This year marks 79 years since KENO became the first radio station in Las Vegas.  From that time, local, small business owners have depended on radio advertising to market their goods and services.

So, it is a fair question for a 21st-century business owner to ask: Is Las Vegas radio still relevant in the life of local consumers?

"You wouldn’t know it from all the media coverage focused on streaming video and streaming music," said media expert Doug Schoen in Forbes Magazine, "but recent Nielsen data shows radio actually has the most reach among American media consumers." 

Last week, for instance, significantly more local consumers tuned-in to a Las Vegas radio station than watched local TV, read a local newspaper, or logged-on to a streaming audio site like Pandora and Spotify.

If you were one of the 1,502,89 adults who tuned-in to a Las Vegas  radio station last week, it is likely you heard a commercial for Indeed.  That's because, last week, Indeed, the world's largest online job site was also radio's biggest advertiser.

The reason Indeed invested so heavily in radio advertising is that they have far more job openings posted on their than site than there are job-hunters to fill them. 

This is not unlike the predicament of Las Vegas small business owners who are also having difficulty finding and hiring qualified candidates.

What Indeed has figured out is that there are not enough unemployed people or disgruntled workers looking for jobs, especially among those in white-collar professions. So, the company is looking to attract what human resource experts call the 'passive job seekers'.

It turns out that advertising on Las Vegas radio is also the best way for any business owner to recruit, hire, and retain those passive, white-collar job seekers.

The National Retail Federation has predicted that this year's back-to-school shopping season will set a new record. Households with school-age children are expected to spend, on average, $696.70 preparing their kids for the first day of classes. This tops the previous record set in 2012.

For Las Vegas small business owners, this means there is $453,926,560 of back-to-school bucks in play between now and the first bell of the school year.

According to the NRF, here's how the $696.70 per household will be spent.

• Clothing & Accessories: $239.82
• Computers & Electronics: $203.44
• Shoes: $135.96
• School Supplies: $117.49

To grab the largest share of back-to-school spending will require small business owners to advertise.  By any metric, advertising on Las Vegas radio stations will be the most effective.  Here's why.

Striking a wrong note is a potent tactic that a Nevada small business owner can use when advertising on Las Vegas radio stations. This can ensure commercials are heard and remembered.

At the very second a radio commercial starts, 11,000,000 other pieces of data are battling for the attention of the listener's ear. To win the fight, an advertisement must do the unexpected. Why?

Humans don't have earlids.  This means every sound a person is exposed to makes it as far as the brain. But, the brain can only process about 50 pieces of information at a time. If you do the math, that means 10,999,950 bits of information per second are turned away.

Making it past the brain's gatekeeper requires the information to strike a wrong note or violate what is expected  This filter supports the basic survival instinct. It's why someone will leap out of bed if they hear a stranger's soft footsteps while sleeping, but will snore right through their clanging alarm clock.

The number one job of every commercial on Las Vegas radio is not to sell products.

The number one job is not to build store traffic or to create top of mind of awareness.

The number one job of a radio commercial is not to build brand or deliver ROI.

The number one job of every commercial on a Las Vegas radio station is to be heard. Period. When a commercial is heard, then all the rest will follow. But being heard is not easy.

At the exact second a radio commercial begins, 11,000,000 other pieces of information are all wrestling for the listener's attention.  Sadly, a consumer's brain is only capable of dealing with about 50 bits of that information at a time.

Here's a quiz for Las Vegas small business owners:

Which of these online sites reach more adults each month than Las Vegas radio stations: Google? Netflix? ESPN? YouTube? Twitter Facebook?

The answer may be a surprise. Radio reaches more adult consumers every month than all websites and apps.  This is critical information for Las Vegas business owners to knows to be able to choose the best way to advertise their goods and services.

The number one media characteristic that contributes to the success of an advertising campaign is reach. This is a measure of how many different people are exposed to an advertiser's message.

Las Vegas consumers are expected to buy $39 billion worth of local goods and services over the next 12 months. To claim the largest share of those dollars requires small business owners to advertise.

“Think you have a great product?” asks the Small Business Administration. “Unfortunately, no one’s going to know about it unless you advertise.”  The SBA goes on to say, “Advertising, if done correctly, can do wonders for your product sales, and you know what that means: more revenue and more success for your business."

According to the eBook Seven Steps for Success, "There are many ways for small business owners to advertise. Options include local newspapers, local magazines, local television, and online."

"But to achieve the “3-Rs” of advertising success, Reach, Recall, and Return, no other medium delivers results as effectively and efficiently as advertising on Las Vegas radio."

For budget-conscious small business owners, there are three tactics that can be employed to make sure every advertising dollar spent on Las Vegas radio stations works as hard as possible.

Forty-percent of contractors nationwide report that they have turned down jobs this year because they don't have enough skilled blue-collar workers.

The labor crunch isn't confined to construction. Overall, 79% of Nevada employers say they are having difficulty filling salaried and hourly craft positions. This includes truck drivers, plumbers, HVAC technicians, electrical workers, machinists, metal workers, landscapers, janitors, and health care workers.

In Clark County, for instance, there are not enough auto mechanics to fill more than 800 open jobs. These types of shortages are stunting many Las Vegas small business owners prospects for growth.

Local business owners can benefit from a study by The North Carolina Works Commission. The NCWC found that the recruitment efforts of many employers in that state are failing because they depend on hiring strategies from a time when qualified candidates were plentiful.

These failing strategies include posting on job boards like Monster and Indeed; publishing employment ads in local newspapers; and pleading on social media pages. Some small business owners still depend on hanging help-wanted signs.

What many business owners in the Valley have discovered is that the best way to recruit blue-collar workers is by advertising on Las Vegas radio stations.

 

Advertising on Las Vegas radio stations is the best way for local small business owners to reach the lucrative, local mother market.  Here's why.

Las Vegas consumers will spend $39 billion over the next 12 months. Forbes magazine reports that it is moms who control 85% of all household purchases. Locally,  there are more than 371,000 mothers with children under the age of 17 at home.

Las Vegas small business owners need to pay special attention to these mothers and their wallets. For example, compared to the general population, over the next 12 months, local moms live in households that are

• 48% more likely to take a family vacation
• 25% more likely to purchase a car or truck
• 80% more likely to buy furniture
• 86% more likely to purchase a major appliance
• 17% more likely to buy a mattress
• 147% more likely to buy a new house/condo
• 165% more likely to purchase a boat
• 25%% more likely to buy carpeting/floor coverings
• 58% more likely to move
• 39% more likely to look for a new job

Thousands of Las Vegas small business owners depend on radio advertising to claim their share of the $39.7 billion local consumers will spend this year. Cha-ching.

These advertisers have, typically, 30 or 60 seconds to convince the 1,502,898 listeners who tune-in to Las Vegas radio stations each week to become customers. So, it is essential to know how to use that time effectively.

Gathering a sample of 6003 respondents, Westwood One in partnership with audio testing experts Veritonic studied how different elements of award-winning radio commercials affect a listener's intent to buy the products or services advertised. 

Here are the results of the study that Las Vegas business owners could find useful.