I am involved with a nefarous group of conspirators who want to do some public advocacy advertising on behalf of godless skeptics. Our aim is to put across two points: 1. We’re here, get over it — in fact there are a lot more of us atheist types than has been generally recognized and 2. We value moral and responsible behavior almost as much as, say, Catholic priests (har, har — get it?). I suppose a lot of you cynical rat bastards will think us hopelessly Quixotic. And while that may be a wholley accurate perception, the thing is I have been assigned the task of finding out how much radio advertising cost for our media plan. My only real qualification is a willingness to take on the task which means that I am starting out with little sense of direction. We are located in New York City, a place that already has a fair number of resources for atheists. That being the case, I figure we should start trying to put our ads on stations in New Jersey or upstate.
Any useful advice will be genuinely appreciated though, as always, I reserve the right not to show it. Thanks. ;j
The easiest way to do that is to call a local station that you feel has the listeners that you wish to communicate with.
Tell the receptionist that you wish to speak with someone in sales and have them send you a ‘media kit’. That will get you prices, extras, and station demographics.
For a smaller station? My guess (based on some old information) you could probably get it for $50-$250 per spot. Bigger stations can cost a LOT more, though.
The “rate card” a radio or TV station issues should only be considered a guideline. It can be negotiated on the basis of the number of ads you want to buy, how frequently you want them to run, whether the station has a lot or only a little unsold time, whether you use a station’s production facilities or deliver them a ready-to-play finished product, etc. Unless the contract speficially states times, they can run all your ads back-to-back at 3 a.m. on Sunday. If you think negotiating the price of a car is fun, you’ll love buying radio advertising.
The second rule is, the station doesn’t have to run your ad at all. Except for political advertising from bona fide candidates, a station is free to accept, reject or demand modifications to ads as they see fit. If they tell you they’ll only run your ad between midnight and 4:00 a.m., well, take it or leave it.
Once you review the station’s media kit, my advice is to sit down face-to-face with a sales rep to work out a plan. They work on commission, so they’re motivated to sell you something.
I’m a former radio person, and a big believer in radio advertising. But in all honesty, I have to tell you that buying a single ad here or there is a really good way to throw your money away. If your funds are limited, there might be better ways to spend them.
Is your band of conspirators a non-profit group? If so, you could get free public service announcements. You won’t have the leverage to tell stations when and if to run your ads, as apposed to buying advertising, but hey-it’s free.
I’m sure you already know whom you are targeting your message to: Atheists, Agnostics, and Believers, all of the previous, their gender, age, education and income levels as well as lifestyle preferences. The station’s media kit and sales person can show you how closely the listeners actually match the type of people you are trying to reach. This info can help you choose which stations to put your message on. IMHO kunilou’s & Jonathan’s info is right on.
Uh, I don’t remember commercials ever being on NPR, you know, public radio and all. Of course it’s been years since I’ve listened to that stuff.
Of course since the OP includes information not really necessary for the OP, I feel obligated to answer it, too: so you want to waste your money like the “Plastic” people? You know, it’s everywhere, and everyone knows, and so, like, what’s the point? Maybe you could save money and go knocking on doors witnessing or converting or whatever.
Thanks to almost everyone for some really good information! I tried to get a friend in advertising to help me out and she suggested I look into something called the SRDS. Then I fessed up to what my intentions were at which point she, being a nice Catholic girl, clammed up and refused to help me drag others into perdition. Her heart’s in the right place. If only her brain were too.
What is this SRDS and would a big-city library tend to have one?
You can’t buy commercials, but you can – what’s the word? – sponsor programs, traffic reports, whatever. This morning on my way to work I listened to KUOW and heard sponsorship messages from Whole Foods, a local restaurant and the city of Renton.
They really aren’t commercials, of course, but they really offer a way to get a message out there.
They’reUnderwriting Commercials. The FCC devised standards for educational and non profit stations to raise funds within the stations edu & non profit charters.
Sponsors can inform but not promote a product or service, cannot tell one to ‘do’ something(known as a call to action), or mention sales or discounts.
Besides NPR, you’ll see them on PBS all the time. Locally, Wells Fargo runs them here on the PBS affiliate. Braintree, depending on your group of conspirators message, it might be a good way to go.
SRDS stands for Standard Rate and Data Service. It’s a big book that lists all the commercial radio stations (I believe now they break it into “metropolitan” and “rural” editions. It’s supposed to list the basic rate cards for radio stations.
However, in recent years, many stations have withheld their rate cards from the book, not wanting to get in fights with potential advertisers who may be using a book that’s out of date. It’s still useful, though, to go to a city and get the contact information for all the stations located there.
I don’t know about your big-city library, but my big-city library kept it in the reference department.