By Adam R Jacobson
RBR + TVBR
Can the radio industry learn a thing or two from Google and its YouTube platform?
That’s a silly question. Of course it can glean lots of vital information about how Radio can properly target consumers and advertisers in a digital age, you’re probably thinking right now.
Given what YouTube just did about one of its most user-disliked advertising features, will AM and FM radio stations learn to follow their lead on making necessary adjustments to how paid advertisements are delivered to its audience? Or, will it stick to its tried-and-true :30s and :60s, bundled into a ridiculously long stop set that no one can skip over without tuning out?
On Friday (2/17), tens of thousands of people started sharing the word via Facebook and Twitter that YouTube, which along with Facebook accounts for the vast majority of a CMO’s digital ad budget, has decided to ax that forced 30-second pre-roll ad that pops up when you would rather just get to the actual video you want to see.
This change is set to transpire in 2018, according to Campaign, which obtained a statement from Google at its Twickenham offices near Heathrow Airport that explained the move to shorter formats is designed to provide a better advertising experience for online users. Of course, it also provides a better user experience for consumers.
“As part of that, we’ve decided to stop supporting 30-second unskippable ads as of 2018 and focus instead on formats that work well for both users and advertisers,” said a Google spokesman.
This means unskippable :20s and :15s, Google notes. Then, there is the :06 unskippable bumper ad introduced in April 2016.
Advertising industry executives in the U.K. reacted. The Twitterverse went into overdrive.
Here at the RBR + TVBR Editorial Tiki Hut, one word stuck out more than any from the Google decision: Unskippable.
YouTube was responding to a consumer complaint, and it made a change. This change wasn’t about content — it was about incoming dollars, better known to the C-Suite as Revenue.
Log on to the Spotify app on an iPhone, and you’ll get an option to watch a :30 for thirty minutes free of advertisements.
Select a custom audio stream from the iHeartRadio app, and there’s a skippable option for songs.
We live in a skippable world, yet there are so many FM radio stations with music formats across the U.S. that continue to employ the eight-minute stopset twice an hour.
While listening to one Chicago radio station on Presidents’ Day, we heard about six minutes of commercials right before Noon. After four songs, another six-minute break interrupted the flow of classic hits. This then repeated — four songs, followed by nearly an eight-minute break separating “Time After Time” by Cyndi Lauper and “You Should Be Dancing” by the Bee Gees.
Finally, listeners got an unimpeded stretch of music — about 30 minutes of songs from the 1970s and 1980s.
The financial situation at companies such as iHeartMedia and Cumulus has been well reported by RBR + TVBR, among other publications. The words “highly leveraged” come to mind among many a media broker. But, perhaps there is a better way to riches than the tried and true, time after time, with respect to radio ads.
With skippable options available in so many ways, and getting “The Safety Dance” available to consumers in so many ways, how many :30s and :60s are necessary in 2017?
Airchecks of the old WLS, “The Big 89,” in Chicago reveal something interesting to those too young to have known what this once-dominant Midwest powerhouse sounded like in the 1970s. Commercials were scattered across the hour — just enough to make advertisers and listeners happy while keeping the music flowing. After all, this was Musicradio.
Today, we need to hire a Clutter Cutter.
Let YouTube be your guide, radio. Think about sponsored hours, or even sponsored shows. Years ago, Bonneville’s long-deceased “Z104” in Washington, D.C. experimented with The McDonald’s Morning Show. While that’s an extreme some radio consumers may not accept, why not have Cruze In The Morning, caffeinated by Dutch Bros. Coffee or Roula & Ryan, running on H-E-B Fuel? Sell it as a premium title sponsorship, and cut six minutes of ads in morning drive.
Twenty minutes without music as Chicagoland radio listeners were set to think about lunch?
One :15 liner in between every other song is the answer: Still thinking about lunch? Jimmy John’s. So wicked fast we will be there by the next commercial you hear.
Cue the station jingle and play “You Should Be Dancing.” Then, bill Jimmy John’s for the equivalent of a premium spot.
Because, listeners should be dancing instead of switching the dial, thanks to all of those unskippable ads.
The advertiser benefits from lack of clutter, exclusivity, and an audience that will stick around and perhaps pay more attention to a message without all of that excess noise.
Meanwhile, the :30s and :60s can still air, but in a stopset that maxes out at three minutes in length, three times an hour.
Then, take a cue from Raul Alarcón Jr. and HispanicAd publisher Gene Bryan, then the GSM of WSKQ-FM “Mega 97.9” in New York: Get aggressive with your rates, and hold the line like they did in Gotham with a Spanish-language Tropical radio station that not only soared to No. 1 in the ratings, but ended up as the No. 1 biller in the market.
It’s time to stop the ultra-long stopset. Otherwise, your listeners will start to skip you.
RBR + TVBR
