SYNOPSIS:
KWTX approached a "...local independent [business] with a quiet, conservative marketing philosophy.  Image oriented advertising appears in print, but they have traditionally avoided all broadcast TV, cable and radio. Their rationale for not spending in broadcast has been a lack of interest in spot buying, but an interest in an exclusive franchise, should a promising opportunity come along.  Their total advertising budget for media has been around 75k a year for the last several years."

"... KWTX launched the desktop application ‘in the background’ in May and proceeded to develop a short target list, including [local business].  Client logos and tile ads were loaded into the system so that when presentations were made, the client would see their ad in the desktop.

The President and Marketing Officer for [local business] joined KWTX’s GM, GSM, VP News and AE for the first presentation of the product. 

"Observation:  Since the desktop application is truly a desktop product, the PowerPoint template was designed to look like a computer desktop.  We avoided the usual station banners, logos, pictures etc, in favor of driving the point home that the valuable territory we were proposing existed on personal computer desktops…that small point was vital in explaining the core of the product.

"The clients were extremely engaged in the presentation, asked lots of questions and left with the URL to download the desktop application on their own personal computers to test-drive it, plus the promise to enthusiastically present the proposal to the CEO.  The positive feedback during the meeting prompted the station to allow the bank enough time to consider the purchase before the station would attempt to present the product to other prospects.

"Negotiations were consummated over the course of the next three weeks with numerous client contacts to answer questions and reinforce the value.  The asking price was negotiated... to $234k and when their average annual media budget of $75k is considered, the station is receiving 156% of their previous annual advertising budget. 

"The proposal basics included television promotional support with [client] logo and audio tags along with billboards in KWTX newscasts encouraging viewers to download the application.  These billboards included [client] logo and sufficient audio to deliver a slogan or short selling message.  This tag has proven a key to the success of the partnership.

"None of the promotional or billboard elements have spot rates attached, since the primary purpose is to drive downloads and placement is flexible for the station in unsold inventory.  After the initial launch, which included a well produced news package featuring our meteorologist, downloads came quickly.

RESULTS

"One of the [client's] goals has been meet and exceeded.  [The client] created a special ‘NEWSCENTRAL - ACCOUNT', which is named after the desktop product- NewsCentral.  In the initial offering promoted by the billboards on television, [The Client] introduced a rate of 2% and tied it to the FED, moving as the FED moved rates in recent months.  The advertised rate has gone up total of three times and stands at 2.75%.  Deposits in the account stand just above $20,000,000. 

The initial download goal of 18,000 (about 6% of DMA HH’s) in the first 12months was exceeded in the first 6 months.  The application has also driven an increase in traffic to www.kwtx.com since the weather and radar links go directly to the web page.

Bob Bunch/ GSM/ KWTX-Waco
Bob.bunch@kwtx.com
254-741-5812 direct