Success with new media begins with commitment

There continues to be as many questions as solutions swirling around radio concerning the best approach for integrating new media with traditional media offerings. Some of the more popular questions we hear revolve around how many people a station needs in their interactive department, and whether the traditional and new media staff should be split, etc.

While there are a lot of radio operators that talk about their “commitment” to new media – we believe if you really want to honestly measure your own pledge, you should consider this: Both radio and the internet are virtually tied in terms of advertising revenue (roughly 21/19 billion respectively- 2007). Internet revenue is set to surpass radio this year as traditional revenues continue to decline.

Recently, we spoke with a radio manager in a top 100 market that has 24 people on their radio staff: 8-on-air, 8-sales people, 4-managers, and 4 support staff for billing, traffic, etc. That’s 24-people dedicated to going after their share of the 21 billion dollar pie. Conversely, the number of staff members the station had to target their share of the 19-billion dollar internet ad pie was… 1.  Where’s the commitment? If you need 24 to chase 21 billion, you’ll obviously need more than 1 to chase 19 billion.

When radio deregulation hit its peak, so did the argument over whether the best approach for selling multiple properties should be a combined one, or a separate one in terms of staff. Should a company have separate sales staffs for each station, or one for all? We still hear people swearing by one approach over the other – some feel one is more efficient – while others feel separate is the only to maximize the most opportunity.

Regardless of which side of the argument you favor, we feel, at present, the best approach for your newly formed interactive division is a combined approach. Your traditional radio sales rep will not be able to survive unless they begin to expand their knowledge beyond traditional offerings. Beyond that, your traditional reps already have an established relationship, and advertisers will be looking for more and more ways to integrate their marketing. A sales rep that only has one offering will be selling your station short.

Having your new media manager accompany your traditional sales rep on sales calls will help explore opportunities beyond traditional spot buys, and clearly show your sales rep that there is more money available than just the money ear-marked by the advertiser for radio. It will also serve as a field study for learning new ways to offer clients solutions that include both radio and the new media.

If you are serious about building a profitable internet strategy, you need to be practical in your approach. You need to build a reasonable plan for growth, and outline the number of people you’ll need to attain that goal.

Chuck Francis is VP New Media Strategies at Remerge Media. Remerge Media is a multi-media consulting firm, specializing in new media integration and simultaneous media solutions. Remerge works with radio (as well as other legacy media) clients to help them understand, integrate and generate revenue from new media by building and implementing custom online sales solutions, and providing traditional sales staff members with highly specialized training. Remerge can be found online at RemergeMedia.com

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