 |
|
|
News From Audio Graphics:
|
Will Internet Buzz Give Radio A Boost? |
Get ready, because radio is about to launch its counterpunch. Maybe. The industry has discovered the internet, and the experts are crawling all over this one. The next steps? To determine who the true experts are; then, to start understanding what they are saying.
I wasn't lucky enough to attend Radio Ink's "Convergence '08" conference, had business on the other side of our country. Reports are that those who went were treated to a host of ideas which have been floating in cyberspace for ten years. This time, though, the message was being heard: "Make the move or become toast." It's really been that simple since the beginning.
While the industry comes alive with an optimistic attitude, I'm wondering if this mad dash for where the cash is today won't get more than a few tripped up in the stampede.
Everyone is reading how the internet is a great vehicle for reaching an audience - due in large part to the internet's many little audiences (your proverbial "long tail"). But, there's another side that's not getting the attention it deserves. We now have a need to rethink the concept of "broadcasting" on both the content and advertising sides.
While you're thinking, toss these two items around in your mind. 1) It doesn't matter if it's online, broadcast, or print, CPM rates are dropping. 2) The amount of content - and, by extension, advertising avails - is growing at an exorbitant rate.
About item #1: In 2001 I gave a talk at one of the first online radio conferences, Conxis. The discussion carried a title of "It's Time to Tie the Lifeboats Together." Those in the audience know that it was the first mention of aggregating audience within the online radio environment. No single internet radio station can stay afloat trying to sell ads on its own. (To quote RAIN Publisher Kurt Hanson from a short conversation he and I had at RAB 2008, "This [new found love of everything online, by radio] all started there [at Conxis].")
From that Conxis discussion came Audio Graphics' RRadio Network, which is a loose-knit collection of web sites that choose to serve surveys to their audiences so a definitive internet radio listener profile can be drawn. Though it's been a backburner issue for the last 18 months with me, RRadio Network still is very much alive. The data being accumulated just isn't distributed as it was back then. The reason? The industry wasn't ready yet, and it still doesn't appear to be ready to tackle the work required when using data, even though the media buyer's appetite for info is growing.
Now is when radio executives need to understand that surveys are their consumers talking, and that using surveys helps to deliver audiences which are more defined - of greater value. Data helps keep CPM high(er). Companies are beginning to get this message (example here). We're just not seeing radio reflect the same enthusiasm for collecting it.
Over on the content side (and related to point #2 above), content quality is all over the place. That's not necessarily bad, as has been demonstrated by MySpace, Facebook, and YouTube. But, within a professional radio environment, low quality ads will produce data that reflects a low response. Low response is nearly always accompanied by a dissatisfied client.
The old line of thinking that an ad's message will be accepted across multiple platforms is outdated. A television ad that's run as a pre-roll (Gateway) is not a good idea. An in-stream audio ad that's repurposed from broadcast won't work either. An ad's relevancy to the user is what matters today, and the only way to determine that is to read the data AND RESPOND to what it says.
With near-infinite content available online, media buyers are more aware that the use of ad-tracking is becoming mandatory. Radio ads, online, can now be tied to ad performance. Maybe not in a perfect and complete sense, but certainly better than anything offered before. Again, data makes this possible.
Here's what internet radio stations and broadcasters who stream need to know: The more an online ad can be tracked back to the cash register the better chance you have of re-signing an advertiser, and the only way to do this is with data.
While everyone is buzzing about the internet, and the industry is starting to have internet-specific conferences to air the buzz, it's not going to be good enough to water down these new ideas to fit a broadcaster's budget or vision.
The internet has taken attention away from terrestrial radio because of its ability for two-way communication between audience and media. To benefit from the boost, radio needs to start listening more than ever before. And (here's the hard part), it needs to respond to the data. Radio industry execs need to start hearing what this data says.
To register, click "Learn Basic Internet Analytics and Metrics." Limited Seating
|
|
Comments may be published.
|
|
|
|
