Sunday, May 08, 2011

BCAB 2011 Wisdom

"People don't want to be friends with a toilet paper. Be more than a BRAND. Think gestalt and discovery. No one waiting to hear from you. Be real, compelling, personal. Stop broadcasting to a mass. Start listening. We only change when things stop working for us. You can profit from change" - John Parikhal

"There are no boring stories only boring story tellers. To master the digital world: Adhere to the principles of powerful storytelling. Entertain and inform whether it is live or on-demand. Keep in mind that shows that are downloaded may not be heard right away. Expect that when there's news of an immediate nature, or a big break in a story, people will still go to their radios, TVs, and computers with the expectation that you will give them the most immediate up-to-the moment information." - Valerie Geller

"Stay as current as you can with all the new media technology toys, but keep in mind that human stuff still always relates best. A station I work with got more hits and viral buzz that anything they ever did with listener photos in a "dog-human lookalike contest." - Daniel Anstandig

"Radio at its best is good people doing extraordinary things." - Paul Ski, CEO, Rogers Media/Radio Group

"Never make a key decision when backed into a corner under duress. There's ALWAYS a creative solution." - Anthony von Mandl, quoting his father

What a terrific meeting! I thought last year's was the best ever. Now, I must revise that opinion up one year.

Really, my ONLY disappointment was when I asked what the group heads were planning to do to grow top line in the coming year and it seemed like they all agree that 3% up this year is good.

Maybe it is when you're trying to move a behemoth, but I had hoped someone would challenge us to get rates up by getting beyond selling against one another to the same "buyers" and aggressively targeting new media business.

That's what the whole convention was about, and I was wondering if any of them would be so inspired that they'd see more revenue potential as a goal beyond pacing with the economy as a whole.

3 comments:

Dave Gifford in Radio Ink said...

Sixty-one years ago, there appeared in Look magazine an article by Deac Aylesworth titled "Radio Is Doomed.” Didn't happen, did it?

If TV couldn't kill radio in 1949 -- at a time when, in massive numbers of small- and medium-sized markets, the price for one radio commercial was one dollar -- neither will Pandora, CBS' Last.FM, Clear Channel's iheartradio, Slacker Radio, iTunes, Facebook, Twitter, or Groupon!

If, that is, radio finally influences media selection, and if radio sells radio differently!

Chuck Francis, VP New Media Strategies – Remerge Media in RBR said...

When it comes to digital strategies, traditional media has been slow to embrace the opportunity. There have been several articles written of late spotlighting the fact that of all the traditional mediums, radio lags farthest behind in adapting a coherent digital strategy and monetizing their efforts.

Ken Dardis, President, Audio Graphics, Inc. in RBR said...

Radio cannot make new media operate on radio's terms. With a rush to apps, an array of delivery devices (each using proprietary software), agencies calling more strongly for interactive campaigns, and clients calling more loudly for response metrics, radio teams must learn how to operate within the new media environment.

There's no way to write an article on all that you need to know to integrate new media. You can't even write a single book about this topic. But we can start slow, perhaps, with a little "Ad Tracking 101." Consider this a primer on what an account rep should deliver to a client who is buying some of those web site banners on your station's web site.

Start with these thoughts:

1) Whenever possible, an over-the-air campaign should be styled to take advantage of the internet. A call-to-action by pointing to a specific URL can serve as your response metric. ("Get information at 'station_call_letters.com/(client's_name.'")

2) Visits, clicks, purchases, a variety of responses can be tied to a radio campaign - which means you can sell on impressions (CPM) or action (CPA). The sheet my clients get lists both, as in how much they paid for CPM and for CPA.