Ok, another new guy question. Coming from a print sales background, I'm curious as to contract advertising rates at other stations. Essentially we have open rates (which vary based on time of day), or a "President's Club" which gives the customer 70 ads per month. There's no in between.
How does your station put together rates? In newspaper, we had rates which were based on how much the customer spent in a 12-month period, but allowed them to tailor their advertising schedule to their needs. Do radio stations do that as well? Or should we have a lower frequency option, maybe 40 ads per month, but up per spot rate a bit. Just trying to see if we're in line with everyone else. Thanks in advance for your help.
Matt,
Your question opens the door to a fascinating subject. Every (independent) station has its own take on what its rate structure should be. Stations wanting to emphasize annuals will often provide a financial incentive to encourage them. Stations that want to sell high-frequency schedules tend to price them more attractively.
I've thought on several occasions that it might be fun and useful to have a repository of station rate cards here at the Cafe, so that our members could compare and contrast different approaches stations are taking in this area.
So, to get that ball rolling, I've attached a copy of Pullman Radio's current rate card. The design is mine and goes back at least 15 years. I'll see if I can't find some other rate cards/designs that I've held onto and post them as well.
Any other members care to share your rate card with us?
One other thing, Matt... The late, great Jim Williams devised a Universal Rate Card for radio. It was basically a clone of the newspaper approach, only instead of column inches, the radio standard was five-second units. (I'll see if I can't find a copy of Jim's design and post it.)
I don't know of any station that adopted its use, but in theory the Universal Rate Card was a brilliant idea. As with a newspaper rate card, the more units an advertiser purchased the lower the price-per-unit. Someone contracting for, say, 100,000 units would get a better rate than someone who signed up for 50,000 units a year. If the advertiser wanted to run a bunch of 5-second ads, he could do so. If he wanted 15-second ads, each ad would use 3 units; a 30-second commercial would use 6 units, and so forth.
Unfortunately, this idea would be difficult to implement in radio today, given the widespread reliance upon syndicated, satellite-delivered programming. In the old days, when DJ's played records and there was great latitude in terms of scheduling commercials and commercial breaks, a station could accommodate an order for commercial lengths other than :30 or :60 seconds. Back in the mid-1970's, the stations I worked for had a rate card that offered 5-, 10-, 15-, 30-, 45- and 60-second commercial lengths. That kind of flexibility is a rarity today.
Unlike the newspaper, which can print as many pages as demand dictates, and can format ads in a variety of ways (a one-inch strip across the bottom of one or two pages, a one-column strip on either side, an L-shaped ad, etc.), radio hasn't the ability to manufacture more time, nor the flexibility to allow for much of a variety of ad lengths.
Great question, New Guy! Thanks for posting it.
Who will help us get our rate card collection started?
Thanks for posting the rate card, Rod. My station is kind of like Matt's...our rate card has an open rate and a list of news and weather sponsorships, and not much else. This will give me some ideas to pitch to the boss.
We try and do a lot of annual business. Customers can buy a block of ads to use how they wish over a 12-month period. Ads are sold 250 per block. The more ads you buy the better the price. Most customers can easily understand that the best customers get the best price. The only other thing that impacts price is the daypart and the station to air on.
Of course, we do sponsorships of news, weather, sports, etc., and have three big promotions a year. Some clients with big budgets only want a prominent position in big promotions.
Here's the new KQTY 2012 brochure that we're handing out starting this week. Some of it may look...familiar, Rod...but hey, when ya steal, steal from the best, eh?
Prices adjusted, of course, for our market.
I'm flattered, Don. It looks good!
I'm looking forward to seeing what other RSC members' rate cards look like, too. Good way to pick up some fresh ideas and learn from one another.
Best wishes for the new year.
-Rod
Jack,
In a way, your bulk structure resembles the newspaper approach (like JW's "universal rate card" - only not in units of 5 seconds). Providing advertisers with a financial incentive to buy long term is a good idea, I think, though the overriding reason for them to do it is: consistency works better for their business.
If you don't mind sharing, would you consider uploading a copy of your rate card here?
Thanks! And best wishes for a prosperous 2012.
-Rod
We've started a new discussion thread where you can post your station's rate card. Here's the link: http://www.radiosalescafe.com/forum/topics/station-rate-cards. Please share your cards with us!
