eMarketer outlines three big trends in what I think is a hugely important article.
Trend 1:
…[as online] ad networks continue to grow and become more sophisticated in their ability to target specific consumer groups, they will allow advertisers to reach large audiences that are stitched together from hundreds or thousands of diverse Web sites. Eventually, advertisers will be able to have their cake and eat it, too: They will enjoy precise targeting of ads without sacrificing reach.
Read that last part again: “[Advertisers] will enjoy precise targeting of ads without sacrificing reach.”
If radio and its broadcast brethren are all about “reach” but not at all about precise targeting (and no, I don’t mean demos or “life-groups”), and if you can buy both reach and precise targeting another way, then what is the competitive advantage of radio to advertisers?
And by pitching the newfound “reach” value proposition of radio (thanks to PPM), aren’t we strutting proudly into a trap?
Because in the not too distant future, reach without precise targeting will be the new definition of “waste.”
Trend 2:
The second transformation is that the Internet is becoming the central hub of most media and marketing campaigns.
Exactly how much is your station or group investing in this central hub?
Trend 3:
For decades, the ad industry was built on the interruption-disruption model…But the interruption-disruption model is dying out, thanks to shifting consumer trends. Consumers are increasingly in control of their media content and can easily eradicate ads they don’t want to see. They also have less trust in advertisers and their messages. Further, consumers are creating their own content with the help of blogs, social networks, wikis and other digital-communication platforms. As a result, advertisers and their agencies who want to engage with today’s consumers will have to start turning their ads into content….The new ad model is about creating great content and finding clever ways to embed it in the fabric of communities and content platforms where consumers are hanging out and actively participating.
In other words, eMarketer argues, the central model driving radio itself – spot revenue – is “dying out.”
And eMarketer believes advertisers will respond by “creating great content and finding clever ways to embed it in the fabric of communities and content platforms where consumers are hanging out and actively participating.”
Is your station, your group, ready for this future?