When a radio station has a show, they decide how many seconds of commercials they will have, and when during the program they will play those. Some syndicated radio broadcasts bring their own advertising, but local and music radio will need to sell advertising. In fact, they need to sell all of their advertising seconds.

If they have a certain number of radio spots available after everything has been sold, they may offer these last few spots at a discount. If you are in the right spot at the right time, you can capture a few of these spots at heavily discounted rates.

The downside is that you don’t get to pick when they air, and sometimes don’t even get to pick the show or type of music they air during. If these aren’t crucial to you, unsold radio spots can be your ticket to advertising savings.

Here is how you want to approach buying unsold radio spots.

Your agent may not want to talk about this up front because not every radio station pays a commission on unsold type ads.

Be upfront and honest with your agent in what you are looking for, how much you are willing to spend, and ride the wave to inexpensive radio advertising!

A radio is not as intimidating as a TV interview because you have no idea how many people are actually listening, you can wear what you want, and it can be edited (assuming it isn’t live).

Here are a couple tips for getting “On The Air”.

You need to come right out with, “I’d like to give you a free interview about my industry. It is a very exciting industry because ________.” Make sure you are interesting to the person you talk to. If you are boring to them, you won’t get anywhere.

Instead of talking about you, talk about the industry you are in. Talk about the new advances, things people don’t know about it, and how it fits with their listeners.

It is no fault of theirs, but radio stations are very busy places. Phone numbers get lost, people forget to contact a potential story, and then you get pushed away accidently.

Make sure you get the name of the person who will make the decision, the call a few days later. Say something like, “Hey John, I wanted to introduce myself personally and see if you were still interested in running my interview about ‘buying cars at a discount’. I’ve been a used car salesman for many years and know the tricks of the trade.”

You need to grab his/her attention if you ever want a chance to reach their market.

Volkswagen has taken a market segment that doesn’t generally buy new cars (extreme customizers) and mocked them. Normally it isn’t a good idea to mock anyone in your advertising, but in this case it might work.

As you can see this has quickly become a viral campaign for Volkswagen who has seen slow sales in the last few months.

Here’s a tip you can learn from Volkswagen:

That can create exactly the kind of publicity you are looking for.

Don’t forget to include contact info or a website address in the beginning or at the end of the commercial!

Here is the video!