PG 1 800.275.2840 THE MOST TRUSTED NEWS IN RADIO MORE NEWS» insideradio.com [email protected] | 800.275.2840 TUESDAY, JULY 7, 2015 Tweets don’t fail me now—how social media brings bucks to radio. Likes and retweets are great for brand image, but monetizing social media has always been the goal and the grail. And as radio stations increase their online foothold, they are finding new ways to generate revenue from such platforms, especially since 52% of Americans are active on two or more social media channels, according to Pew Research. Cumulus Media, for one, is developing social-only partnerships, expecting to roll them out later this year. “This goes beyond selling status updates for $50. It’s about sizing up client objectives and showing them how social complements the traditional radio buy, with metrics to back it up,” says Cumulus VP of social media Lori Lewis. At Bonneville International’s stations, “We’re monetizing social, but we’re not treating it as an independent, high-margin revenue stream,” says James Bottorff, director of digital media. That’s the status at most groups, where social media is currently an ingredient in overall advertising campaigns, mixed into product endorsements, talent appearances, cobranded contests and live events. It’s hardly a surprise. Social media is a proven way to increase listening occasions and deepen relationships with audiences. And advertisers are demanding that it be in the mix—according to the IAB, social media advertising shot up 55% per year from 2012- 2014. The breadth of that mix is important. When Scripps stations have done social-only campaigns, “Engagement drops and it’s not beneficial to either party if our audience isn’t seeing our posts,” says VP of radio programming Beverlee Branigan. “Adding a little station personality along with something promotional from the client can go a long way in exciting our listeners.” Indeed, station hosts and DJs are a built-in salesforce with extensive reach, and buyers want access. Brands buy into hosts with the most (followers). Most stations are active daily on social media, and popular on-air hosts are veritable Web stars, some with hundreds of thousands of followers. And that carries lots of appeal for advertisers looking to tap into everything that goes beyond the music. “A personality’s social media presence should be integrated into the package I’m buying,” says Nancy Haynes, principal at Collins, Haynes & Lully Advertising in Charlotte, N.C. Stations should mine the “celebrity of their DJs,” says JL Media’s director of digital Alex Hinz, adding, “the opportunity is in leveraging the DJ personalities for extending brand mentions and testimonials.” It’s sound reasoning, given the social footprint of stars such as syndicated country morning man Bobby Bones, who counts 353,000 Twitter followers, and Ebro Darden of rhythmic CHR “Hot 97” WQHT, New York, who has 163,000 Instagram followers. Buyers also say radio should pour more effort into selling itself, as clients may not think of the medium when it comes to social and digital buys. Another way to grow revenue— and encourage more social campaigns—could be selling social media management services. Small businesses, for instance, want to be getting those likes, but may lack the skills or resources. “You could make a steady stream of money to provide help for these Top 200 Advertisers Latch on to Web Ads NEWS INSIDE >>
Tweets don’t fail me now—how social media brings bucks to radio. Likes and retweets are great for brand image, but monetizing social media has always been the goal and the grail. And as radio stations increase their online foothold, they are finding new ways to generate revenue from such platforms, especially since 52% of Americans are active on two or more social media channels, according to Pew Research. Cumulus Media, for one, is developing social-only partnerships, expecting to roll them out later this year. “This goes beyond selling status updates for $50. It’s about sizing up client objectives and showing them how social complements the traditional radio buy, with metrics to back it up,” says Cumulus VP of social media Lori Lewis. At Bonneville International’s stations, “We’re monetizing social, but we’re not treating it as an independent, high-margin revenue stream,” says James Bottorff, director of digital media. That’s the status at most groups, where social media is currently an ingredient in overall advertising campaigns, mixed into product endorsements, talent appearances, cobranded contests and live events. It’s hardly a surprise. Social media is a proven way to increase listening occasions and deepen relationships with audiences. And advertisers are demanding that it be in the mix—according to the IAB, social media advertising shot up 55% per year from 2012-2014. The breadth of that mix is important. When Scripps stations have done social-only campaigns, “Engagement drops and it’s not beneficial to either party if our audience isn’t seeing our posts,” says VP of radio programming Beverlee Branigan. “Adding a little station personality along with something promotional from the client can go a long way in exciting our listeners.” Indeed, station hosts and DJs are a built-in salesforce with extensive reach, and buyers want access.
Brands buy into hosts with the most (followers). Most stations are active daily on social media, and popular on-air hosts are veritable Web stars, some with hundreds of thousands of followers. And that carries lots of appeal for advertisers looking to tap into everything that goes beyond the music. “A personality’s social media presence should be integrated into the package I’m buying,” says Nancy Haynes, principal at Collins, Haynes & Lully Advertising in Charlotte, N.C. Stations should mine the “celebrity of their DJs,” says JL Media’s director of digital Alex Hinz, adding, “the opportunity is in leveraging the DJ personalities for extending brand mentions and testimonials.” It’s sound reasoning, given the social footprint of stars such as syndicated country morning man Bobby Bones, who counts 353,000 Twitter followers, and Ebro Darden of rhythmic CHR “Hot 97” WQHT, New York, who has 163,000 Instagram followers. Buyers also say radio should pour more effort into selling itself, as clients may not think of the medium when it comes to social and digital buys. Another way to grow revenue—and encourage more social campaigns—could be selling social media management services. Small businesses, for instance, want to be getting those likes, but may lack the skills or resources. “You could make a steady stream of money to provide help for these
customers,” says Kelly McKay, a former host at hot AC “The Link” WLNK, Charlotte (107.9), who now runs Loud Mouth Red Head Media, a social media content firm. “But a lot of stations just see it as ‘put up an ad and promise 5 retweets.’”
“Less is more”—sound reasoning for social media. In the understandable eagerness to use social media marketing in radio, the trick is to figure out how much is too much. That’s the word from insiders such as Cumulus VP of social media Lori Lewis, who says, “We want people to trust in our feeds.” The mantra of “less is more” applies, according to execs with a stake in the game. Radio should be, “People who won’t pitch to us when we’re trying to escape,” Lewis says. And while talent have the most firepower to deliver promotional plugs, they need to use that sparingly. “And there always needs to be a benefit for users,” says Kelly McKay, DJ-turned-head of social media firm Loud Mouth Red Head Media. When McKay was a personality for Charlotte’s WLNK, she made social media a focus during her appearances for local homebuilder M/I Homes, sharing quirky videos of her vacuuming and dusting a model home or admiring a spacious master closet. Followers loved it, she says, and M/I Homes noticed an uptick in sales. While these tie-ins can be effective, most stations keep a tight watch on product integration on social media. James Bottorff, director of digital media at Bonneville International, say their stations’ messaging “revolves around content that we know our user base is interested in and wants.” To that end, when the Seattle Mariners, which air on Bonneville’s “710 ESPN Seattle” KIRO played their home opener this season, the station mentioned sponsor Alaska Airlines in Facebook galleries, posts, tweets and Instagram pictures, piggybacking on baseball-related content. “We focused on the users’ interests,” says Bonneville’s Seattle community manager Kelsey Mallahan.
Facebook’s best when it builds site-seeing. While social media still works beautifully in what radio first used it for—to drive tune-in—stations and companies, like all brands, recognize its evolving potential as part of a larger multiplatform push to build listenership. And when Facebook or Twitter helps drive clicks as well on your website, it’s a win-win.“We have an ecosystem of radio, social, Web and mobile, all with the end goal of engaging with audiences 24/7,” says Bonneville’s James Bottorff. For many, getting social media to move listeners to their website is job 1. From there, station salespeople can sell advertisers with hard data on usage, geotargeting and demographics. Less effective, of course, is when users are directed by staffers or on-air talent to third-party sites such as YouTube. A better tactic, says Jacob Media’s digital dot director Seth Resler, is to embed content in a stations’ website or blogs and then share that link. In Detroit, for instance, when rock WRIF’s morning hosts Dave and Chuck “The Freak” tweet out a picture, such as recent posts featuring a Pizza Hut worker in a compromising position, to their 44,000 followers, they embed the photos in a WRIF.com page. From there, Resler notes, “You can get users to take the next step, like listen to audio, register for emails or sign up for contests.” While tweeting and posting outside links is faster, Resler says it is less effective for stations in the long-term.
Top 200 advertisers latch on to web ads—survey. At last month’s SNL Kagan Radio and TV Finance Summit, several speakers talked about the need to explore unmeasured media as a path to better return on investment. And according to an annual “Ad Age” analysis, along with that talk, top national advertisers are walking the walk on Web ads as well. The 200 Leading National Advertisers raised spending by 6.5% in 2014 on media that takes most things digital into account, clearly investing in the Internet’s ROI potential beyond pure Nielsen numbers. This includes results they’re finding in social networks, online video, mobile and experiential marketing. All told, ad dollars for the top 200 rose 2% last year. Spending on measured media dropped 1.8%, although smaller advertisers increased such spending 3.5% for an overage average gain of 0.7%, according to Kantar Media. While the measured media cuts certainly affected radio, billboards and newspapers, the ROI measurement could have a significant upside for radio, according to Hartley Adkins, executive VP, operations for iHeartMedia’s major markets. A 2014 study of big iHeart advertisers conducted by Nielsen’s Catalina Solutions found each dollar spent on radio returned an astounding $6 in sales. That’s better—even double in some cases—than the ROI claims by digital media. The numbers came as a surprise, according to a panel convened last year by the Advertising Research Foundation, in part because radio’s total ad budget is lower than other media.
Lotus keeps steady flow of drought tips going. Lotus Communications is using its bullhorn to encourage listeners to conserve water out west during continued drought conditions. All 32 of its stations in June began broadcasting 10-15 second conservation tips that air 25 times per week. Produced in-house, the tips range from simple suggestions (to turn off the water while brushing your teeth, for instance) to facts about the drought, which has affected most every state west of the Rocky Mountains. Lotus owns 32 stations in California, Arizona and Nevada, all of which have been severely impacted by the water shortage. In addition to the short-form PSAs, Lotus stations carry a 30-minute weekly program, “Water Action 411 with Shawn Fazeli,” on Sunday mornings. It originates at ethnic “Radio Iran” KIRN, Los Angeles (670), hosted by Fazeli, a longtime conservation crusader. Guests range from farmers dealing with the drought to professors and other experts. The company’s Hispanic stations air their own Spanish-language version of the show. “Once you start doing this on the airwaves, your staff starts commenting on the tips and it spreads out into the community,” Lotus regional manager Tony Bonnnici says. Audience awareness for the tips is growing—along with client interest. “At this point we could open them up for sponsorships, like you do with traffic reports,” Bonnnici says. “When you put something on the air that has public interest, it has value.” The tips carry the slogan: “Save Water. Save our planet. Save your money.” They’re shared across the company’s stations via a proprietary Lotus website and voiced by local station personnel. “It’s part of our obligation as a broadcaster to encourage people to use water wisely,” Bonnici says, “and one that we’re damn proud to be doing.”
Nielsen panel finds diversity and big data in 2020 foresight conference. A panel of media industry execs gazed into their crystal ball and offered predictions for the industry in 2020 at Nielsen’s U.S. Consumer 360 conference. The forecast calls for a more diverse population that challenges traditional ways to categorize consumers, and for Big Data on consumers becoming a core competency for all marketers and media companies. Among other findings: • Marketers like to use labels such as “Hispanics” when creating segmentations, Magna Global, senior VP of audience analysis Brian Hughes noted, while acknowledging that such labels defy generalization. Hughes cited findings from Magna Global’s upcoming Media Economy Report that first-, second- and third-generation Hispanics all exhibited significant differences in media consumption. • Reny Diaz, VP of insights and strategy at NBCU, predicted that by 2020, more than one in five marriages will be mixed race, as Millennials also continue to confound easy classification. • Measurement and interpretation of data will continue to be important. Nielsen SVP of product leadership Chris Louie summarized the panel’s advice on how to prepare for 2020 by saying, “Invest in a robust consumer insights effort to ensure you have a strong handle on who your customers are and what they want from you.” • Another common consensus on future media life—reams of data on consumer behavior will become increasingly prevalent. “By 2020, more than 75% of marketers and media companies will be using a Data Management Platform [DMP] to activate data—their own and that of third parties,” predicted Damian Garbaccio, chief strategy officer at eXelate, the DMP that Nielsen acquired in March. Meanwhile, traditional media will continue to look more like its digital counterparts with a common belief on the panel that more than half of TV advertising will be transacted on audience measures beyond age and gender by 2020.
Glenn Beck takes four-week sabbatical. Glenn Beck is taking four weeks off from his syndicated radio show after doctors advised him that his vocal chords need some rest due to “severe strain.” An assortment of guests, including co-hosts Stu Burguiere and Pat Gray, will fill in for Beck on his radio and TV programs during what Beck calls a short “sabbatical.” In a video message posted on Facebook yesterday, Beck said he consulted with doctors after having problems with his vocal chords. “They have advised me to take a few weeks off and rest my voice due to some severe strain that has happened,” Beck said. The conservative talk host said he plans to use the time off to “listen more than I speak” and study “figures of the past… figures of people who have really made a difference.” Doctors advising him to not speak for a while may be welcome news for some. “There’s a lot of people in the world who are celebrating this,” Beck quipped, “but it’s only going to be for a few weeks.
Salem expands portfolio of financial publications. Salem Media Group is doing more with its investment capital than just buying AM stations from Disney. The Christian and conservative media colossus announced yesterday that it has acquired the website DividendInvestor.com. The subscription-based site provides stock screening tools and dividend information for stock markets around the world. Salem is adding the property to its Eagle Financial Publications’ portfolio of investment newsletters and trading services. Eagle publishes products written by such investment experts as Mark Skousen, Doug Fabian, Nicholas Vardy, Bryan Perry and Chris Versace. DividendInvestor.com joins Eagle’s two other financial websites: EagleDailyInvestor.com and ETFU.com. It’s the latest outside-the-box investment for Salem, which received one-third of third quarter 2014 revenue from non-radio sources. Home Depot scores as top ad-selling tool. Home Depot remained a good worker for radio in big markets last week, notching as the top advertiser on AC, urban and country stations, and second on Hispanic and top 40-formatted stations. The company was first overall with 51,037 spots during the week of June 29-July 5, according to Media MonitorsIts big-box competitor Lowe’s finished sixth overall with 28,866 spots, posting various stops on top-ten lists depending on format. Perhaps mindful that millions of Americans would be taking to the highways over the Independence Day holiday and might need tune-ups beforehand, AutoZone scheduled 41,028 ads, good for second place among all advertisers, and all the way up from the 43rd spot the week before. Putting its money where its many mouths are, iHeartRadio ranked third during the week. It used the promos to plug its streaming service and placed 34,763 spots in major markets.
iHeartMedia forms Hispanic brand management team. iHeartMedia has tapped a trio of its top Hispanic radio programmers to form a new Hispanic Brand Management team. Led by Ricardo “Gonzo” Otero, the group is part of the company’s national programming platforms division led by Tom Poleman. Otero, the team’s brand manager, will continue as operations manager for the Spanish adult hits “La Preciosa” Network and program director for La Preciosa affiliate KFSO, Fresno. Joining him as brand coordinators are Ray Hernandez and Raymond Torres. Hernandez will keep his position as program director for Spanish CHR “Mega 94.9” WMGE, Miami; Torres retains programming responsibilities of tropical “Rumba 100.3” WRUM, Orlando. The company says the new team will provide its Hispanic brands with strategic guidance and product leadership, connecting them with advertisers and developing Hispanic-specific contests. The trio will also be involved in planning and executing this fall’s second-annual iHeartRadio Fiesta Latina concert.
DJ Skee likes Dash’s digital chances. You might think Scott Keeney—better known as DJ Skee—would be concerned that the debut of Beats 1 online radio got tons of ink when it premiered one month after the arrival of his own Dash Radio, an online suite of 60 separate “stations.” You’d be wrong. Skee sees the rising tide of Apple’s music project—and its attendant 800 million worldwide accounts—lifting all boats, and making the water that much safer for other webcasters. “It’s almost the best thing that could have happened to us,” he said. “Once they jumped in, I think everybody decided if they can do it, they’re gonna get in it. I think it’s great for digital radio.” Skee, who worked for SiriusXM Radio and was a personality at L.A.’s KIIS-FM, loves radio but sees digital as a vast and exciting untapped opportunity. Dash’s stations are staffed by a disparate group of programmers, with channels running the gamut from one run by East Village Radio, to one run by EASports and pegged to its new FIFA soccer video game. For a time, there was a channel that was all “Entourage,” all the time. The showcase channel, however, is undoubtedly the one run by rapper Snoop Dogg, who has his own station and is building his own studio.While the talent behind the shows doesn’t get traditional payment, a formula for splitting revenues is in place. Even the ad model is unique, borrowing a bit from how YouTube deals with some of its bigger artists. “We will only do title sponsorship, and 100% ‘DJ reads,’” in which the announcer free forms the ad pitch live, says Skee.
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qual GM/SM - MINNESOTAGM/SM opening for Hubbard radio in northern Minnesota!
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