Looking for News in All the Wrong Places
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There's no doubt the radio industry landscape has changed, exemplified by the routines of many persons' no longer including a daily stop at RadioandRecords.com today. As you drift through the few remaining radio trade publications over the coming week, it's a good time to start asking yourself if the news that they deliver contains information needed to continue the rest of your daily routine. Are you truly being served with information that forces a reassessment of business motives in radio? Or, are the articles being read filled with items that help reinforce your style of thinking? (Which, if you're stuck in a radio-based mindset is wrong.)
The common thread we've all seen about the radio industry, and one used by its leaders to continually justify radio's importance, is that radio is "local." There's a feel-good response for radio insiders that's generated every time this argument is brought to light. If radio is positioned as local, the competitive landscape is a much smaller challenge and not as intimidating. A radio industry that's locally focused appears to give solace. If all that you are exposed to is how radio focuses on it, you are not exposed to other options available to the same people you approach to help finance your station's operations - the advertisers.
If you are stuck in the routine of looking only at radio industry trades, you will almost never experience news stories that point out this fact: Locally focused doesn't mean the advertising service is locally based anymore.
There's little doubt that the internet has been the great disruption for radio, television, and newspapers. It's altered audience habits, fulfilled needs, and then changed the way people respond to programs and advertising. When you look at a radio industry trade publication that mentions anything at all about the internet, it's usually about how radio is using web sites for delivery of audio and ads. There is very little depth in these articles, and almost never any instructions on how to properly go about putting together a web site that ties an over-the-air signal into an over-the-internet presence.
The radio industry still has nothing online that speaks directly to advertisers about how to put together a campaign, create an effective schedule, or measure the audience response. The few web sites that claim to meet these objectives are nothing more than hypebole, filled with a radio person's perception of what needs to be done. None, to my knowledge, instruct the visitor on how radio can be used to enhance other aspects of their business besides reaching potential customers. It is in this last point that you will find the great separator; the item that distinguishes why so many local business owners are pushing more advertising dollars online.
While people in radio spend time reading radio industry trade magazines (many searching to see if their name is in print), they are missing a most important step in moving out of the doldrums that radio is in. Gathering the winds of new thought means you have to sail into unchartered waters, disrupt your own routine by finding web sites offering advertisers reasons to move away from radio, and start digesting exactly what it is that these information web sites are offering about internet advertising which is so attractive.
Newspapers paid no attention to CraigsList.com. Television certainly didn't think that YouTube was a threat a few years ago. Radio industry CEOs didn't have time to consider the effects of the iPod, or tremendously repetitive playlists in a world that was begging to hear new artists. Those are the individual mistakes made by local media.
But the one item that all three of them ignored is now coming up to sweep the legs out from under all of them: Local search is gaining momentum in ways that you'll never read about in radio industry trade publications.
We first mentioned local search at Audio Graphics back in 2001. It was a nascent industry at the time and nobody paid much attention to what was said. What I find interesting today is that we can still talk about the power that local search has on moving advertisers away from radio, and people who program and manage radio stations don't believe they should spend any time trying to understand this rapidly maturing competitor.
For a quick look at why a small business owner is investing time and money learning about local search, I suggest you watch the short video (below) provided by Google at its new "Local Business Center." Then, when done, if you can't see how the landscape has changed I suggest you spend less time going through the remaining radio industry publications and more time at web sites like the Google Learning Center, "MSN Ad Center," and Yahoo's "Merchant Solutions. A few other online publications to bookmark are ClickZ, Marketing Pilgrim, and iMedia Connection.
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You know there's a shift in how businesses are reaching out to the audience. Included in this shift, beside the obvious use of more internet-based models, is the growth of ad impressions. Any person in a position of selling ads knows that increasing the number of avails decreases an impression's worth. Couple this with the ability to more precisely geo-target an online ad's placement and you have some serious competitive advantages to local search that radio industry trades either don't know about, don't believe are worthy of coverage, or frightened to print.
Radio & Records folded because it was not able to serve its audience and advertisers. Now you are left to decide what publication you'll turn to to fill the void. May I strongly suggest that you not seek out another radio industry publication, and turn to something online which gives insight to your quickly-rising competition - maybe even one which allows you to leverage new knowledge into your own station's routine.
Radio cannot continue doing things the same way. Radio industry trade publications cannot continue delivering articles filled with the same content that brought R&R down, which they do.
Keep going with your radio-based mind-set and, before too many years have passed, you'll be forced to chase the crumbs while those who have changed are eating the greatest portion of advertising's pie.
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From: Jon
As always, good insight in a thought provoking way. Local 'Search' is the fastest growing element with Search Engine Marketing (SEM). Companies like Yodle, Reach By Local and ByZip.com are in business to service the local retail communities across the country. Their models are primarily based on a consumer's desire to 'Search Local' for categories and specific businesses. All are tied into a broader Google search component that services the mechanics of the user experience.
It would be wise (my assessment) for local Broadcasters to partner with their local search counterparts to create a truly LOCAL experience for consumers and retailers. There would be a variety of consumer experiences that could be developed that would enhance the advertising that a retailer does.
Think about it. Hear the add, do the search (through the selected engine) and purchase from a local business. It doesn't have to be any more complicated than that.
The broadcasting business (I include TV in this statement as well) must fully wakeup to the realization that LOCAL SEARCH is where retailers are increasing their marketing dollar investment. When they do and they expand their own understanding of what the LOCAL competitive environment is truly about then there can be the necessary changes to capitalize on the changing consumer purchasing and SEARCH behavior.
Publisher's Note: My suggestion is, and always has been, that radio offer a Google AdWords buying service to advertisers who see value in this platform. Read article here.
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