If the “Platform” shoe fits….

Although Tom Asacker’s story is ostensibly about something that isn’t radio, it might as well be radio:

If a company’s “platform” is in any way dependent upon marketers for revenue, then it is now part of that company’s job to educate and assist those marketers. The good old, simpler days of owning airwaves, pipes, pages, channels, locations, et al. and charging an access fee (e.g. ad rate, time, rent, etc.) to communicate or transact with an audience is quickly coming to an end.

And Tom continues:

Eyeballs and traffic are quickly losing their premium-priced cachet. Success will ultimately move to those platform owners who provide real value; those adept at helping marketers achieve their own level of success with said platform. The rest will either stay alive by charging their audience the access fee (instead of marketers), or they’ll quickly fade into obscurity.

Tom’s saying that we in radio – and the agencies who are our conduits – had better get on board with the interests of the clients rather than the raw eye-count or ear-count that so compel buying decisions today. In the end, results will speak loudest.

Assuming your station can prove that customers walk through merchant doorways because you helped to make it possible.