Spots - Roll Back Malaria

STEP 6: BROADCAST YOUR SPOTSREACHING YOUR AUDIENCE WITH ENOUGH FREQUENCYHow effective is free airtime?Radio stations usually offer free airtime for public service announcements. You canuse free airtime, pay for it or use some combination of the two. Your goal is to find away to broadcast each of your spots at least twice each day during the times yourtarget audience is listening. This table shows the relative advantages anddisadvantages (in italics) of using free airtime vs. paid airtime:Free vs purchased airtimePublic Service Announcements (PSA)—free/donatedCosts nothingMay be difficult to control content, form and qualityCannot control time of broadcastWill compete with other public serviceannouncements for time and attentionMay air at an unpopular time (your audience is notlistening)Commercial—purchasedMay be expensiveCan control content, form and qualityCan specify particular days and timesWill compete with other publicity(other paying customers)Can be scheduled at most populartimes.If you cannot buy airtime, write a short announcement and negotiate to have thelocal DJ/announcer read it during a show when your audience is listening. Live,announced copy—created and tested with the same process outlined in this Guide—can reinforce a recorded spot and serve as an alternative to broadcasting a recordedspot.Buying and negotiating airtimeThe two biggest mistakes in radio advertising are:1. Buying too few spots2. Playing spots at the wrong timesAirtime prices are negotiable because the amount of time available is fixed. Betweenthe programs, there are only a few minutes to sell. If there is competition for thoseminutes, the price goes up. This is most noticeable when there is a sudden surge indemand for commercial time.Spots will be priced according to a number of factors including duration (15, 30, 45,60 seconds), daypart (time of day), reach and quantity to be purchased.82 Spot On Malaria: Guide