PODCASTING: RADIO'S 100,000 MILE CHECK UP!

Terrestrial radio’s ‘check engine’ light remains brightly lit on it’s dashboard while experts near and far tinker under it’s hood. Meantime, the digital advertising highway is six lanes strong and consuming greater media share each day. Sadly…radio as a whole, lags behind in an internet strategy largely relying on a stodgy, rankered, rate card world. Don’t get me wrong, we work with early adopter stations in North America that test the internet learning curve every day. Still, my competitors and I service less than 4% of those type stations. And that’s probably about the same number of enthusiasts for HD Radio. It’s a long road out of Eden, however you define radio’s future. So what is the simplest, cheapest way possible for a radio station to get in step with a digital strategy for ratings and revenue? ANSWER: The Podcast: A TiVo model extended to your website so listeners can experience your brand anytime, anywhere. A time shifted, content generated, branding machine for the station. And now……… smart advertisers who want to target demo’s with in depth product awareness, have a weapon. A DREAM SALE FOR THE RADIO REP Remember, on air/online advertising today means that the creative is always a mouse click or a pre-set punch away from a bottomless pit of options. Advertisers know it. A podcast is a warmly captive way of reaching the consumer in their off listening environment. A radio station could never do that before. The podcast is now the most synergistic piece in a station’s arsenal because it can lay footprints in places formerly untread. Most local clients in any market today know they need an internet component in their media choice/mix but few vendors can confidently give them the cure. Today’s radio rep is one of the few. If you didn’t see the memo, radio sales people aren’t enamored selling banner ads; however, selling a podcast(with a schedule)is merely an extension of what they naturally do. Selling a client a polished informational podcast, the way only radio can produce it and driving ears as well as eyes to it, from on air frequency, is the perfect storm that only radio can create. Now radio can produce podcasts for it’s clients(who want a more personal info share with their consumer)and sell inventory in the process. BUNDLING THE PODCAST I can only talk it, but this man ‘walks it’. Glen Gardner/Midwest Family Broadcasting/Interactive Mgr is one of those early adopters who understands the transitional revenue opportunities that a podcast can create. Gardner said, “For a while now, radio has been trying to find the value in various interactive platforms available to the industry. There is no better synergy than the relationship that radio can develop with podcasting. The benefits to programming and sales are obvious: time shifted programs and ‘Best Of’ features that invite traditional sponsorship opportunities”. But traditional revenue with a new twist is what Glen is looking for. He continued, “Sell the podcast and the spot in tandem and use the commercial to direct a listener to the podcast for more information. People are information starved when in the market for big ticket items. Someone wanting to remodel their home will listen for 15 minutes on finding the best contractor. If you were in an area that suffered major flooding this spring, a station could have benefitted from a series of clean up podcasts featuring restoration companies like carpet cleaners, plumbers, and carpenters who would gladly pay to create unique and compelling content. An auto dealer can break that sea of sameness radio spot by illustrating the benefits and dealer spirit in a crafted podcast. I think this concept of bundling interactive products to exploit radio’s cume is the goose that laid the golden egg. The winning combination is using radio’s ability to direct behavior to other platforms that compliment and supplement radio’s deficiencies. Radio needs to learn to bundle podcasting with it’s traditional ability to move cume from one platform to another”. A SIMPLE OIL CHANGE Radio is still the dominant delivery system for music and news. The baby boomer generation alone, guarantees nobody will be claiming this mountain top for awhile. Radio still has time to shift it’s massive cume building machine and slowly transition increasing portions of it, to a longer playing highly targetable model, that better serves the interest of the client than poorly produced 30’s done for reach and frequency effect. Let the 10 or 30 second spot become a creative preamble for what is to come in the podcast. Build a landing page embedded with client podcasts so all can see a new way of buying radio. Package it and sell it. This is not a seismic change in normal execution. In auto parlance, this is a simple oil change for radio. Podcasting is low cost maintenance to keep radio’s check engine light unlit. __________________________________________________________________________________ Jimmy Risk is President of Loyal Ears, radio’s oldest Loyalty and Podcast vendor. For more podcast info go to http://www.loyalears.com/podcast.html