It's Official: Internet Passes Radio
As reported in today's InsideRadio...
Radio’s $100 million lead in 2007 evaporated last year as internet revenues grew 11% to $23.4 billion. That’s $3.9 billion more than radio. The internet is now the third largest ad-supported medium, behind television and print. But radio is fighting back, targeting online ad growth. The RAB says off-air dollars accounted for 9% of last year’s radio revenue.Labels: Advertising, Duh, Industry, Internet, Statistics, Trendwatch
Hang this sign in your office
Broadcasters need to remember that it's all about trying to engage the audience, not piss them off. It doesn't matter which media you're in, all offer the ability to connect to the audience, but is the message we're delivering to that audience one that attracts or repels? Does the programming and advertising pull them in or push them away?
Does it build bridges or burn them? Are you bold enough, brave enough, (do you believe enough) to turn down an advertiser's spot because it sucks? Because it won't help you build an audience nor them build their business? Labels: Advertising, Media, Rants
Agency Buyers Decoded
From today's Inside Radio...
Advertisers seek unified web radio
Different platforms, metrics and sales teams are slowing online radio's growth. Horizon Media VP Lauren Russo says advertisers are also less interested in streaming alone, and seek more integrated opportunities. Others believe radio may be "paralyzed" figuring out the delivery system, instead of making it profitable
Let's run this through the Agency translator and see what we get...
Agencies seek commodity priced and packaged web radio
Different platforms, metrics and sales teams are making us think too hard. Horizon Media VP Lauren Russo says advertisers are also asking about things we haven't taken the time to understand or learn how to use, so we're going to use a buzzword in order to distract them while we further avoid evolving the way we do business. Others believe radio may be "concerned" in figuring out how to use new media to deliver results for clients, instead of churning out generic and commodity-based packages that agencies can use to play against each station by saying "your price is too high."Labels: Advertising, Agency, Industry, Media, Rants
Commoditization Schmoditization
It's time to celebrate if you're rooting for further commoditization of traditional Radio and the Internet. TargetSpot (arguably one of the most impressive automated Radio/Web sales tools on the market) just got bigger.
TargetSpot buys rival Ronning Lipset Radio and results in forming the largest online radio ad network. TargetSpot brings together CBS Radio, Entercom, AOL Radio, Yahoo, and more than 1,000 other online stations comprised of more than 50 radio groups and web properties. The TargetSpot CEO (Doug Perlson) says combing the sales and technology structures positions them for the "strongest monetization possible."
He says "monetization" -- I say "commoditization."
Toe-MAY-tow.
Toe-MAH-tow.
What would you call an online system that requires no actual understanding or comprehension of marketing or radio advertising or web strategy in order for you to be able to produce and place advertising spots and web banners? Just because you can get a great price on a set of scalpels at The Dollar Store doesn't make you a brain surgeon.
TargetSpot (and other systems like it) allow the amatuers to pose as professionals. It puts Buyers in charge of strategy and execution. I don't care how good a negotiator might be, I don't want them writing my radio spots or designing my display ads.
Point. Click. Crap.
You think terrestrial Radio sounds like shit NOW?
It's not going to get any better when ALL the spots sounds the way a posting on eBay reads. This is the level of "expertise" that will be needed to plan and execute media advertising.
No one WANTS to talk to a Radio salesperson, but the truth is that the GOOD ones know what they're doing. They've been educated in advertising strategy and marketing techniques that are proven to work in their chosen media. I don't like doctors, but you can be damn sure that if I need an operation I rather have to deal with some complete DICK who happens to be the best at what he does than perform the surgery myself.
Eric Ronning and Andy Lipset of RLR will become co-presidents of TargetSpot, which also absorbs the entire RLR sales team. Lipset says their firm and TargetSpot have been "complimentary leaders and innovators" in the online ad space, and believes they're now poised for "explosive growth."
"Explosive growth?"
Explosive diarrhea.
...Coincidence?
The government stepped in to institute PAYOLA laws. Is it too much to hope that they'll do something about the coming CRAPOLA scandal?Labels: Advertising, Consumer Generated, Industry, Internet, Rants, Rates, Trendwatch
Less (Time Wasted on Agencies) is More (Profit)
We totally saw this coming...
Half as many salespeople but higher commissions.
It's one option under study at Citadel, where CEO Farid Suleman believes as much as half of revenues would come in anyway, with or without a salesperson. So they're studying ways to possibly reduce the number of AEs and pay those who remain higher commissions. Faced with little growth in radio dollars, Suleman says everything needs to be on the table. With a lot of radio schedules being purchased by agency buyers who negotiate all effective creativity and results-based marketing ideas out of their purely transactional media buys -- why bother with the human element? Let these technical buyers log in to a website where they can view market ad rates on a stock-report-style electronic tickertape and make their media purchases via an automated system at whatever cost per point they'd like to request.
This would then allow media salespeople to focus on their most profitable results-driven business and everyone should be happy... with the possible exception of the media buyers, since this would allow the salespeople to stop wasting time trying to drop rates to please them and actually go out and sell a profitable marketing plan to direct clients -- which means those low ticker tape spot rates will rarely ever clear.Labels: Advertising, Industry, Rates, Trendwatch
Is Online Radio Killing Traditional Radio Advertising?
Radio Heard Here (if by HERE you mean YouTube...)
Gaaawd -- they make it so easy for me to make fun of them...
Radio goes on offense
The industry's rallying cry becomes "Radio Heard Here" as the NAB, RAB and the HD Digital Radio Alliance unveil a multidimensional campaign. The effort comes as the industry is facing a number of challenges, but NAB chief David Rehr believes adversity creates opportunity. He tells Inside Radio "It forces people to do something."
The multiplatform, multimillion dollar campaign for "Radio Heard Here" will include more than $200 million in donated airtime on stations starting this Spring. Other components will begin sooner, such as $2 million worth of outdoor and online advertising. A viral campaign will also target younger demos, featuring video shorts posted on sites like YouTube and MySpace.
This directly speaks to my theory of positioning terrestrial broadcasters as "Websites with Radio Stations" instead of "Radio Stations with Websites." $200 million in FREE radio ads combined with who knows how much ad spending on YouTube, MySpace, and assorted other websites and outdoor billboards.
"Radio Heard Here" -- Yeah. We believe Radio works SO well that we stand behind our product as the vehicle to broadcast this message.
...Sort of...Labels: Advertising, Industry, Rants, Trendwatch
The More Things Change...
...The more they stay the same.
Check out this quote I stumbled across. Please note that it is 70 years old!
"Never before the advent of radio did advertising have such a golden opportunity to make an ass out of itself. Never before could advertising be so insistent and so unmannerly and so affront its audience."
~William J. Cameron,
Director of Public Relations, Ford Motor Company, 1938.Labels: Advertising, Industry, Radio, Rants
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Brraaaaainnssss...
Focusing
primarily on terrestrial radio broadcasting, ZombieRadio.com is
dedicated to pointing out the mindless and brain-dead actions of the
mainstream media industry in general.
Don't
get too comfortable satellite, television, cable, and internet -- we
all know from seeing zombie movies that the contagion spreads quickly.
"They're
coming to get you..."
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