So many times when I talk about radio, people will say, That s an

Transcription

1 2014 Radio & Ministry Fundraising So many times when I talk about radio, people will say, That s an old medium people don t listen to the radio much anymore. But let s look at the numbers. Despite huge competition from satellite radio, Pandora and non-radio formats like Spotify, 93% of Americans still listen to broadcast radio. Not satellite, not internet, not mobile-based streaming, but good, oldfashioned broadcast radio. And not only are they listening old-school style through a receiver, but the number of listeners is growing. Radio shows a substantial gain in listeners year-over-year. Some of that is because of population increases and people living longer. But some of these trends are also occurring among younger people. A 35-year radio veteran, David Harms leads a team that has raised millions of dollars for rescue missions, homeless shelters and international ministries, including World Vision. Founder of The Idea Agency in 1997, David left that position to launch i58:10 Media with the goal of integrating all forms of electronic media in support of ministries that reach out to the poor. The agency s name is based on Isaiah 58:10: Feed the hungry and help those in trouble; then, your light will shine out of the darkness and the darkness around you will be as bright as day. This presentation on radio as a tool for ministry fundraising was presented at Brewer Direct s 2014 Institute million users tune-in to traditional, broadcast radio at least once a week.

2 So not only is radio a viable medium, it s convenient. You push a button, and it s there. It sits in the dashboard of your car, and it doesn t require subscriptions or contracts or apps. And while digital listenership is increasing, it still represents only 7% of all audio listening. The number one place to listen? At home! Not in your car. Nationwide survey figures pinpoint the home as the number one place to listen to radio, with in-car listening coming in at number two. And that makes sense, because there are more options in your car where the listening numbers break down like this: AM/FM radio 84% CDs 63% ipod or MP3 29% Satellite radio 15% Online radio 12% Characteristics of a good radio station So now that we ve identified our medium, let s take a look at the five characteristics to look for when you re considering different radio stations. 1. Social Media Integration It s amazing how fast the digital world is changing, and radio is part of that change. Radio is the original social media because it s human and relationship driven. Today, stations are doing so much more than taking calls. They are integrating social media into everything they do from websites to special Facebook promotions, from texting coupons to listener loyalty clubs. Page 2

3 As fundraisers, we re interested in all these opportunities. But the best is the chance to give money. There s even an App that listeners can download: Press one button on your phone and it automatically dials the station. Quicker and more convenient than a 10-digit phone number! 2. Local & Informative Content Today, you can get music anywhere Pandora, itunes, Google Play. Even radio stations are slicing the pie thinner and thinner you ve got Country, Classic Country and New Country. There s Christian music, Christian talk, Southern Gospel and Gospel. Every single station is different. But what great local radio provides, and what makes it relevant to potential donors in your market, is the content between the songs. We call it the DNA of a station. Is there a focus on local coverage? Is the news of the local community covered? That s what differentiates one station from another in any market. Christian radio offers you a unique opportunity to become the ministry of choice for your local station a break that can really work to your advantage. 3. Tighter Music Lists If you listen to a particular station and find yourself saying, I keep hearing that song over and over, you ve discovered a key trend in radio programing. Years ago, when I first got into radio, the library from which you chose your music would be 500 to 700 songs that would rotate through the playlist. Today, that list is down to 250 songs. Page 3

4 Stations have done their research: To keep their most loyal listeners engaged, they play the songs those listeners want to hear. More popular songs = more listeners. You can see this same phenomenon if you or someone you know has an ipod the most popular feature isn t shuffle it s single song repeat. 4.More Aggressive Marketing Radio stations make their money from advertising; corporate America says if you want access to our listeners, you have to pay. They use that income to advertise their stations, to make them stand out in markets where there are a lot of other options. Getting to know the representatives from your local stations is always a good place to begin, but be aware that you re going to have to spend money. The days of free advertising and PSAs are nearly gone. 5. More Show Business More syndicated radio programs are showing up on local stations, even on Christian radio. If you have a K-LOVE in your market, you may have heard of the Fan Awards with the Robertsons of Duck Dynasty co-hosting and Pepsi and World Vision as sponsors. And it s a multimedia event with video integration and call-in voting! Page 4

5 Top Formats What are Americans listening to these days and how many stations are there in each format? Here s the list: Audience Share Format No. of stations 14.2% Country Music 2, % News/Talk/Info 3, % Pop/Hit Music 1, % Adult Contemporary/Soft AC 1, % Classic Hits % Classic Rock % Hot AC % Urban AC % Rhythmic % All Sports 1, % Urban Contemporary % Contemporary Christian 1, % Religious +1,739 Country music leads the way. News/Talk/Info is next, and we ll talk a bit later about the differences of talk versus relevant talk. Adult contemporary is music geared for adults. Religious is a big catch-all for anything else that talks about God. It has the third highest number of signals, but some of the areas they cover are really small and very local. But there s a lot of opportunity for ministry-focused organizations there. Now that we know who listens and what they re listening to, let s talk about some of the benefits of using radio. Page 5

6 Radio & Your Ministry Benefits of Using Radio Public Image/Awareness Public Relations/In-Kind Gifts Fundraising Let s take them one at a time. Public Image/Awareness. Most local ministries use radio to create awareness of themselves and their work. To get the word out. This may take the form of a weekly broadcast with a homily or a testimony from one of your clients. It increases awareness of your work and the problems your organization is trying to solve. When you work to develop a good rapport with your local station, you can also become their go-to source during holidays, or whenever there s need for information on a topic that involves your work. This is the kind of regular exposure that keeps your organization top of mind with donors and prospective donors. Public Relations/In-Kind Needs. This is the here s what we re doing or here s how you can help piece of the puzzle. Here s also where Crisis Communications come into play. It s cold and we need blankets. It s Thanksgiving and we need turkeys. It s a very legitimate way to use radio, but depending on what you re asking for, the response may be less than you would like. Page 6

7 One of the best radio ads we ever did was a 30-second spot for the Portland Rescue Mission that went something like this: Right now, the Portland Rescue Mission provides showers to 238 men in the morning who come off the street. We have four towels in our closet. Men are using torn up sheets and clothes to dry themselves after they get out of the shower. We need towels. You can drop them off on the west end of the Burnside Bridge under the sign. Come across from east to west, pull over to the righthand side, honk your horn and we ll come outside. Please, this is urgent. Fundraising. Radio stations used to be rated by a service called Arbitron. Listeners would keep a diary of their listening habits every day for a year and receive a check for $50. The electronic age has changed all that. Today, there s PPM the Portable People Meter. PPM is a beeper-type device that s worn every day for a week. At night, while it s plugged in recharging, it sends a stream of data to Arbitron about the stations listened to that day. There are plusses and minuses to the system, but the bottom line is what we ve learned about people s listening habits and how that has changed the way we buy radio time. According to PPM, the average time spent actually listening to a station is 9 minutes, 3.2 times a day! That not only means that you have 9 minutes to get your message across, but that every 9 minutes, you have a different audience! Page 7

8 This changes everything. We can no longer assume that someone who is listening now heard a spot that aired 20 minutes ago. Your audience is turning over very fast. And who is this audience? Employed people listen more often Men are bigger consumers than women So how does this change the way we might do a radiothon fundraiser? First, we used to think we needed 15 really strong stories because people would get tired of hearing them repeated. Now, we can work with seven testimonies. Second, the old adage said run spots in the morning. But thanks to PPM, that s been flipped on its head. Among listeners age 18-54, afternoon drive time is the #1 daypart 3 or 4 p.m. to 6 or 7 p.m., depending on the market. Mid-day is #2, morning drive #3, weekends #4 and evenings #5. So if all these numbers are correct and you want to reach the biggest audience, you buy the station that has the most employed men listening in the afternoon. Right? Wrong! Because radio is most effective when tailoring your message to the audience most likely to respond to that message. It s sharp shooting, not shotgun. Here s my analogy: Think of it as a carnival game where that barker is trying to get you to take softballs and knock down the milk bottles to Page 8

9 win a prize. With the shotgun approach, you would say, Here s what we do and here s what we need from you. And you d buy spots from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Unfortunately, that s like throwing a handful of marbles at the milk bottles you might hit a lot of people, but you won t have enough force to make them respond. Instead, you need to identify the demographic you want to reach and use a focused, pinpoint approach. Identify your desired outcome. Always begin with the end in mind. Do you want a larger audience to know more about the work of your organization? Do you need gifts in kind or volunteers? If you need more volunteers, do you want men or women or both? Younger or older? (These last two will determine your ideal audience and help you pick the right stations to reach them!) If you want women go to women-focused stations. Teen volunteers look at the local Pop or Hit Music Stations. Business owners go to the business or talk stations. Keep your goal and your audience in mind. Develop a strategy. What is your message? It s determined by what you want people to do. But whatever you do, make it direct. People are distracted driving, eating, working, doing homework. Your message needs to be straightforward, direct and short something you can get across in 20 or 30 seconds. Keep it simple. And keep it short. Only try to accomplish one thing at a time. Page 9

10 Brewer Direct Institute Radiothons 20 or 30 seconds, even two or three minutes, is not enough time to connect emotionally with your audience. And that emotional connection is what you need if you re going to use radio as a fundraising medium. But before we begin talking about fullfledged radiothons, let s look at another option that we re having some success with: It started with a station in Baltimore that refused to do a radioathon. So together, we looked at their inventory (the spots that were unsold). Here was our proposition: We ll buy 60-second spots, but at a very high frequency, like four times an hour for two weeks. That s 12 spots per morning for 14 days. But instead of running the same spot over and over, we want to run a brand new spot every time. To our surprise, they said, Yes. We produced spots that sounded like a radiothon It s David here at the Mission, and we re trying to raise money for 1,000 meals in the next two weeks We worked hard producing all those spots, but we made $35,000. We did it again this year with a $5,000 matching gift from the Baltimore Ravens. Just recently, we tried a similar approach in Seattle with Winter Rescue Kits. Send in $10, provide a Winter Rescue Kit for a homeless person Change the spot every time it runs. It works. Page 10

11 Most of you are familiar with radiothons all-day fundraisers that use a call center or online giving to take donations. Regular programs may be done from the studio, from a remote location or even from your location. Four times per hour, your cause is featured and listeners are asked to respond. Here are the basics: Focus on the cause. Don t talk about your organization, but what listeners can provide through you. Keep your message short, but make it compelling. Tell great stories, but get them out there quickly so listeners can respond. (Remember the 9-minute listening limit!) You can hear several great spots on our website. Just visit i5810media.com and click on Portfolio. Results These radiothon numbers have held for 17 years: 95% of donors brought in the 1st year will be new to your donor base. During the next three years, that percentage will drop to 70% new donors and stay consistent. The objective is to make money on acquisition. Our goal is a 1.5 times return on your media cost. Spend $10,000, make $15,000. Spend $20,000, make $35,000. However, past success does not guarantee results it s an art as well as a science. An average event raised $57,197 on a media buy of $18, total donors with an average gift of $74. ROI of a 1.97 to 1 on total costs (includes media buy, our production fee, travel, call center and any related expenses). Page 11

12 Learning & Trends As a whole, we have found that radio is an effective fundraising medium, but there are a lot of moving parts. Market size matters. There s a greater risk in larger markets like New York, L.A. and Chicago because you re going to pay more for time. You re reaching a larger audience, but it s not cheap. But with greater risk also comes the possibility of a greater reward. Mid-size markets have a better balance of risk and reward, like Albany, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Portland and San Diego. You re not spending a ton of money. Smaller markets like Wichita, KS, and Longview, TX, have more variables. Buy-in from the radio stations is important it s a hometown thing where your relationship with the station(s) can be leveraged. Format matters. Christian music stations produce great results for rescue missions. Their audience of 35+ females has a heart for the work of rescue. And women give more spontaneously than men. Christian talk radio can be good or bad. An announcer or host with a bombastic personality is not going to convince an audience to be generous or grateful. Christian Talk radio is #2, but it depends. If you get a Christian talker that is noncompassionate, somebody who s a personality without a reputation for having a heart, they can be Christian all they want, but they re not going to convince the audience that they re generous or grateful. Page 12

13 Country radio is the third most popular format for radio fundraising. A perceptual study indicated that country radio listeners perceive themselves as Christians and, therefore, generous. So your message in a country format is well received and you don t have to water it down too much on the Jesus side. Don t ignore the stations catering to a more liberal audience. Liberals give. They are socially conscious. And if you give them the right message focused on social responsibility, any concerns they may have about your Mission s faith elements are significantly lessened. Please ignore Conservative Talk radio from a fundraising standpoint. Yes, Christians listen to conservative talk, but it s not an arena for giving. Avoid male-dominated stations and stations targeting at 35 year olds. They re not in a place in life where they give. If you want volunteers and social activism, then a younger audience might be perfect, but fundraising is a harder sell. Station relationships matter. For fundraising, develop a relationship with local stations that target females ages 35+. Take the hosts on a tour, do whatever you have to do to develop a solid relationship. And don t leave out the PD! The PD (Program Director) is the person in charge of how a station sounds. They are the gatekeepers of what ends up on the air. Page 13

14 Start NOW Step 1: Start as in now Stations line up their cornerstone programs at least a year in advance. You want to be one of their cornerstone events. You have 3 departments that you have to work with: Programming (on-air talent) Sales (to help open the door) Promotions (to determine cornerstone events; but planning starts in January or February for the full year) Step 2: Feasibility Study the market. Or have a firm like i58:10 study it for you. We will contract and negotiate based on this feasibility. Always go for your top pick in the market. If you don t make it one year, keep trying. Step 3: Plan and Execute i58:10 has an 85-step process to produce a radiothon from A to Z, including everything from producing audio stories to call center logistics and web banners to social media integration. Contact David Harms at (503) or info@i5810media.com. For more information, please contact your Brewer Direct account team at (626) Page 14