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News From Audio Graphics:
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It's a Moment of Truth for Radio Industry |
These words appeared at AudioGraphics.com in October 1999. The topic was LMIV, a now long-gone radio industry internet initiative.
For participants in the 1849 Gold Rush there were three defining moments.
1 ...when interest started growing back East, and folks decided they needed to make the journey West.
2 ...when the wagon trains heading West saw the enemy (the Indians) on the hilltop.
3 ...when many folks found out they weren't going to get rich.
Our Gold Rush's first defining moment saw stations put up failing web sites. Now we've just entered
the second moment, where the enemy (Internet companies) has been spotted on the hilltop. Which is why
it's suddenly one for all and all for one. (Can you remember this happening before?)
Pull those wagons in a circle.
Everything is going to be O.K.
Our third 'defining moment' is right around the corner.
At the start, LMIV's leading man, Emmis President Dole Rose, was quoted saying: "With these companies' combined audience of 100 million listeners and links to their local stations sites, the [LMIV] portal will be a formidable competitor to the likes of Yahoo! and Amazon.com."
Radio hasn't been the same since, in part, due to a lack of knowing what makes the internet work, and the industry's leaders believing that they had a Golden Touch.
Attending RAB 2008 in Atlanta there was a sense that we are, again, approaching a similar scenario; the radio industry is charging full steam ahead into an arena that requires a different skill set from what its leaders possess. The troops appear ready to follow and obey until they get their personal pink slips.
From evidence at RAB 2008, the radio industry is going to finally spend money to get its part of online advertising's growing revenue, but it will not be buying what its troops need to win - a skill set that talks about numbers, statistics, data, and accountability.
Banner ads are not the answer, though hearing many attendees speak you'd think they were. Running radio commercials in a stream is not the answer, either. But hearing panelists talk about not giving them away anymore, you'd think that this is now a focus point for structuring new deals.
What the radio industry, or any local media, needs to be looking at today - in addition to upgrading the quality and content of web sites - is what to do with the numbers that are now easily accessible.
The data that any internet radio venture generates is a lethal weapon when fighting for internet advertising dollars; that is to say not just the data itself, but the multitude of ways that this data can be split up, collated, and reassembled to improve response (and future campaigns). Analytics and metrics are now becoming fine-tuned to a point where "testing" online advertising will soon be standard fare, and it won't matter if that online advertising is a banner, gateway, or audio ad.
A web presence may be the foundation for making money in the online world, but internet analytics and metrics (as in the knowledgeable use of data) are what holds up the house.
Proof that you delivered the impressions the advertiser pays for and then proof that dollars were generated from those impressions are what cutting-edge media buyers ask for today. Radio is as not ready for this end of the online ad buy as it was not ready to take on Amazon and Yahoo! in 1999.
There is a fourth defining moment needed now. It's when someone in a radio industry executive suite says, "We must stop selling holes in programs and start selling what those holes produce." We must create a meaningful system that holds radio accountable for response in the same way 'response' is tracked through data in nearly all major online media buys.
Only by offering what other web sites offer will a radio station web site become valuable. Today that means having the ability to place a banner ad, measure the ad's response, restructure that banner ad to better its response, and then start the cycle over again.
Now, consider that the question will soon become "If I can measure and improve banner advertising using anaytics and metrics, when do I get to do the same with my online audio ads?"
It's not early in this game - though to hear the main players speak at RAB 2008, you'd think the radio industry had just stumbled upon a new LMIV.
To register, click "Learn Basic Internet Analytics and Metrics." Limited Seating
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Comments may be published.
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From: Bill Figenshu
FigMedia1
Ken, I would agree. The arrogance is the downfall. HD, Less is More, and the misguided/inexperienced belief that they can run hundreds of stations from the home office is reflected in the stock valuations.
I am aware of the newspaper in San Diego launching radio/audio.
The brain drain in the industry will leave it with "death by 1,000 cuts." Many of us who deeply love the biz and created passionate radio companies have moved on to better opportunities.
It's hard at first, but it's better to attack the future than defend the past. |
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