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Differences of Opinion
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Posted at Apr. 15, 2008 07:28 PM CST | | | | Greg Douglass, Managing Director, Media & Entertainment | | | Yesterday I had the pleasure of introducing David Rehr, President and CEO of the National Association of Broadcasters, for his plenary address to NAB attendees. Dave spoke frankly about many of the challenges ahead for the broadcasting industry: "Some people are overwhelmed by change," he said. "Some are not optimistic about broadcasting's future." | | | Yet Dave made and continued to make throughout his remarks a consistent point, using the old phrase that "when one door closes, another opens." Digital is that new door opening, he said, and the industry must be able to understand why some parts of the business have changed forever, but also why new areas of the business hold great hope for the future. | | | Dave touched on a couple things, however, that I'm not sure all of us agreed with. He spent quite a bit of time discussing the NAB's sponsorship of a new marketing campaign for the radio industry, "Radio Heard Here." Radio certainly isn't going away; it will continue to be a constant presence in our society. I'm just not sure everyone would agree with Dave's assessment that radio is still a vibrant and growing medium. Is that where someone wants to stake their future? I'm not sure, but I'd be interested in what you think. | | | Dave also played up the NAB's role in the analog-to-digital conversion, especially the big "cutover day" of February 17, 2009—the day the traditional analog signal ceases broadcasting. There are aggressive marketing plans in place to make sure everyone knows about this event. As a result of that campaign, Dave told us, all of us will see information about the cutover at least 642 times between now and next February. | | | Is this really that big a deal? To me, this is kind of like Y2K all over again—lots of sound and fury, lots of worry, but not all that monumental in the end. Again, tell me what you think. | | | | Comment on this post |
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Comments Posted by:
Patrick Carver
on
April 22, 2008 05:31 PM CST  | I do think there are elements of radio that haven't been replicated anywhere (yet) that help it continue to be relevant. I get and love XM radio. XM provides every music choice and genre I could get on radio. And it's great at making the world smaller - I live in Dallas but could listen to every Chicago Cubs game if I wanted to.
But what radio does well is provide a local hook (primarily on the AM dial). Nowhere else can I listen to 3 guys prattle on for 2 hours on the Texas Rangers. Every day. And the Rangers are terrible. But a lot of people love listening to that. Another example: a local school district runs a radio station as an opportunity to provide students with hands-on experience, and they broadcast high school sports and 70s tunes. And I'll tune in, if the programming is done well and I feel like I'm supporting the local kids.
So my two cents - exploiting the local element can provide points of differentiation. |
Posted by:
Michelle
on
April 22, 2008 10:10 AM CST | I agree that the radio is here to stay, but using it as a stand-alone or even effective communications medium is questionable from a marketing and consumer perspective. We are in age where we are consuming digital content everywhere and we want it customized and ready when and how we want it. It like fast food or in this case “fast content” and neither I nor my colleagues see how the radio will deliver on our new appetites for of rapid, customized, digital content.
I think of the radio and get annoyed because I also think of how many commercials I may have to sit through before I hear what I want. I don’t think I am in the minority. In the meantime, I’ve lost interest. Secondly, I don’t have time and third, I have my iPod, where I can listen to my personalize music or my podcasts subscriptions. To be fair however, I agree to use the radio for really targeted groups where there are loyal listeners- I’m thinking of sports radio.
I agree with Greg. I don’t see how the radio will continue to be a vibrant, growing medium. The reality is that I and most of the other folks I know personally or professionally don’t even listen to the radio much. If we are commuting, we have our iPods or mp3 players and if we are traveling by car, we have our iPods and mp3 players.
The bigger question is how much of our ad dollars will be continuously directed at this medium. Will we see the ROI? Will we really get the reach we are looking for or are their other ways to reach our targets? And finally, what will our consumers think? I hope it’s not that we are dinosaurs! |
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