Convergence 2009 took place 2 weeks ago in San Jose. This is Eric Rhodes’ second gathering of folks who are working to bring radio across the chasm of convergence. Unfortunately, I (and many others, I am sure) couldn’t make trip this year – but Eric has posted some video of the event on YouTube. To make it easier to access, here’s what he has posted so far:
Opening Presentation (A twist on the rather viral “Did You Know?” meme)
Convergence – Day 1
Convergence – Day 2
Robert Scoble eating lunch
Obviously, these are just tidbits of the entire program. I can’t wait for Eric to post more complete versions of some of the sessions so that those of us who were unable to travel to San Jose this year can learn from his great work.
Thanks, Eric and team for putting on this great conference!
Caroline Krediet, Planning Director at TAXI-NYC, a brand agency, wrote a piece for MediaPost that sounds heretical for the typical media pundit in 2009. Here’s a quote:
There it is: Clinically proven to be entertaining and economical, innovative democratic and about as underleveraged as a medium can be in our frenzied multichannel universe. I may be in the minority on this one, but I do think that in today’s economy, radio affords some of the juiciest creative opportunities, at a bargain price. A radio revival could be just the thing to beat the recession blues.
She covers a wide range of rationale in her piece, but it all revolves around the unique engagement that the audio medium has with the listener. It’s vital to note that she isn’t just talking about terrestrial radio; she correctly points out that all forms of radio – streaming, satellite, podcasting and terrestrial – have this unique property. Check out the article here.
Word is that KLSX, the LA CBS station that is currently a talk station will be changing format to CHR on Friday, February 20. Format changes aren’t particularly interesting – they happen all the time – but what’s worth watching about this one is the stated intention to heavily use social networking to connect to the audience. Tom Taylor of Radio-Info reports that the the Sr. VP Programming, Kevin Weatherly, will be tapping into Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace. Plus, they’ll be hooked up to iPhone and Blackberry applications from the start. Definitely worth watching how they manage this – there will be lessons to learn! Check out www.ampradio.com.
Here’s a Twitter post from @CharloteAnn about KRTU, a public station in San Antonio:
CharlotteAnne Oh sweet @krtu, why in the world are you not on Twitter so I can <3 you for playing so many wonderful jazz versions of My Funny Valentine?
Radio stations, both streaming and terrestrial, absolutely should be on Twitter – actively. It’s the perfect place to connect with your audience.
So – in listening to a great podcast called Marketing over Coffee, I discovered an interesting example of the way a local business is utilizing social media to market their business. The example cited was a Caminito Argentinean Steakhouse in Northampton, Massachusetts. A case study was done on this restaurant by a social media marketing expert, Jason Falls. You can read it here.
How does this apply to radio?
Caminito’s is exactly the kind of place that I would expect to find advertising on the radio – but apparently they aren’t. They have, however, built an interconnected web of social networking connections that bring people to their restaurant. This is exactly the sort of thing that a radio station could do for a local advertiser; use the talents of your in-house web experts to build a complete campaign around radio and social networking. Use radio ads to drive people to the advertiser’s social networking points of contact, like YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Yelp!, and so on. Provide creative ways for the advertiser to interact with their customer. For example, Caminito’s has a blog that is frequently updated with cooking tips and other information that relates to the restaurant. It works because it is not pure marketing – it has value to the reader that goes beyond the pitch for the restaurant. For example, January 13th’s post was on “Ten Tips for Seasoning Food.” So – not only do you learn something about seasoning food, but you also get a sense of how much these guys put into their restaurant. It’s really quite brilliant. Here’s one of a dozen or so videos that they created on food preparation:
One thing that radio sales teams have been brilliant at over the years is showing local advertisers how to use radio in concert with other media to produce results. Using the power of radio advertising and social networking, you’ll be able to amp up the results – and make them tangible to your advertiser.
