Week of September 14, 2009

Indications are that radio advertising seems to have finally hit bottom sometime in the last quarter and is slowly beginning to grow. Congratulations to us for apparently turning the corner.

While I realize profits have been slim over the last couple of years, let's not succumb to taking more profit than necessary as things get better. Let's remember we have been running on fumes as we cut back first on fat and then on the meat of our operating capital.

This has been a great, cleansing exercise and we can emerge from it much better if we take some of the improved profit and invest it back in our companies to create a leaner, but stronger business. We've had to generate new streams of revenue and I believe we will look back on the last few years and be thankful necessity produced a business ready for the expanding information and entertainment delivery systems.

The key word is "expanding." Traditional radio is not dead or even dying, but those in traditional radio who believe an improved economy will bring back the good old days may as well pack up their offices now. Necessity has made us embrace new delivery systems and made us realize our real strength is in creating content.

The economic hard times have made it necessary to downsize your staff. You can make the downsizing the best thing that happened to the remaining people in your organization.

What?!!!

Go back to the good old days when you had more people in Sales, Promotions, Programming, the Business Office, Engineering, and maybe even a couple of folks in HR. Get it firmly in your mind and then be honest with yourself about relationships.

If you are candid I'll bet you will admit you had to continually fight the building of walls between departments. Sales said Promotions stood in the way of deals; Promotions said Sales would not embrace creative ideas, only the dumb ideas given them by the clients; Programming thought Engineering was just there to make excuses for signal issues; Engineering thought no one had the brain of a pea; most people thought the Business Office hated them; and it seemed like everyone hated HR because they stood in the way of creating a really excellent staff.

You are now expected to do more with fewer people. With your leadership, use the smaller staff to create lines of cooperation among departments you have always wanted.

Set up a series of goals for each department. Pull the smaller staff together and use the expertise among the group to build lines of cooperation to make the goals more attainable.

A small boat is easier to steer than a large ship and your job has changed dramatically as your staff has become smaller. You are the PT boat against a battleship. Bring your crew together so they can use the weapons at their disposal wisely.

Here's something fun to do today. Take a look at the Tracy Awards entrants. What are the Tracy Awards? It is a concept created by some folks at Crowell Advertising in Salt Lake City to give recognition to "the worst in advertising."

Their PR piece starts this way: "Ever see advertising that's so horrendous, you wish you could somehow get back at whoever made it by burning down their house and nominating them for an award of some sort for bad advertising?"

And, there's a new word created for the entrants ... CRAPVERTISING. It reminds me of the day years ago when my then young son created a word for the stuff that collects in the corner of your eye ... optisnot ... but I digress.

To whet your appetite to go to the website, along with the obvious Head On/Active On spots, there are some great ones like a print ad, or maybe a billboard, that shows a pretty teenage girl picking her nose on one side and an empty beer bottle on the other side. The verbiage is "seven out of 10 teens don't." It's obviously an ad to prevent teenage drinking ... or is it to prevent teenage nose picking?

Here's how to see more of the entrants (or to enter your favorite).

Go to thetracyawards.com, at the bottom of the page click as if you are entering the contest ... on the next page click on the "cream of the crap" icon at the top right of the page.

I always like to have a lesson in each of these columns. This one is simple: See how easy it is to create something with very little cash to get you recognized? Crowell Advertising created something that will be good for them locally in Salt Lake City, but will probably go viral on the internet. You realize don't you that you could have done this on your website, and some columnist(s) would be helping your radio station go viral.

Yesterday we looked at the fact that corporate General Motors marketing has decided it is in the best interest of the company to quit using a connection with GM in its advertising. As the head of marketing Bob Lutz put it, "It's like the parents went bankrupt, but the kids had nothing to do with it ... So we decided using the GM symbol and name as an umbrella ... was not a good thing to do."

Radio stations associated with big corporations have used the corporate brand to show how big and powerful they are. Maybe it's time to rethink that attitude in today's economy where big corporations have been demonized. We see a lot in the press today about the importance of small businesses in the effort to dig out of the recession.

We are fortunate that our listeners still think of us as a companion. If possible, maybe you should rethink that hourly ID that says "KXXX, a Mr. Big Corporation radio station."

Does your advertising client really care that you are part of Mr. Big Corporation? Or, does that association make the client believe you can afford to give him a break?

It's food for thought this week. Remember, one size does not fit all. Mr. Big might be right for one client and wrong for another. You have to think about everything when you are trying to find every dollar out there.

As you talk to your GM dealerships about advertising, be sure to keep in mind that their marketing leader, Bob Lutz, has determined any connection with "GM" or "General Motors" and the individual brands is not in the best interest of the company as it emerges from bankruptcy. He believes the bad press from the months of pre-bankruptcy and bankruptcy have done a lot of harm to the marquee. However, Lutz said consumers still have a good perception of the individual makes and GM is "supremely confident" consumers will be satisfied with the new models.

The latest national campaign pits individual GM models against competitor's models. A couple of examples: The 2010 Chevrolet Equinox against the 2010 Honda CRV, and the 2010 Buick LaCrosse against the 2010 Lexus ES 350.

The campaign is controversial with some calling it brilliant and others saying it is the dumbest thing GM has ever done. Be careful when talking to your dealers and make sure which side of the argument they are coming down on. But, make no mistake, there will be a trickle-down effect reaching local advertising. Once you know which way the wind is blowing for your contact, help him/her find a way to use radio to take the message home.