	$18 per 30sec	Low
Q103 (103.1FM)	Adult Contemporary	Females 25-44	Jim Pattison Group	$10 - $50 per 30sec	Low

Penticton Radio Stations

Station	Format	Demographic	Affiliations	Basic Rate	Relative Popularity
SunFM (97.1FM)	Top 40/Pop	Teens, Women 18-35	Astral Media	$40 per 30sec	High
Giant FM (100.7FM)	Country	Adults 25-54	Independent	$20 - $29 per 30sec	High
EZ Rock (800AM)	Adult Contemporary	Women 25-54	Astral Media	$27 per 30sec	Normal

Vernon Radio Stations

Station	Format	Demographic	Affiliations	Basic Rate	Relative Popularity
SunFM (105.7FM)	Top 40/Pop	Teens, Women 18-35	Astral Media	$35 per 30sec	High
Kiss (107.5FM)	Adult Contemporary	Adults 35-65	Jim Pattison Group	$10 - $50 per 30sec	High

About the Charts...

Hopefully the charts above are a helpful resource.  The Okanagan radio scene is quite fragmented and there is a lot of overlap.  This is great for listeners - more choice!  But for advertisers, it means the decision of which station to buy is harder, and often you will need to buy more than one station to be effective.

Most of the data provided in the charts come from the radio stations themselves.   There are a few important exceptions.  First "Core Demographic" means just that: it's the core demo, but of course there are 20 year olds listening to the news on AM1150, and 45 year old men listening to Britney Spears on SunFM (yikes!).  There are always exceptions.  Also, note that "Teens" is not an official demographic in the radio world.  We have just added it in there because it's true.

Relative Popularity

I'm sure that we may have started a minor war and fans/employees of the various stations all have their opinion on which station is the most popular.  It's important to note that we ranked the stations in relative popularity based on available data from stations (taken with a big grain of salt), a report from CHBC (a TV channel would be less biased supposedly?), BBM Canada's industry rankings (ranked with paper diaries) and by the "seat of our pants" feelings (highly subjective!).  So to sum it up...  Our rankings are not scientific or definitive.   The stations ranked "High" seem to swap first/second/third positions often, and radio reps can tweak the data (with age or time of day bracketing) to boost their station above others.  Another issue with popularity ranking is the source of the data itself.  The Okanagan is still in the stone age when it comes to measuring radio's reach, audience, duration, and listener demographics.  Very literally, we still use paper/pencil and keep "diaries" about what we remember listening to... then mail the journal in.  Bigger metros, like Vancouver and Calgary, use digital gadgets called Portable People Meters (PPM) which "listen" to the radio stations that are on when Jenny or John go about their day.  PPMs are much more accurate.  In Vancouver, PPMs have found to significant adjust male/female listenership vs. paper journals.  Check out Radio Marketing Bureau's PPM Bulletin 8:Vancouver if you're interested.

One final note on popularity... who cares!  Ask your own customers.  Do a phone survey or online poll.  Find out for yourself.  Trust your instincts.  Plus, a small specialty station might offer a great deal over the big boys, better service and good exposure to a specific audience.  If the audience is a match, don't ignore the "less popular" stations.

Coming next week in Part 2....

• Getting creative...
• Do you stand out from “the noise”? Be creative - remember radio is the “theater of the mind”.
• Does your ad prompt action? Don’t forget a call to action. What do you want the listener to do exactly? Call you? Drive by? Visit a website? Be specific.
• Different types of radio ads (eg. sponsorships, contests, etc.)
• How to test and measure your radio campaigns
• Tips for buying radio advertising

Continue on to Okanagan Radio Advertising Part 2