BluHorn TV – “5 Minutes With” Arthur Carrion from BluHorn

BluHorn TV – “Inside Look” with Wes and Mike

Each week on Inside Look, our host Wes Benwick talks to masters in the marketing industry. This week, our host Wes talks to Mike White.

Mike White launched Client Focused Media in 2002, the leading integrated marketing firm in Northeast Florida with extensive capabilities and experience providing strategic planning, marketing, creative, advertising, printing, branding, public relations and crisis communications services. He also serves as the Publisher of Jacksonville Buzz Magazine which reaches 150,000 readers each month and is the CEO of Bluhorn Solutions. Because of White’s commitment to provide the broadest range of integrated marketing services possible for CFM’s clients, he also founded an events production company as well as a promotional product company to support CFM’s cutting edge marketing campaigns and to yield measurable results for CFM clients at the most efficient rates.

BluHorn TV – “Inside Look” with Alex Alexander from KCO Advertising

Each week on Inside Look, our host Wes Benwick talks to masters of the marketing industry. This week, our host Wes talks to Alex Alexander from KCO Advertising.

For over 10 years, KCo Ad Agency has been the agency of choice from traditional to digital advertising for many successful businesses. We are a team of industry experts. We are constantly working on new ways to increase brand awareness and traffic for our clients.
We take no prisoners.
We respect no limitations.
We’re all about results.

Meet Our New President

BluHorn® Media Solutions is proud to announce that Gary Spurgeon has joined as its President.  Spurgeon’s primary role will be to lead the company in capital raises, hiring, and manage growth and acquisitions for the software company.

“BluHorn has been experiencing rapid growth in the past several years. We have continued to double in size year over year” said Mike White, CEO of BluHorn. “We have aggressive growth plans over the next 24 months.  The leadership, financial, and managerial experience Gary brings to the BluHorn team will help us manage this accelerated growth.”

Spurgeon brings with him 31 years of experience growing people, culture, ratings, revenue, and relationships in the media industry. “I drive for long term results by hiring talented people, developing a collaborative working environment, and creating a vision for success,” said Spurgeon. “BluHorn is only one of a few national software companies in the media buying and planning space and is poised to continue its rapid growth.”

In the nearly four decades of Spurgeon’s media career he has worked in almost all areas of broadcasting, including on-air, promotions, traffic, sales, and sales management. For the last 30 years he has acted as Regional Vice President and General Manager of small to major market radio stations, and most recently as a corporate Senior Vice President.

“Gary’s overall understanding on the media landscape and having served in literally every radio position will help continue to develop add on features to our media buying and planning software” says White.

 

BluHorn® is a 100% web-based media buying and planning software program. It is designed to organize, schedule and report media spends whether for broadcast television, cable television, radio, outdoor, print or digital media. The software was developed with the input of more than 50 small to midsize advertising, marketing and digital media firms throughout the United States and continuously adds to its feature list to keep up with the changing media landscape. BluHorn has several integrations including Nielsen and Comscore data, as well as Quickbooks Online. 

Freelance Media Buyer – Guest Post

As a freelance media buyer, the three top questions I get all the time are:

1. How do you like working for yourself?

2. Exactly what is it that you do, again?

3. Do you have goals to grow your freelancing business? If so, how do you do it?

 

So.. let’s start with the first question.

How do I like working for myself?

Well, to answer simply, I LOVE IT! But I really don’t work for myself, I work for other advertising agencies and businesses that need my help and expertise. I’m hired or contracted to plan and/or place media on their behalf. My work varies too! Sometimes it’s a short term 2-week job to help an agency get out of a pinch when they have a quick turnaround. Some ad agencies hire me to do media buying as needed for their clients. Other ad agencies may not offer my type of services at all but see the benefit to adding what I do to their roster. Lastly, I have a few of my own clients that have found me through various forms of networking and referrals. Following this explanation, I get panicked looks and questions about health insurance, business expenses, taxes, and what my schedule is like.  And because I know you’re going to wonder…I buy my own health insurance, have an amazing accountant, and just like working in an ad agency my schedule varies based on the workload.

 

Exactly what is it that you do, again?

I am a freelance media planner and media buyer. I am the reason why you see commercials on TV, Radio, Print, Billboards, etc.  I am an expert in knowing exactly what to do to generate awareness for a product, brand, or business. I spend my days diving deep into research such as Scarborough, Media Monitors, Nielsen, and ComScore to determine the target audience and what avenues would work best to reach that demographic. It is at this point after a few meetings and gathering research that I’ll come up with a strategy to support the objective or goal of the campaign. Personally, I like to clearly define the objective and goal of the campaign because I want it to be obvious what I’m trying to do. From there, I’ll create a media plan.  A media plan is where I put pen to paper and figure out exactly what types of media I can buy with the budget that I have. For instance, after I determine cost per point I can estimate how many gross rating points per week I can buy on TV or Radio which will in turn tell me what my weekly or monthly spend will be. After the plan is approved it’s time to create the media buys in BluHorn. BluHorn makes it so easy to create buys too. I create all my TV and Radio buys in BluHorn and I’m also able to create my all print, digital, and outdoor insertion orders as well.

Part of my expertise includes follow up. Life of a freelance media buyer doesn’t stop after the buys are negotiated and placed. While the buys are in flight I’m keeping an eye on how the orders are running and making sure when spots don’t run to get a makegood. Auditing the invoices makes sure that everything ran as ordered. In addition, we can determine if we got all the added value we requested and make sure that the traffic (advertisements) ran correctly.  Outside of that we are looking for feedback from the clients to determine return on investment (ROI) and/or success of the campaign.

 

Do you have goals to grow your freelancing business? If so, how do you do it?

Yes, like any business owner it is necessary to establish goals for how you would like to grow your business. While some may put less effort into growing their business and more into just working, others have a strategic plan to grow. For most freelancers, business funnels through either referrals or networking. Actually, networking and referrals work hand in hand. Once people get to know and respect you through networking, they will proudly refer business to you when they encounter someone that has a need. Another way that has also resulted in new clients is networking with people within my industry.  It’s a good way to gauge what is going on within the industry as well as who may have a need and how you can help.

Really, the more that I get out there and meet people the more my business has grown. But, there’s an aspect of time management to networking.  Sometimes it’s nearly impossible to attend all the networking events I’d like to because clients come first. So, I’ve learned how to manage this by only accepting a certain number of networking invites a week.  This helps me to be available when my clients need to meet as well as focus on getting work done.

Lastly, networking and referrals to grow your business is not a one-way street.  It’s important to thank and appreciate those that are referring business to you as well as refer business to others. You’re not the only one out there networking. Support in growing your business comes from all different places and often from where you least expect it. So, when someone refers business to you (regardless of if you retain the referral as a client or not), a thank you, hug, handshake, Starbucks gift card, or any sincere acknowledgement goes a long way. And, when possible, don’t hesitate to return the favor.

 

Freelance work isn’t for everyone. It can be scary and inconsistent at times but for me it is rewarding, enjoyable, and I love it. Like Steve Jobs said, “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.”

 

Guest post written by Adele M. George

See Your Ad in Lights?

Advertisers and media buyers have worked tirelessly over the decades to find a way to garner eyes-on impressions from a non-distracted consumer.  Professionals in every phase of the advertising game will argue for and against different medias. Radio listeners in their car have few audio distractions, but they are driving!  Which is an equal argument against billboard advertising as well. Television audiences are likely channel surfing, watching multiple screens, or streaming/viewing on-demand which negates the on-screen ad experience.  Print medias are losing subscribers and readership numbers. Digital sites are cluttered. Pre-roll is skippable. We’ve heard them all!

But there is one advertising form where consumers are in front of a GIANT screen. In the dark. With no other noise around them. They’re in a place where they went to escape and relax.  

This is movie theater advertising.  (Which falls in the outdoor/out-of-home advertising category).

Movie theater, or cinema, advertising can still produce viewers that are perusing their phones before the main attraction.  Or who are chatting with their seat mates. However, these factors are a vast contrast to the distractions of household living rooms or busy roads.  More than 3/4 of the US and Canadian population went to the movies at least once in 2017, contributing to ticket sales that raked in about $11 billion. Even though both numbers are down from the year prior, advertisers still see value in those numbers.

What is Movie Theater Advertising?

Movie theater advertising should not be confused with movie trailers – the “coming attractions” that immediately precede the feature film. Movie ads come before the trailers (sometimes interspersed), and they have been a presence in theaters since the first one opened in 1902. This means that your parents and maybe even your grandparents have fond memories of movie ads, too. Sometimes just for their comedic value.

In the early days, movie ad montages were put together quickly, sometimes with slides appearing upside down or with sketchy lines blocking an advertiser’s phone number. Some enterprising business owners tried to overcome this by engaging movie-goers with trivia questions that flashed on the screen. Some lobbied for better quality control. And others may have suffered in silence. Mostly local advertisers were the presence in the theaters, and that’s still true today. But digital technology has advanced so much that the production quality of the advertisements can rival the quality of the movie that the audience came to see. And some would argue that the consumers’ expectations have helped raise the bar.

Since those early years, Americans became accustomed to TV commercials – the length of cinema ads began to mirror the length that consumers were used to seeing in their living room. Today, movie theater advertisements usually run from between 15 and 30 seconds – long enough for a small business to make an impression.

What Are the Benefits of Movie Theater Advertising?

Media buyers these days have all been called on by cinema advertising salespeople.  If somehow you have not yet, you will soon. These individuals love to discuss how much Americans love movies and, perhaps even more intensely, the American movie-going experience.

These passionate folks have a point. Aside from newly released movies that you can see only in a theater, there is no doubt that watching a movie in a theater offers some very specific advantages over watching the same movie at home. A theater offers:

• A wall-to-wall screen
• Surround sound
• Darkness
• Emotion-filled peer viewing experience

Even a cynical small business owner would be hard-pressed to disagree with these realities. This list doesn’t speak for the ads themselves though, just the experience.

At this point, salespeople might transition to the fact that the advantages of a movie theater and the advantages of movie theater advertising are intrinsically linked. The relationship is similar to that of newspapers and magazines, in that people gravitate to these print medias because they can hold the paper in their hands, thumbing through the pages. Readers enjoy the experience that these medias provide.

One must also consider the other distinctive advantages of movie theater advertising:

• A movie theater supplies that highly-coveted captive audience. Patrons paid for their ticket and they want to be there. The videos and images on the screen don’t have to compete with society’s main distraction: cell phones. Most theaters ask customers to turn off their phones before the film’s ads even begin to roll.
  
• A movie theater is one of the “last frontiers” in terms of offering an advertiser an uncluttered media environment to present their message. Sitting in a movie theater may be one of the few times during the week when people are not working on a computer while looking at their phone and simultaneously viewing TV playing in the background. Even consumers who have grown impatient with commercials cannot fast-forward over movie theater ads either.
  
• “Silence is golden” in movie theaters, so noise tends to halt when the house lights go down and the ads start to roll. Talking over a commercial in a movie theater happens, but it’s not the same as the home experience.
• A movie theater offers small-business owners a targeted demographic group.  Geo-targeting is nearly inevitable (meaning people who live within a 10-mile radius of the theater). One can narrow the demographic group even further by realizing that most moviegoers are aged 16-44.
  
• Movie theaters also offer the ability to conduct crossover marketing or promotional activities. For example, you can hand out product samples or keepsakes in the lobby before the movie begins. Or you can say goodbye to movie-goers as they exit, handing them discounts or coupons for your business.

Do People Actually Pay Attention to Movie Theater Ads?

So what’s the verdict?  Do these ads work? And why wouldn’t the theaters be oversold if they were the end-all-be-all of the advertising world?  With so many other venues competing for advertising dollars, it seems all are a gamble. Advertising provides no guarantees, but an assurance that you can expect some return on investment (ROI) from movie theater advertising would help the media planners and advertisers feel better about an investment.

Researchers know that asking people if they watched movie theater ads is similar to asking people if they take the time to read the newspaper they have delivered every day. Since the consumer is paying for the product, they often feel compelled to say that yes indeed, they were captivated by the messaging. The results of any research study should be read with a grain of salt – which media buyers are famous for weeding through nonsense. One industry report, “The Bigger Picture,” is widely quoted. Conducted by Hall & Partners for Digital Cinema Media, it found that:

• “… cinema is working in a very different way to any other media, with ads watched in the cinema being processed by the brain more consciously, proving a much more powerful and emotionally engaging medium for brands.”

Marketing Director Zoe Jones said they arrived at this conclusion because:

• “Cinema advertising is eight times more effective at making your brand stand out from the crowd than television. If you show people an unbranded still from an ad, three times as many cinemagoers will actually recall which brand it is for,  when compared with TV viewers. Cinema audiences are four times more likely to be emotionally engaged than a television audience, and those exposed to ads in the cinema are twice as likely to recall a brand compared to TV.”

Jones also said: “You still can’t beat the big screen for sheer impact and scale.”

How Much Will Movie Theater Advertising Cost?

Media planners and buyers typically will compile a detailed analysis of how much it costs to advertise in all mediums that are matched to the target audience. A comparison with movie theater advertising rates will be more straightforward with these numbers in hand.

Like other forms of advertising, movie theater advertising rates vary based on:

• The duration of the ad: 15, 30 or 60 seconds.
• The number of theaters the ad will appear in.
• The number of screens within those theaters.
• The length of the advertising campaign.
• The time of year.

Getting in contact with a representative from a movie theater advertising company will provide interested companies with the best ballpark rates for budget estimating as well as possible impressions delivered.

What Is the Most Effective Type of Movie Theater Advertising?

This form of advertising may strike buyers as “out of the box” and so different from more conventional advertising methods, that creative teams may be tempted to create an ad that is equally outside of the norm. This would actually violate one of the main “rules” of advertising: be true to your brand and your image. Consistency is key.  If you want to create an effective movie theater ad, create one that is symmetrical with your other advertising initiatives. Symmetry will help build brand awareness among new customers, and still solidifying your image with consumers who already know the product. And if you help further that brand awareness, maybe they’ll notice that billboard when they’re driving down the highway next time, too.

 

BluHorn Video Review

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again.  BluHorn loves happy customers!

Our client Ann, who is a seasoned media buyer, provided this video testimonial of our product.  We are proud to provide a trusted media buying and planning platform for all our users!

 

Ann also provided a written review:

Working with BluHorn has been a fantastic experience. Their customer service is top notch.From the moment you sign up, you have a sense that you are a valued member of the BluHorn family.The team is quick to respond to questions, comments or concerns.They offer lots of training opportunities.From LIVE 2pm call-in training on Wednesday and Thursday to private one-on-one sessions, the team is more than accommodating.The videos offered on the BluHorn website are easy to follow and the system is very simple to navigate.With 5 plans to choose from, BluHorn has the perfect solution for any small to midsize agency looking for an affordable media buying system.

I found the TV buying process to be very easy.Setting up a vendor, creating a campaign and generating a worksheet took less than 5 minutes.Once in the worksheet, I was able to upload station avails or I could just type avails directly into the worksheet.I liked the “grid layout” for entering buys. All the information is saved in real time.There is a filter option which allows you to filter by daypart, station or length.The weekly spend level and GRPs are provided at the top of the worksheet and all the buy details are listed to the side for quick reference.Once the buy is complete, you can either print it out or send directly to the stations – which is a nice option.If you are working on an annual buy, I found the Copy Worksheet feature to be a big time saver.I really liked the Dashboard where you can view all of your recent campaigns and worksheets along with a calendar to show upcoming campaign information.

If you are looking for an affordable media buying software for TV, Cable, Radio, Outdoor, Print or Digital Media, BluHorn is that system.

 

Thank you Ann for being a part of our BluHorn family!