ARN CEO: Radio has ‘lost that sex and sizzle’ and needs to sell itself
Radio needs to market itself better to advertisers to establish itself in a better position in the marketplace, the Commercial Radio Australia conference heard this afternoon.
In a panel discussion in Brisbane, moderated by Mumbrella editor Tim Burrowes, senior industry executives told the audience that radio was not doing a good job of selling itself as a medium.
“We’ve lost that sex and sizzle in terms of going out and selling who we are,” said Ciaran Davis, CEO of the Australian Radio Network.
From left: Burrowes, Davis, Dick, Lecopoulos, Barnett | Pic: supplied by CRA
“We’re very subservient to other media and we have no right to be. We’re all engaged so we should be telling the same story.”
Helen Lecopoulos, media and agency manager for McDonald’s Australia and NZ agreed.
“Radio is poor at marketing itself,” she said. “I’ve always held radio in high esteem but I have a lot more proactive discussions about the future of other mediums than I do about radio and it’s unfortunate because there’s some exciting stuff in radio.”
Lecopoulos said more research would help. “I would like to see mass research across the industry, not just potential to listen, but also engagement, and I think that would boost your industry,” she said.
Davis said ARN research has found 70 per cent of listeners respond to radio advertising, and ARN’s new marketing taskforce is using that information to fight their corner.
He also said radio networks needed to be in discussions with clients directly to avoid quibbling over dollars.
Jo Dick, head of off screen trading at media agency OMD, said it’s about communicating the message upfront before allocation is made to a channel.
She said in radio “the sizzle” is still there, it’s just a matter of engaging the advertisers. She said she was inspired by talks at the conference and excited about radio, but others needed to get excited too.
“You need to come out and tell agencies and tell clients because if you did they would be so engaged,” she said.
Ralph Barnett, brand creative director at SapientNitro, said radio is the “forgotten child” because it is not knocking on the door at agencies as other content makers do.
“If they’re in your face then you’re thinking about that medium and you get really inspired but it seems radio is just hiding in the shadows,” he said.
However, the panel said there are plenty of opportunities for radio to work with advertisers to develop creative content for clients, and commercially minded talent are often keen to get involved, Davis said. And as long as the creative feels authentic, Barnett said it would work.
Megan Reynolds
The trouble is you have 12 mins of ads an hour, plus all the other slot in ads / mentions, so it seems like amost 20 mins. People switch off listening to ads too easily
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also 99% of radio sounds exactly the same. They’re all clones of each other. Radio in the UK is a lot braver.
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