In the past few weeks, I’ve learned one of the reasons why we don’t have an industry organization promoting radio to advertisers in Canada.
I’ve long been a proponent of the merits of industry organizations like Canada’s defunct Radio Marketing Bureau and the Radio Advertising Bureau in the U.S.
I remain a firm believer that a rising tide lifts all boats. The more radio advertisers we sell, the more radio stations they’ll buy when it works. And almost weekly, I speak to broadcasters who agree we need a Canadian Radio Marketing Bureau.
But over the last few weeks I’ve learned why a bureau probably won’t be resurrected. We are doing a small part to help radio account executives sell more radio by facilitating an event on June 4th that we’ll actually lose money on, by design.
The June 4th event is sold out, so this is not a sales pitch.
But working on this project has taught me why our industry has no advocate organization. Part of our June 4th agenda includes station executives sharing success stories and strategies to sell more radio advertising, and frankly, to bolster their confidence in radio.
Can you believe some have said they don’t want other stations to know how to sell more radio? It’s true!
In spite of all of the new media and digital platforms nipping at radio’s heels, there are still station executives who consider other radio stations to be their biggest threat and fear helping the industry to grow by sharing their knowledge.
I share sales tips in these weekly ENS on Sales every week, at no cost to the recipients, in part because I know if I can help our industry to succeed, I’ll succeed by osmosis.
The good news is, I believe our sold out event proves the folks who don’t want to help the industry grow are in the minority. So maybe, just maybe, the industry can get its’ act together and create a tide to raise the radio ship.
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