I’ve been working in the radio industry for over 30 years and it’s a fun, vibrant platform of the media and advertising industry. The beauty of radio is that fundamentally, it has not really changed.
In 2022, as in 1962, there are real, breathing, happy and sometimes sad human beings in studio engaging with other human beings going about their daily lives.
It’s sincere, honest, real, consistent and mostly engaging. There are no Bots, no visuals of perfect people or videos of celebrities or influencers telling us how to live our lives. It’s no wonder advertisers are increasingly using radio with its down to earth ‘real people’ approach to gain trust from the wider population in order to drive engagement with their product.
Whilst on the face of it radio hasn’t changed, the way advertisers try to gain the upper hand over their competitors has and, increasingly, radio plays a vital role in the overall messaging ecosystem.
It’s no longer good enough just to slap some commercials on the radio station and hope to hell customers will come flooding through the front door.
Media agencies are under pressure to ensure that the radio component of any campaign stands out and delivers. Creative agencies don’t often understand radio station programming mechanics and, sadly in many instances, the radio stations are guilty of not listening nor understanding that they need to fit into a “bigger than radio” media campaign.
Layer all of this with really short deadlines, a need to be measurable along with tight budgets, and you have a recipe for short tempers, misunderstanding of objectives, too many emails and in some cases disastrous campaigns with poor results.
We, as agencies, should be embracing the culture of listening, asking, listening more and understanding. We don’t sell radio and nor should anyone else. In 2022 it’s about engaging with clients and creating solutions incorporating radio and other media to achieve a common goal: response that is measurable.
I believe cooperation between agencies and a keen desire for openness and discussion around client objectives will result in better campaign solutions and therefore, response and result.
Radio works well if the correct inventory, creative messaging, frequency and measurement tools are employed – but sometimes these conversations need to be had in the early stages of media choice and strategy – and it’s probably wise to have independent specialists in your corner.
~ Simon Parkinson, director at Ultimate Media
