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Me rambling about advertising on the radio.
Things have got really slow here in small town New Zealand over the last few months, so I was thinking of creating some business by putting an advertisement on the local radio station.
When I came to New Zealand in 2003 there was the yellow pages, which I used for the first 2 years, until it became obsolete, and ever since then I have been fortunate to rely on word of mouth. I havent even made sales visits or cold calls. Jobs kept coming, enough to pay my rent and some, and I spose I got complacent.
So here we are. Lockdowns, slowdowns, recessions coming over the horizon, inflation, money getting tight. I need to do something about it.
Local radio is popular here, and gets results for the many small businesses round here.
I cant say I have ever even heard an advert for a sign company on the radio anywhere.
I just cannot think of anything to say about our business that would make for an interesting and memorable 30 seconds of radio time.
What I would really like is to listen to a few existing radio adverts for sign companies from the past , perhaps there are some ads online you guys have heard and could point me towards? Not to copy, of course, but to get some idea of the limitations.
Im happy to pay for original copy that I think will work. However its not practical to employ an ad agency for what is basically a one man operation.
I dont want to say “For all your signage needs…” because that is, frankly, terrible and boring.
Ideally I want something funny. A local windscreen repair company did a campaign based on the words “Show us your crack!” which is brilliant.
Do any of you guys advertise? What kind of results do you get? Did you write the ad yourself? Did you pay for it? Who did you use to come up with it? What sort of money are we talking?
Sorry for rambling.
*Please dont think i am asking for free ideas.
I hope the subject is appropriate for this forum.
Simon.
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11 Replies
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A sign shop local to us plays with the idea of nudity.
Are you driving around naked, are you working naked etc. They sponsor one of the local MTB tracks, are you riding naked.
Tied in with their own vehicle livery and shop, it works really well. Not a radio ad, but an idea of a hook for creative signage.
They’re fxuk dot net
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Yes, I can see it’s a tricky one to get right, a balance somewhere between too boring and too tacky. How about you play on the old American style car salesman’s adverts from the 80/90s
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Hi Simon, Hope you’re keeping well.
we’re the same in as much as we’ve never advertised, other than some A5 flyers in the early days.
We do some work for a local radio station and were considering running a short campaign, it’s pretty inexpensive to be honest, around £100 a month for 4 plays a day, and around £60 for a 15 second / £90 for a 30 second voice commercial, and x amount if you want some kind of jingle.
I was thinking that a simple voice ad would be a bit pants but, he suddenly broke into “Do you want more potential customers to see business? Need new signs for your premises? Why not get in touch with Dragon Signs to se how we can help you with visual branding, from private and commercial vehicle wraps and livery, to shop signs and embroidered workwear, come on down and see us on the A22. Dragon Signs, Signs that build business”
He spouted that (or along those lines) off in about 15 seconds, it was sharp, snappy and to the point…
Having recently spent around £8k on improvements to the workshops (expanding floor space, adding another fitting bay etc), and with a couple of grand more still to finish, we do need to be bringing a bit more work in.
Despite what most companies will tell you, it’s definitely gone quieter out there! I’ve spoken to a number of reps recently and they’ve all said the same, it’s picking up but has been very quiet. We’re still busy, but we’re not “6 months ago busy”, now that all the grants and free money have stopped flowing to them who’d spend it with us.. and the cost of vehicles is through the roof.I think it’s telling when every sign shop in the area is flooding facebook with sponsored adverts…!
I also think that customers are just being cautious with their money. I know we are, our electric contract ended and the new one has jumped over 10p a unit (after 3yr fixed contract), that’s an extra £200 a month. With our additional rent, utilities and higher costs in general, we need another few vans a month in!
Anyway, I digressed.. Radio.. my wife used to be in media advertising, so is taking a look at their listener figures & demographic, and advising (instructing / telling / ordering) my next move on the matter!! If it’s not too expensive, I guess it can’t hurt to try. Just trust the guys making the advert, like we want our customers to trust us, hopefully we know what we’re doing… “who you are, what you do, how to get in touch”, it may not need to be any more complicated than that, maybe a tagline for people to remember at the end.
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You’re 100% right Hugh, it has gone quieter. Especially near us with this ULEZ being introduced, the shortage of new vans, and the price of used.
All this talk of inflation, gas & electric prices, getting signage and van signage especially isn’t a priority, and even if they do want it, it boils down to £££’s.
What frustrates me, is that when it goes quiet people drop their prices to ‘buy in’ the work. I see people boasting about being booked up until April, whether all of those jobs materialise or not, and whether it’s generating profit or just paying a wage.
We’ve never really promoted ourselves, we did before Xmas, and we’ve had a few enquiries from that, but we’re up against companies quoting less than 1/2, nearly a 1/4 of our quote!
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Ok well I hired a well known radio ad guy from Auckland to do me an advert.
I think its awesome and catchy.
It started airing yesterday. Doing twice a morning, 3 days a week.
(just as coincidentally I got swamped by a load of new work from existing clients 😳)
We are going to do a whole series of them to keep it from getting stale.
I have dropped it here for you guys to listen to.
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This reply was modified 2 years, 9 months ago by Simon Worrall.
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This reply was modified 2 years, 9 months ago by Simon Worrall.
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really good mate!! sometimes its best to leave these things to the professionals. Great name by the way, very unique
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This reply was modified 2 years, 9 months ago by
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thats funny, good, i like it mate. 🤣
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Lol, I like that, very clever
agree with Martin about leaving it to the professionals ( horses for courses)
I had a radio advert a couple of years back I did the guys car, I gave him a discount and he done me an ongoing advert. It was a little known local station but the advert was good from what I can remember, I don’t think I saved it anywhere 🙁
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Hi Simon
I think the advert is very good and funny too. 🤣And it’s one of those adverts that will be annoyingly remembered, which is the whole point!👍
I think the key point you made above is that you plan on doing a “series of these” to prevent them from going stale. I imagine that is a more expensive route, but a pretty clever one too, because it’s turning a phone call into a story, which adds a progressive interest and keeps the name being mentioned.👍
My only concern would be that they didn’t give contact details.
Right at the end, they could have given a phone number or website domain name.-
Yes Rob I mentioned that when he sent the finished ad to me.
He said everyone asks that, but the truth is nobody remembers or writes down the number.
Best to leave it to google.
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😆 very good. 👍
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