Heard 6 commercials in a row at 720-ish am today.  That's when I started counting - I'm sure there was more.  

One of our nation's most respected programmers manages and programs this station.  

When one of our nation's best allows stacks of commercials that reduce listener receptivity, retention, recall, response and - ergo - revenue (what I call the Five Rs of media), this evidences a sales problem - not just a programming problem.  

Sales needs to get more dollars per minute for their inventory, but as our industry increasingly chases digital dollars (a good thing), we're ignoring the MAIN thing.

Outside of ratings-influenced revenue, how do you get more revenue per minute along with more total revenue?  Another "Listen to Win" contest?  Another event sponsorship?  More Return On Investment selling?  

Continuing to do what the rest of the industry does will not make our advertisers prioritize us as the unique and compelling choice to deploy their dollars.

Keep it simple.  Give advertisers what they want:  a documented result - and you can do it with both spot inventory as well as your digital services.  Yep - give them specific, measured-to-the-penny proof of the business you're sending them, week after week after week, month after month, year after year.  Irrefutable evidence in any market that attributes millions of documented dollars to your station's advertising that makes your station the advertising vehicle of choice - and they pay more for the privilege.

It's been done thousands of times in radio across Canada, and more so, Stateside.  I feed my family doing so - inside and outside of radio - and yet there is no other station or newspaper doing so for the past number of years, as human nature defaults to chasing new and shiny things, and ignoring the main thing - what our advertisers want in the first place.  We give lip service to 52 week contracts, but we're not servicing advertisers with 52 weeks of results they can measure.

Is there any wonder that our industry revenue is flat-lining?

It's so much fun to look local advertisers in the eye, when they tell you they've made millions of dollars from what you've done for them.

 

Last edited by Andy McNabb (May 10, 2016 3:32 pm)