Marketron

Silence Can Be Golden in Radio Ads

A barn.  Blue skies.  A horse running through the fields.

A great image just came to your mind reading those words, right?  But what color was the barn – red?  What color was the horse – brown, white, black, spotted? And while the horse was running through the fields under the blue skies, was it a winter day with snow on the ground or were there wild flowers growing.  Whatever your answer was, it doesn’t matter.  The image that came to mind was relevant to you and that is the power of radio commercials.

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Insights into CES 2017

The overarching theme behind all of the products showcased during  CES® 2017 centered on providing a positive experience to the consumer.

The RAB team hit the road (in this case the convention center) to get an inside look at how the IoT and specifically, AI is changing our future.  According to Shawn DuBravac, Chief Economist and Sr. Director of Research for the Consumer Technology Association, there are five key trends:

  1. The new voice of computing – using voice to manage and connect with devices
  2. Artificial Intelligence – taking care of things that we don’t
  3. The network – tapping into the potential of our own connected devices
  4. The transformation of transportation – how vehicles will evolve
  5. The digitizing of the consumer experience – how augmented/virtual reality will shift entertainment experiences, etc.

That list may perplex some but we are all experiencing them already today in some form or fashion. The voice that was frequently referenced throughout CES was that of Alexa.  While Alexa, the voice of Amazon Echo, is not new, how Alexa currently uses the consumer’s voice to interface with other devices is quickly expanding, and Ford displayed how their partnership with Amazon’s Alexa Voice System can work.  Artificial or Augmented Intelligence is on the verge of making a consumer’s experience better – even easier – by either automatically adjusting a refrigerator’s most efficient temperature to potentially playing a podcast automatically while driving.  And speaking of driving, self-parking or automatic braking systems already exist, but the opportunity to provide the passenger of a driverless vehicle with endless entertainment options are in our future.

With Alexa Voice System technology being integrated into literally everything it can, there is a great possibility that voice activation will replace the graphical user interface (mouse, keyboard, touch screen, etc.) in the not too distant future, according to DuBravac.  Therefore, the implications and opportunity for “branding” radio stations and their call letters to help a listener tune the dial are enormous.

So what does this mean for radio?  Like the numerous products and innovations in technology displayed at CES, at the center of it all is the consumer – providing them with the best possible experience – and that is what radio continues to do.  Just this past week, CBS Radio News and iHeartRadio each announced their integration into some of these devices.  CBS Radio News will now be available on Amazon’s Alexa service.  iHeartMedia announced iHeartRadio’s integration across connected devices and tech.

Radio will always be there to deliver content to their listeners – with either the push of a button, the touch of an app or even through the use of their voice.

If you’d like to see some what our team experienced, visit RAB.com, scroll down the homepage and go into the CES section of our video wall.

Reporting from The Attribution
Accelerator – What You Need to Know

Conversion Rate Optimisation Icon. Business Concept. Isolated illustration.

Today’s post is courtesy of Jim Spaeth and Alice K. Sylvester of Sequent Partners.  This is a follow-up post on Multi-Touch Attribution.

The Attribution Accelerator conference, sponsored in part by the RAB on November 30, confirmed that the advertising industry has pinned high hopes to a new measure of media performance, Cross-Channel Attribution modeling.

Close to 300 marketers, agency, media and research providers looked at the in’s and out’s of attribution and its traditional forbearer, marketing mix models. Marketer representatives in attendance included: Unilever, Estee Lauder, Johnson & Johnson, Verizon, Weight Watchers and Citi.  The conference was designed to generate dialogue about Return On Investment measurement and hear what marketers have experienced and need.

If you think this is just another post on ROI, it’s not.  It’s about the future of planning what media is included in the plan…or not!

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Accelerator – What You Need to Know”

Radio – Part of the Local Community

Multi Ethnic People Holding The Word Community

Radio, the top reach medium, provides news, traffic, music to the over 247 million listeners every week.  Radio delivers content that listeners want wherever and whenever they want it, but radio is also more than that.  Radio is part of the community.

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Don’t Take Radio for Granted

High angle studio portrait of the young girl lying on the white floor

Broadcast radio has many strengths.  It’s live and local.  You can tune in to hear your favorite songs, get the latest weather and traffic updates.  Maybe you turn it on just to keep you company or hear the play-by-play of the game. But radio also has other strengths that are often taken for granted, and even sometimes, overlooked.

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