The line that separates media and marketing is blurring as advertisers continue to reach their target audiences across devices and platforms. While some media are struggling to find ways to best serve advertisers in their quest, radio is providing them with alternative solutions. Continue reading “Radio’s Digital Growth Drives
Local Market Business”
Isn’t it amazing how sometimes you hear a portion of a song on the radio and the tune just stays in your head? You find yourself humming, tapping or just moving your head to the beat even when you’re nowhere near a radio – but you just learned a new song. That, my friends, is the power of radio – learning about new music.
Did you know that radio has the highest reach against teens versus any other broadcast medium or electronic device? And radio’s reach is even greater than that of game consoles!
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.
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:
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.
Today’s blog post is courtesy of Leo Kivijarv, Ph.D., Executive Vice President & Director of Research of PQ Media
As stated in our previous guest blog posts, this was a strange year given the Trump candidacy. He spent significantly lower on media advertising and marketing than previous presidential candidates on most media platforms, with the exceptions of digital, event marketing, promotional products, public relations & word-of-mouth. Continue reading “Closing the 2016 Political Year”
Today’s blog post is courtesy of Ginny Morris, Chair and Chief Executive Officer, Hubbard Radio, LLC
Radio, as an industry, will celebrate its “first” vibrant 100 years in 2020. The country has seen the evolution of radio over that time from a nascent technology with few users to a pervasive and ubiquitous part of American culture. We all know radio’s history, right? The AM band dominated for decades before the FM band finally found its legs, and combined, the two continue to be a solid foundation for today’s ever-evolving “audio landscape.”
Our family has been in the broadcasting business since the early 20’s. My grandfather, Stanley E. Hubbard, started with one radio station: WAMD. In our company’s 90-or-so years we have never been more excited about the radio business. Audience levels are near an all-time high of 247.4MM people 12+ every week. Radio offers a richer experience for our listeners across our digital platforms and a more dynamic environment to help our advertising partners grow their businesses.
Continue reading “Radio’s sustaining presence
in American culture”
Throughout 2016, data became more and more important in advertising – finding out the who, what, where and why. So what happens if the data you receive comes into question? Articles like this one from Advertising Age and The New York Times only adds to that concern.
Continue reading “Ad Fraud Isn’t Possible
in Live Broadcast Radio”
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!
Continue reading “Reporting from The Attribution
Accelerator – What You Need to Know”
What makes a great radio ad? Is there a magic formula or do you just have to have a gift? In today’s post, some of radio’s great creative minds share their thoughts and approach to writing great radio ads. Have you tried their approach in the past? Please tell us what you think about their suggestions.
“Radio is one of the few remaining mediums with captive audiences. They can’t click away from you; they can’t skip ahead. While they are driving in their car, you own their attention,” said Chris Smith, Brand Creative Group Head from The Richards Group, as he was emphasizing radio’s continued relevance as a great storytelling mechanism despite all other advertising choices.
You’ve all heard about radio’s incredible reach and its ability to create relevant imagery in a person’s mind. Did you know that radio is great at selling shiny new objects, too? Yes, it can help to sell watches, earrings, bracelets and rings – oh my! According to National Jeweler.com, the holiday sales are off to a strong start.
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.
Today’s post is courtesy of Maura Kautsky, VP Marketing NextRadio
I saw this funny quote the other day that couldn’t be timelier “Marketing without data is like driving with your eyes closed”. And boy has that data evolved. As you read from the previous blog, marketers are moving from big data to data attribution which provides insight into what receives credit for conversion. Continue reading “Let Radio Data Tell the Story”
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.
Today’s post is courtesy of Jim Spaeth and Alice K. Sylvester of Sequent Partners.
“ROI.” “ROI.” “ROI.” whined Jan Brady.
Ok, maybe not, but you can’t go too far these days without encountering the term Return on Investment. ROI performance is on everyone’s mind – auto dealers, big retailers, movie companies … all of radio’s advertisers.
But just as we wrapped our heads around the advanced math of econometric marketing mix models, the measurement world changed. Today, the venerable, powerful marketing mix models are considered too slow, too macro and too backwards-thinking for most marketers. They need tools that are more granular and more comprehensive – tools like they have in digital, where they can attribute sales to digital touchpoints and map a consumer’s journey from search to website to reviewers’ blogs to Facebook to Amazon.
Attribution modeling is leaving the digital ecosystem and will play a key role in cross-platform ROI analysis. It’s a very hot topic full of promise and right now, some bluster.
Continue reading “Marketing Measurement Evolves:
Why You Should Care About Multi-Touch Attribution”
With only 9 weeks left before we bid farewell to 2016, we asked Mark Fratrik, Ph.D., SVP and Chief Economist with BIA/Kelsey to provide with us with radio’s outlook for 2017.
Where do local radio stations stand in the new local media advertising marketplace, especially compared to their traditional and online/digital competitors? According to the recently published 2017 BIA/Kelsey U.S Local Advertising Forecast, which provides a five year national forecast and 12 individual media forecasts, radio does reasonably well. The combination of online activities with the over-the-air advertising leads to a 10.5% share of the $148.8B local advertising pie in 2017.
Continue reading “Radio’s Place in the New Local Media
Advertising Marketplace”
In seventeen more days we’ll know who will be leading this country for the next four years. As we approach November 8, there is still time for candidates to reach voters and particularly those that are still undecided. Also, given the events that have occurred in the past few weeks, political advertising dollars have seen some shifts, but not with radio.
These are the words that have been used to describe radio by some of the most widely recognized national brands and large advertising agencies. During the 40th Annual Fall Broadcast Management Conference and the 16th Annual Power of Urban Radio Forum, speakers and panelists discussed radio’s strengths, future as well as what radio can do to help advertisers address their challenges.
Radio matters to musicians across all formats. Radio remains the number one source for new music discovery and Forbes takes note, sharing with their readers. Click for a great read.
Over 247 million people tune in to radio every week. Their reason for tune-in varies; it may be to find out about the weather or to get traffic and transit updates. Whatever the reason, they all have one thing in common – they listen because of the connection they have with the radio station and the personalities on that station. During Advertising Week, radio’s ability to “provide a personal connection with listeners that no one else does” and “color a blank canvas” for sports fans was discussed during two separate sessions: “Let Us Entertain You” and “Huddle Up – Radio Sets the Score,” each moderated by RAB president and CEO Erica Farber.
