Thump thump thump thump. It’s bloody loud in here, but the view is great and the conversation absolutely trippy. I’m with Rupert and Kerry in Kerry’s new Sagorski chopper, slowly cruising over Sydney’s greener suburbs. Kerry has the joystick in his hand, thinking he’s in control. Rupert is poised near the on-off button. (It turns out that this is Rupert’s key strategy to life’s problems. He just turns off the machine, and they’ll do anything to get him to turn it back on while it’s spinning out of control under no power. That’s with anything, governments, big businesses, religions…)
Kerry looks down at Mosman. Grins. At his age a grin also results in a dribble, but we don’t point it out to him, he is on a roll, he’s so excited he might have another heart attack, so we don’t want to interrupt.
Kerry: “We’re gona use the mobile phone relay stations. See there? And there on that hill? We’re gona broadcast TV by the suburb. They’ll be watching the 9 News and they’ll think they’re watching the same news, but they won’t be. We’ll be changing the content for each area. If they’re a strong Labor voting block, and we want to scare them, we can tell them wages are going down and Unions are being made illegal. If they’re strong Liberals, we can say house prices are on the rise and private schools are doing well. They’ll spend up. Bloody great. Think about it from your point of view, Geoffrey. Your clients will be able to adjust the news to their way of thinking. I can run a full story on the 6 o’clock news about the V8 Commodore, 60 minutes on Caravans and run a breaking story on the Late News about fuel prices going down and the caravan parks will be booked out till Xmas 2010!! It’s niche and mass marketing at the same time. Geeezes I’m smart. No wonder I’m so bloody rich.”
Rupert “You’re not rich. You might smell as rich as a wild boar in a ballet dress, but you’re just a big fish in a little pond. I’m rich. I’m so rich I have no idea what I’m worth. I’m so bloody rich I’ve just commandeered your idea and I’m going to run it world-wide. Cause it’s now my idea. And what are you gonna do about it? Sue me?”
Kerry smiles again. “Why don’t we get together on it, like we do with everything else? Like the new toy? Should we buzz little Johnny’s place again? He looks at me. “Last time we did, Johnny scrambled the fighters. They were gonna shoot us down till I told ’em who was flying. They thought we were Indonesians. But there’s not too many terrorists who can pay for a $50 million helicopter with that week’s flutter money.”
(There’s a reason the two richest Australians are in media. It’s very profitable. Don’t ever feel bad about haggling for a better price. They can afford it.)
We drop out of the sky low over Kirribilli House. Groundsmen drop for cover. Men in serious suits pop out from under trees and aim guns at us. Kerry just laughs loud and long. Rupert is jealous that Kerry’s still young enough to laugh without peeing, and threatens to press the off button…..
I wake up. I realize I’m just dreaming. I’m dreaming of accessible media. Of flexible media. Of media that cares what clients think and makes an effort to help them out. It’s sad, isn’t it? The reality is nothing like the dream.
It’s all about control
The media is a force unto itself. Powerful. So powerful, you are wondering how we can dare to write a few words like those above and have it printed say 20,000 times.
(I think Marketing Magazine’s circulation is about that). By entertaining us, they control us. They control almost every aspect of our lives. Almost all the information most of us receive is from the media.
You, as a client, as an individual, even as a powerful, cashed-up board, are not able to control the media. But you can use it. You have to use it, actually. What choice do you have? If you want to communicate with your customers, you must use communication devices they will look at, watch, read. How else can you get your message to millions of Australians cost-effectively? (Direc t Mail? At $1.00 or so a hit? (if you own the database). That’s $20 million bucks for getting one message to all of Australia. For about $200,000 (1% of that) you could use free to air TV with absolute certainty that 98% of people would have seen it at least once.)
Media always get paid
They have set up an ‘accreditation’ system which forces ad agencies to buy minimum volumes of space and pay on time. And if they don’t get paid, as an agency, you’re dead. As an agency, you can’t get a ‘commission’ from the Fairfax Community group for example, unless you spend at least $50,000 a month on their local papers. This is historical. The first advertising agencies were set up as commission reps for media. Many agencies still exist on this basis. Which means they always push mainstream media and they always encourage you to spend more, regardless of real cost-effectiveness.
Media change terms to suit their own ends
For example, magazines use the term ‘branding campaign’ for something which shows the product – ie. not editorial. Radio use the same term for a dribble of ads, instead of a heavy buy….
Media always sell their own
I’ve never heard a radio rep suggest anything else, ditto with all media. It’s absurd.
How to buy (what you want)
Assuming you have a project to launch, a pressing need to get some sales in the door, a brand to build etc., what’s vital?
Budgets
Decide how much you want to increase business by. Ten percent of that is your budget. Some industries spend less, like agribusiness and ‘industrial’ products like overalls etc., which may only spend say 3-5%, and they grow slower. Some industries spend more, like high volume consumer goods, spending say 12-15% in very competitive markets .
Choose your mix
Your choice of medias should reflect who your target market is and the likelihood of success. Think about the purchase process – how do they buy, when? How are they influenced? Do they need large amounts of information. Do they buy on emotion? If you don’t know the process, do the research, stupid.
Don’t spread too widely
It’s always tempting to spread your budget across a wide range of media. Big mistake. Better to dominate a particular media for a period of time, than to dilute your message.
But move on within the media – say you’re using radio. Recognize that if they only hit say 10% of the people in that demographic, if you stay with that station, you’re only getting to 1:10 of your potential.
Get your frequencies up
Make sure that your potential customers see/hear your ad say 5-7 times. (I know the ratio used to be 3 times, but that was coined in the 1960’s. There’s a lot more media around now and people’s lives are lot busier.)
Buying
Use statistics
I don’t trust the stats either; I used to analyse them for the market research companies.
But you have no choice. If you ignore the stats, what are you going to make decisions on? Yes, after time you can use raw sales stats generated internally, but you’ll need deep pockets to get there. Compare more than one group’s stats though. They vary amazingly.
Consider media buying groups
An option is to do a deal with a media buying group, who say, because they buy in bulk, they get better deals. I’ve never seen a better deal from a buying group than from dealing direct. Why? Because no media is going to write a contract with a media buying group that isn’t profitable. But they will deal with a smaller player that way, for more cash flow. Many people swear by buying groups. At least it’s easier to justify to those above and it takes up less of your time.
Call your contacts
Contacts will pull strings, offer mates a really good rate, pass on useful information. To buy really well, you need contacts.
Interview/brief
Always see people face to face at least once in a while. It’s not cost-effective to do it all the time, but it’s much easier to get a deal when you really need it, if they know you. It’s how you make contacts, silly.
Tell them the mix
It’s useful to explain why they are only getting 20% of the budget. You’ll be amazed how much better a deal you’ll get, if they think there’s a bit more actual cash in the kitty.
Demand Value-Add
If you’re buying serious space, buy loyalty, buy concern, buy interest. Buy PR.
Can you get a better deal?
Always ask this. I think asking it six or seven times over 2-3 phone calls works well.
Avoid feeding the seagulls
Never give the rep more information than is absolutely necessary. It’s in their nature to follow-up any snippet of information you leave, and they will. You’ll endure weeks of polite phone calls if you tell them about a deadline or a project that isn’t quite ready. If you value your time, you must protect it. Don’t give them information.
In agency land it’s considered a huge mistake to tell the rep who the client is that you’re working on for this buy. The reason is again simple; the rep rings the client, tells them they’ve been sent by the agency, the client gets their time taken up by a sales person and more often than not the rep knows another agency/designer/his brother who does a much better job at half the price….
Being nice doesn’t pay
The media are not nice. They are untrustworthy, malicious and hide behind moral –high ground rubbish to perpetuate their own ends. Take a leaf out of Kerry and Rupert’s book. Be tough. You’ll see from the list below there are thousands of media options. Don’t worry about making friends. Make contacts. Judge them on how useful they are to your ends. Finito. It helps to occasionally tell them that’s what you’ll be doing.
Support the little guy
Like the farmer who buys from his local shop so the place stays open, if you want your children to grow up in a decent world, try to put some of your money into the independents, the smaller operations, like trade mags etc.
But screw the big guys
It’s your job to get the planned placement at the lowest cost. Don’t think Kerry and Rupert got rich by selling media cheaply. And do they give a hoot about your show? Even if you’re a big business they’d rather see you dead with thousands of people out of work, to sell a few extra papers on a Sunday, than give you a better deal on space. Keep that in mind.