Q: I have heard of remnant space advertising and that it can save me money but I don’t really know how it works. Can you enlighten me?
 
Steve, California
 
A: Glad to be of service, oh namesake. The basis of remnant space advertising is that media companies rarely sell all of their advertising space. Their unsold ad space or time, called remnant space, can often be bought at steep discounts.

Think about it: Advertising time and space is a perishable commodity; if it is not sold, it is lost, or given away for public service announcements or some other non-revenue producing filler. So, instead of taking a loss for unsold airtime or ad space, media outlets will often take far less than their usual retail fees to unload their remnant space. This means you can buy what is typically expensive media for much, much less than normal.
 
How you can use best remnant space advertising to your advantage depends upon the type of media in question:
 
Newspapers: Newspapers, because they are published daily and have a fairly set format, offer plenty of remnant space opportunities. One success factor, with newspapers especially, is your willingness to accept smaller remnant ads, because those are the ones that may be needed to fill out the paper. It also helps to have a good working relationship with your ad rep. Check out http://www.mss-standby.com.

Magazines: One of the great remnant opportunities lay with national magazines. Such magazines print regional editions, and sell regional ads. If they fail to sell all of the regional ads (which is not uncommon), or sell an odd number, their unsold inventory is your opportunity.

But even smaller magazines offer remnant advertising. Magazines create their editorial content based upon, among other things, the amount of advertising sold. But sometimes advertisers back out, or end up going with smaller ads, or miss a deadline, or the magazine ends up with extra content, all of which creates an opportunity for you.
 
Radio: Radio is ripe for remnant buys because, unlike print media which can be expanded and contracted to a certain extent as needed, radio advertising is finite; there are a fixed number of spots in one hour. Thus getting that unsold time at “fire sale” prices is definitely doable. Discounts can range from 25 to 75 percent off retail prices.

One easy way to get remnant radio time is to buy regular time and then request that they throw in an equal number of remnant spots.
 
Television: The ever-expanding proliferation of television stations – be they network, cable, or satellite – is good news for the frugally-minded entrepreneur. There is plenty of television remnant space to be had and discounts can reach as much as 90 percent off the rate card.

If remnant space makes sense to you, one key is to make it easy for the media source to work with you and use your ad, and that means you have to be able to beat the “big boys.” Because these ads come up at the last minute, media companies often would rather simply offer the opportunity to their larger advertisers because those advertisers have ready budgets, ad departments that can create an ad in a jiffy, and managers that can make a decision just about as quick. If you want these sorts of opportunities to come your way then, you have to be as viable and easy to work with as the large advertisers: First, let your ad rep know you are interested and ready, and second, earmark some money and have an ad ready to go.
 
So yes, remnant space can certainly stretch your advertising dollar, but just understand that it is not an easy way to advertise because it is so last minute. But if it does arise, you are in luck because it will certainly be cheap.
 
Today’s Tip: Remember, I am looking for your best business tips for an upcoming column. Please send them to sstrauss@mrallbiz.com.