A few weeks ago, we put together a couple of posts that talked about the power of video for radio, featuring data about the importance of videos as well as a profile on Fort Wayne’s Phil Becker whose Hot 107.9 is doing some pretty innovative things with visual and social tools.
At the same time, I started thinking about a presentation I had seen a few weeks earlier at Radiodays in Dublin featuring Southern Cross Austereo’s digital guru, Clive Dickens.
Clive is a fascinating innovator, now working his magic in Australia. Before that, he was a major force in the UK at Radioplayer as well as the COO of Absolute Radio.
I originally met Clive through Larry Rosin, and he and I connected for the second time this year in Toronto last week at the Canadian Music Week Conference. And as told me over a couple of pints, one of his “credibility claims to fame” is that he was an original investor in Shazam.
Clive’s Radiodays presentation focused on innovative uses of video for radio – right on point with our recent blog posts. So I asked him to answer a few questions about how SCA is approaching bringing visuals within a traditional aural medium.
They are making video a priority. Adding to the social-local-mobile mantra – or SOLOMO – Clive’s team at SCA has added a “VO” for video to the equation. And it’s working.
You can listen to Clive’s audio here (and hear his great accent) or read below: click
FJ: Tell us about SOLOMOVO – why add the VO and how is it manifesting itself at your brands?
Clive: We have a digital strategy based around what’s called SOLOMOVO – social media, location data on a mobile device that’s visualized. Why would radio be visualized in 2015? Well increasingly, every radio that is manufactured has a colored touch screen on it. That’s the way we see it with smartphones and devices. And there is an expectation from audiences that there should be something on that screen. Now, I am not talking about bad television. I am talking about visualized audio – SOLOMOVO.
FJ: What kind of investment are your stations making in video and how is it paying off?
Clive: We made a very big investment in visualizing our audio streams because we have huge talent across our 89 radio stations across Australia on our breakfast shows. We are increasingly pairing all of those studios with live cameras, not just web cameras but with switching cameras. We are training our producers and talent to film unique content that can be shared across our social channels, and we are typically now doing around five million video views a month.
FJ: What are you doing in the way of training – especially with legacy staffers?
Clive: Well, training is a big challenge. We have 2,500 staff at SCA and 1,000 of those are producing content on a daily basis across our 65 buildings. And my video team flat out is equipping cameras, editing software and hardware to enable these content teams to produce visualized audio.
FJ: Are you now hiring presenters and programmers with video and visuals in mind?
Clive: We are increasingly hiring talent who have a visual aesthetic. Whether it is a producer who understands how to make things go viral, or whether it’s an announcer who can do an air shift on a radio station and also turn their mind to creating some shareable visual content as well.
FJ: Is it helping you build audience…and revenue?
Clive: Here in Australia digital advertising is driven by social, mobile, and video. We all know about the growth in mobile and social, and most radio stations are turning their attention to be part of that growth. But video is the fastest growing category of digital revenue here in Australia, and I am pretty much sure across the world. So by having premium video content, we can go and dip in to our revenue pool though we have not been able to access with our radio businesses to date.
Below are a couple of very recent examples of videos that the team at SCA has created that have gone especially viral. They are well-produced and bring a different view of radio shows to the Australian listening audience. We always hear bits on the radio where we try to imagine just how much more exciting they would be if we could just see them. The look on Emma Stone’s face in the one video, and Soph running around going crazy with the window washers are the types of bits that become turbo-charged with visuals.
Emma Stone Brought To Tears By Mel B 2DayFMBreakfast – 97,744 views
>EMAIL RECIPIENTS: CLICK HERE TO WATCH EMMA STONE/MEL B VIDEO<
Soph Flashes Window Cleaners! 2DayFMBreakfast – 38,034 views
>EMAIL RECIPIENTS: CLICK HERE TO WATCH SOPH VIDEO<
Thanks to Clive Dickens for a great window to the world of radio in Australia, reinforcing the power of video for radio. U.S. radio shows do these same types of bits and antics on an everyday basis – translating them to video and building a franchise that takes advantage of where consumer attention is moving is what Clive and SCA’s efforts are all about.
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 just got hired by a radio station and my main objective is to get more video on the station’s social media and website. The fact that I did video skits on my own was one of the selling points of getting me hired there. You can’t just be a voice behind the mic anymore.
Nope, and perhaps some of the examples over the past few weeks from Hot 107.9 in Ft. Wayne, as well as these Southern Cross Austereo vids should stimulate radio broadcasters to take video more seriously. Thanks, Chuck.