There is a new trend in radio advertising, and that is to sell digital advertising too. The problem is, they are killing radio in the process.
(Source)
I have a long history in radio, my father was in radio news for a long time and I have been in radio sales, promotions and digital promotions in my career too. About 10 years ago I left to start one of the first social media management companies in the United States, but my love of radio has never gone away.
My love for radio is why I'm upset at the industry. The execs think it is a good idea to sell digital advertising to their radio clients.
At first this sounds like a good idea. You have sales reps becoming more of a marketing consultant, but there are a lot of problems with it.
1. Digital advertising is growing incredibly fast and radio is slipping. One of the reasons is that sales people are not as dedicated to the product anymore.
2. Selling digital isn't really advantageous to a client. They are paying the rep's commission, the station's fees, the third party's fees to do the ads and then the actual ad platform. It there are two middle men.
3. Local businesses don't know what to do with digital traffic for the most part. Their websites are not set up to convert the additional digital traffic to customers. The effectiveness is almost completely up to the client and how they convert the traffic. Most don't know how to do that.
4. Most radio stations will offer a ton of digital ad options, but few offer Facebook advertising. Facebook has built the largest and most efficient ad platform in the world. Not using it is a disservice to the client and can limit any digital campaign.
5. Most sales reps don't really know much about digital advertising and if you ask them how you can "test" your ad, they will likely have no clue. Anyone that is in digital marketing better know how to "test" and "optimize" their ads and conversion pages.
One problems is that stations sell radio ads or digital. Sometimes they sell them together, but they don't know how to use them to work together.
If stations were smart, they would sell ad schedules that included digital only. That way they can use the digital ads to boost the results of the radio ads and make radio indispensable in local advertising. They would have an in-house person that ran and built the campaigns and landing pages and the stations would bring it all under one roof. That isn't happening either.
I hate to see what is happening to radio, and they are doing it to themselves. Almost all of the digital ad opportunities they offer are or will be obsolete in a couple of years. It is a hard industry to keep up with, and almost impossible for people not truly invested in the technology and digital marketing trends.
I hope stations will wise up, but it is unlikely. Most don't even realize they are sitting on content generating machines and how to use their daily activities to increase their own digital awareness. They don't even rent out their email lists.
Radio is way behind the digital curve and unless something changes soon, local radio in it's current form will not exist in 8 years.
What are your thoughts on radio advertising and radio selling digital?
Start a conversation in the comments below.
Thanks for reading.
I think radio can only be replaced when everything and everyone get internet access but still radio is a amazing technology and help drivers all over the world :D
Thanks for one more interesting article
Thank you Johnycrypto! I try to make them interesting. Radio is an amazing technology and will never fully go away I don't think. I do think wifi in cars will change the game completely. I think it is close too. We are no more than 8 years away from a complete change in the advertising landscape. Thanks for the reply.
The 5G technology will change everything, connection in everyplace and every device but still is a big technology and people will still use it in my opinion, we need a big big revolution and evolution to "kill" radio.
As a marketing manager for 10 years (sales for Clear Channel is mixed in there early on - subsidiary isn't around anymore), I can certainly testify that you've hit the nail on the head here. The last I bought a radio spot was likely 3 years ago, maybe 4. Now, it isn't even a thought because stations aren't even trying to sell air-time. Every call I get is for digital -- display ads, geo-targeting, mobile . . . I have a whole new terminology to learn. And it's not just an ad, it's, like you said, looking to them to be your digital marketing consultant. I'm not used to it yet; I miss being pitched dayparts and :10/:15/:30 spots.
lol, then you know exactly what I mean. They are just selling their way out of the game. The problem is, the margin on digital is small while radio is huge... you're selling air.
I am buying some spots for a local gun shop because of all the restrictions on Facebook and the like. It is difficult to market, lol. The biggest problem is, these people don't know digital. They barely understand the technology themselves. Display ads are pointless at this point, they don't convert. Geo-targeting is good in limited capacity, but like I said, most business owners don't know how to convert digital traffic. They know how to convert foot traffic. lol Thanks for the great reply. You got a new follower.
Thanks for the follow! You know what, it all makes more sense to me now -- I've rarely bought digital from radio because they don't sell it well, for the reason you said -- that maybe they don't know the product. That's why after every conversation, I leave with homework to research what they were talking about. Great sales people educate, not just try to sell. Cheers to more marketing talk - Enjoyed this.
Interesting point, I'm not sure how and why radios would be selling digital ads. I don't know how it is where you are, but here in Bulgaria, digital is underutilized so it's really cheap and TV, print and radio is still hugely overpriced. But both a ton of small businesses and ton of the largest businesses don't have a clue about digital and the people who understand it (and have the business and budget) are making a killing. Small business just don't have a clue and the execs in the huge businesses don't want the accountability of digital because it allows for clear ROI assessment which can highlight if their performance is good or bad. For them it's much easier to just throw tons of money at TV and tell their bosses, "See, we're on TV. I deserve my salary." And the people working in advertising agencies would always prefer selling the more expensive product that is supposedly more difficult to get into because they can bloat budgets and then bloat their own commissions with low accountability so they can always appear to be doing a good job too.
You make so many good points. It is interesting that there is so much opportunity in your country in digital advertising. It sounds like you know what you are talking about, and can capitalize on it. I really appreciate your insight and your reply. Thank you!!!
I currently don't have the resources to capitalize on it properly, but I might give it a shot in the near future.
I think radio has been dead for a long time
Not really, it has been wounded the past six years, but still very strong in most small and large markets. The biggest change will come with wifi in the cars. That will completely change the game.
That may be true..
Maybe I'm just saying this cause I'm not a big fan
radio just regurgitates the same 17 songs over and over . blahhhhh. they have to get on board with the new generation that has attention spans measured in nano seconds
That is generally true, but there is a lot of value in local news, traffic and weather. That still plays a big part for commuters. Not as much, but still pretty strong. The younger generations are drifting away for sure.
Wow it is something very amazing about you. 😊
Thank you!
I can't stand them anyways lol...
There is always that too! lol
Nice
weill it look interesting
This post has received a 3.54% upvote from @aksdwi thanks to: @walkingkeys.
This post has received a 10.31% upvote from @lovejuice thanks to @walkingkeys. They love you, so does Aggroed. Please be sure to vote for Witnesses at https://steemit.com/~witnesses.