Last night I told you that my next post would contain best practices for producing a good streaming spot. Then I got on my soapbox for two more posts. So without further delay here are said promised pointers:
1) Remember it’s a one-to-one conversation, treat it that way. Don’t yell, play crazy music beds, or other gimmicks that are used on traditional radio. If someone is listening in the office this could cause them to turn down and tune out your creative.
2) Give a clear call to action at multiple points in the spot. Make sure you evaluate this goal and make it clear to the listener. Nothing is more maddening than my staff coming to me with another client disappointed with the click-through rate (CTR) of their streaming campaign. Asked if the spot had a clear call to action I often get, nope just used their traditional spot. Huh, wonder why there are no clicks!
3) If you are selling services or high priced products think about incentives. I’m not saying slash prices, or even couponing; it can be as simple as a white paper. IE Top ten things you should know when XYZ happens, chat with someone now, take a break on us, check out our game…… The list could go on forever but think about why someone should stop what they are doing to click. Hint: I’ve read studies that put at work Internet usage around 2-3.5 hours, why not have them on your site.
4) A click is an interaction in today’s world. Just like in the past with brick and mortar locations cleanliness, easy of navigation, and ease of check out still hold true, it is just online. Once again it is maddening to have clients complain about bounce rates (web traffic that automatically exits upon entering a page or site) but when you look at their site it was created by their high school senior in 1999.
5) Storyboard, storyboard, storyboard. Why you ask? Know that guy at work that tells the same story or gives the same answer. Notice how the whole office mocks or jokes about him behind his back. Don’t let that be your ad creative. The listeners invited you in to have a conversation, don’t be the MLM friend and has the same conversation every time.
Hope these suggestions help you and your clients. As an industry we have to stop bastardizing creative. You get what you pay for.
5 Ideas on Streaming Creative
Smaller Sites Get More Click’s and Some Radom Ideas on Pricing
This is a great read and underlines a myth that is ramped within the marketing world. Online buying is no longer about millions; it about targeting (millions was so 2005). Smaller websites should command a much higher cost than their highly trafficked partners which grab eyeballs from all over the globe. Targeted audiences will click on targeted offers. Huh, sounds like radio websites to me. I also enjoyed the authors’ points on pricing; I’ve personally been a big fan of the CPM but I can see the authors’ points. Finally the article almost gets there but never comes out and says it so I will; you need to invest in your online marketing ads. Why would someone click on something that is flying around on a senior’s website or vice versa? This will cut like a knife but you get what you pay for; shame on most of you for expecting free web ad creative to create clicks and yet judging an entire viable marketing method by this poor creative! In the very near future I’ll write about web creative…….dang it, guess I messed all of you up looking for how to build a streaming ad…..Next time I promise. This was too good not to share.
More Good News about Internet Radio
In the ocean of bad news in the marketing world who would have thought we would have a bright spot to talk about…….and its radio…..internet radio to be real specific. As Katy Bachman points out, Web Radio is on Target, allows for geo-targeting, and feels local which when done right can produce tremendous results. Here is the catch; just because you are good at traditional radio does not make you great at streaming radio ad production.
Traditional radio is a one-to-many mechanism. It reaches people at all points of life, doing all sorts of things and ready to consume at every turn. This has always been the ubiquities draw that has attracted listeners and marketers alike. Online/Web/Stream Radio (I wish we could get this figured out as an industry ASAP) is a one-to-one medium for the most part. DISCLAIMER: For those hardcore online listeners who have been doing it for 10 years, thank you, this is not intended at you and the technology you harness today, whew! Most people today sit in front of a computer, pull up their streaming provider/station website, and open the provided player to access the content. No pre-sets or scan buttons to dodge those pesky ads. Most of the TSL (time spent listening) data I have seen or heard has put online listening well in the 2-5 hour range.. Advertisers and Programmers need to own this time with new listener focused creative that engages, and incentivizes that habit which benefits us all, clicks! If you come back next post I’ll give you some of my own thoughts on what a great spot should have and how to piggy back this with programming content. HA, my first hook piece…..
Thinking of jumping into Twitter, BE WARNED
This afternoon I read a great article on how a business owner used user generated content (UGC) to interact with a potential client unhappy with his company. Notice that word in front of client, potential; pretty cool idea on winning hearts and minds early in the buying cycle. So what horrible experience did this potential clients have, actually it was just a marketing campaign. A marketing campaign in the world of Twitter, a campaign where cost considerations overrode the common sense behind why the advertiser was drawn to Twitter in the first place.
Why would you launch a campaign of this sort? Well obviously this business owner had got involved on Twitter, seen the power of the interactions on Twitter and wanted to get involved. Somewhere along the way though he forgot what made those interactions on Twitter so cool, the human interaction! So it’s not human interaction as my grandmother or even my mother would define it but for Gen X, Y and the Millenniums’ this is as close as it gets. And boy are we excited and guarded about it. This business owner forgot this fact and he employed an auto responder to begin the dialogue; the response was swift and measurable from Twitter nation.
Twitter Users Tiring of Automated Direct Messages, makes a clear point that we as marketers should learn from. If you are a marketer contemplating getting into online social marketing you better have a well thought out plan and solid creative behind the leap. Not having a plan can have far reaching and irreversible consequences to your brand or business (most times I bet this adverse affect cost more than not doing the marketing campaign at all). Small hint in case you still don’t understand; you better be real and create unique interactions. That is how you win this hearts and minds war.
Silver lining of this story; this business owner did not go to lunch and taking afternoon cocktails; he was monitoring his companies name in the social sphere and found his trespass. Instead of sticking his head in the sand he engaged the frustrated party and took action. How profoundly simple but often overlooked in today’s fast paced world online world.
Satellite Radio Dodges another Bullet
With Feb 17th looming in just 7 short hours Sirius (who also owns XM if you have not been following along) gets investment funding in the reported hundreds of millions from Liberty Media (aka DirecTV). February 17th 2009 was the day much of Sirius’s debt came due. It will be interesting to see how this partnership works and if people will really pay more for their satellite in order to get Sirius. My bet is no but it’s an interesting play by Liberty Media (if it were anyone else I would say this was throwing money at beta max). Liberty Media does command a large number of subscribers but conversion in this economic time will be tough unless it’s a throw in. The later I’m sure will not make LM shareholders very happy right now. It’s a medium that has peeled roughly less than 1% away from its older brother traditional radio. With WiMax coming this is a stretch in my mind but we’ll see; this might be the merger of yet again two dinosaurs on their last days.
Twitter for President
For many of us the 2008 Presidential Election will go down as the first online and socially networked campaign in history. 10 years ago the thought that online social networking sites and/or simple tweets could cause such a ground swell was unthinkable. So on President's Day 2009 I wanted to highlight the power of Twitter for all those of you still in the dark. Thanks to some digging I found this great slide show that will help you understand Twitter in a more relevant way.
If you make the Twitter leap make sure you tweet me up.
More on the Google story
As I mentioned in the Google Gets out of Radio post, many within the Radio industry are taking the news as some sort of white flag from Google. Yesterday in speaking with a long time veteran of the Radio biz I was told the reason Google got out was because they could not figure out how to sell Radio!!
Pretty incredible if you know Google's business models of the past and the power AdWords has begun to wields within the marketing world. OK this person is correct in one sense; Google has no want to build the cost heavy structure which hangs around Radio's neck like an anchor today (massive sales and talent organizations). No, Google prefers to build a scalable/measurable platform were millions of users can purchase and measure media. Google saw the numerous competitors in the space for traditional radio (numerous remnant providers and don't forget they still own DMarc) and where technology is taking the audio marketing medium. Sure they played in it for a while but this was to learn the industries inefficiencies and perfect their rich media spiders as mentioned in my prior post. This time allowed Google to measure the power of Radio on search and begin their funding of the WiMax revolution that will see streaming radio become the ubiquitous consumption standard. Even better for Google this standard was measurable and could be localized. As the final kicker Google would be the provider of the bandwidth backbone to supply this mass accessibility platform, with the caveat that their partnership wins the WiMax war.
So what, you say? Here is the What in my humble opinion; Google will build a streaming platform that is a snap in piece to AdWords. This platform will allow for sliver-casting, hyper-local targeting, and psychographic profiling of audio ads all while being able to measure in one dash board (AdWords). But here is the bigger kicker; once this is made public, overnight Radio will have hundreds of new competitors. What is to stop every agency and individual company to begin insertion of their own audio ads without the help of traditional Radio reps? In reality Google's announcement means that Radio will lose a remnant supplier for the near future but in the long term will create thousands of new competitors because of the predicted Google platform. The only remaining leg for the industry will be the creation of audio content and ads. The content (DJ talent) will see the same revolution that is sweeping music currently in a measureable and online world (death of music labels and the rise of artist direct to public models). This leaves audio ad production which by itself will not be able to sustain the massive overhead currently harnessing the industry (this does not even take into account all the obsolete capital investments Radio has like towers, satellites, etc....).
Radio has to begin to see this or else another percentage of every dollar will be shaved away leaving it liable for takeover and/or demise. It/we need to begin to invest in our own platform to trump Google, invest heavily in online platforms that keep their audience engaged in more than just the audio, and learn how to sell the digital assets in a public marketplace. No question audio marketing has a long history in front of it but the question today is will this be with the same players that dominate the space today.