Radio’s Recovery Involves Listening
It struck me late one evening – radio spends nearly all of its time trying to get people to LISTEN… yet they spend very little time listening themselves. I had a business client a while back that wanted my help in marketing his business… he used to say: “It wasn’t by accident that God gave us two ears and one mouth…” yet he never could seem to follow his own advice.
Every time we’d meet with a potential sponsor for his programs, we’d reach a point in the meeting where the prospect would begin to reveal exactly what they were looking to achieve – and rather than letting the potential sponsor speak… my client would start blathering-on about his programs, his experience, his benefits, his features… I’d literally have to kick him under the table to get him to shut-up! LISTEN! The person that you are asking to spend money with you is about to layout a roadmap on how they want to do business with you… and rather than LISTENING to THEM… you start talking about YOU.
OUR ADVERTISERS DON’T ‘GET’ THE NET
In nearly every station we’ve been in over the past couple of years – we’ve heard some sales person somewhere say: “our clients just don’t understand the internet”…All in an effort to make an excuse as to why they are not aggressively selling the web and radio together. Shift the blame. It’s not the salespersons fault – it’s the client’s fault. The client is just too dumb to get it… broad assumptions from narrow minds.
At Remerge we’ve been conducting monthly town-hall-type sessions with the local Better Business Bureau to help business owners (otherwise known as advertisers) understand ways to use traditional and new media in tandem to create a powerful, measurable, trackable marketing solutions that generate results.
In our first 2 sessions, over 40 business leaders took the time to come to the BBB offices early in on a Friday morning to discuss the shift from “Mass Media” to “Me Media”. Registration for our next session (Facebook) has already surpassed to the total number of registrants for the first two sessions combined.
Advertisers may not “get’ the net from your perspective – but here are three simple 
ways they’re outpacing many of today’s radio sales reps: (1) They’re willing to invest their own time to explore the possibilities, (2) They don’t dismiss the web’s relevance simply because they don’t fully understand its relevance, and (3) they’re willing and eager to learn.
What a great opportunity for radio to be the advertiser’s guide. What a perfect time for radio to be demonstrating the power of radio and the web together. What a perfect time to excite the prospect with creativity and wild ideas that explode beyond the airwaves. Too bad most sales folks are just willing to wait for a “radio rebound” instead of seizing an opportunity.
THE WATER PARK IDEA
Couple of years back the local zoo wanted to begin building brand awareness for their newly acquired, soon to be re-opened water park. The agency did the standard radio cattle-call, and radio responded with their traditional “here’s your 18 spots a week package, and we’ll give away some tickets on the morning show” proposals. There was one exception, however… THAT station brought an idea. They did a little homework and discovered that the zoo had yet to settle on an official name for their water park. Armed with that info, the station suggested that the zoo let the people decide. Through the use of on-air and online – a micro site was created to allow people to vote on one of 5 different name possibilities, or write-in their own.
Over a 30-day period… 4500 people voted, roughly 3500 opted-in to receive more information about the water park’s grand opening and other upcoming zoo events. The zoo was thrilled! Now, think about it – you’re about to reopen a multi-million dollar water park… and you have 3500 people who have given you permission to reach out to them one-to-one. How many season passes could you sell before the park even opened its doors? Not only did the station deliver results – they were awarded the majority of the budget for the branding campaign… not because they had the best rate…not because they had the best ratings… but because they had the best idea!
IT’S TIME TO LISTEN
A couple of weeks ago at the Advertising Research Foundation’s Audio Council in New York, advertisers started talking about what they wanted to see from the radio industry. Summary: Breakthrough research and flexibility. According to AdAge, Diane Whitehead, ad director for Verizon Wireless said: “Radio promises us effectiveness and tells us that X million people listen, but what are they doing with it? How are they engaging with it?”
She questioned the logic of her paying to have one DJ endorse her product, only to hear another station personality endorsing her competitor in the same shift. She laughed at the five minute stop-set she heard with two ads from Home Depot and one from Lowe’s, among seven others… and in her words: “That’s wacked, folks! If you have data that says listeners love listening to these pods, bring it on, because we’d love to be in those pods!” She later cooled her sarcasm by suggesting radio needs to figure out how bring ideas beyond jamming clients into a 10-commercial stop-set.
Radio can answer these advertiser challenges by partnering their traditional business model with the web. They can use their existing email database together with free research tools like BigMediaStudy.com to define who their listeners are, and where they plan to spend their money. They can use their on-air spots as “web drivers” to provide clients the frequency they need in an over-saturated, info-driven world… while leading listeners online for one-to-one interaction with the client’s product or service. That’s engagement that radio can deliver far better than any of the other traditional media. And at a price-point that’s far more affordable.
So, at a time when radio is searching for new answers to recoup lost revenue… here sits the advertiser telling you exactly how they want to do business. And here I sit… kicking you under the table asking to you to please shut-up and listen.
– Chuck Francis, VP New Media Strategies – Remerge. Remerge Media is a multi-media consulting firm, specializing in new media integration and simultaneous media solutions. Remerge works with radio (as well as other legacy media) clients to help them understand, integrate and generate revenue from new media through custom sales solutions, and providing traditional media sales personnel with highly specialized training. Remerge solutions provide a high rate of return on investment (ROI) for our traditional media clients, as well as their advertising clients. The company is based in Columbus, Ohio. More information about Remerge can be found online at RemergeMedia.com
