I recently attended and presented at EGTA’s global Radio and TV Sales Conference in Dublin. EGTA represents the interests of radio and TV sales houses and the conference brought together stakeholders from around the world to discuss trends, challenges and opportunities.
There were some very interesting case studies and insights that came through from the various speakers but I left feeling extremely proud of our standard of work, and how advanced we are in terms of innovation and digital integration on our campaigns. South African radio stacks up very favourably against many of the European stations and media houses who presented at the conference.
My presentation was on ‘non-spot revenue’. I shared case studies of very successful multi-platform campaigns created by our creative solutions team at Primedia Broadcasting. Delegates were impressed at the scale of our digitally led campaigns and how we have used multiple digital platforms to extend the reach of campaigns beyond the radio station listeners, specifically the 702 Roadtrip campaign that got national traction off the back of a regional station. They were highly impressed with the results we achieved on this campaign.
Power of emotion
One of the insights that kept coming through in various presentations was the importance of creating an emotional connection with the audience. From John Clancy, MD Carat, Ireland who said something which I loved: “We think a lot less than we think we think!” which he used to emphasise how radio creates emotional connections and that it is our emotions which ultimately determine our decisions.
This was reiterated in another presentation by Brian McCarthy, sales director, UrbanMedia Ireland, who claimed that angry and frustrated listeners can often be MORE receptive to radio advertising! He gave the example of adapting copy for a car ad, to be placed in rush hour, highlighting all the additional comforts the car offers to make the experience of being stuck in traffic more pleasant. This could be a win for our stations, as we have particularly high incidences of in car listening, and those listeners are generally stuck in traffic… getting angry and frustrated.
Radio experts are the best at telling audio stories
Supla, a music, podcast and online audio platform in Finland is harnessing the power of storytelling and emotional connection very well with audiobooks for the average Joe. They described these as short, accessible and fun. They are measuring listening sessions of 45 minutes with these.
They are very similar to what we’re doing at Primedia Broadcasting with our podcast channel, Life. Supla uses their expertise and revenue generated off the terrestrial radio product, to invest in podcasts, to remain leaders in audio content. They are seeing big uptake of the podcasts among the youth specifically, which is encouraging.
Importance of traditional platforms in the omnichannel mix
A lot of the discussion was around digital innovations, but Matthias Wenk, Marketing Operations Director at Ryanair had an interesting perspective on this. While he fully appreciates the appeal of measurability with digital, he felt that sometimes, digital takes credit for a lot of the heavy lifting that other channels do. That it’s not necessarily always the digital that drives traffic to the site but the direct search for “Ryanair” which is driven off multiplatform marketing campaigns.
It was great to be able to discuss the issues that we all had in common, whether we were from Iceland or South Africa, and to share some successes and processes that worked for other media owners and sales houses.
I came home with cool new ideas but also with a very healthy appreciation for what we are already doing in radio and radio sales in South Africa.
Anthony Popper is Primedia Broadcasting’s head of agency sales.
EGTA is a non-profit organisation that represents the interests of radio and TV sales houses and the conference brought together media owners, sales teams, creative and media agencies as well as some clients, from across Europe and the globe.
