Our posts these last two days have generated a fascinating conversation among many people in and outside of the radio industry. I invite you to go back, read them, and pay particular attention to the comments from readers which offer great feedback. The discussion about the revenue generation side of radio, and perception about the medium from the ad community presents some speed bumps.
As advertisers modify their models and priorities, radio finds itself challenged to deliver on their changing needs. In the quest to deliver a meaningful marketing result, radio is not alone. I was reminded of this yesterday in a New York Times article about digital integration – in television.
A Coca-Cola exec, Ivan Pollard, summed up the new needs of major brands this way:
“TV networks still have a role, but we’re interested in the mix between traditional TV and emerging digital platforms.”
Some refer to this as “tradigital media” – a term attributed to motion picture innovator Jeffrey Katzenberg in describing the confluence of old school and digital techniques in animated films like “Toy Story.” In the world of radio sales, it suggests combining the best of what a station has to offer with its on-air product combined with the strategic addition of digital components.
That’s the challenge facing legacy media outlets like TV stations, radio stations, and newspapers: how to put together the optimal integration of their traditional product with electric new digital offerings to solve the client’s problems and provide accountability in the form of identifying and delivering key prospects and users.
It’s a struggle that many in radio are enduring, as the marketing demands have become exponentially more complicated than the numbers on rate cards and rankers. It requires a special knowledge of a radio station’s content offerings, as well as a firm handle on the client’s needs and how to achieve them. Sadly, this line of strategic thinking simply isn’t as prevalent inside radio stations as it should be.
Consider this scene that occurs every day around the country:
INTERIOR – PROGRAM DIRECTOR’S OFFICE – DAYTIME
In Any Market, USA, an office that is cluttered, small, with mementos, awards, and gold records on the wall. A harried radio programmer wearing jeans is hunched over his desk, poring over ratings data on a desktop computer.
At the door, a well-dressed salesperson hovers in the area, trying to pick just the right moment to interrupt the PD.
SALESPERSON: Bill, I just need 30 seconds for a quick question.
BILL: Sure, go ahead, but I’m about to run into a department head meeting.
SALESPERSON: So, I’ve got a big buy on the hook for Hardware Junction, but I need a promotion.
BILL: A promotion? You know we’re totally stretched right now. We’re easily averaging two van stops a day as it is. What’s the goal of the promotion?
SALESPERSON: The goal? That we get the buy.
BILL: No, I mean what the client is looking for – store traffic, a special sale, and could there a tie-in to our Memorial Day 500 or Jerry’s podcasts, which by the way are getting a lot of downloads.
SALESPERSON: I forgot about that holiday thing. Well, you could throw some of that stuff in, but the main goal is that we get the business. You know, May was tough, and June isn’t looking much better.
And so it goes, every day, all the time, in most commercial radio stations around the country from Chicago to Chattanooga.
The missing link can be summed up by the notion that in most radio pitches and presentations, the goal is to simply make the sale – not to deliver targeted customers and prospects to the client – or to solve their problems by integrating the station’s unique digital marketing assets.
The industry gives lip service to conducting client need assessments, but too often, the end result is grabbing the business by throwing in “value added” digital goodies to sweeten the deal, rather than solve an advertiser’s needs. All those appearances, remotes, and prize wheels rarely achieve the client’s goals. And as a result, this activity pushes radio further back in the pack in its quest to stand out as a medium that can provide local marketing solutions and results.
That’s why every station and every cluster needs “A Dot Connector” – a person who can step back and truly grasp the client’s goals, and then use the brand’s best assets to create an integrated package where the sum of the parts turns out to be a great marketing campaign that meets their needs.
This person would have a strong understanding of marketing as well as the station’s arsenal – assets like targeted email and text database lists that can be deployed to identify (in this case) hardware store shoppers, podcasts that are about related subject areas like fix-it projects or gardening, branded website landing pages (www.waaa/DIY), and mobile app coupons that can be served by using listener voice commands.
Mix it with a combination of well-produced spots, a contest, and DJ live reads, and an integrated promotion comes together.
Yet, in so many stations and clusters, however , traditional radio sellers are being asked to provide integration without the proper knowledge, training, and experience necessary to achieve the desired results.
And of course, most radio sales are reactive to an revenue generating opportunity that comes up, a buy that is about to be made, or a campaign that is phoned or emailed in.
A true “Dot Connector” gets ahead of the curve, assessing her brand’s assets, and working in advance with station content creators to generate products that are both appealing to the audience and that have application to select advertisers that can than be pitched on campaigns that bring it all together.
Between the integration of local personality, behind-the-scene videos, on and off-air giveaways, and even mobile games, many stations have the digital assets but just aren’t sure how to unlock and package them.
There may very well be a smart “Dot Connecter” at your station or in your cluster. And he or she may not be in the sales department. In fact, the chances are good they work elsewhere in the building.
But their well-rounded knowledge of digital and traditional media – or “tradigital” – along with their connection to the brand, its personalities, and its local roots makes them uniquely qualified to play an important role in the sales and marketing effort of your station.
Who’s that “Dot Connector” in your building?
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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Fred, You’re always spot on. And, the essence of broadcasting is “See Spot Run.” As a toddler, connect the dot books kept me busy for hours. The barriers (even animosity) between sales and programming, content and cost hurt progress. At CBS/FM I combined Programming & Promotion to establish and add brand value. With all the new tools, Dot Connector, Station Facilitator, Coordinator, Accelerator, is nothing short of essential. The control freaks, “no good if I didn’t think of it,” turf protectors and “it’s either sales or programming, you can’t do both,” really rain on the parade. Broadcasting is a series of dots, details, decisions and multiple elements. Delivering compelling content that sells means ownership must seek, encourage and develop these go-to pros. “Jedi: Content and Business Development” eliminates complication. Keep it simple enables great presentation and the audience and advertisers will come. Clark. http://www.broadcastideas.com
Actually, maybe each station could use a Yoda – the all-knowing, all-seeing master of what’s in front of them and where it’s going. Thanks, Clark, because it is using the best of what radio has – on and off-air – to deliver the goods to advertisers.
This job description is MINE! This was a great article and really tells the story of the industry right now. It sometimes takes somebody “on the outside” to help connect those dots. As a consultant myself, I have visited hundreds of stations, yet in a different capacity, helping them with FCC Compliance and managing their Public Files. I see what they do for community service when I review their Issues and Programming Reports. I encourage them to continue to conduct community ascertainments so that they would really KNOW what their community needs. It is really a great tool for stations to become more involved with the audience and their advertisers when they utilize their resources to answer and address those needs. Moreover, the pressure to “perform”, whether its in the ratings battle, the revenue battle, or the “share of the market” battle – removes all the FUN, which is what radio needs to be in order to attract good people to work in the business. A “dot connector” is exactly what they need in order to integrate effectively. It all comes down to being able to raise revenues…in order to do that, we can’t operate in the darkness, or in isolation within our different departments of programming, sales and promotions… Thanks for providing me with a job description to aspire to!
Kelly, you’re hired!
I continue to sit in manager meetings where the debates about sales training and integration rage on. As the industry has swung back and forth between everyone having to learn about digital to digital-dedicated sellers, we may have missed the point about being able to truly tie it all together and stop looking at the marketing effort as siloed. Thanks for weighing in, Kelly.
Love this article. We do a Group Meeting with Digital/Programming/Promotion/Sales Rep and most importantly the CLIENT, A super CNA if you will. There we connect the dots and establish expectations and next steps. It works, it’s fun and it gets renewals, which last time I looked was an important benchmark. We have a team of dot connectors therefore a weak link in the chain is strengthened, I got your back! Thanks Fred
Appreciate it, John. I see stations struggling with this process all the time, so it’s great to see that Indie88 is making great strides. A well-defined, healthy brand & a great team can truly help clients succeed while generating more revenue and loyal advertisers.
Fred, dead-on on so many levels. The big companies have the resources to have different silos but are still lacking the visionaries to connect those dots due to the dreaded-“just get me the money” attitude of some sellers. Further, what has happened to the local angle of digital with some companies who drive the national type website through all their different brands. I understand the goal–national $$–but without a local platform in place what is the local affiliate expected to do. Yes, they have a small footprint usually on these type sites, but as a result they’re going to miss opportunities with their local brands.
With smaller companies, the pressure is even greater—lack of resources but still expected to drive local dollars and hit expanding budgets.
Bottom line, those Dot Connectors every company needs lies with the OM or with a well polished and experienced PD. A programmer will know how to utilize all the assets better than anybody else in the cluster. I’m sorry, but a sales person only has one thing in mind, “get the money.”
Tim, sad but true. Unfortunately, those OMs are often pulled in so many directions or simply untrained/unable to pull it off, too. It’s a conundrum because as you agree, many stations have more than they think. Maybe that’s where a great consultant comes in – a topic that I’ve been thinking about lately, too. We traditionally help stations decide what Nirvana songs to play, suggest a good spring book contest, and music strategies, but perhaps we need to help our clients do more of this stuff. We cannot physically be there as every opportunity comes by, but we could play a greater role in helping stations make more sense of this. Thanks for commenting.