By Steve Lapa
Lapcom Communications Corp
President
Survey says, the good news is, 49% of local direct advertisers use AM/FM radio.
The bad news is, the same survey says, 65% of that same group uses social media advertising. Advantage +16% for the digital team. The good news is, you are comfortable selling/managing digital and social media vehicles because like it or not your local advertiser is leaning in on the digital/social media advertising opportunity.
Survey says, more bad news, 54% of the local direct advertiser group is buying event-sponsorships. The good news is, you are comfortable selling/managing event-sponsorships because like it or not your local advertiser is leaning in on the event-sponsorship advertising opportunity.
Now for the closer, survey says, over 50% of these local advertisers are now budgeting only 2% of gross revenues on advertising. Thank you Borrell for the researched eye-opener and thank you pandemic for shrinking the local advertiser’s marketing dollar.
Show of hands, please, anyone reading this totally surprised? The online digital/social media advertising world has been on a double-digit growth tear as long as anyone can remember. The growth continues as AM/FM sellers stand by and watch the parade go by, sorry guys. The facts are… there are roughly 310 million smartphones in the U.S. According to the last Edison survey, 68% of U.S. homes own 1.5 radios. In round numbers 338 million radios at home. Wait, what? Are there almost as many smartphones as AM/FM radios at home? Anyone own more than one smartphone? I thought there was a radio in almost every room in your home. Not anymore, you say? Quite different from the average five radios per household when many reading this column earned their first double digit commission check as a member of that fun loving sales team. The times are a changin’ and I hope you are changing with the times. Let us start here:
Update your value proposition for “Why Radio?” Make it current and relevant to today’s media ecosystem.
Sharpen your new selling skills. Get ahead of the curve and leave your competitors in the dust.
Ask yourself, “What happened?” The numbers of smartphone users are growing. Maybe not as fast as in the past but growing. The number of AM/FM radios in the home is shrinking. Look to your leadership for some answers.
When the trend is NOT your friend, it’s time to think like the great leaders who built our country and media empires, “Lead, follow, or get out of the way.”
Steve Lapa is the president of Lapcom Communications Corp. based in Palm Beach Gardens, FL. Lapcom is a media sales, marketing, and development consultancy. Contact Steve Lapa via email at: Steve@Lapcomventures.com.