Captivating Connections.

welcome back live radio ads!

We're kicking off this morning a little bit old school...

"Live reads, or radio ads delivered by on-air talent, are perhaps the oldest form of sponsored entertainment. A century later, they're making a comeback, but with a different playbook.

In the early days of radio, ads were often introduced by DJs who were paid to talk up the benefits of Colgate toothpaste or Marlboro cigarettes, long before there were 30-second TV commercials. But today, when a popular personality such as Ryan Seacrest or Steve Harvey talks up a product or service on his daily radio program, there's a lot more than just a paycheck involved.

Mr. Seacrest, the host of Fox's 'American Idol' and E!'s 'E! News Daily,' made industry headlines last year when he signed a five-year contract with Premiere Radio and Clear Channel to help sell ads for his show 'On-Air With Ryan Seacrest.' As part of the deal, Mr. Seacrest leveraged his existing relationships with sponsors such as Procter & Gamble's Scope and Crest brands to bring them to radio, banking a commission for each deal along the way. In turn, Mr. Seacrest appears in several of those sponsors' TV commercials.

Mr. Harvey, a stand-up comedian and best-selling author who hosts Premiere's 'Steve Harvey Morning Show,' applies a more grassroots approach to his live reads. When he talks about advertisers like Ford and State Farm, it's because the brands have been a part of his life for years, he told Ad Age.

'I will not do any live reads unless I absolutely believe in the product,' he said. 'I always try and protect my integrity to the listening audience. I'm too straight of a shooter, and also a stand-up [comedian] -- so eventually if I'm doing something I don't believe in, I'll make fun of it.'"

do people trust media?

TNS asked that very question. Check out what they found:

"According to TNS, the good news, for Internet content producers, is that people now trust the information they get from online news—roughly to the same degree as news from television and information from friends.

Globally, the most trusted information source was friends, with 42% of those surveyed saying that they trusted word-of-mouth recommendations. About an equal number trusted TV news (41%), online news (40%) and newspapers (39%).

Naturally, there were variations in media trust from country to country, but several patterns emerged.

Internet users in the US and Canada held similar attitudes toward the media, with the largest differences in the US’s comparative lack of trust in newspapers and TV news."

npr has people tuning in.

While other media outlets are losing their fans,NPR is gaining (a lot) of them:

"The audience for NPR's daily news programs, including "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered," reached a record last year, driven by widespread interest in the presidential election, and the general decline of radio news elsewhere. Washington-based NPR will release new figures to its stations today showing that the cumulative audience for its daily news programs hit 20.9 million a week, a 9 percent increase over the previous year.

The weekly audience for all the programming fed by Washington-based NPR -- including talk shows and music -- also reached a record last year, with 23.6 million people tuning in each week, an 8.7 percent increase over 2007."

Are any of your listeners? What's your favorite program?

traditional media usage levels off.

Well this is interesting:

"Traditional media usage by Internet users in the US remained largely steady in 2008 after falling in 2007, judging by respondents to a Ketchum and USC Annenberg Strategic Public Relations Center survey conducted in late 2008. For instance, less than two-thirds of respondents said they watched major network TV news, about the same as in 2007 but down from the 71% who said so in 2006.

Traditional media use leveled off while use of shopping and social networking Websites rose sharply, increasing their attraction for marketers. Shopping sites, for example, more than doubled in popularity to be visited by 35% of Internet users in 2008. Ketchum and USC Annenberg also noted 44% of shopping site visitors read consumer reviews and comments, expanding the sites’ influence. 

all across the airwaves.

Remember that medium 'radio'?

It's not only NOT gone, it's alive and well among the LAST demographic you'd think it would be: Gen Y!

"A recent online study from Paragon Research polling more than 400 14- to 24-year-olds about their music-consumption habits found that the youth demo has increased its time spent listening to radio 11% this year, while its time spent listening to iPods has actually decreased 13%. The study coincides with the Radio Advertising Bureau's annual RADAR report, which shows that AM/FM radio listeners increased by 3 million in 2008, bringing the number of weekly radio listeners to 235 million."

How can radio be up and iPods down, you ask?

According to Jeff Haley, president-CEO of the RAB, it's due to:

"[The] lack of inertia in the MP3 experience. You don't have the ability to refresh or any kind of automated way to come across great new music. As a result, that isolated programming effect does not allow you the serendipitous experience the way radio does."

Interesting.

what are you willing to give up?

Is this really such a shock?

"Nearly 70% of men ages 18 to 34 would rather rather give up TV than the Internet, according to new research commissioned by Web content provider Break Media. And 26% would rather surf the Web than have sex."

OK, maybe that part is suprising.

"Of course, they could be watching 'videos featuring hot girls,' the third-most-popular category for online entertainment behind funny videos and full-length movies.

Among other findings from the study conducted by brand and communications research firm Hall & Partners: Nearly half of men in that age group spend 22 hours a week online, and nearly half said they bought something at retail after viewing an online ad."

We know the Internet has become the ultimate entertainment and brand platform, providing the best of everything: TV, video, radio, etc., but it's always interesting to see what people are willing to give up or substitute. It really shows where loyalties are.

so where are these super-rich people?

Clearly, with what has been going on the past few days in the financial sector, the super-rich aren’t exactly a popular target to talk about. However, there’s always a need for new research, right? :)

 

According to the 2008 Affluent Survey, “affluent ‘heads-of-house’ read more publications and use the internet more heavily than the balance of the population, and consumption of these media increases with affluence.” That’s quite different than the image we used to have, of ultra rich people who shunned online for more ‘classic’ mediums.

 

The classic mediums haven’t been ignored or left to rot, though. “[Those with] annual household incomes of $100K or more read an average of eight publication titles, while the average number of issues they read is 17.9. Among the super-rich (those with incomes more than $250K), however, the number of issues read jumps to 25.5.”

 

Check out more media usage info here.

 

merger alert.

It looks like we're thiiiiiiiiis close to having a satellite radio monopoly.

the future of radio...

The Washington Post put out an interesting article on the future of radio. I'd love your feedback on it..

ring ring radio.

Apparently mobile radio is hitting all the right notes, so to speak, among cellphone users.