Radio might have audience reach in spades, but Australian Radio Network CEO Ciaran Davis said that is no longer enough to entice advertisers. Clients, he said want outcomes and radio is in a great position to deliver them – its just too far down the chain.
“From their marketing spend, advertisers want outcomes, they don't want audiences any more,” Davis told AdNews.
“Radio offers great reach and frequency and being able to add that to quantifiable data around usage, click-through and social engagement, that's very powerful.”
But while it might have the capabilities, Davis said the real challenge radio faced was selling itself to media agencies. He said that in order to get client briefs a station needs to be number one or two in the ratings, but even then, radio sits at the bottom of the booking process, after creative and media selection have been decided.
“ARN has incredibly smart creative and strategic thinkers who can add a lot of intellect to briefs, but if we're getting them at the last minute, it tends to just be execution,” Davis said.
“Our challenge and one thing we're working very clearly on is to try and get further up the strategic planning process to influence the dollars to radio a bit more.”
Davis estimates that at least 90% of the briefs that ARN gets from clients have some sort of digital or activation component as opposed to a “spots and dots brief”.
But, with 2015 shaping up to be another year of “short-term decision making” in the advertising industry, he said ARN is working on demonstrating through the short term briefs it receives that it has the capabilities to take charge of the creative process.
“The feedback that we get is that agencies are so pushed for time at the moment that they will go with media owners that they trust and who they believe can implement correctly,” Davis said.
“As an industry, radio is very progressive, but we've got a job to do to sell it. We have to demonstrate to agencies that we have the capabilities, we have the talent and we have the intellect to be involved. And, over time, you do change perceptions.”
As part of that, Davis said one of his top agendas for 2015 will be improving the ROI of the medium, in order to prove its ability to deliver outcome metrics that clients want.
“If we can prove that, then we will see a lot more briefs coming through,” Davis said.
“Digital doesn't measure effectiveness. If we've got a challenge around ROI, digital platforms need to work really hard on the effectiveness and emotional connections our audiences have with the content.”
Hear more from Ciaran Davis in the AdNews special report on radio and streaming, in the 6 Febuary issue of AdNews. It will be landing on desks in print, and on the iPad shortly.
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