Earlier this week, we looked into the role that design, variety, and customization are playing in our consumer lives. Successful brands understand the potential and the power of cross-promotion, and they work hard to optimize it.
On the other hand, radio programmers know the frustration of having a great personality show that is reticent to promote the rest of the station. These are key opportunities to grow awareness and consumption.
Sure, you can slot in produced promos like you would commercials, but there is no substitute like your big dog morning team endorsing and extolling the virtues of a promotion, an event, a contest, or another show on the station.
Apple has figured out a smart (albeit annoying) workaround for this problem – using its monster cume (iPhone owners) to build awareness of an interest in their hot new product (the Apple Watch).
In the new iOS 8.2 software update, an Apple Watch app is automatically installed on your iPhone desktop. It’s not deletable, by the way. And until you actually purchase an Apple Watch of your own, this app simply plays promotional videos for Watch.
Now you can push back at that and refuse to open the app. But I’m betting that while you’re in your dentist’s waiting room, that middle school soccer practice that won’t end, or at your next family reunion, chances are you’ll spend a few minutes with this app learning more about Watch.
And that’s the goal. BI Intelligence predicts that by the end of this year, 1 in every 20 iPhone owners will purchase the Apple Watch. Yes, that’s a conversion rate of 5% – pretty good engagement for a new product that is slated to own the entire category in just a few short years – just like Apple did with mp3 players, smartphones, and tablets.
It starts with planning strategic cross-promotion using every resource available. It’s a reminder to everyone in radio that the ability to build awareness starts with our best content, our best assets, and our best resources. How can we take our megawatt shows, our big personalities, our websites, our social media pages, our podcasts – in short, our entire arsenal – and use it to drive top-of-mind awareness and increased usage of our brands?
This is a strategic art form that Apple knows how to do so well as they move us from one platform and one gadget to another. Yes, they are already running TV ads for Watch. But they also are wisely planning to use their best asset to cross-promote the product – the iPhone, the equivalent of their dominant morning show.
Your iPhone may be a better cross-promoter than your morning guy.
Jacobs Media has consistently walked the walk in the digital space, providing insights and guidance through its well-read national Techsurveys.
In 2008, jacapps was launched - a mobile apps company that has designed and built more than 1,300 apps for both the Apple and Android platforms. In 2013, the DASH Conference was created - a mashup of radio and automotive, designed to foster better understanding of the "connected car" and its impact.
Along with providing the creative and intellectual direction for the company, Fred consults many of Jacobs Media's commercial and public radio clients, in addition to media brands looking to thrive in the rapidly changing tech environment.
Fred was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2018.
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I have a problem with the issue of working around your big personalities because they won’t promote key projects. In 2015 does ANY talent think that they can take that position? Do they understand how many great people are out of work these days?
If you are a manager who has to “work around” your talent to make your station succeed, you have a bigger problem than effective promos. Secondly, people actively working in radio have no idea how ineffective on-air promos really are. To a civilian, no matter how clever your promos are, they are spots. The best way to promote something that is important to the station is to have your most loved talent endorse it. If you examine our rich, radio history, you’ll hear some exciting promotions that were endorsed by some of the biggest talent that ever lived. If your own people won’t endorse the company that is paying them, why would a listener?
Jim, you were the master at making your audience want to embrace the station, a cause, or an advertiser. And that’s why clients stood in line for the opportunity for you to endorse their business. It’s not a lost art, but it is ironic to hear how many stations continue to sell “live reads” (of varying quality), but fail to receive a high level of cross-promotion from their stars. At a time when marketing dollars are scare (or non-existent), talent is the best messenger. Thanks for chiming in.