From Radio & Records:
The "Radio Accountability Initiative" introduced Wednesday (March 18) in Orlando at the RAB's annual conference, will help ensure that an advertiser's commercials get on the right radio outlets at the right time.
Call me crazy, but that's not what most marketers and advertisers mean when they refer to "accountability."
RAB's definition of accountability is really a measure of "truth in advertising." Yes, we ran your spots when, where, and how you asked us to.
When a marketer talks about "accountability" in the age of Google, they mean metrics on the effectiveness of the spend, not on its honesty.
I think it does our industry a disservice to suggest to advertisers that we don't know what they mean by "accountability" or to suggest that we mean something completely different.
Ad-ID's Harold Geller missed this point when he said "Accountability in radio revolves around identification."
It had better not, Mr. Geller.
Now you can argue that we need to be sure of what's running in order to determine whether it "works" or not. Fair enough. But this isn't the kind of "accountability" advertisers will be buying when they talk about "accountability."
RAB's Jeff Haley touched on the truth when he said:
As radio aims to grow its share of ad dollars, proof of performance, improved commercial workflow and consumer interactivity are increasingly important at the station level. It is beneficial to make radio commercials as interactive as the purchase-enabled songs to which they are attached.
Now let's hope that actions follow those words.