RELENTLESS RADIO

 

Author:	David Koon
Published:	June, 2000

 

The big word in Radio in 2000 is e-Commerce. The Internet is a moving force for and against Radio. Dot.com advertisers are now the hottest new business category. The Internet is now Radio's fourth largest category for advertisers. On-line listening expands traditional radio listening to areas all over the globe and the worldwide Web is now the best source for consumer information. It took the Internet only four years to reach 80 millions users. It took TV 15 years to capture 80 million viewers and Radio did not reach 80 million listeners for 30 years. The Internet is already a major force among advertisers with at least 50 percent of the funding for new IPOs going into marketing and advertising to establish brand awareness. And half of that money is going into broadcast Radio. Our choice is to either embrace the Internet or get left behind. Many Radio stations, stand-alone and consolidated ones, now have their own Web Master and Internet department. In Orlando alone, Clear Channel's four stations billed over 1.1 million dollars in the last year on Internet non-spot revenue. How can we tap into this new, very lucrative, revenue source? One solution is the Radio Advertising Bureau's brand new e-Commerce Solution. The RAB e-Commerce Solution is simply a station branded online shopping mall with links to selected national and local retailers, hosted and maintained by the RAB. The RAB has most of the work already done. All you do is add it to your radio station's website. The RAB e-Commerce Solution includes three different levels of participation and you earn money at all three. LEVEL I At level I, all you do is add your station logo, eliminate the objectionable advertisers, change the focus on the music and books pages to feature Christian music and books and you're set to begin earning money on your very own online shopping mall. There's no monthly investment at level I for RAB member stations; however, the RAB does take a 15% cut of your commissions from the national advertisers. Level II and III is where this writer sees the best revenue opportunities for your station. In Level II and III, your station partners with local retailers to help them sell their products through your website. Most e-tailers (on-line retailers) have one big problem. They need help to drive traffic to their website. You have the solution. The local e-tailer simply places a text link listing on your on-line shopping mall and you drive traffic to the mall with your radio station. This is very similar to the reason that a brick and mortar store will buy space in a local shopping mall. The mall draws the traffic for the store. All the store does is rent space. Warning! Don't give these text links away! Establish a reasonable value even if it's small. This will pay off big in the long run. LEVEL II At WVFJ, we used Level II to add $20,000 in additional revenue with a one-day telephone blitz. We've all been at the end of a month with a budget shortage. An opportunity like this can turn a month in the red to a month in the black in no time. Level II is simply placing text-link business listings by category on your radio station shopping mall. When visitors to your website click on the text-link listing they will be taken to the advertisers website. At Level II the RAB charges a small investment of $25 a month. LEVEL III Level III is where all the excitement begins. At level III, the RAB has made it possible for your radio station to offer your advertisers turnkey on-line shopping. Level III is a basic, straight forward solution designed to get your merchants up and running on the Internet quickly. Advertisers can offer up to 50 products on-line that can be purchased with a credit card. At Level III, your investment is only $25 per month plus a one-time setup fee of $200 per store and a monthly maintenance fee of $80 to $100 per month per store. Each merchant has their own store so you could make additional money at Level III by upcharging the setup fees and monthly maintenance fees plus you could also receive a commission on sales through the site. The bottom line for the RAB e-Commerce Solution is that it can make you money and the investment is very low. A demo of the program is available at the Radio Advertising Bureau's website at www.rab.com. About The Author David is the Sales Manager at WFSH/The Fish, Atlanta, and the NCRS Sales Track Chairman.