Hitviews Pro: Four Crazy Things My Dad Says About Buying Media - Walter Sabo - MediaBizBloggers

Advertising, in whatever form, that actually moves product off the shelf or gets bodies in the door is a good ad. I learned this the hard way when I was a young genius and my father owned a number of large retail businesses in the New York City Metro area.

He bought advertising based on what he personally witnessed sold his products. Isn't that horrible? No computers, stats, Cost-per nothin's. He never met a media buyer. He was not an unsophisticated shopkeeper, quite the opposite, he is well educated and ran his businesses with great success in a businesslike manner. He wasn't one of those owners blindly in love with the product, he was there to sell product. He has a math mind. Now he's retired, trim and wealthy in Short Hills.

But I could have changed all that with my knowledge.

MATH DOESN'T SELL.

My Dad knew I was interested in media, studying it in school, and suggested I do the "buy" for his businesses for a few months. I did what you are supposed to do. I studied the ratings, matched the demographics to those of his products' appeal. Negotiated rates. Got bonus spots and print ad placements. I did all the professional things one does in a proper media plan.

After two months of my strategies, he asked,

"How are you paying for college?"

It seemed that if I kept buying media by math, I would have to pay for my own college because his sales were going down every day. Here's how Dad kept the businesses full of customers and paid for three kids' educations and the big house in the suburbs.

Four ways to buy media to increase sales when it's your very own money.

1. If it was your very own money and your very own store what would you do? Buy "points" "impressions" "thousands"? No you'd buy engaging entertainment that would give your message an active audience. Is the radio station just "on" or does it command your attention? Is the TV show talked about the next day at work or is it between two shows? You know, the kind of show that media buyers buy to "bring in the buy." Do you want to "bring in the buy" or bring in customers?

2. Live copy. Every radio spot he bought was a live read by personalities. Every print ad was endorsed by a local celebrity. Every TV buy at least had live tags even though TV was too precious to offer live spokespeople. On the Internet he would have bought a webstar video visiting the business and talking about it. We all buy products from friends.

3. He was mystified by media sales people who sold price before value. "I want to buy advertising that will bring customers into the store. I'll pay anything for that. Why do they start talking price before I believe the advertising will sell?"

4. Get creative from an Ad Agency, then do the ad they don't recommend. Oddly he would use agencies, good ones, and then he would specifically select the creative they didn't recommend – the one agencies slip in that's so awful clients magically select the one the agency prefers.

The result was that the creative was so different, so out of synch with the rest of the ads in a given medium, they were memorable.

It is surprising that with so many more media options today than just a decade ago, the bulk of the money goes to depreciating media; traditional spot. What possible impact would a spot have as the 5^th in a 10 spot cable TV cluster? None. The arguments for such buys are unacceptable:

"It makes the total buy efficient." "It brings in the buy." "It gives us tonnage." Never do you hear, "It sells more product." Because it doesn't.

The right buy, the one that will keep the kids in college and get you the big house, is the one that is delivered on new stages by spokespeople who are already friends with the audience.

Walter Sabo is the Founder and Creator of the business concept. He is an experienced leader of new organizations and is currently CEO of Hitviews. Walter can be reached at walter@hitviews.com.