Yearly Archives: 2015

The Myth of Complete Disruption

One of the blogs I read this week said, “Mobile has completely disrupted digital marketing”.

          I have not seen piles of laptops along the roadside on garbage pick-up day with the move to mobile anymore than I saw radios piled in a heap when the internet began in 1982.  We continue to use laptops, and radio, even as we add new media to our lives.

          And while there is no doubt the digital marketing world continues to change faster than a speeding bullet, ‘complete disruption’ is an over-statement. This complete disruption myth is one that has been repeated almost weekly as the internet, search engine optimization, social media, mobile and a long list of digital marketing alternatives evolves.

          As our digital media expert, Alysia Taylor, explains it, “These changes are an evolution, not a revolution.”

          Imagine being a business owner in 2004 who bought the ‘complete disruption’ story with the introduction of MySpace, the self-proclaimed first social media. What would have happened had you put all of your eggs in that marketing basket just before Twitter, Facebook, and a long list of other social media evolved?

          No business wants to be left behind in the evolution of electronic media. At the same time, as this world changes ever-faster, there is a great deal of comfort, and success, in continuing to use tried and proven heritage media like radio as the constant in this chaos.

          The announced complete disruption has not made allowance for the fact that one of the oldest electronic media, radio, continues to reach in excess of 90% of adults every week, in spite of all of the new media introductions.

          I would never discourage an advertiser from trying something new. But we also owe it to advertisers who want to sleep at night, to point out a constant that they can rely upon during this evolution….radio advertising.

          Our Winning in the New Media Economy advertiser seminars and local market surveys are convincing local advertisers across North America to include radio as a primary media in their media mix. Contact [email protected] if you would like to facilitate our surveys and seminars in your market.

 

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What’s New

 Marketers have always known the power of the word ‘new’.

    From packaged goods distributors who advertised ‘new and improved’ to the digital media folks who describe their platforms as ‘new media’, there is no disputing the allure of all things new.

       But here’s the thing. For business categories that don’t currently advertise on radio, radio can be positioned as the something ‘new’ they are looking for.

       As some of our better advertiser categories take budget from radio to try new media, radio can be new media for advertisers that are losing confidence in their old print or Yellow Pages stand-bys.

       Our Share-of-Mind surveys in more than 100 markets across North America have proven our Share-of-Voice = Share-of-Mind = Share-of-Market formula.

       When you crack a new advertiser who has no competitors advertising on your station they automatically have the dominant share of voice with your audience, and the results will amaze even you!

 

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Radio with a Capital ‘R’

You may have noticed in our last ENS on Sales that I’ve started spelling Radio with a capital R.

 Proper names always begin with a capital letter, and Radio is the proper name of a media that’s proven to work. The TV guys have always spelled TV with caps, rather than tv.

Ironically, our ‘Three R’s Formula’ has been one of the formulas we’ve used to sell more Radio.

Reach  X  Repetition  X  Relevance of the message = Results

Is it time that your account executives, and your advertisers, learned the various formulas for creating advertising that works?

Contact [email protected]  to inquire how we can help you sell more Radio advertising in 2016 and beyond.

 

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Downside of Relationships

If you have been on our website you know our motto is “Helping media companies and advertisers to establish stronger more profitable relationships.”

    But there can be a downside to ‘relationships’.

    I talked to a radio salesperson last week who had left the competition’s cluster to join my client’s station cluster.  Upon arriving at the stations we consult, he was shocked to learn that a client, who had spent $1,000 a month with him at his previous stations, had been spending $4,000 a month at our stations. When he asked the client why he hadn’t been spending $4,000 a month with him at the other stations, the client said “You never asked me to.”

    Many account executives confuse ‘relationship’ with ‘friendship’ or become protective of their relationships and fear asking for more. Often they become ‘too close to the forest to see the trees’.

    Your clients are all adults. They are perfectly capable of saying ‘No’ when you’ve reached their budget threshold.  Your clients are in sales too, and they respect salespeople who have enough confidence in their product to ask for more.

    I’m not proposing you gouge or over-sell your good clients.  But your relationship can be more damaged by accepting token buys than it would be by presenting solid plans to increase reach and frequency to help improve your clients’ R.O.I. (Return on Investment).

 

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Canadian Radio’s Fear Factor

 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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