- 5 years ago
Borrell Associates: Beasley Advertiser Insights
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00:00All right, guys. Thank you all so much for joining. Welcome to March's Tuesday session.
00:08We have an hour and we have very special guests with us. We have our partners at Borel Associates.
00:15So today we're going to go through a lot of content that's presented by Borel and actually
00:21Todd Handy is going to introduce the Borel Associates and then also share some color and
00:27some background on the content that they are going through. So Todd Handy is going to go and
00:33share that and then he's going to pass it off to Jim Brown, who is the president of Borel Associates,
00:38Gordon Borel, CEO, and Taryn, Taryn, Taryn, I practice this, Taryn now,
00:45training director who's been on a call before with us. So before I hand it off to Todd Handy,
00:55I just have a couple updates as normal to share and then I'll pass it off.
00:59So first update with you guys, we have a new capabilities deck that we will be sharing on
01:06our next Tuesday session. This capabilities deck will showcase all of our digital solutions
01:11along with our differentiators, as well as a little bit about Beasley. So it's a true resource you could
01:18use in the field. Also launching next Tuesday session, we have a training resources guide,
01:26basically a directory, trying to make this as easy as possible for you guys to get information.
01:31So if you want training on a specific product, a process, or a sales tool, you could look at this
01:37directory. It'll have a link to the academy course that you could go to to find the training that you're
01:42looking for. So some things to look forward to there. And then last, I know you guys saw the
01:49Salesforce trainings on your calendar for me. We have Salesforce training starting end of next week
01:54and then into the following week, depending upon the market. Please make sure you guys are in front
01:59of your computer for this training. You're engaged and you just dial in, right? You just, you focus on
02:06this training because it's very important. And again, this is to make our life easier. There's
02:12enhancements that you're going to see. So please just really focus on that Salesforce training coming
02:17up. And that's all I have for updates. Now I'm going to hand it off to Todd. Thanks, Ashley. Good
02:24morning, everyone. I won't take long at all. Just wanted to give a quick endorsement for the
02:29information that you're about to see and to hear. I've had the great pleasure of working with
02:33Burrell Associates since 2009. And I can tell you that the local media industry in general,
02:41newspapers, TV, radio, all look to Burrell Associates for incredibly deep insights into markets,
02:48into spending, into trends and so forth. And what you're going to see today is based on our
02:54advertisers in our markets. Now, we didn't get as many responses this year as we'll get next year,
03:01and it will continue to grow. But we got some statistically significant information or responses
03:06for a sample that really start to paint a picture for you of what's going on in our markets,
03:12what our advertisers are dealing with, what they're looking for, and so forth. This should inform each of
03:18us as we're making our pitches and as we're doing our client needs assessments and understanding what
03:24our advertisers are looking for. So I hope that you'll take this very, very deeply in that it is
03:32good information, but it's coming from advertisers and from a partner of ours who knows what they're
03:37doing and has been doing it for many, many years. So with that, Jim, I'll give it to you all and you
03:41take it. Okay, great. Thank you, Todd. Let me share my screen. I think you might need to turn that over
03:48Timmy so I can share. I think you could share. If you press new share, it should work. Okay, now
03:54it says I can't share while someone else is sharing. Okay. So Todd might need to turn it off. While we're
04:01getting that straight, you guys, thank you for your time. And on the line again is Gordon Burrell
04:07and Taryn Tathairnowitz, who's our director of training. They're going to chime in during this
04:12presentation. And what you're going to be seeing is results from the survey that was taking place last
04:17fall. Todd, when you said next year, you really mean this year because we'll have another survey
04:23coming out in April, this year's survey. And I think you'll have a whole lot more participation
04:28in it. But it was a great survey, great insights, and we'll share that with you. And, you know,
04:35along the way, if you have questions, use the chat box and we'll do our best to answer them throughout
04:40the presentation. So Ashley, just confirm you can see my screen now.
04:47Okay, good. Great. So again, this is results from a survey that had over 2,200 responses of that.
04:58Beasley had 139 responses, which again, may not sound like a lot, but the insights are really
05:04powerful from this group. What I want you to know about these survey participants is they are,
05:10they're more of the smaller businesses. 75% of them who participated had 100 employees or less.
05:1717% of them had 100 to 500. 9% of them had over 500 employees. So if you think SMBs, these are more
05:25on the SIs. These are local businesses. These are the folks you can go out and talk to, who you can
05:31influence. And again, these are your clients that we're talking about as we go through this.
05:37A couple of things that you might want to know about these businesses, they're not new. They've been in
05:41business for a long time. The average amount of time is almost 14 years. These folks have been in
05:46business. And the average gross revenue is about $1.7 million. Here's the story about these advertisers.
05:52They're getting smarter. We know they're preparing to spend more in 2021. They really have consolidated
05:59the number of media partnerships that they have out there, particularly on the traditional media side
06:05of the house. They are very much focused on being found and interacting with their customers. That
06:11very much has been the case during COVID. We'll talk more about that in a moment. They seem to be
06:17embracing video at a pretty rapid rate, particularly your clients. And at least for now, they seem to be
06:22uncommitted. They haven't locked in all their budgets, but I think that creates both opportunity and a
06:27bit of a threat to you. So we'll talk more about that as well. So remember, I said they're getting
06:34smarter. One of the things that we've done over the years is we've measured how much time they spend on
06:41advertising and marketing. And we add that up. And given the sort of premise that anyone who spends
06:4910,000 hours or more on an activity makes them an expert, we would either put them in that expert
06:56or master column or apprentice or novice. And what we've seen over years of doing this is they're
07:04graduating. They're moving on from being novices or apprentice and more of them are becoming master
07:09level marketers. 46% of your clients who responded would be what we would consider novices. So if you
07:16flip that over, you know, there's even more of them who are masters. So what does that mean? Well, we think
07:22they're getting a lot smarter. And we can see that in a lot of the open-ended questions. And I'll show
07:29you a couple of those towards the end. 54% of your respondents are either apprentices or masters.
07:36They know what they're doing. And a lot of them are being taught because they're using self-serve,
07:41right? There's so many more tools that are available to them, particularly around social media
07:48and online media that has caused them to think a lot more carefully about what they're doing
07:55and invest more time in marketing. So to you, are you advertising, are you educating your advertisers?
08:03Are you spending the time helping them? Because they think that's the thing they're looking for
08:08the most from you. And while that may seem like common sense, what you need to understand is you can't
08:14fake it anymore. The number of comments we've had from advertisers who are saying, you know, I know
08:19more about this stuff than the people are coming in and pitching it to me. And I think you guys are
08:24actually fortunate. You've worked for a great company with lots of great assets. You've got training.
08:30You've got a lot of things that you can bring to bear to help your clients. And many of your
08:35competitors don't have that. So that's an area that you can stand out, but you got to bring that to
08:41the table. So take a look at what they're preparing to spend in 2020 versus 2021. They're going to
08:48increase it. In fact, the average amount they spent last year was $270,000. Again, this is of your
08:55respondents. And what do they expect to spend in 2021? Well, it's really nice forecast increase of
09:0317, almost 18%. Now, to give you some perspective, when we do these surveys year after year after year,
09:11when we ask the question, how much you plan to increase or decrease your budget year over year,
09:16it ranges 1% to maybe 3%. So this is huge. This is an indication that there's growing confidence.
09:23They plan to spend more. Now, whether they'll spend quite this much more, who knows?
09:28But this actually was more than the average. The average was about 14% of all survey respondents.
09:34So you see, and keep in mind, this is of the smaller businesses. They're getting more confident.
09:41They're planning to increase the amount they're spending and look at where they're spending it as
09:46well. So of your respondents, the amount of average amount spent by your respondents who actually spent
09:56money on each of these media, these are the averages. And one of the things I want to point out to you is
10:00online video and OTT. So your customers said they're spending an average of just shy of $49,000
10:07on some type of online video or OTT advertising. Look how that compares to all others at $30,000.
10:16So you've got a customer set who already has a propensity to be using online video and spending a
10:22considerable amount of money there. Now, remember I said they're consolidating their partnerships?
10:28You know, actually, when we take a look at the number of advertising products or types that they
10:36use, it's been declining mostly on the traditional side of the business. So what you see is the number
10:45of advertising vehicles that they've used has decreased from 2.8 on average in 2019. This is for
10:53your customers, the blue bar, down to two in 2021. That's what they're expected. What does that mean?
11:00Well, it means some media is going to get entirely cut out. Now you look at the digital side, it's flat
11:06to slightly increasing. So in some respects, this is no surprise, right? We know they're substituting some
11:13of the traditional media choices, the non-online advertising, and they're substituting for more
11:20online advertising programs, more vehicles there. So I think for you, what you need to think about is
11:28if they're going to cut somebody out and they're down to two, you know, who are they going to go
11:33with? Are they going to go with somebody who can solve all their needs? And you guys have a lot of
11:40opportunities here because you do so much more than just their radio advertising. And also, if you think
11:46about this, you know, if they're going to narrow it down and they're gonna eliminate somebody, how do
11:53you make sure it's not you? You know, the fact is you have a lot of things that you can bring to the
11:59customer that they may not know that you actually have. And it's that much more important that when
12:06you're talking to your customers, you're listening to what all their marketing needs are and figuring out
12:11the best way to meet those needs. Taking a look at the types of marketing that they use. Now, this
12:19isn't the amount of money they spent on advertising. This is the percentage of customers who used each of
12:25these respective marketing types. Now, in the orange, you'll see these are your respondents, the 139
12:34respondents from Beasley, who said they used each of these types of marketing. And 96% of your customers
12:43utilize social media, probably no surprise, but that's the number one thing that most of them are
12:49using. But take a look at this 40% of your customers, customers are utilizing streaming video or OTT.
12:57So pretty large there. And while it skews slightly less than the average in terms of the number who are
13:03spending, remember how much they're spending, on average, just shy of $49,000 on streaming video and
13:11OTT. So again, I think that presents a pretty big opportunity. You know, think about this for a moment.
13:19You know, your customers can buy radio from you, and they can buy online from you. But can they buy
13:26radio from Facebook? No. You know, they can't buy offline advertising from pure play online advertising
13:35sellers. They can't, right? They don't offer it. But you offer both. So that's a huge opportunity. The trick
13:43is to be the person that they turn to. So remember what I said, they're cutting out the number of players
13:49they're working with, right? And they are looking for people who can serve them holistically.
13:58One of the questions you've probably heard us say before is, okay, what if you've got a client
14:03who's considering some of the other choices that are out there? Maybe they're thinking TikTok,
14:08what's this all about? And I'm seeing more people use this. Or Clubhouse, or some of these other tools
14:15that are emerging. What would it take for them to pick up the phone and call you and ask you about
14:21those? Should I use it? And if they do, would you have a knowledgeable answer? Would you be able to
14:27really speak to that particular product line? And you should be able to. Whether it's something you
14:32sell or don't, that's not the point. The point is to understand it and be seen as the expert,
14:39the person that they're going to turn to. So think about video with respect to that.
14:45You know, do they see you as an expert there? And what are the things that you can do to help
14:49them understand that you can absolutely help them with that piece of it? Now, during the sort of
14:54backdrop of COVID-19, we saw some really interesting things in terms of how they started thinking a bit
15:00differently about their advertising and marketing. And we looked at what was the effectiveness,
15:05how they rated the effectiveness of various types of advertising. And then how did that change
15:11in 2020? So stick with me for a minute. When you look at this graphic, the dark green is no change.
15:20That's basically the effectiveness rating they gave things. And then the light green is how it became
15:25more effective. So what you'll notice is look at that streaming video piece of it increased 53% said it
15:34became more effective in 2020. So the things at the top of the list here, website design, Instagram,
15:42CRM tools, LinkedIn, Facebook, even email marketing, all of those things became more effective and
15:52probably more important in the minds of the advertisers, given the backdrop of a world where
15:58people can't come in their doors, right? People are not necessarily coming in to their location.
16:03They can't see them. So interacting with their customers and hanging on to them became especially
16:09important last year. Now, will that change? It probably will change. Well, in fact, what we're
16:14starting to see is a shift right now away from just hanging on to the customers that I have today
16:19and going out and acquiring new customers. In fact, I'm going to ask Gordon to comment on that.
16:24I think we've got one of your podcasts coming up. Speaking to that exactly, Gordon.
16:31Yeah. Thanks for plugging a podcast. Hey, Beasleyites. How's everybody doing?
16:38Listen to the podcast. Just Google Burrell podcast. I think that'll get to it. We have a lot of fun on
16:45that. There is a shift in what advertisers are doing this year. And it's really, really fascinating.
16:52Last year, they hunkered down and engaged current customers. So it was all about working with their
16:59current customer base and retaining them. It's all about retention. This year, they told us it's
17:05about acquisition. Now, get this. What do you think the number one thing? So keeping current
17:12customers, right? Just keep them close. You got the current relationships with them, right? Okay. Now
17:18you're going to reach out and expand and get new customers. It's all about acquisition. Now things
17:22are warming up. Markets are opening up. You know, COVID's going away. That's great. What do you think
17:27the number one thing is they're going to use to acquire new customers? It's mass media, right? Mass
17:34media with its mass reach. No, it's not. The number one thing they tell us they're going to use is social
17:39media. What the hell is wrong with these people? So the job is that you really do have to educate
17:46them. But be careful. You know, this is what they know. And this is what they like. You're with radio.
17:52You have some digital products. They know you're biased. So be careful about that. But acquiring new
17:59customers this year is just going to be really important to them. And you've got to teach them.
18:03This is a year when we think really there's going to be a big, big thing that occurs that it might be
18:11subtle, but it could be pretty big and a big, big opportunity for Beasley. And that is last year,
18:16they hunkered down and they did everything. We saw this in so many of the comments. They did everything
18:22themselves because they could. And everything was social media and they shot videos and they did some
18:29search engine optimization with somebody on the staff or maybe a contractor. This is a year when
18:34I think there's going to be more money. There's some PPP loans out there. The second round's coming
18:38through. There's more activity in the markets. Everybody's feeling good. We know there's going
18:43to be a big spring back starting in the second quarter, just in a couple of weeks. And we think
18:48they're going to be very receptive to saying, hey, can you help me with the video? Can you help me with
18:54my social media? Can you help me with other things that we're doing? All of that is a door opener for
19:01you to come in and to help them understand how to do marketing and just say, look, social media is
19:06great. We can certainly help you with that, but it's an echo chamber. You're really not going to
19:09get a lot of great customer acquisition through that because it's the same people over and over and
19:14over again. And Google or Facebook's algorithms will only show the message to somebody if they click
19:21like or whatever. So it's just the same tighter, smaller audience. So go and teach them how to
19:26expand that message. Use radio, use other forms of media so they can get more customers. Jim.
19:32Thanks, Gordon. And, you know, in real practical terms, and Gordon just suggested this,
19:36make sure you're talking to your advertisers. I mean, I would even maybe use this as a framework to
19:41say, you know, Mr. Advertiser, Mrs. Advertiser, you know, we participated in survey last year. Maybe you
19:47guys were involved with it. I don't know. But one of the things that came out is that a lot of local
19:52businesses, just like you, really focused on hanging on to the customers they have. But now we see an
19:56opening up of markets and a real push to go out and acquire new customers and gain market share.
20:02Could you tell me a little bit about what you're thinking there? What is your strategy? What's your
20:05approach? That will open up a huge conversation. So just keeping that in mind is sort of a theme or
20:11direction you want to take it. So just thinking about the fact that what many of them believe is that
20:17their their real opportunity, the things that are most effective is their virtual presence, right?
20:25Their CRM. How do I hang on to those customers? What are you doing to help them look good, to be seen, to
20:31interact, to stand out? I got to tell you, just two weeks ago, I was working with a client down in
20:37Charleston, South Carolina, and we were looking at the RV category. And I started looking up a couple
20:42of the big RV dealers, the people who sell new and used and even repairs. And oh my gosh, it was
20:50horrible. Some of them, their website presence was so terrible. In fact, one of them, when you looked
20:57at what was posted on their website as their URL, when you clicked on it, it took you to a site for
21:03Viagra. So they actually had the wrong URL listed on their own website. That's an opportunity for a
21:10savvy rep to go in and look at it and evaluate and say, look, here's things we can do to help you stand
21:15out amongst your competitors. Well, let's look at what grew weaker. You know, again, this is the
21:21backdrop of COVID-19. This survey was done in the fall and we asked them to rank the effectiveness
21:29or what declined. Look at what's at the top of the list. It's all print type media, directories,
21:36newspapers, magazines, and so forth. And I think part of that is not only was it cost, but also the
21:43lag time in getting messages out. You know, I think there's a heightened awareness amongst a lot of
21:47advertisers right now that things are changing so rapidly. I mean, every day you're getting new
21:53statistics, you're hearing more about, you know, whether vaccines are getting pushed out or how many
21:58people are dying, all those things cause advertisers to want and need to communicate more frequently
22:05and very quickly. And so print media really suffered from that. Out of home really suffered too,
22:11because fewer people are out there driving around Yelp. It looks like reviews perhaps mattered a little
22:18bit less during this crisis as advertisers turned to, excuse me, consumers turned to the media,
22:25the businesses that they were more familiar with, right? They were already comfortable with their
22:31brand. Broadcast TV, you know, last year was such a big political year that many advertisers got crowded
22:38out. You know this, and we know radio got impacted by lower drive times. So, you know, not, I guess I want
22:46to point this slide out to you for one simple reason. And that is, you know, every advertiser sees things as
22:52either more effective or less effective for a variety of reasons. And, you know, they, none of
22:58them feel like what they're doing is working a hundred percent effectively, right? So there's an
23:04opportunity to figure out of all the things they're doing, what are they finding to be most effective
23:09right now and least effective and why? And gosh, how many times you've, have you heard it from us,
23:15go after the weak, will the beast? You can't do this unless you're talking to them about it. You know,
23:21you could even use this graphic to say, hey, you know, we see, according to this survey, a lot of
23:26changes going on in terms of how people rate the effectiveness of advertising, including radio. You
23:32know, be willing to put that out there and ask them, what have you experienced? What have you seen?
23:38What you'll hear from many of them who are using different types of media is, yeah, this isn't working
23:43the way it once did, or I'm just not kind of getting the response rate I used to out of direct mail, or maybe
23:48my television ad just wasn't getting enough results, didn't feel like I was making enough
23:52noise out there. Those are opportunities for you to exploit that other media choice and win them over
23:58to your side. So let's take a look at their 2021 ad budget growth. Remember I said they were going to
24:04increase, and for your customers, almost 18 percent. That's what they said. Well, that doesn't happen
24:10evenly across all media. That's their total budgets. So down at the bottom, again, there's that print media,
24:16and we know how tough it's been in the newspaper business. Boy, they've really been hammered.
24:22It's continuing to go down. There's still money there, you guys. I mean, for you as radio sellers,
24:27don't think that all the money's come out of the newspaper. There's still quite a bit there,
24:30and it's decreasing. You can see, of course, radio at 6 percent, so that's nice to see some growth
24:36there, but what's at the very top of the list? It's that streaming video and OTT. So we know you're
24:43making a play there, but you know, if you're tuned in to what many of those advertisers are doing and
24:48thinking right now, they're looking for streaming video. They're looking for ways to tell their story
24:54a bit differently, both to keep the clients they have, but also to go out and secure new customers.
25:02Now, we know social media is really important to them. As I said, 96 percent of your respondents use
25:06some sort of social media marketing, but you guys, this isn't the cheap alternative anymore.
25:13It's really becoming a lot more expensive. The average amount of money that respondents,
25:17and this is looking at the whole survey here, the average amount of money they're spending on social
25:21media is adding up to over $26,000. Now, the thing is, it's not as obvious to even the advertisers
25:29as you might think. Why is that? Well, a lot of that money goes to an internal resource. An employee
25:37who's spending money, or excuse me, who is doing social media for them costs them money. In fact,
25:43the average for the cost of that person is about $21,000. Now, if you look at those who use an agency
25:51or a third party to help with social media, it's quite a bit less. The average is about $13,000. But
25:57you know, the point is, they're probably spending money they don't even realize. And those of us
26:02who've been in the content business know how expensive it is to feed that beast, to kind of keep
26:08a story active. And they could use some help, some professionals to do that. Of course, the type of
26:15sites they're using at the very top, you see Facebook. 91% of them are using Facebook. That's the
26:20most popular. No surprise there. Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest. And look at little TikTok
26:26down there. Well, it's only 6%. But never used to show up before. So that's, again, something to pay
26:33attention to, because you may have clients thinking about that wondering, you know, should I be using
26:38this? I see my kid using it. I see a lot of people online with it. Is that something I should do? Is it
26:44even viable? With any of these, I think what you want to be careful about is not trying to say one
26:49thing works better than the other, but understand what that particular clients need. And talk to them
26:55about their spending in social media. Again, it's not cheap. Talk to them about whether or not they've
27:01got somebody they're employing to do this. Understand what those costs are. You know, pull that out of the
27:08conversation. And then, you know, you might offer the fact that you may be able to do some of the
27:15things better than, you know, their internal resources are, or free up those internal resources
27:20to do other things. Look, we know a lot of businesses have had to cut back on their cost.
27:26So, you know, if they're not going to increase their budgets huge amounts, because some of them
27:31just aren't, maybe that money can come from some internal sources. Video. I know that's a big theme
27:38to keep hearing us talk about, but they really are embracing it. And they're finding it to be more
27:43effective. 53% of the survey respondents said that online video became more effective for them
27:51in 2020. So given, again, that backdrop where they're trying to communicate, they're trying to
27:56interact with their customers a whole lot more because they couldn't see them, they found video
28:01is a great way to do that. And the percentage of your respondents who are buying it is increasing
28:06from 43% to 45% in 2021. So almost half of your customers, according to the survey,
28:14said they're using some sort of video. Check this out. 61% of all the advertisers developed and posted
28:21their own content to some sort of video platform like YouTube or Vimeo. 54% of them have some employee
28:30doing that, you know, creating video. And 43% of them are using an agency. 25% are using some type of
28:39tool. So I think part of the point is with social media, with video advertising, there's more than
28:46meets the eye. Need to talk to them about the internal costs that they're spending to do these
28:51things as well. Now, most of them, the people who are using online video, they're not coming from the
28:59broadcast TV perspective or even cable. We see is a lot of people who've never been able to buy
29:04TV advertising, but they love the ability to get out in front of somebody with video.
29:10They see that as a platform for telling their story. So don't think 30 second spots, be thinking
29:17storytelling. How can I help my clients use online video to tell their story? How can I help them use
29:25video to acquire new customers as well as hang on to the clients that they have? You know, there's a
29:31lot of really bad stuff out there. I mean, there's people who do video really well and some who don't
29:37do it that well. And the reality is, it's not that terribly expensive for a lot of them to get out
29:42there and do it with an iPhone. But that doesn't mean they're really experts at telling their story.
29:48So consider how you guys might bring that to bear.
29:51Jim, you mind if I jump in here? Yeah, please do.
29:56Video is your biggest opportunity. It really, really is. I think you might look back a couple
30:01of years ago. We should have jumped on that earlier. We should have done more, whatever.
30:05And you might be saying that year after year, it's gotten so big. So follow me here. 20 years ago,
30:10the big thing was search advertising. And this new thing called Google came along and it grew to
30:16billions and billions of dollars in just a few short years. 10 years ago, 10 years later,
30:21the big thing was social media and Facebook and it grew to billions and billions of dollars. So here
30:28we are another 10 years later, another decade later. And the new, new thing is video. The big dip and
30:35it's grown to billions of dollars. It's, it's phenomenal. It's like the fourth, third or fourth
30:39largest individual segment of local advertising, well ahead of radio, well ahead of TV and newspapers
30:48and everything else. And just a little bit behind search marketing and targeted banners. It's big.
30:54So here's the thing back in 20 years ago, when search came along, what one company do you associate
31:01with search? Okay. 10 years ago when social media came along, what one company? Okay. Now here we are
31:08with video. What one company do you associate with that? I'll wait. It's you. There is no one company.
31:16So here's your opportunity. You can't say, Oh, all the money in my market is going to Google and search
31:21all the money in socials going to Facebook. This is it. It's video. It's enormous. So there's a
31:27statistic of forgiving a look over here that we have that says that of those who continued to buy radio in
31:332020, those buying online video, radio buyers who were buying online video, were planning to increase
31:40their radio budgets half as much of those who moved money out of radio or stopped buying radio in 2020.
31:4931% were buying online video and they were twice as likely to be buying online video. So you get it.
31:56They moved money to something else. What did they move it to? They're moving money out of radio to video.
32:01So it's a little bit of a threat for you. There's a fear of loss here that your advertisers are going
32:06to be buying video and they're going to be buying it from somebody else. And there is a big, big,
32:10big, big opportunity. Of course, you can go after the TV advertisers, but as this slide says,
32:16really don't think of the OTT and spot as the way to go. That's it. There's some money in that.
32:21It's much more, as Jim said, this longer form video help advertisers tell their story. You'd be surprised
32:27the amount of money they're willing to spend on that again and again and again throughout the year
32:32for different types of videos. So go get them. Thanks, Jim. Back to you.
32:37Yeah. Thanks, Gordon. You know, it's funny. I mentioned the RV example. And I talked to one
32:42of the sellers about this, about going in and doing some videos of their inventory, but also of their
32:49customers. Some of them who are first time RV owners telling their own story about how great it was
32:55for the family to get out, be away. And the advertiser just loved that, ate it up, you know,
33:01saw that as a great opportunity to grow demand and get more people to want to buy RVs in this market.
33:08Remember, we said they are a bit undecided, at least for now. Again, we've got a little podcast,
33:13or actually our video segment from Corey Elliott. It's Corey's, what do we call it, Gordon?
33:20Corey's Minute. Local Marketing Minute. A Minute with Corey. Just go to our website and you'll see
33:27a link for a podcast, a video, click on the video one. It takes about three minutes and you will
33:32belly laugh. The guy is so funny when he delivers research and at the end you'll go, wow, that was
33:38also filling. It is. And it's interesting when you look at that particular segment, you can see there
33:45is a lot of money still up in the air. It's in play. So remember I said that's both an opportunity
33:53and threat. I think the opportunity is, since I've not committed, there's still money out there that
33:59you can go get. But if we looked at your own clients and we asked them, you know, have you
34:04committed to your radio budget? No. As much as 25% of them said, no, I don't know if I'm going to spend
34:12or not. So you've got to really lock in those budgets. I don't know that many of them are signing
34:18long-term one-year contracts. There's just too many variables out there. But the way to make sure
34:25that you retain them is get them superior results. And it really is all about that. I think Corey ends
34:32his little segment with, it's all about ROI. It really is. And as obvious as that sounds, time and
34:38time again, and you can tell from the comments of these advertisers, they're frustrated that they're
34:43not talking to the sellers as much as they should be about the results, about what they can expect to
34:48get in return. 77% of the respondents say their 2021 ad budgets are flexible. Think about that. 77%.
35:01They're not locked in, you guys. There's an opportunity to still influence them.
35:05So we did ask them, you know, those of you who stopped advertising, why did you stop? And of course,
35:12the number one reason was it was COVID-19. I mean, they were kind of paralyzed by that. But there were
35:17other reasons too. And the top three were it was too expensive, or they moved something that moved their
35:24money to something else, or hey, it was just too difficult to measure the effectiveness. So again, for you
35:31guys, I think that's an opportunity, I'd break this open, I would talk to your advertisers about it.
35:35Because if it's an expense, that's really related down to ROI, or it might be a cash flow issue for
35:43someone, they just didn't have enough money to put into something. But many of them are moving it to
35:48something that's more effective, find out what that is and go after it. So I'm going to transition here
35:54to some of the open ended comments. We asked the question in the survey, hey, do you have any
35:59suggestions for media companies? What would you suggest to them? Just open ended and let them
36:04answer. And so I'm going to go through some of the responses that were indicative of many, many,
36:09many responses. It's just fascinating to read through these. But better competitive analysis,
36:14more creative campaign strategies. Remember, they're getting more sophisticated.
36:19We had a number of comments about folks saying, look, I'm doing A-B testing with different
36:24creative right now. I need my media partners to understand that and help me do that and gauge
36:30its effectiveness. Again, they're getting smarter. Become more of a knowledge or teaching company.
36:37Focus on sales as secondary. Make sure you're teaching and guiding us and the sales will follow. I think
36:42there's so many of them, you know, who know that they don't know everything that's out there.
36:49And they know they need to be more competitive. And that's the theme. Help them be more competitive
36:55and help them figure out what they can do to get a superior result.
37:01Here's another great one. I'm fortunate to have a great rep that informs me of opportunities
37:06that may come up as well as quarterly meetings to discuss strategy. You know, things are changing
37:11rapidly. You can't set it, forget it. And so the more you're talking to them about what's happening
37:16and how things are opening up right now, that's going to create, I think for a lot of them, the
37:21dissatisfaction with the status quo and make them want to do something differently. This is a really
37:28nice quote we put in here over one of your respondents. I suggest following the Beasley Boston model.
37:34This team's excellent. They help us figure out the best solutions, the types of creative, and sort out
37:39its effectiveness. Okay. And of course, there's the education component. Listen to the marketing
37:45experts that you hired. So this is the advice to the media company. They have skills to do their job,
37:51but they can't do it if everyone thinks they know marketing and know social media. One of the themes
37:55that came out of this was you can tell that the sales reps sometimes are being pushed to sell products
38:03that may not meet the customer's needs and they see right through it. And it's very frustrating to
38:09them. So, you know, what you have to do is be true to the customer, what their needs are. You know,
38:15I know it's always, I mean, push to sell this, push to sell that, but sell the things that are going to
38:20get them the best result. And ultimately, that's what serves you the best. I highlighted this one in
38:26green, help businesses cut out what isn't working and focus on what is. It doesn't mean just your own
38:33media, right? But what else are they doing? They want help. They want you to help them evaluate all
38:40the things they're doing, whether they're buying from you or not, and see what could be done more
38:46effectively. Need reliable data on costs and projective effectiveness for all types of marketing. You guys
38:54have a great tool in Compass, right? You should be using the Compass tool because that helps you help
38:59them understand what's going on competitively, where those dollars are being spent, how their
39:05category is allocating their budgets. They're looking for lower cost solutions. Always, everyone wants
39:11what's cheaper, cheaper, cheaper. What they really want, more ROI. Provide the data to back up that ROI,
39:19how to track it. If geofency is being used, then provide it the data analysis versus just charging more
39:26for it, okay? There is certainly the sense amongst many of these advertisers that you might charge a
39:34premium for something, and they don't necessarily think it's worth that premium. You've got to tie it
39:39back to ROI. You've got to have that conversation up front. Understand that our business, our customer
39:45base, and our goals, you've got to understand what they are trying to achieve before you're going to be
39:50able to sell them anything. Two true partnerships, two-way venture. Media companies like yours should
39:56look at pairing your clients that don't have a local agency with local agencies. This was one of your
40:02agency customers saying, stay in your lane. Whether you do that or not, my feeling on agencies is,
40:10you know, if you can work with them, great. But if they're a block, go around them. You have to.
40:15I think a lot of them see you guys more as competitors, and that's probably a good thing.
40:22Gordon, any comment you want to make about that on the agency respondents?
40:28Yeah, it's a tough thing with agencies because you're becoming more and more competitive with
40:33them, but I think there's a pretty good relationship that you have with them there. One of the things that
40:38I've found most interesting in the agency surveys we've done over the past two years is,
40:42I'm thinking they're needing you more than you need them these days. They have a lot of competition
40:48from all these digital agencies that popped up and a partnership with you and your data,
40:53the information that you have. They keep asking data, data, measurement, measurement, you know,
40:59what do you got? So I do think there's maybe a change in the relationship that's probably occurring
41:04with agencies right now. You probably need to hold them a little bit closer and help them.
41:11It used to be that there was a very tenuous, tense relationship with agencies. I don't think that
41:18needs to be anymore. It could be an us versus them. You get together with them to say, let's work
41:26to try to block out some of these digital-only agencies from several states over that are just
41:33selling SEO and website design. So I do think there's a greater partnership you can develop there.
41:38Thanks, Gordon. There's definitely a big push for transparency through all the planning stages.
41:45They want to understand when you're recommending something, why? What is included in there?
41:50They want evidence of the results. Again, these are just some responses from hundreds of responses
41:57that we got. Do more listening and less talking until you really understand what it is that we need.
42:03There was a huge theme of that. Clearly, they're frustrated with people pushing products who
42:09haven't understood what the actual goal is. And again, for many of them right now, it's helping
42:14them tell their story. It's helping them stand out from their competition a bit more. That needs to be
42:19the language that you're speaking. So that's all we have in terms of the survey results. Todd,
42:25I'll turn it back over to you and or Ashley, if we have any questions you'd like us to address,
42:31we'll certainly take those now. So I've been watching to see if anybody threw anything in the
42:36chat and they didn't. So folks, if you want to ask some questions, please throw it in the chat. Or
42:42I guess if you jump up and down and Ashley can see you, she can even unmute you. We'll take some
42:48questions. We want to make sure that you have the understanding that you need. If your question is,
42:54can we have these slides? The answer is absolutely. Yes, we have these and we will share with everyone.
43:00So are there any questions?
43:10We've got 139 people.
43:15Any one of those want to throw out a question?
43:17You may have intimidated them.
43:24I got, I got loads of questions. Can I ask questions?
43:28Absolutely, Gordon, go for it.
43:29I'm filled with questions.
43:33Todd, what are you guys doing in video? I'm going to keep pressing on that, as you know.
43:38So do you feel that you've got the adequate resources to deliver the video products that the
43:45Beasley advertisers in each of your markets are looking for?
43:49So the answer is somewhat. We partner with a couple of our
43:55programmatic partners to be able to provide video. We don't always get the clearing rates that
44:02we want to be able to get to be competitive. And we've found a second source that we're going to
44:08buy from directly, cutting out the middleman, being able to price it better. But from what I
44:13understand from the folks in the markets, when we sell, it performs well for them. And our
44:20advertisers seem to like it. It's really just making sure we've got the right pricing.
44:24So you're talking about OTT, right?
44:26Yep.
44:26I'm not talking about that. That's the least of it. I'm talking about the longer form,
44:32the storytelling. How are you positioned to do that? Do you have ultra HD cameras,
44:36lavaliers, and poised to do that when people allow you to come out and do those types of things?
44:41Because that's frankly where we see the money.
44:45Yeah. So some of our markets do have that and have done that. And as part of our sponsored
44:51content, we are doing some of that as well. Not every one of our markets.
44:55Why is that? Why are not all of them doing it? It sounds like an inquisition. I'm sorry,
45:00but I'm just kind of curious. You guys really need to move forward faster on this
45:03based on what we're seeing. There's just so much money there. The other quick thing,
45:07and I'll let you answer the question. The other quick thing I meant to note is that
45:12if you look at the percentage of advertisers that they're buying video marketing or participating in
45:18it, it went from like 28% to 40% last year. And this year it's at 40%. So it's not growing.
45:27Where the growth is, is the existing customers, which makes it even more important to get those
45:31customers now because they already have a relationship with someone more than likely
45:35doing it. So we don't see the growing really high, which is actually a good thing. It's going to be
45:39the cream of the crop advertisers, particularly broadcast advertisers, radio and TV that have more
45:44money to spend. And they're going to be spending more and more and more on, on video. So what the
45:50others, why, why are they not participating? Is it an equipment thing or they don't believe in the
45:54product or? No, I think the belief is there. I think it's just been equipment and budget.
45:59Um, we've, everybody's got some equipment, um, but it's probably more of that than anything else.
46:05Okay. Well, and we had a couple other questions come in. Larry, uh, pointed out a good one,
46:09which was how do the results of this survey compare with your forecast and, and, uh, they're
46:15a bit different. You know, you got to keep in mind with this survey, these are smaller advertisers.
46:20So when you see the compass numbers that will get updated, um, and we'll have a presentation
46:25on this next week, you're not going to see the, the budgets increasing by 18%. You're just not,
46:31uh, or even, uh, 13%. Um, and you're not going to see radio increasing at the rate that,
46:38you know, this survey may have indicated in total, because, uh, instead of just looking at the smaller
46:44in the market, the compass, of course, looks at every business in the market. Uh, Gordon,
46:48anything you would add to that? Yeah. Year after year, when we ask advertisers,
46:52what the, the way we asked that question is interesting. So last fall, we said, how much
46:57are you spending now? How much do you anticipate spending next year? So on each of the things,
47:02it wasn't overall, it was how much on radio too. You said you bought these, et cetera, et cetera.
47:07So what that gives us is a barometer. We know they're feeling good thinking that they're going
47:12to increase the radio budget 15, 17, 18%, whatever it is. It never plays out that way. There are always
47:19many forces during the year. So I think Jim, our radio advertising forecast is 6%, an increase of
47:27six, six or 7%, something like that. And it might vary per market. Um, but what we want you to look
47:33at and want you to really consider, although the entire industry is going to look at how much 2021
47:38increased over 2020, 2020 was a devastating year. So 2021 should look pretty good, right? Except for
47:45newspapers, they're going to hell. You should look at 2019 versus 2021. There's a loss there. And a loss
47:52is not, is not good. If you're losing customers, you really ought to be picking them up on the digital
47:57side and retaining those customers and then trying to get them back into the, into the radio fold.
48:03I'm just a, I'm just a fountain of great information, aren't I? So I make you feel good.
48:08Let me just, let me just punctuate that though. You know, the folks on this call are sellers. You guys
48:13are out trying to make money every single day. Big opportunity for you is non radio customers.
48:19You know, this, you got to go out and call on folks that you haven't before. There's so many
48:23businesses in the market right now who are looking for your help. Somebody else asked the question
48:28about, do we have any statistics on direct versus agency business in the market? Well, um, I don't know
48:34if I have anything really empirical, but what we can tell you anecdotally is there's a lot more
48:38agencies because there's a lot of frankly, unemployed, former media folks out there who
48:43are all hanging up their own shingle and saying, you know, I can be your agency. I know in my market,
48:48a dozen of them, uh, former sellers, many, in many cases who have decided I'm going to be my own
48:55agency and work with a handful of clients. So you're probably seeing that as well. And they're
49:00wielding influence. How are they able to do that? Well, it's because the advertisers are questioning,
49:06uh, the sales reps that are selling to them. And again, those who, you know, let me, let me suggest
49:12this. If you're willing to tell somebody, look, radio is not a good fit for you. That's going to
49:17endear you to them to say, given everything you've told me, this may not be the best thing. There are
49:22other things that we can do for you. However, in fact, many of my clients are not radio customers.
49:27What really matters is what your needs are. Let me show you how I can help them. That's the kind of
49:31dialogue they're looking for right now. Another question, uh, was what tactics can we use for the
49:37long duration videos that our, uh, customers want? In other words, how do we take those videos and
49:43market the advertisers? Gordon, you want to talk a little bit more about that? Um, I think I've said
49:50everything I can possibly say about, uh, about videos. Um, you mean marketing the advertisers,
49:56uh, helping them get exposure for their videos. That's what it sounds like. The question is. Yeah.
50:01Um, uh, yeah, the, the differentiator is anybody can shoot a video, you know, anybody with, with an
50:09iPhone, they don't need, you know, great equipment and they'll shoot a decent video and there's decent
50:13software out there, um, or they can have a better, you know, HD video, but what they don't have is
50:21radio stations, uh, and your own internal ability to market and promote. You guys are marketing
50:27experts. So once they get that video up there, yeah, they'll get it in the YouTube frame. You can
50:32post it to YouTube for them. And on the YouTube frame, it increases their search engine optimization
50:37capabilities because YouTube is owned by Google. And that's just the way it works. That's great.
50:42They'll get them some traffic, but not a whole hell of a lot. Um, what they really want is higher
50:46exposure for that. They will get a thrill out of seeing themselves on the video. They'll love it.
50:52They'll ask you incessantly what, you know, color pants suit they should wear for the video and what
50:58they should have in the background and what they should say. But after it's all said and done,
51:01getting that exposure is really, it's going to cement you as a differentiator, a company that can
51:07actually produce more than just the video itself, but the marketing exposure that they really need.
51:13That's, that's a big thing. Gordon, there's two other quick questions.
51:16Go ahead. Let me actually jump. Let me jump on that one because those, uh, from Butch and Clint,
51:22uh, have joined the team recently, but I want to use these questions, which are absolutely great
51:27as a reminder for everyone. So Butch wants to know if there's data on specific verticals that
51:32are growing and looking to spend more. And, uh, Clint asked if there's a way to use the Braille data
51:37to prospect and so forth, like you would with Kantar and so forth. The answer to the first part is,
51:42which absolutely so. And the answer to Clint, the second part is also absolutely. So I'm going to
51:47remind everybody here that we have a quote unquote script of how you can use the Braille data to be
51:53able to sit down with an advertiser and ask them, what are they spending? Where are they spending it?
51:58How's it working for them? And so forth. We also have very easily, uh, ways that you can take a look
52:04at the numbers in each of those verticals. And I would be looking at those who are spending more year
52:10over year. I'd also be looking at those who they're spending is going down in one, like Jim had said,
52:15right? If newspapers going down year over year, you know, they're going to put those dollars
52:18elsewhere. We need to be talking to them about that as well. So for everyone out there, you all have
52:23access to the compass data. If you don't have a login, we can get you one. If you need more training
52:30on that, we can do that for you as well. But that data is incredibly useful and we aren't using it as well
52:37as we could. Uh, yeah, um, Todd, the, we did a survey and I'm, I'm looking in this direction
52:44because it's over on this screen on streaming video buyers. So a couple of weeks ago, we got
52:48lots of stuff on our website. We get a great one tomorrow coming out on home services. These guys
52:53are increasing their traditional media budgets, 33% this year, roofers, window replacement, et cetera,
53:00et cetera. Traditional media budgets, increasing 33%. All other advertisers, all non home services
53:08companies cutting traditional media budgets, 20% go after home services back to video. Okay.
53:14The top type of, uh, advertisers buying video retail trade, um, arts, entertainment, and recreation.
53:22Don't forget them. Very big one healthcare and social assistance that might wane a little bit.
53:27Uh, this year it was big in 2020 and organizations do not forget them. Religious civic professional
53:34organizations, grant making, uh, et cetera, and then educational services. Those are the big ones.
53:40Don't overlook those. Don't just go after your current customer base. Try to find new ones.
53:44That's a good way to reach out to new customers with video capabilities.
53:49We likely need to throw it back to Ashley to wrap up. Uh, but I want to thank, uh, specifically
53:55Jim, Gordon, Taryn for not only the support on this call, but the support, uh, across many calls
54:02you've been on with us, plus answering questions, uh, providing us with surveys and so forth.
54:07Go to braille, uh, braille associates.com. Everyone we've got subscriptions to the compass data. There are
54:13a lot of papers that we can pull down and take a look at as well. There is more information there than
54:18any of us can use. And so we need to just pick the right, uh, information and use that properly.
54:24So Ashley, let me throw it back to you. Great. Jim, Gordon, thank you so much for all this information
54:29and everyone I'll have it available. I have this recording available tomorrow and an email to you
54:34guys. It'll be on Academy. And then I'll also have the deck for you. And if you need training,
54:39if you need to be pointed in the right direction, just reach out to me and we'll get you what you need.
54:43Okay. Thank you all so much. And we'll see you guys next month. Thanks everybody. Bye-bye.
54:48Thank you. Bye-bye.