PARTNERING STRATEGIES KEY COMPONENT TO RADIO BRANDING Chuck Taylor – Radio and Records The second annual Radio Advertising Bureau New York Radio Forum, held Thursday (March 15) at Westin Times Square, brought together marketing, advertising and programming executives to discuss on-air and online initiatives to move the medium forward.
In the first morning session, moderated by Billboard deputy editor Bill Werde, Mika Ham, VP of consumer marketing for AT&T, noted that the airwaves are influenced by more than just music playlists; advertising partnerships are also responsible for helping brand radio stations.
"Right now a wall exists between account executives and programmers," he cautioned. "There needs to be a way to get clients directly involved with record labels. Radio will still serve as a centerpiece for the future, but in breaking new artists, it is helpful to come up with with league sponsors in today's business model."
Camille Hackney, senior VP of brand partnership and commercial licensing for Atlantic Records, noted that working with sponsors to come up with creative ways to reward listeners has become more of a challenge since former New York attorney general (now governor) Elliot Spitzer came down on radio and record labels. "We are finding ways to cut through the clutter, for instance, we came up with a promotion where we aligned with Verizon Wireless and their Chocolate phone. There are plenty of new and different ways to work with radio."
She added that the Spitzer crisis has "definitely created more hurdles to do the simplest things. There's a lot more paperwork and it does slow down the process. Everything has to be approved through our national office, from CD giveaways to taking people to dinner."
The Emmis radio group has partnered with iTunes as an advertising licensee to bring it closer to listeners, according to the group's lifestyle engagement group director Mikal Ham. "It took us a year to get the deal in place, but we are seeing great value with those tools out there and we're really embracing the technology."
Hackney stressed that the power of radio continues to primarily revolve around reaching people in a localized way: "We definitely see when we bring an artist to a market and on the radio station and do events with a station, that there is further engagement with the artist to the consumer. We're still willing to spend money to move these artists around to personally connect with stations and their listeners."
Hackney suggested that technology has also allowed record labels to search out different outlets to break artists. "Radio is still important, but we're working to break songs online now and not waiting for radio to react. It used to be about building a tour, then radio, but now it's more and more of an expensive proposition to get a song on radio."
Ham cited the example of Yahoo! in customizing offering customized radio stations that are a kean target for audience demos. "We're studying ways where we can partner deals. Radio stations are also creating their own streams, so we're trying to figure out the right way to take advantage of those things."
"I love the strategy of starting a song online before radio and it's given us new ways to map out a project, so that radio is being pushed a little further down the cycle in our attempts to create a buzz. There's such a creative community online that has helped us out."
Tony Rome, president and CEO of Maven Strategies, however, stressed radio's continuing relevance. "Yes, new media can be a key driver, but there is still nothing that is more effective in breaking music to consumers than radio." |