Not the Only Game in Town

Radio contests can be powerful events, sponsor building programs, and listener delights.  However, some recent radio events are not drawing the entries they used to draw.

Radio contests are not the only game in town anymore.  Search the web and you can find Mr. Sweepy®  tracking 803 active sweepstakes with prize pools totaling $53-million!  He rates and ranks the current events drawing 600,000 monthly visits to his tracking website.  You can find Honeywell Consumer Products $65k prize pool; Nat’l Frozen Foods Assoc $100k prize pool, Dream Bedroom from Lifetime Entertainment $20k; Hilton Grand Vacations new Mini Cooper prize; Toyota Hybrid Drive Sweepstake; Sharpie Office Depot Back Pack Contest; Rite Aid; TNT-TV; Sega; Hasbro; ESPN; L’oreal; and 792 more contests.

Radio is not the only constest game in town anymore

Search Google for “Radio Contest” and find 121,000 possibilities.

Now about your current contest … what’s your prize?  Do you have an easy entry process?  Are you still asking for mail ins?   Is the contest mentioned in the sponsor’s spots?  Any on air mentions? Do you have the contest on your website?   Is the contest in your newsletter?  Facebook page?  Twitter stream? Is the contest inviting, current, immediate, and engaging?  Or, do you have a 4-week event with little consumer engagement?  Hopefully, you are not running black box contest … entries in and winners announced 4-weeks later?

With CELLit Media tools you can have an engaging, active, sponsor-delightful contest.  We provide web tools to accept digital picture entries and videos.  Your audience can enter by the web, by email or directly from their cell phone.  You set the contest policies allowing your audience to help select the winners with voting options per day, per contest, per contestant.  You moderate the contest with easy review tools.   CELLit social tools allow commenting, rating, voting, tagging, and email-a-friend.  We even summarize the contest and automatically report all the results to you just minutes after the ending date/time.

Is it time to become “the” game in town?  CELLit Media

Local Interactive Ad Spending to Equal Radio Advertising

Check out a new research study by Borrell Associates indicating local interactive ad spending to reach $14-billion this year.   They also have a neat market calculator to see what’s in your home town.  

Local Interactive Ad Spending

As radio advertising continues to fall the two businesses might be equal in size within two years … both about $16 Billion per year.

Here’s the good news.   Radio stations can use their broadcast reach to build new revenue streams in local interactive ad spending.  Most radio stations haven’t touched interactive advertising yet.  The missed opportunity is a radio station with 500,000 listeners might only have 25,000 web visitors.  Radio stations can change that and grow revenue.  

If you need help with dynamic content then contact CELLit.  We are ready to help.  Need more information?  Check out this Wall Street Journal article.  If you don’t get going soon then the local TV stations and newspaper will beat you to this revenue.

Top-10 Radio Industry News Sites Lead the Way

Here’s an interesting “eat your own dog food” example. 

The top-10 radio industry news websites are up … big!  Unique monthly visitors are up 68% over January’08, month-to-month growth is 19%, news-site visits approach 1-million, and time-spent-online includes 5.5 million page views averaging 53-seconds each.  Radio operators know for timely, valuable news that it’s online.  

Download the January Information Here

The most popular radio news sites have great content, valuable perspective, message boards, and multi-media tools.  The lowest traffic sites have fewer or no interactive tools generating less time-online and fewer page views.

Radio business people get radio news online and appreciate web tools.  Now, take a look at most radio station websites.  If one-million radio news readers “get it” then why are most station websites falling so far behind?

Take a look at the January’09 information.  Then look at your own radio website.  Start with a few new tools like CELLit. 

You are online.  Your audience is online.  It’s time for your station’s website to move up.

 — 00 —

Top 10 radio news traffic sites:  www.Radio-Info.com; www.radioandrecords.com; www.allaccess.com; www.radioink.com; www.rbr.com; www.rab.com; www.insideradio.com; www.kurthanson.com; www.hear2.com; www.nab.com.  Credit to http://www.Compete.com for this information. 

Start by answering the phones …

January 22 – Most likely you read the widely published Stanford Groups ugly comments about radio … among the stocks panned is anything related to radio, with “sell” recommendations on Entercom Communications, Emmis Communications, Cox Radio and Cumulus Media. While 90% of Americans listen to radio, they are listening to less, and advertisers are retreating, says the report. “The combination of pressured cash flow and heavy debt burdens could render the equity value of many radio stocks worthless.” Here’s one link.

Structurally, a lot of radio groups are in trouble.  Wall Street seduced debt and declining audiences-revenues are a difficult mix.  Seems some radio leaders only know one quick fix … lighten the load … throw out the crew. 

One path forward will be thru the burning ashes.  The debt is so high and the revenue falling so fast it looks like a crash landing ahead.  However, new leaders will emerge.  They will find meaningful ways to serve local communities, engage listeners, and work better with retail merchants.   

Couple of quick steps you could start now:  1) answer the phones … listeners want to be acknowledged … even if it is just a voice mail, the no-answer ring outs really dismiss the audience; 2) engage listeners with IM/Chat/Twitter they are already there waiting for you; and 3) provide two-way website tools for commenting, linking, sharing, messaging, and picture/video posting.  Your broadcast signal, a local sales force, and a two-way website can be a community force.   No people?  Just ask, your crew is smart, already digital, and waiting for you to catch up.

Or, play Phoenix and maybe rise from the ashes.

What Team is Radio Playing?

A recent Wired Blog post 5 Ways the Cellphone will Change How You Listen to Music could also have been What Team is Radio Playing?

Here’s the gist but read the entire Wired post.   1)  Interactive Radio is going mobile.  2) It’s free with ads but ad-free with the pay service. 3) Interactive Radio works with cellphones and other devices.  4) Cashed interactive radio works everywhere.  5) Music blogs program Interactive Radio to individual tastes.

Look at the Interactive Radio team:

1.        Smartphone Manufacturers – Nokia, RIM, Sharp, Fujitsu, and Apple selling 120-million smartphones worldwide growing 22%.  Estimated annual revenues $48 Billion.

2.       Cell Phone Carriers – Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile … wireless data $20-Billion growing 50% per year not including voice services.

3.       The Music Industry – Universal, Sony, Warner are all courting the digital music paths.   This $12 Billion industry is working digital as a new revenue source.   

4.       Software Developers – Symbian, RIM, Microsoft, Linux, Apple, Palm, and Google.  Let’s stop at Microsoft and Google $80 Billion annual revenues and they are giving away mobile software.

5.       Audience – spending $ 30 Billion annually on new smartphones and data plans. 

That’s $190 billion team. 

Now let’s think about AM/FM radio, $19 Billion in annual revenues declining 10%.  AM/FM radio trends to national playlists, voice tracked entertainment, and commercially supported music-no option.   AM/FM radio does offer local information … maybe.  Radio has local sales forces making local calls.

Broadcast AM/FM can make it a good game.  Broadcast Radio can still be a go-to source for music, community information, and personally relevant material.   Broadcast AM/FM Radio can build on open digital resources.  Build your digital platform.  Engage your digital audience.  Add your program director and sales team to the digital platform goals and content management.

AM/FM radio can win with digital but not against digital going mobile.

Radio + Cell Phone Video = 2008 NTR$

We begin 2008 as a new Inside Radio and Small Market Radio Newsletter sponsor.  You’ll see us in the morning Headlines and the Afternoon Updates.  We promise to keep our messages fresh and helpful.  Nothing gets passed over faster than yesterday’s news.

Working with our initial partners has helped us improve service.  The three most important improvements hold great promise.  The “trusted sender” program recognizes station members and can automatically approve cell phone video, emailed video/pictures, and pc postings for immediate web site display.  The “talent bar” is a new page footer that helps feature contest information, program director picks, and sponsor messages.

New “Channels” allows video and pictures to be displayed as a channel of information.  Visitors can locate contests, local events, morning shows, and any station defined group of videos.  All these features are directly controlled by the station administrator.

Check out the details on our business website:  http://www.CELLit.com

Happy 2008