What Advertisers Want

 

This article by Ed Ryan of Radio Ink is a must read. We’ve been training this for years, but when it comes from an advertiser’s mouth, maybe our points will finally hit home.
What Advertisers Want – By Ed Ryan, editor, Radio Ink
Advertiser after advertiser, agency after agency we interview are consistent when we ask them the following question; What can radio improve upon to get on more of your buys? Bring more ideas is what they say. They never answer, tell me how many listener hours your industry has every month. They never say, figure out how to beat  satellite radio. Here is an example. Jennifer White is the President of White House Media. We recently interviewed White for an upcoming issue of Radio Ink. Here is an excerpt from that interview. It might contradict what you just may be starting your sales meeting off with today, the newly touted listener number.
What’s your biggest pet peeve with Radio?
Radio reps need to know more about advertising and marketing, specifically, to understand why their clients are moving to online alternatives. Here is the challenge. Radio reps love to talk about audience size. But, why would an advertiser spend big bucks to reach the masses when only a small percentage of that audience has any desire for their product?
Radio’s efforts to adapt to new media have just been a series of fancy band-aids. At one point, a station group told me that it was launching a search capability through their stations’ websites. Well, this was obviously not going to work. Why would anyone use a search engine on WXYZ when Google has so much more to offer? Other stations put their emphasis on social networking with listener clubs, Facebook fans and Twitter followers. While I agree that “likes” are nice, these efforts are just jumping onto the back of the speedboat and trying to hang on. It’s a cluttered media world out there and it will take more than a “me too” attitude to remain relevant.
My favorite reps are my favorites for old school reasons. They anticipate my needs. They build a relationship– not by generically asking about the health of my family, but by proving that they are looking out for me and my clients. They provide unexpected services. They get creative. My least favorite reps sit back, wait for avails, and lead me to believe I’m secondary to their other clients.
Right now, the radio advantage is a local sales force, not a sheet of paper touting billions of listeners that does not translate to the advertiser. When customers walk through an advertiser’s door, it won’t matter to them whether Pandora or the newspaper or the local television station has 100 billion listeners, viewers or readers. They would care if you are the person that makes their register ring.  Go out and BE that person