Summary:

BAD NEWS:

You are an account manager at an advertising agency that purchases advertising time slots (radio/tv/internet ads) for corporate and retail clients who want to advertise their business through various media outlets. Your job requires you to buy ad blocks months in advance, in order to gain a price advantage in the local market for your clients, as well as filling the ad space with creative ads to entice prospective customers. Your firm works as a third party that brokers deals between media outlets and small businesses that want to advertise their products/services to wide audiences. One of your major clients is "Rocky Mountain Retailers," a local sports warehouse retailer that sells a variety of outdoor/recreational/sports equipment, with an emphasis on mountaineering, hiking, and camping gear. In addition, they sell youth and team sports equipment, fishing gear, golf and tennis equipment, and popular sports wear fashions.

In late October, you pre-purchased local ad time spots scheduled for a Winter campaign on a popular FM radio station. When you purchased the time slots, the radio station told you that the ads would air during a new radio host's segment, who would start in November, although your ads wouldn't air until early December. You had heard mixed reviews about the new host, who had been known as being "highly controversial" and "politically incorrect" in his previous job in another city; however, the radio station raved about the host's "signature brand of trolling" and "shock value" and he stressed the likelihood of high ratings from listeners who would tune in daily to hear the host's "hilarious rants." After carefully considering the potential risks associated with a "controversial" radio host, you took a calculated gamble and decided to buy the time slots anyway, hoping that the radio station's predictions for ratings would be as predicted. Your plan was to use the time slot you purchased to launch a new radio commercial in early December for "Rocky Mountain Retailers," touting its new Winter line of snowboarding, freestyle skiing, and snowmobiling gear/accessories.

A month has passed since the new host took over, and "Rocky Mountain Retailers" is anxious to hear about the ratings of the new, controversial radio host. You have just seen the latest ratings and are disappointed to find that in almost every age group, the audiences for your ads time slot are well below your expectations. The exception is the over-65 demographic, where ratings are significantly higher than you expected. Your ads have not aired yet, but since youve already purchased the ad space, you need to come up with a solution to keep "Rocky Mountain Retailers" a happy client and not lose your job for taking such a huge risk. You still have plenty of time to change the content of the radio ads and re-tailor them accordingly, but you'd better come up with something creative--FAST!

Task:

Write an informative memo to Rocky Mountain Retailers" that notifies them of the weaker than expected ratings, and proposes a solution that will allow them to make effective use of the already purchased ad spaces, despite the poor ratings. Carefully consider "direct" vs "indirect" delivery and be sure to consult "17.1" in your textbook. Your memo should be between 550-700 words.