Remnant Advertising - Beware of the word Remnant

"Remnant" is a term you hear more and more often in television and radio advertising these days. It's not a new thing; I myself remember hearing it used in the industry as far back as 2000. It started gaining traction in 2003"2004; however, most stations preferred not to recognize or even consider the concept. But things have changed all the same: many stations now have their own direct response sales reps for remnant advertising inventory. Some even have a sales rep just for it.

So what does "remnant" really mean? Webster's tells us it means "a small part or trace remaining." That's remnant advertising in a nutshell: it's whatever advertising the station couldn't sell.

In recent years, both clients and business people have started to get savvy about advertising " a good thing, in our book. Entrepreneurs with grand ambitions " but less-than-perfect understanding of how advertising works " are now contacting stations directly and demanding to see their radio and television remnant advertising rates.

The poor suckers might as well be holding up signs that say "fresh meat" when they do that.

Remnant advertising works the same way as any other kind of advertising: as we've said time and again, you have to know what you're actually buying. The only figure you need to know is how many impressions you're getting with each individual spot and thus the entire package. Ask yourself: would you buy a direct mail "package" from anyone without knowing how much mail is actually going to be sent out? Of course not; no one's that stupid. Even so, small businesses continue to make the mistake of purchasing both spots and packages from television and radio stations without the slightest clue of what they're getting for their money. Buzzwords like "remnant" and "direct response" obfuscate the most important figures and keep the owners of small businesses ignorant. The stations have no compunctions about giving these people the figurative pig in a poke: they can slap a "remnant" label on it, hand it over to the client, and be guaranteed to get away with the whole thing scot-free because the client will never bother to open it up and look inside until it's too late. And all the while, the client will actually think they came out ahead, that they learned a new bit of business jargon, and maybe even pulled one over on the station with the too-good-to-be-true deal they got. It really could be anything in that package. And you can't treat buying advertising like slapping down chips at the blackjack tables. Judging the success of a campaign in terms of "I came out ahead" or "I lost my shirt" isn't a viable long-term strategy; it's beyond foolishness. How can you hope to fix a failed campaign or expand a successful one if you have no idea how many impressions you bought in the first place?

I don't mean to offend anyone, but I believe 80% of people who buy remnant advertising have no idea what it is they're actually buying. Be smart: be part of the other 20%. If you have further questions about remnant advertising, or remnant TV and/or remnant radio advertising in general, please check here for future articles on the subjects.