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Radio Must Elevate Its Profile
NEW YORK – September 21, 2007: A top level advertising agency rep said at Thursday's Interep Power of Urban Radio Symposium that broadcasters today the radio industry must work to elevate its profile among advertisers to that of a primary medium, and said the first step in the process is teaching radio sellers to believe more in the medium.
"Radio today is a secondary or tertiary medium, but you need to make it secondary or primary," said Carat vice president and regional spot director Dennis McGuire. "Unfortunately, within the business we have almost adopted this ourselves. We must be more forceful and convince buyers and advertisers that radio is the way to go."
Burrell Communications Group vice president and media director Paul Hunt added, "Radio can sometimes be taken for granted, so we need to get to clients early and demonstrate radio's ROI. It's often the case that people in radio wait around for their piece of the pie, but often times there is no pie."
On the day when Arbitron's Portable People Meter was rolling out its initial test phase in the Big Apple, panelists noted that the granular data the new ratings service will provide could help radio cut a larger slice of that pie.
McGuire said, "PPM is showing a greater reach. Right now radio is being used to expand print's reach. With the data we get from the PPM, we need to show advertisers that radio gives you the reach up front. They should use radio for the reach, not print, because it's there." Hunt added, "PPM is a way to open that dialog, even if [the technology] may be frightful to some of you."
Noting that the room was probably split on support for PPM, panel moderator and ICBC Broadcast Holdings COO Charles Warfield nonetheless asked the panelists what they believe are the biggest flaws in how radio is sold in the non-PPM world.
PHD senior vice president and local media director Coreen Gelber said, "It will take education - on our part - with planners. Planners buy 70% drive times, and that's it. We have to show our planners that there is a new way to do it. We can also see results quicker with PPM, which gives radio the accountability it has never had before. Accountability is big buzz word now."
Hunt urged broadcaster wary of the PPM to embrace the new technology. "This is the new currency and the new reality. If you aren't the champion of this data, you will be the victim of this data."
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