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News From Audio Graphics:
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Missing Link for Radio Industry, Online, is a Question |
Publisher's Note: There are two caveats that must be presented here. 1) Due to overlapping sessions I could not attend each one pertaining to the internet and radio. What's discussed below may have been covered in one of those missed sessions. Please let me know if that is the case. 2) These words are being written after only one day at the conference. What happens today may change what's below. If it does, you'll read about that soon.
Attending the NAB Radio Show (titled "Radio Reignited") one fact is clear: There now appears to be hundreds of internet radio experts. So what's holding radio back from accelerating its move online?
Going on day two of this session in Charlotte NC, there is a distinctly different atmosphere than at previous conventions. The air is filled with much more discussion on using the internet to reinforce a radio station's brand. Sessions devoted to internet radio are also filled, with audience, and presenters displaying an almost peackock-style assurance. This grouping of presenters has been around long enough to know that the internet is a bona fide revenue stream. They are now believers who have earned the right to strut their stuff.
Presenters are not the problem at this NAB Radio Show (though they could do just one more thing, which I'll explain below).
The problem at this NAB Radio Show is that audience members are not doing due diligence, which would allow them to ask the right questions.
Of people bold enough to query the panels during Q&As that I heard, few received answers that got the attendees to lean forward and scribble notes. Again, this was not the presenters' fault. The questions didn't deserve answers that drive inspiration.
Here are a few questions NOT asked: How do I get my sales staff to understand the value of online audio commercials? What are the shortcomings of today's precision metrics that all ad insertion technology companies offer? When conducting a presentation, should both my web developer and the agency's/advertiser's internet expert be in attendance? (These are the only two people who can sort through variations in analytics programs that cause confusion when calculating ROI.)
No questions that I heard were central to a theme posted here a few weeks before the NAB Radio Show: "How do I go about getting agencies, or advertisers, interested in placing their audio ads on my internet stream?"
In one session, "The Business of Internet Radio," where each panelist has earned the right to be considered an "expert," I found it odd that the topic of cost versus revenue was not addressed. Perhaps this shows the reason why radio hasn't made the move to actively sell the internet. Even with such an esteemed group doing the presenting, the audience did not grasp the value of what it's being asked to sell. This one failing caused another set of questions not to be asked: If the internet is so accountable, how can we track sales a day after our online listeners are exposed to an ad? And, what is a typical CPM that you (the presenter) are getting today?
It must be noted that in "The Business of Internet Radio" session, one panelist did recite click-through rates that are within industry averages (5% being outstanding, 2% being a "homerun," and 0.07-1.4% "respectable"). But no audience member followed up with a question about how to quantify their web site visitor numbers. (What does "bounce rate" mean?)
Accountability has been the major reason given for advertisers moving online; radio execs now know that this is a key selling point. But the variety of ways to determine which numbers represent this accountability, and the variations that are delivered based solely on which analytics system you choose, is still not being addressed; i.e., will the campaign's success be determined by the radio station's report or a third-party cookie the advertiser wants planted in their ad?
And here's where we bring in how the presenters could have done one more thing; they could have offered this information in their presentation.
There is a chasm between experts knowing how the internet works for radio and their willingness to discuss such items as current CPMs and the time required for properly analyzing statistics or implementing online campaigns.
There is also a chasm between the NAB Radio Show session audience's desire to hear that getting online is possible and their willingness to inquire about how to determine this new online ad inventory's worth. Understanding how to use web analytics has a learning curve of its own that no one seems to care about.
At a future radio industry conference, when there's a balance between panelists wanting to talk about cost and revenue, and the audience's interest in how much time and money it will take to implement an online strategy, radio will finally have fully integrated with the internet. Radio will have earned the right to say it's part of the internet generation.
The radio industry doesn't have to be held back any longer. It has the experts in place, the audience to attract online, and the awareness that new media is where the money is going.
To take that next big step, the one that "reignites" radio and merges it with new media, line level managers - the ones who attend conferences - now just need to start asking the right questions.
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