Radio calls to action

Michael Hedges September 8, 2008

Radio succeeds as a call to action medium. When radio broadcasters set their minds to moving people the result gets results. Radio promotions succeed, more often than not, because the nature of the medium is participation.

Radio performs best and most effectively as a platform for participation. This is music to the ears of sponsors and advertisers paying for access to a responsive public. One of the most enduring truths about radio audiences is that their loyalty to a radio brand is based less on the music played and more on activity. Those music-only listeners proved that point in no uncertain terms, deserting music formats on the radio for their personal choices on the iPod.

Every programmer and manager contacted for this series of articles made a point of saying that contests and promotions must be made attractive to those who are unlikely to participate but want to share in the experience by hearing what’s going on.

The contrast to new media .- largely meaning the web – is striking. NRJ International CEO Mathieu Sibille hit it on the head when he said that web users – and he was specifically referring to social networking sites – are primarily using that medium to invent or re-invent themselves. Radio, he said, “is real life.”

It may be that only a small percentage of radio listeners participate in call-ins, competitions, contests and promotions. The purpose of this activity is – beyond all else – to provide entertainment in an engaging way. Some people choose to participate, some do not. The successful promotion engages both. And simple give-aways don’t count as engagement.

“It needs to be equally as entertaining for participants as non-participants,” said Bauer Media’s Creative Commercial Director Steve Taylor.

In general, radio promotion and marketing exists to build the brand, engage radio participation or leverage that participation for retail sales. Brand building focuses on strengthening a broadcasters basic message to the target public. Radio programming’s goal is satisfying listeners here and now. Marketing and promotion reinforces listener satisfaction – necessary for recall-based audience measurement – while always and forever targeting new listeners.

“Radio is an incident-based medium,” said Radio Hamburg On Air Promotion Director Thomas Gleixner. “Promotions must always be varied in order to penetrate listeners heads.”  Radio Hamburg presents an almost constant stream of brand building promotions, concentrating on participation, personalities and music.

Much of radio promotion is the commercial activity of the broadcaster. Every program director on the planet has a story about the advertising or sponsorship director arriving at the office with a ‘great idea’ from a client that had no possible branding or audience benefit. The more successful broadcasters have learned, fortunately, that a bad idea is a bad idea regardless of the money.

“There are three partners in a successful promotion,” said Steve Taylor, “the listener; the host brand (the radio station) and the guest brand (the client). Each segment should be connected comfortably and working in unison. To misbalance these means that if a promotion is not working for the listener you can be sure it is not working for the station or the client either.”

“Listeners,” said Emmis International President Paul Fiddick,  “do not separate in their minds programming content, that we control, and advertising content, which we largely don't.  The station gets credit or blame for all of it equally.  Sometimes stations act as if they believe that, since ‘off-strategy’ advertiser promotions are visited on them by sales, these don't work against the station's brand.”

As it happens, I looked over the short chapter I contributed to Valerie Geller’s 1996 book Creating Powerful Radio. From the comments I received from the two dozen broadcasters for this series of articles the basics for effective radio promotion and marketing haven’t changed.

The first question about a promotion under consideration is still the same: does it make sense? “We should always ask ourselves if there is a benefit for the station,” said Be One (Belgium) GM David Daggelinckx.

Don’t make the promotion too complicated. Radio Hamburg’s Thomas Gleixner said “keep it simple and stupid.”

Radio is show biz; not a concept lost on NRJ’s Mathieu Sibille: “Be daring.”

It’s the details. “Logistics,” said Radio Fresh! (Bulgaria) manager Plamen Radinski.

On air activity – from promotions and contests to entertainment and information – sets apart the highly effective broadcaster from the rest. Without question, these elements are costly in time, talent and cash. But, these are investments in the brands, the listeners and the marketplace. The health of radio broadcasting depends on it.