Creating Content to Stream and Monetize

Last week I spoke at the annual conference held by the Arkansas Broadcasters Association. Their executive director, Neal Gladner, asked me to create a presentation for both Radio and Television broadcasters that targets OTA and Streaming content that can generate revenue. A challenge that I accepted gladly, but truly struggled with initially as I dug into the necessary research for the session. Due in large part because of the active evolution of multiplatform delivery, and the lack of uniformity in how various broadcasters engage with content.

Think about where we were versus where we are. Streaming media, in its most primitive stage, first launched in 1995. That’s about the time of the Telecommunications Act which greatly shifted the paradigm. If you were around and think back those 30 years, there were fewer options competing with Radio and Television. Some communities had two newspapers. Not just one. Social media was in its infancy and wouldn’t become recognized as competitive for another fifteen years. AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) was a precursor to SMS Texting. It was as recent as the early 2000s when mobile phones went from being a luxury item to something commonplace. Podcasting became a “thing” in 2003.

Legacy Media, which is a term sometimes used as a backhanded compliment, is relevant when describing a content distributor that was once only focused on being pureplay. That’s not the case in many situations today. In fact, the broadcaster who expands their content distribution to multiple platforms has the best opportunity to reach the largest audience. It’s important to be where the audience consumes content. The content has to be appropriately designed for the distribution platform.

It’s critical that we provide advertisers with the outlets and vehicles they desire to sell their products, services, and wares. The economic state of advertising for radio has been described as an “advertising recession.” That’s a phrase that makes me recoil. Mainly because there is money being spent on marketing by advertisers, but radio isn’t getting the share that it once did. If we in radio don’t take advantage of the multiple platforms available to us, we risk becoming no better than the free newspaper that sits in a rack at the door of restaurants.

Meeting the competition where they are is an approach I recommend, but you have to do it the right way. You have to perform at a high level, make a great appearance, and be equally professional on all the platforms where you’re delivering content. Small market operators need to remember that your audience doesn’t discount the quality of what they hear locally, as you’re being compared to national content from multiple channels. Major market stations have a greater level of competition they must contend with for revenue.

Using the aforementioned term Legacy Media for Radio and Television, and New Media for Streaming, Website, Apps, Social Media, Texting, On-Demand, and Podcasting. Sidenote; Podcasting encompasses audio only as well as audio & video. Digital media also includes in-auto. Quu is the perfect example of the advances taking place in an effort to give radio an equal advertising and listener opportunity with assets like Apple CarPlay. This totals out as best described by the phrase “the sum of all media … is media.” Radio needs to be a part of the multiple platform world to overcome the erosion created by audience defection.

We’ve all heard the mantra (mostly from onetime radio loyalists and former members of the media) that Radio is dead. Television is dead. Except that 88% of all Americans listen to the radio every week. Add to that the fact that 82% of our national residents watch TV every week. That’s a lot of people given that the population of the USA is 340 million people. The percentage of audience, albeit large, is less than it was in the past. The peak percentage for radio listening was … in the 1940s. Before many of us were born. It’s also before television took off in the mid to late 1950s. The point being … that all medium sees erosion as the level of competition increases.

Pureplay is yesterday. Being focused on selling one medium limits your revenue potential as advertisers focus on multiple outlets to spread the word. Yesterday it was One to Many. Today it is also One to One. It’s both. The revenue battleground for legacy media is with digital media. The challenge is to find the weakness in the strength of digital. The strengths of digital media; it’s targeted and can be as finite as neighborhoods and homes. It has limited waste. It is inexpensive. Those are all enviable strengths and tough to sell against.

The weakness in digital’s strength; it is niche media. Niche media needs mass media to make a significant long lasting impact. Niche media needs mass media to develop brands. Niche media needs mass media to build loyalty. Niche media needs support versus being a stand alone when introducing a new product. These weaknesses in digital’s strength are relatively strong, regardless.

Overcoming the weakness in digital media is done by owning the platform, employing it as a marketing and sales tool, and branding it in a way that compliments your Over The Air (OTA) products. Mass media owning digital media is an advantage, because we can promote it. The sales opportunity is as an upsell. Mass targeting that spreads the message and digital media that sells what the advertiser is selling.

Creating content for use across multiple platforms has the potential to generate additional revenue. It also enables the opportunity for audience growth. Studios should deliver audio OTA, with audio and video for Streaming on the App and Website, on podcasts that serve as on-demand, can be used to develop branded podcasts, provides an alternative to ppaid programming that airs OTA, and audio can be used as excerpts for social media. Apps that enable unique channels can present content on multiple channels. Imagine being able to present three different high school football games on a Friday night.

Regarding podcasting; audio and video together is the best offering. The stats show that 40% of all USA podcast listeners watch a podcast with video and audio, 31% of podcast listening is audio only. Podcasting allows for greater connection to a community, more extensive news coverage, and a deeper dive into entertainment. It also allows talent to grow and develop by creating interesting content that magnifies their individual brand. These items are all monetizable.

Technological developments provide additional advantages for radio to take advantage of in developing a multiplatform approach. The FCC rule change eliminating the studio rule means you no longer have to possess a physical studio in a market. Cloud based options provide the ability to share content remotely across multiple locations. Apps generate programmatic advertising revenue, gaming is content that allows for more naming opportunities for sales, and Quu has added video to radio audio further enhancing the in auto listening experience.  By turning radio into a two sense medium, sight and sound, Quu allows for an obvious revenue enhancement. Given that most radio listening today is in car, how is this an advantage that goes unconsidered.

Which brings us to the secret weapon. Taking radio from an audio feature that is delivered on one platform as a pureplay, to a multiplatform information and entertainment service, needs (in the words of the legendary marketers Jack Trout & Al Ries) a Hammer to drive the Nail. If radio is that Nail, personalities are the Hammer. That’s the secret weapon. Personalities. The very best talent bring entertainment, information, endorsements, and community connection to the multiplatform radio station. They generate exposure for the station, create listener and advertiser loyalty, and they can be a significant part of your marketing.

The exposure the talent bring to radio leads to reported listening in the ratings and grow your audience. They drive day to day tune in and that’s how we build time spent listening. Talent support your advertisers. They help extend your marketing budget by being everywhere and being seen everywhere. Talent should be encouraged to be as big as your station brand. Even if that gives them negotiating leverage when contract renewal time comes, they’re the one thing that diminishes the threat from new media.

When it’s all said and done, the most important focus of a multiplatform media entity is on the advertiser. The numbers that matter the most are what you sell for your advertisers. That’s it. Most of us are in a for profit business. The best and most successful way to sell your advertisers products, services, and goods are by being multiplatform. Why? Because that takes out your competitors who aren’t radio.