The 2022 BSM Summit presents a networking opportunity, as I wrote about a few weeks ago. It is also a great chance to learn about the future of the local advertising market. On Wednesday, March 3, Borrell Associates CEO Gordon Borrell will do a session with Amplifi Media CEO Steven Goldstein to review where the opportunities are and are not for selling in 2022 and beyond.
Borrell is frequently quoted in our trades, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times. His podcast, Compass local ad spend research, and local advertiser surveys are vital assets to sellers. You can learn more from Borrell in New York at the Summit, at Borrell Miami March 6-8 at the Miami Hilton, or right here as he gives us a preview of his insight for local radio sellers and podcasting.
Jeff Caves: What advice would you give to a sports radio sales rep to increase their sales with tools they can access on their own?
Gordon Borrell: Sales automation has become a strategic competitive advantage only because so many reps are challenged, don’t use CRMs, or don’t use them effectively. So, a CRM is one vital tool. Another is marketing knowledge, with the tool being anything (including Google) that can help them cite facts and trends to make them a marketing expert in the eyes of the ad buyer. I can’t emphasize how important that is. Advertisers have told us that the No. 1 thing that makes them buy from a radio rep is the depth of their marketing savvy and ability to represent the interests of their own business, not the radio business.
JC: Why was automated proposal generation the key to a media sales rep performance increase in 2021?
GB: Technology has forced the marketing world from using calendars to using stopwatches. Marketing opportunities seem to arise in a moment — the need to launch a campaign or retract one — due to market circumstances. So, speed and efficiency are important. Also, it’s a well-established fact that the more proposals in the sales pipeline, the more sales will close. Reps who can turn around a proposal the same day, via automation, took advantage of advances in technology that allow them to do so.
JC: Adults 60+ will soon have 85% of the US wealth and be the most significant share of radio listeners and local tv viewers. How do local sellers convince the ad-buying community to spend dollars here?
GB: It’s true that broadcast audiences skew toward older adults, so it makes sense that advertisers would spend their dollars on those types of media. However, they won’t be buying broadcast by themselves, which exposes them to other media that might work just as well. The only thing that will insulate broadcast media against a competitive rep in the digital space is to ensure the broadcast company employs a MARKETING expert that sells both — not a broadcast expert that also sells digital stuff.
JC: What’s the barrier to bigger local podcast or stream audiences?
GB: You’re going to need a strong local angle and a strong local personality to bring it to life. Give me a compelling reason to listen to a recorded audio program about my locality. And please, for God’s sake, don’t make it about rock ‘n roll or music genres or concerts and events, as I fear some stations might attempt. I think if you took the tried-and-true podcast recipe of intriguing, entertaining, and unique and applied it to something edgy or interesting about the community, you’d have a local podcast hit.
Think of old newspaper columnists and their unique voices — people like H.L. Menken or Andy Rooney — and wonder how that type of personality could apply to a local market with a show by a colorful personality or mayor or lawyer or church pastor. Wry commentary or great wisdom and perspective applied to things happening in the local community would be a hit, I think.
JC: Why aren’t re-purposed radio show podcasts consumed more?
GB: Cramming an existing business model into a new technological platform never works. Plus, the popular part of radio is live — like traffic reports, weather reports, what’s happening today. That doesn’t play out well in a program that may be heard several days later.
Podcasting has a different nature. It’s a classic disruptive iteration, as TV was back in the 1950s. When TV came along, would it have worked if radio merely uploaded the audio from the Gunsmoke series to TV sets and just showed a picture of Sheriff Matt Dillon the whole time the program played? A lot of radio serials did get transferred to TV but required different talent (the radio’s Matt Dillon, William Conrad, wasn’t as suitable for TV as the handsome James Arness.)
JC: Should radio on-air talent pursue podcasting opportunities away from radio companies? Even as a side hustle?
GB: Certainly if their contracts allow.
JC: How can attending Borrell Miami help local broadcasters in 2022 and beyond?
GB: It’s a unique opportunity to hear about the amazing transformation in local advertising outside of the broadcast-only perspective. Everybody’s racing for the same thing — to become marketing experts who sell a cornucopia of advertising products to local businesses. It’s great to hear the perspective of newspapers, local cable systems, outdoor companies, local ad agencies, and pureplay Internet providers. They’re all under the same roof at the same time. The content is unique and dynamic, but networking with other sales executives is by far the No. 1 draw.
