Wednesday, October 15, 2008

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?

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Sunday, May 11, 2008

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.

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Monday, August 06, 2007

Slices of Pie

More brilliant insight from InsideRadio.com...

Are :30s destroying radio's pricing power?
One CEO says yes. Cox Radio's Bob Neil says it is teaching buyers they can get the same ratings point and pay 75% of a :60 second rate. Making matters worse he says it's allowed advertisers to take their savings and reinvest it - in other media.

DUH.
Yes, this article is from the 8/2 edition -- but, so what? Is it LESS obvious this week than it was last week than it was how ever many years ago radio geniuses start dividing their inventory into smaller sections and offering it up for a fraction of the price?

Think of it this way guys -- you can sell a whole pie for $20 or you can divide it into slices and sell them for less. BUT, it will take you longer to sell the slices because instead of selling one thing you'll be selling many things. And everyone else in town is selling the same slices of pie for less than your slice of the pie.

If one station would get ballsy enough to say "buy the whole pie or get lost" someone would buy the pie. They would. Simply because it would be the single differentiating factor between all those other guys hawking slices of pie.

And ironically, that means YOU (Radio) would be getting the biggest slice of the media budget pie.

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