Burkhard Works: TOTSIE

Ask your Radio Rep, How much is a Totsie? Ask almost any radio rep that question, and she'll probably think you're hitting on her.

Better fill in the blank with your target Effective Frequency. "How much for a Totsie 3, Monday to Friday, 6a-8p?"

Now she'll just roll her eyes and squirm a little.

Ask her for three numbers and do the arithmetic yourself.

A Totsie is the cost of buying enough spots to reach about half the station's weekly cume audience some number of times.

TOTSIE is my cleverly memorable acronym for Turn Over Times Spot Investment sufficient to achieve an Effective Frequency of, for example, [3.0].

The three numbers you need to figure out the cost of a Totsie are Weekly Cume, Average Quarter Hour Audience, and the asking price per spot.

They make a tidy little formula:

CUME/AQH x $$$ x [3.0] = Totsie 3

As a general rule of thumb, to achieve any Effective Frequency buy N spots such that N = CUME/AQH x EF.

Shorthand: N=ΔEF. (Delta is the Greek letter that often stands for change or a ratio. You can review the details of Effective Frequency on the DR Radio Math page.)

Then, just plug in the $$$ cost per :60 or :30.

WXYZ-AM might be the largest News Talk blaster in a market. We might test our copy by running a Totsie 3.0 on that station. Here are the raw numbers.

A Totsie 3.0 on WXYZ-FM costs $8400

So we run 48 spots over, say, two and a half weeks. We can use the results of that test to set your Optimum Frequency Range on future stations

Note that the average commercial delivers 15,500 gross impressions or 15.5 gallons. During the test we track DAILY gallons, inquiries, response rate (Gallons per Inquiry), and running EF.

ΔEF = N total spots. So for any given number of spots (n),
EF = n/Δ. (Remember Sixth Grade arithmetic?)

Average G over 13 days was 5.679 (744 gallons / 131 Inquiries). It started out higher on the first Monday, then dropped as we built some frequency and overcame some initial resistance. At the end of the test G shot up when we had fished out the pool of active shoppers.

On the first Thursday, G dropped below the average to 4.133. We had run 19 spots by then, so entry or minimum EF was 1.2.

On the last Monday, G rose above average to 7.750. We had run 44 spots by then, so exit or maximum EF was 2.7.

Effective Frequency is not the same as average frequency!

Corporate advertisers often shoot for a 3.0 average frequency during a two to three week purchase cycle.
But to achieve a 3.0 average frequency you have to buy enough spots to reach lots of infrequent or involuntary listeners.
Big waste of money.

Car dealers, who slug it out with each other for their share of this weekend's auto market, might pony up for a Totsie 5.0 and run their generic Big Sale copy Wednesday through Saturday. Overkill.

If you track Gallons per Inquiry and running EF simultaneously, you can make more accurate media buys than either P&G or Ford!

How much is that Totsie? If I wanted want to buy another News Talk station, I'd ask the rep, "How much for a two week Totsie 2.7?"

She'd roll her eyes and squirm a little. I'd just ask for those three numbers: Cume, AQH and cost per spot.

My number, by the way, is (407) 895-3092.


Ask almost any radio rep that question, and she'll probably think you're hitting on her. Better fill in the blank with your target Effective Frequency. "How much for a Totsie 3, Monday to Friday, 6a-8p?" Now she'll just roll her eyes and squirm a little. Ask her for three numbers and do the arithmetic yourself. *A Totsie is the cost of buying enough spots to reach about half the station's weekly cume audience some number of times.* TOTSIE is my cleverly memorable acronym for Turn Over Times Spot Investment sufficient to achieve an Effective Frequency of, for example, [3.0]. The three numbers you need to figure out the cost of a Totsie are Weekly Cume, Average Quarter Hour Audience, and the asking price per spot. They make a tidy little formula: CUME/AQH x $$$ x [3.0] = Totsie 3 As a general rule of thumb, to achieve any Effective Frequency buy N spots such that N = CUME/AQH x EF. Shorthand: N=ΔEF. (Delta is the Greek letter that often stands for change or a ratio. You can review the details of Effective Frequency on the DR Radio Math page.) Then, just plug in the $$$ cost per :60 or :30. WXYZ-AM might be the largest News Talk blaster in a market. We might test our copy by running a Totsie 3.0 on that station. Here are the raw numbers. So we run 48 spots over, say, two and a half weeks. We can use the results of that test to set your Optimum Frequency Range on future stations Note that the average commercial delivers 15,500 gross impressions or 15.5 gallons. During the test we track DAILY gallons, inquiries, response rate (Gallons per Inquiry), and running EF. ΔEF = N total spots. So for any given number of spots (n), EF = n/Δ. (Remember Sixth Grade arithmetic?) Average G over 13 days was 5.679 (744 gallons / 131 Inquiries). It started out higher on the first Monday, then dropped as we built some frequency and overcame some initial resistance. At the end of the test G shot up when we had fished out the pool of active shoppers. On the first Thursday, G dropped below the average to 4.133. We had run 19 spots by then, so entry or minimum EF was 1.2. On the last Monday, G rose above average to 7.750. We had run 44 spots by then, so exit or maximum EF was 2.7. Effective Frequency is not the same as average frequency! Corporate advertisers often shoot for a 3.0 average frequency during a two to three week purchase cycle. But to achieve a 3.0 average frequency you have to buy enough spots to reach lots of infrequent or involuntary listeners. Big waste of money. Car dealers, who slug it out with each other for their share of this weekend's auto market, might pony up for a Totsie 5.0 and run their generic Big Sale copy Wednesday through Saturday. Overkill. If you track Gallons per Inquiry and running EF simultaneously, you can make more accurate media buys than either P&G or Ford! If I wanted want to buy another News Talk station, I'd ask the rep, "How much for a two week Totsie 2.7?" She'd roll her eyes and squirm a little. I'd just ask for those three numbers: Cume, AQH and cost per spot. My number, by the way, is (407) 895-3092.