Where Are Radio Industry Ideas for 2009?
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It's no secret that both the public and advertisers are moving away from a relationship with traditional radio. Dwindling TSL, dipping CPM, and layoffs are true indicators of where the radio industry sits today. What follows are some thoughts on radio in general and where it's headed.
1) To believe that radio's future will brighten under current leadership defies common sense, so I'm going to make this suggestion: Radio needs its top executives replaced. The current batch of radio industry CEOs are too out of touch with the realities of media to be leading media companies. I'm not finding even one exception in the major groups.
2) Next to bad management, the radio industry's major problems come from listener apathy to programs and advertiser apathy to a message delivery system that offers no measurement guarantees.
Claims that radio production quality is equitable to the past are not true. Yes, it's a subjective call that can be argued. But listen to locally-produced commercials today and you don't need to compare them to anything to say they're bad.
To expect the audience to absorb the content of these commercial messages, or to even give the messages a degree of credibility, is out of line with the way the masses respond to messages today.
3) Radio is divided into two branches, online and broadcast. The audiences that radio attracts are tuning in for different reasons, with different expectations. That doesn't mean there isn't a common thread between them. Audio ads can be effective in either environment.
However, to approach an online audience in the exact same way you do a terrestrial's local audience is abdication of programming responsibility. To build a base off common interest and then add items specifically tailored for terrestrial or online is the ideal approach.
It is the radio programmer's job to put together the best possible collection of elements for each, then continually create something new.
Both terrestrial and online audiences expect freshness as part of the programming.
4) Want to take a look at how Google Audio Ads are being pitched? The concept is laid out here, and a video shows the advertiser what they can expect in going through the Google Audio AdWord process. This is "selling" of radio advertising in a way that the radio industry hasn't been able to do: online, with simple examples of why advertising on the radio is beneficial.
5) Within Google Audio Ads is a reporting system that quantifies the number of persons hearing each commercial as it's aired on a variety of terrestrial stations. That's 1-to-1 reporting similar to what's offered within the internet radio world through ad insertion programs like StreamAds. (Note: I am a SVP for the company that created StreamAds, Spacial Audio Solutions, a leading global supplier of audio software and technology.)
If you look at average companies with web sites, you'll see the majority come from the same pool that used to advertise regularly on radio. For any company with a web site and product or service that's marketable online, the radio industry has an opportunity to create a new commercial package based on response.
My fears are that any change offered to radio clients will need to be preceded by a change in how radio approaches what it offers its audience and advertisers. But, nothing will happen unless radio executives are held accountable for how they've brought the radio industry to where it's at today.
Radio 2008 was too atrophied to generate a desire to repeat.
If the radio industry does not get new leadership, what will you be thinking one year from now?
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