A Class B FM once known for its rock ‘n’ roll programming and today offering South Asians an audio home as “Bolly 92.3” has become the first radio station in the U.S. to broadcast geo-targeted advertising.
It’s perhaps the first step in convincing marketers that broad-casting isn’t so broad, after all, and can bring addressable advertising to the FM radio dial, in addition to streaming audio.
RBR+TVBR OBSERVATION: There’s a song that’s more than 40 years old called “Video Killed The Radio Star.” How about an update called “Marketers Killed The Radio Business.” Why? Broadcasters offer a broad array of consumers, putting one single message in the ears of thousands of potential buyers. Is that not worth anything in 2021?
KSJO-FM 92.3 in San Jose has become the nation’s first radio station to broadcast geo-targeted advertising.
It did so through the airing of several Jack in the Box breakfast promotions solely in the Livermore and Pleasanton, Calif., areas along the I-680 corridor.
It’s part of a previously reported FCC experimental operation of GeoBroadcast Solutions’ ZoneCasting FM booster system, today used to help “rimshot” signals better penetrate urban areas. This includes properties in the Boston and Chicago markets, respectively.
The KSJO test was conducted in October, with details just released about the endeavor from GBS.
The test was successful. As such, KSJO will continue broadcasting localized weather, sponsored traffic, and news during short parts of the broadcast hour through February 2022.
The advertisements airing in the zone area were coordinated by dentsu’s Jennifer Hungerbuhler, the advertising giant’s EVP and Head of Local Video and Audio Investment.
This is the first time Jack in the Box has advertised on KSJO; it falls into the company’s strategic initiative to reach multicultural audiences through hyperlocal advertising.
“We see the airing of this first set of hyperlocal radio ads as just the beginning of how we hope to soon make targeted broadcast radio ad buys for our national advertisers,” Hungerbuhler said. “Our clients have been anticipating the opportunity in the near future to use radio customers and potential customers in the areas around their retail locations.”
Jack in the Box CMO Ryan Ostrom ads, “We are excited to activate this geotargeted radio test to ensure we are delivering highly-relevant offers to consumers based on their location. We are only scratching the surface with our first test, and we will continue to lean into the unpacked potential of geotargeted radio activations.”
In the view of KSJO VP Brad Behnke, who also serves as COO for parent company Universal Media Access, the Jack in the Box spots are part of the field testing of ZoneCasting he hopes will soon be made available on a permanent basis to KSJO once the technology receives FCC approval.
In a recent letter to the FCC, Behnke said that as KSJO is the first U.S. radio station to broadcast geotargeted content in daily operations, it was able to successfully adapt their workflows, staff training, and automation systems to accommodate geotargeting without a major effort.
“It is our expectation and early experience that the ability to provide geotargeted content makes our station more effective in reaching our rapidly-developing East Bay, South Asian listener base and local advertisers in the zoned area,” Behnke said in the letter. ‘In turn, this increases our ability to level the playing field to be a bit more competitive with other local media platforms.”
Behnke also said that including zoned traffic, weather and news has benefited KSJO listeners with sole market and zone traffic reports, primarily twice an hour from 2-6:00 pm during weekdays. The traffic reports began airing in July two times an hour during the weekdays in the geo-targeted zones of San Jose, Oakland, and San Francisco, along Highways 101, 680, and 580.
In September 2021 it was reported that field testing of ZoneCasting conducted by Roberson and Associates at KSJO works with both analog and HD Radio systems and does not affect the performance of EAS system.
Now, with the successful Jack in the Box test, GBS has more firepower in its desire to have the FCC make a rule change enabling FM boosters to originate geo-targeted content.
RBR+TVBR OBSERVATION:
There’s a song that’s more than 40 years old called “Video Killed The Radio Star.” How about an update called “Marketers Killed The Radio Business.” Why? Broadcasters offer a broad array of consumers, putting one single message in the ears of thousands of potential buyers. Is that not worth anything in 2021?
We are extremely concerned with the following comment made by Jennifer Hungerbuhler of dentsu: We see the airing of this first set of hyperlocal radio ads as just the beginning of how we hope to soon make targeted broadcast radio ad buys for our national advertisers.
We are equally distressed with the following words from the CMO of one of the biggest QSRs on the U.S. West Coast, Jack in the Box: We are excited to activate this geotargeted radio test to ensure we are delivering highly-relevant offers to consumers based on their location.
What the fork, Jack?
Forty years ago, after dark, Musicradio WLS could be heard not only in Chicago, but in such far-flung locales as Kingston, N.Y. Given that massive reach, a national advertiser could engage with hundreds of thousands of potential consumers, at a price point that made sense.
Now, marketers don’t want that. Hell, they don’t even want to advertise on a FM radio station that reaches the entire Bay Area, but instead are intent on hitting a few ZIP codes?
This smells as moldy as Western Bacon Cheeseburger left on the counter for a week. And, marketers and clients are lapping it up because it seemingly makes their wish come true of having addressable advertising at Radio.
Here’s a question: What’s so damn good about addressable advertising? Do y’all have any idea that when I listen to Audacy streams in my car, which has AT&T Wi-Fi, I get ads for Atlanta even though I live 12 hours away from Atlanta and never, ever go to Atlanta outside of the airport? Does it occur to you that what the algorithms may “think” I want based on my search and purchase options are part of my regular shopping habits, just because I purchased a bunch of children’s gifts and I have no children of my own yet?
Addressable advertising on TV is even worse. It offers you a small sliver of potential advertising messages, assuming that you like and dislike things — again, based on your socials, your online shopping, and other habits including what OTT services and programs you consume. At the end of the day, you’re being pitched products you may want based on products in the same or similar categories you already consume.
This is the future of Radio advertising? Lord help us all.
There was once a belief that good creative, clever copywriting, strong imagery and a catchy jingle could bring in the consumers by the masses. I still believe that’s true, and what better place to make that happen than at Radio.
Jack in the Box has every right to attract Bollywood fans in Pleasanton, Calif., to its restaurants, even if beef isn’t consumed in India.
But, that activity should be multiplied ten-fold with buys across Cumulus Media, Bonneville and Audacy stations, as well as those of Alpha Media. Only then will it fully understand the power of broad-casting, and understand that Radio is a better investment than SEO, SEM, and anything else that digital microtargeting of a sliver of a piece of pie brings to marketers desperate for ROI.
The views expressed in a RBR+TVBR Observation are those of the editor-in-chief and not those of parent Streamline Publishing, its leadership, or its associated publications.
