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.
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.
Yesterday Google announced that is would be ending its radio insertion program that has been on its AdWords platform for the past 2 years. Many of my colleagues around the country have heralded this move and started the whole we're smarter than Google chant. I could not disagree more and am saddened that this is the foresight we have as an industry. Why do I think this? For a couple of reasons: 1) Google was using the audio and video's uploaded through AdWords to perfect their video and audio spiders. This was free content to them for this project which is rumored to be close to completion. 2) Google said that they are pulling out of the traditional radio ads but are still going to be in the streaming insertion business. Streaming revenue for the radio industry are a fraction of the traditional, so why would Google do this? As I mentioned in my first post on this blog, WiMax will revolutionize radio and bring accountability to the industry. Google's WiMax project with Sprint, Clearwire, and Brighthouse must be much closer than they are willing to let on. 3) They also announced that they are going away from print media insertion as well.
Conclusion: Why learn to clone an horse when the automobile is coming? This is what I am sure Google is reading in the tea leaves. Both traditional radio and print media will be obsolete in the next 5-10 years if not sooner. So why continue to spend millions in a dying industry; it was fine when they had a dual purpose (rich media spiders) but now it's just a money pit.
So as my radio brothern out there drink the radio kool-aid I'm more worried than ever that our tactical approach will be our undoing. Radio better get smart, stop pimping HD, and invest heavily in how to sliver-cast streaming radio in a real and meaningful way.
I wonder if this was what it was like in the last days of the dinosaurs? Read my lips, this is the validation of streaming radio and that it works!
The Economist had a great read the other day about Hulu's fight in the online video space. The take away points are simple but easy to understand. In the article, Hulu Who?, the author makes several key points: 1) UGC is hard for advertisers to wrap their minds around or even want to be part of. The video quality is often poor and content can be less than desirable. This makes it hard to monetize. 2) While Apple may have had a great model for music it does not work for video. User only watch video once or twice and are often stationary when consuming video. This means that browser based video players are winning. 3) Finally in the doldrums of today's economy Hulu's inventory is sold out. They are now trying to find ways to generate more content and page views. WOW what a problem to have!
What does this mean for radio you ask? Opportunity, as I have spelled out in my last two posts. Radio is getting better at delivering quality (not professional quality but somewhere between UGC and professional) video content to their users but we need to get good at selling it. How can Hulu be sold out yet hyper local radio websites are only selling 25-40% of its video content? The answer lies some where between education within the industry, evangelizing these assets to advertisers, and making an investment in better video platforms. I personally am excited about what the coming years hold for online video........
Last night I posted an article about Radio and Reinvention and how radio pays a ton of lip service to it. Today I read a blog, Radio: Here comes the future, ready or not, that only furthers the points I made last night that this is smoke not actual fire. Mark makes a great point about the lip service paid to digital on Wall Street but that actual attitude when it comes to Main Street.
While I'm not a fan of all his points in this article, I do think his point on lip service is a great one....... Are we truly ready as an industry?!? From my perspective, not even kind of, sad but true.
If you are close to the radio industry in any way you always hear the rallying cry of "radio can always reinvent itself", my question is can it really? It seems to me that more often than not we are following the leader instead of truly trusting our guts and stepping out.
Example you ask; Display banners on traditional media sites, how old and stale is this technology. For certain and far between events they make sense. Imagine if you visited a website once or twice a week that had no display ads. Then one day you show up and a full takeover with 300x250's are there. Bet you can recall that brand or message? Instead radio continues to place display banners (sometimes in the most odd and strange ways that it makes you ask yourself who is running this show) within their sites and claiming to investors, if we can just sell a little more of banner inventory we'll get through this hitch. My contention is that you are in a declining market already; what have CPM's done over the last few months?
Yet we have new emerging technology that deals directly with assets that our listeners are most ravenous about, video! Mass interactive video is just around the bend and radio could be the medium that owns it. Instead the minds are focused on selling just 10% more display inventory or streaming inventory. I'll bet you that when this masses finally have it radio will adopt it.... mark my words. Just one more thing we will look back on as an industry and say damn missed that one.
If you would like to check out a company doing this right now check out Video Clix
OK so I’ve started this damn blog over five months ago and have yet to make a blog post. Sometimes the best of intentions can be derailed but life. Right as I started the blog my wife and I welcomed our first little girl into the world. Additionally I have moved up the corporate food chain and am now learning the time balance that is being asked of me. The past five months have been spent learning, adjusting, and trying to strike a life balance again. Over the time though I have about ten million ideas written down, it’s just finding the time to get it done. As you can see by the 9 to 5 post my personal job has become more demanding but I’m rededicating myself to giving you a weekly thought or two. In order to find the time I have taken several steps; my Twitter is now hooked up on the blog and I will use this to send around articles immediately (I may blog about them later but want to get you the information that is forming my thoughts sooner so we can discuss in a more timely fashion), and finally I have blocked off time in my week to try and push out some thoughts. I say done these things for no other reason than the fact that if you only get small snippets and/or find numerous grammar mistakes and/or misspellings you are more forgiving than you might be on other more formal blogs. Look forward to interacting with you daily and hope you find these small nuggets helpful.
Finally my boy Matt Coppins hooked me up with the incredible image at the top of this post, he is an incredible graphic designer who is doing free lance work, I highly recommend that you look him up if you have a need. Oh Matt, my first blog shill.... LOL
