Follow the Money

Today we have a guest post from Paul Jacobs who offers his insight on how radio needs to invest in solutions to reach younger consumers:

A recent article in The Detroit News about how the automotive industry is rapidly moving away from traditional media toward digital solutions to reach younger consumers, who they place a high value on, generated the following quotes:

"We are always looking for digital extension or a live event to complement our advertising." - General Motors spokesperson

"Buzz is created when people are talking about an event, or a message gets spread all over YouTube." - Michigan State University advertising professor

"Digital marketing opens up new possibilities for building ongoing customer relationships." - Chrysler's marketing chief

If that wasn't enough, they showed this chart:

It's time to stop all of the hand-wringing about PPM, declining revenue, satellite radio, and all of the other excuses.  Sure, these are problems, but the solutions are right in front of our faces.  Who does event marketing better than radio?  And what medium lends itself best to digital solutions?

It's time to invest in solutions.  Follow the money.  It hasn't disappeared, it's just moved.  And radio needs to move along with it.  Quickly.

Comments

[Steve Poley]

What a great closing ... the money hasn't disappeared ... it's just moved. Dealing with radio stations we find the front-line operators understand and want more digital features like video, texting, im, twittering, podcasting,and all the tools they have on their MySpace/Facebook pages. New ideas seem to disappear up the organization ladder. Just because you have budget issues and you might be reducing staff ... doesn't mean you should stop listening to the remaining crew. There needs to be two-way communication inside the organization and between the station and the audience. That cell phone in your pocket can fix a lot of problems.

[Bob Bellin]

Didn't radio abandon younger listeners as a priority years ago? Don't they have to re-attract them first before integration can truly have impact?