Kantar: Total Q2 Ad Spend Was Flat

9-16-14

Total advertising expenditures increased 0.7 percent in the second quarter according to Kantar Media. During the first six months of 2014 ad spending grew 3.1 percent. According to Kantar's numbers, national spot radio declined 6.2 percent and local radio, for English language stations, was down 3.6 percent. Kantar says both segments were hit by sharply lower spending from the financial service, insurance, and restaurant categories which outweighed small gains from telecom and retail advertisers. Network radio was up 5.6 percent.

In other media, Kantar says television increased 5 percent, Internet display spending grew 6.2 percent as financial, retail, and local service marketers raised their budgets. Print declined substantially, with local newspaper advertising down 9.7 percent and national newspapers off 15.8 percent.

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Pandora Total Radio Listening Up Again

10-3-13

Pandora's share of total radio listening is inching toward the 8 percent mark...according to Pandora. The company released its monthly listening numbers today and says it now has 7.7 percent of "total U.S. radio listening," up from 7.46 percent last month. Radio Ink has no way to verify those numbers. September listening hours were 1.36 billion, compared to 1.35 in August, and active listeners were 72.7 million, up from 72.1 million in August.

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Pandora Says Total Radio Share Up Again

9-4-13

Since Pandora instituted a 40-hour-per-month listening cap on free subscribers, it had been reporting monthly decreases in what it calls "total U.S. radio listening," although July was flat at around 7 percent. The company lifted those caps last month and the number is already up, to 7.46 percent. As we report every month there is no way to verify the total percentage number Pandora publishes and the radio industry disputes it. August listener hours for Pandora were 1.35 billion compared to 1.28 billion in July. Active listeners were 72.1 million, compared to 71.1 million in July. 

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Total Traffic Wins Telematics Award

6-10-13

Total Traffic Network has been named the 2013 Telematics Update Award winner for Best Navigation Solution. The Telematics Update Awards recognize the leading players in the telematics space during Telematics Detroit. TTN was recognized for its navigation solution that delivers real-time local traffic flow and incident information with graphics to vehicle dashboards via an HD Radio signal or IP-connectivity.

Senior VP of Operations at TTN Kevin Loftus says, "Total Traffic Network is extremely proud to be honored as the Best Navigation Solution by Telematics Update. The prestige of this award continues to validate the hard and passionate work of our team in building compelling, valuable, relevant, and dynamic content and distribution services for our customers. We are humbled and excited to have our industry peers recognize TTN as a leader for traffic and traveler information solutions."

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(SALES) Taking Total Control Of The Sales Call

5-20-2013

Out in the field last week, I noticed some moves by a couple of young sales reps that exemplified controlling a sales call from start to finish.

On average, once we get into the meat of the sales call, we have about 17 minutes to accomplish our intended purpose. In this case, I had two different sales calls. The first was a CMP, or needs analysis, call and the other was a closing call for an annual agreement. No set-ups on these calls for me either -- they were the real deal. I ride with the reps we consult. It?s the only way to really see if the training, and most importantly, the in-field coaching by the sales manager is taking root. My purpose on the calls was observation as opposed to the reps meeting with me to ask for opinions or suggestions on their marketing.

1st call: CMP: This was done by a rookie 24-year-old sales rep with four months of media sales experience with her company. She had sent over the pre-call checklist on scouting the account for me to preview so I would have the knowledge of the account. We were calling on a real estate agent. As usual, things at a real estate company are pretty busy. The rep scheduled a 20-minute call for her needs gathering.

-- Establish control: The real estate agent came into the small conference room inside the brokerage and stated things were hectic and she needed to move quickly. She also said a client was waiting in the lobby for her. In most cases and even with veteran reps, they would short change this call. Not our new sales rep. She quickly says we will be 20 minutes as stated on her phone call to set up the appointment and proceeded to take out her CMP folder. She noted that the information stayed confidential and handed the CMP folder over to the real estate agent and asked her to check off the top three things that were most important to her from the 25 options. She did not deviate from her purpose on the sales call and quickly established that she was in control by having the real estate agent check off her wish list.

-- Power Domain: The real estate agent was in her power domain inside her company?s office. Our sales rep took a seat right next to the real estate agent. Subtle nuances of body language count in a sales call. The young rookie leveled the playing field early by sitting next to the agent.

-- Quantify, qualify, and set the next appointment. The rookie rep asked how many listings the agent was currently doing, how many would be a reasonable increase, and put a dollar figure to it. The rep also found out on a 1-to-10 question where the shortcomings were on the media the agent was currently using. A 5 and a 6 on her current advertising made the agent think that there was a better option out there versus what she was currently using. The next appointment was set.

In 48 hours the creative was done. Creative that truly rises above the clutter.
 
2nd call: Closing Annual: This call was done by a 26-year-old with three months of selling her display advertising. She previously had two years of radio sales experience. The advertiser was a car dealership. On this call, the ?technical buyer? showed up four minutes into the call. The ?tech buyer? was the decision-maker?s wife. 

-- Never flinching: The ?tech buyer? normally stalls the call. Remember, the ?tech buyer? can?t say yes, can only say no, and usually does. During the course of the call, the ?tech buyer? wants to use the new product before her husband can make the decision. The ?tech buyer? then says that on any creative, she needs to approve it before her husband can sign the agreement. This is a tough situation to overcome. The sales rep isolates the objections from the ?tech buyer? and says they are noted and continues on with her presentation all the while noting the needs of the wife. In many cases, I see the sales rep cave on a call like this and let the ?tech buyer? dominate. Not so here. The sales rep's eyes continued to focus on the decision-maker and his body language while casually looking at the wife and then back to the husband.

-- Time to close: Yes, the first one who talks does own it. On several occasions this call could have gone back to the drawing board. The sales rep stayed the course, asked for the annual, and got the signature. The objections all came from the wife. By the end of the call, the sales rep had plans to go have drinks with the wife. The wife asked that new creative be done before her husband could sign. The rep said she would redo the creative after the signature. This is the way to do it -- instead of having to keep going back and redoing creative, get the signature and then redo the creative. Otherwise, you could be on a nine-month wedding march and you never close it.

Sean Luce is the Head International Instructor for the Luce Performance Group International and can be reached at sean@luceperformancegroup.com or www.luceperformancegroup.com.

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Toyota Picks Total Traffic For Dash Info

1-7-13

Clear Channel's Total Traffic Network and Toyota have announced a three-year agreement that will integrate real-time traffic and The Weather Channel information into the dashboards of select 2013 Toyota and Lexus models. The new Toyota models will feature the first consumer-facing real-time delivery of information and graphics inside a vehicle via an HD Radio signal.
Toyota VP Jon Bucci said, ?We are excited about this value-oriented solution for providing important services to our customers. The strengthening of our partnership with Clear Channel Media and Entertainment provides even more in-vehicle experiences by bringing real-time information to our customers.?

Featured In-Dash Services To Include:
- Doppler weather radar: Drivers will have instant access to The Weather Channel?s Doppler weather radar overlaid onto their existing in-dash navigation map.
- Current weather conditions and forecasts: Drivers will be able to easily access The Weather Channel?s local and national forecasts for over 120 cities with a touch of the console screen.
- Real-time traffic: These easy-to-understand maps and incident coverage reports are updated every two minutes and offer current conditions, as well as upcoming 15-, 30- and 45-minute predictive traffic information.

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Pandora Says it Has 6% of Total Radio Listening.

7-10-2012
Pandora sent out a short release today stating June listening hours were 1.08 billion, an increase of 77% from 605 million during the same period last year. And the company now claims it has nearly a 6% share of total U.S. radio listening, an increase from 3.37% at the same time last year. Active listeners were 54.5 million at the end of June 2012, an increase of 51% from 36.1 million during the same time period last year.

(7/10/2012 6:12:57 PM)
Are these the numbers Pandora is paying royalties based on, or just numbers for a press release?

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(DIGITAL) Attention Ye Who Toil In Total Anonymity

5-10-2012

There are a lot of things that can hold a station back from being highly profitable, nationally recognized, sought after for panels, and nominated for all kinds of awards. You could be in a small market. Your signal could be just shy of awful. You may have very few advertisers, very little revenue, and thus nothing to invest in any improvements. Every one of us either knows, or has been part of, a station like that. They can barely function, and it's a daily mental feat to convince yourself it's worth being on the air at all.

There are a lot of things that can hold an air talent back from being pursued for bigger gigs, for syndication, for more pay, for the above-mentioned panels and award nominations and industry notoriety. You could be in a small market. You could be on a signal that's awful. You could have no access to consultants, confabs, or tools to get better. You could be forced to work four full-time jobs at the station, guaranteeing you'll never get anywhere as an air talent since you have no time to think or prep. Every one of us has felt trapped in a situation where it didn't matter how good we were, it was a virtual certainty we'd never get noticed. And it was a daily mental feat just to crawl back to the mic.

Take heart.

Social can change your fate in a heartbeat. With social, it's never too late. Even though you might think your station or your career is on its last legs and you're "done," there's hope in social. There's redemption and rebirth in social.

Alex Tanney became a viral YouTube video star thanks to a montage of him doing a bunch of incredible football passes. We're talking throwing into a moving pickup from a 2nd-story window; off the bounce into a far away trash can; off props into basketball hoops, etc. Alex had just finished his playing career at Monmouth College, a Division III school in Illinois. Because of the division and the lackluster competition, he got no notice or recognition for his play. The video was uploaded in February of 2011 and has gotten almost two million views. Among those who saw it, the Buffalo Bills. He's now getting a shot at the NFL.

NYU grad Rob Delaney was pursuing a path undertaken by many, trying to be an actor and comedian. With so much competition out there, he wasn't exactly setting the world on fire. No HBO specials, and the few TV roles he landed included such career-launchers as "Outer Space Astronauts."  And then came Twitter. His tweets landed him a TV deal on Comedy Central and he was recently awarded "Funniest Person on Twitter" at the Comedy Awards, besting nominees like Steve Martin, Aziz Ansari, and Stephen Colbert. His nearly 400,000 followers get tweets such as:

- "The story of Titanic speaks to me because I once tripped over a bag of ice at a party and then killed over 15,000 people."

- "You can take the boy out of the country but you can't take the country out of the boy because countries can't fit in boys to begin with."

- "You've really got to hand it to short people, because they often can't reach it."

- "I just sent back the 'everything' bagel because it didn't have tiny Spice Girls figurines on it."

The point is this: If you think your station is forever relegated to being small and insignificant; if you think your on-air career is either over or has already seen its best days; social has fixed it so that you don't get to think those things anymore. There's only one thing that stands between you and breakout success, and that is your own ability to captivate.

Social has torn down the barriers and put all real control in the hands of content creators and the public. All those management types and bureaucracies that you'd like to blame for holding you back are not what's stopping you. Social is the mightiest signal of all, and it costs you nothing.

Social should give you all hope, and spark, and a renewed passion, dedication, and energy. If you're a tiny FM oldies station in Daytona Beach, Fla., putting truly original talent, ideas, events, experiences, and information on your social streams could blow you up into a national brand. If you're an OM/GSM/PD/imaging director/PM drive personality in Fresno, creating and hosting irresistibly original high-concept programming and distributing it via Facebook and/or YouTube could make you the next Ryan Seacrest.

You're not trapped, and you're not finished. Quit trying to get the attention of radio managers whose heads are somewhere up near their liver and show everybody what you've got.

Mike Stiles is a brand content specialist with the social marketing tech platform Vitrue. Check out his monologue blog The Stiles Files and follow him @mikestiles.

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Pandora Revenue Still Crumbs Compared to Total Radio Take

3-8-2012

You just never know when the market will turn on you after propping you up, flirting with you and loving you for months on end. Yesterday while the Dow was up 78 points, investors were punishing the Pandora stock, ripping away its value for a second day in a row sending it face first toward its 52-week low of $9.15.

Pandora will open this morning at $10.86. This young and loved company was once a $26.00 stock, not too long ago. It may be a sign that investors want to see revenue and profit generation a lot sooner than they were willing to wait with previous Internet darlings. Or, it just may be that Pandora has signaled a slow start to 2012 and investors are going to wait it out until Q2. As CEO Joe Kennedy touts record listening hours, active users and billions of thumbs up, investors are letting him know they want him to show them the money. 

KENNEDY SAYS PANDORA WILL BE LARGER THAN MOST RADIO STATIONS

In three months ended January 31st, Pandora reported a 62% increase in active users, a 71% increase in advertising revenue and nearly doubled listening hours. But everyone knows, as those numbers increase, so do the royalties Pandora has to pay out. Content-acquisition costs more than doubled, to $48.2 million in the quarter, from $23.9 million a year earlier. And, while Kennedy says the local sales effort is ramping up, it may be this line that didn't sit so well with investors: "meaningful revenue from the local radio markets is 18-24 months away." Kennedy said Pandora is finishing the "initial process of staffing local radio ad sales teams in most top ten U.S. markets."

KENNEDY SAYS "WE CONTINUE TO DISRUPT THE RADIO INDUSTRY

Another possible factoid that caused investors to head for the exit sign this week was the Q1 guidance. While generating $81 Million in revenue in the most recent quarter, the company predicted revenue between $72 and $75 million in its next quarter. And while the company has taken a position that it is redefining radio, in 2011 the Radio Advertising Bureau reported radio revenue totaled $17.4 Billion, a slight increase over 2010. Over the past year, Pandora generated $274 Million in revenue and not all of that comes from audio advertisers, some of it is user fee revenue.

(3/8/2012 9:44:21 AM)
The problem with Pandora dealing with automakers is they assume everyone has a high speed, always on, unlimited bandwidth data connection. Newsflash - they don't. And audio streams chew up data plans really fast. Satellite's advantage is huge - all you need is that little stick-on antenna if you don't already have it built in to your car stereo. I don't see Pandora on the road gaining much traction.
(3/8/2012 9:25:13 AM)
I'm REALLY getting tired of Radio and our trade magazine partners getting all defensive over Pandora! Stop giving them a podium to pound their puny little chest! If Chicken Little had gotten as much credence as Pandora, we'd be calling the earth "sky!" It's not NEWS when Pandora trumps up a ratings metric like "starts." I suspect the NEWS we will never hear is "Pandora reports a profit!"
(3/8/2012 7:27:06 AM)
Guys...thank you for the feedback.
There are several reasons we cover Pandora.
#1) One of their stated objectives is to take revenue from radio. We simply cannot ignore that.
#2) They are a real audio company that consumers love.
#3) We always cover new technology.

Thanks again
Ed

(3/8/2012 7:25:35 AM)
I'm not sure I agree with you, Jock. If Pandora didn't ask for such a large minimum investment, I'd be sending them avails along with everyone else. The metrics they use are different, but I can work that out. Time will tell...
- Jen White, White House Media(3/8/2012 6:31:59 AM)
Why are you so obsessed with Pandora?

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Total Radio Revenue Take Was $17.4 Billion in 2011

2-20-2012

The Radio Advertising Bureau reports that radio revenue in 2011 totaled $17.4 Billion. Overall in 2011 radio revenue increased 1% from 2010 according to RAB President and CEO Jeff Haley. Comcast and McDonalds continue to be big radio spenders. We have all the details on the RAB's latest revenue report.

NOTE: This is a correction from Monday morning's news headline. Auto made up 10.9% (nearly $2 Billion) of all radio spending in 2011 (not 26%).  READ THE ENTIRE RAB REPORT HERE

Here's the breakdown within the auto category for spot radio revenue:
Chrysler Group $199.2 Million
Toyota Dealers $133.4 Million
Chevrolet Dealers $66.1 Million
Ford Dealers $64.9 Million and Ford Motor Corporation $60.8 Million.

Overall in 2011 radio revenue increased 1% from 2010 according to the RAB. Comcast and McDonalds continue to be big radio spenders.

Additional categories that came in big for radio in 2011 were: Communications, restaurants, TV and Cable networks and financial. All categories were up either one or two percent.

The Communications/Cellular category boasts four of Radio?s top 10 spenders for 2011 ? AT&T (#1 at $364.9M), Verizon Wireless (#4 at $261.1M), MetroPCS (#8 at $160.7M), and T-Mobile (#9 at $150.8M), although the category?s rank went from #2 in 2010 to #3 in 2011. Spending in the sector was impacted by challenges to the two top players ? the contested merger of AT&T and T-Mobile and ongoing issues with Verizon?s 4G network among them. While both these advertisers curtailed spending in Q4, much of that volume was offset by stepped up commitments from other advertisers.

Competing with grocery stores and C-stores for consumers? food dollars, major players in this category increased their Radio spend by 12% Q4, to $312.4M. Total year spending was up 5%, to $1.4B. McDonald?s continues to add money to Radio and dominate this category with Q4 and full-year 2011 spend close to the total of the next four advertisers combined. Head-to-head competitor Burger King beefed up its efforts substantially in Q4 to move into second-place in category spending for the period.

Other restaurants that more than doubled their Radio expenditures in 2011 were: Applebee?s ? up 104%, to $46.4M, Denny?s Advantica ? up 177%, to $19.9M, Jack in the Box ? up 165%, to $19.4M, Domino?s Pizza ? up 120%, to $16.6M, Firehouse Subs ? up 142%, to $15.2M. With an expanded national footprint, Buffalo Wild Wings topped the Q4 Network Radio charts with $1.4M ? a five-fold investment over Q4 2010 and ended 2011 up 134% to $2.1M. Subway ended 2011 at #1 with $6.6M and $1.4M for the quarter (at #2).

Comcast Cable is the definitive leader in the Tv/Cable category with expenditures of $341.5M for the year (+19% over 2010). The increase moves Comcast to the #3 ranking among all Radio advertisers in 2011, up from 4th a year ago. TV Broadcast Networks Fox, CBS and ABC led the uptick in Q4 revenue, spending 80% (to $46M), 20% (to $22.2M), and 129% (to $15.6M) more, respectively. Radio also scored with ESPN in the fourth quarter: The sports cable outlet kicked up spending nearly six-fold, to $14.3M.

Insurance Companies were Radio?s top growth category in Q4 and year-over year, up an impressive 23% and 26% respectively. Three advertisers (Allstate, GEICO and State Farm) in this category spent over $100M in 2011 Radio compared to just one ? GEICO ? in 2010. GEICO retains a solid hold as top spender for the year at $172.3M. Allstate represents a major Radio success story proclaiming their increased commitment to the medium this year; full-year spending is up by 130% to $137.7, moving them into the #2 spot within the category (from 3rd in 2010). Number three State Farm Insurance boosted its spending by 39%, to $101.1M.

Major spending increases by State Farm (+226%, to $48.1M) and Allstate (+114%, to $40.3M) edged GEICO ($39.1M, -11%) from its perch as category leader in Q4. American Family Insurance also significantly increased its Radio voice (+143%, to $19.6M), moving up to 5th in rank from 8th same period last year; and health-provider. Blue Cross Blue Shield was up 11%, to $20.9M. Across the Network sector, Allstate retained the top slot for the quarter increasing more than four-fold increase over 2010 at $9.7M and ended 2011 up 124% to $12.9M. Competitor GEICO held the top spot by year-end with $25.3M and ranked at #2 for Q4 with $6.7M.

(2/20/2012 9:18:34 AM)
Well Larry,
I think it's like this: When the auto business tanked in 08-09 and dealers were spending little on radio, we still had a payroll to meet. So, some of us started calling on clients and categories we had driven by for years. You know, businesses that used the newspaper, billboards and yellow pages but radio didn't call on them because they...I dunno, didn't fit the format or something. And you know what? many of them bought. And now we have new customer types so we don't need the car dealers, bars, furniture stores, and fast foods quite as much. Good thing it happened that way. Radio would have never thought of it otherwise.
(2/20/2012 8:08:10 AM)
I wonder if anyone had the same initial reaction to the news about the share of radio revnue derived from automotive as I did? Intense anxiety! Having one industry represent so much of radio’s annual revenue means that if (when) that industry catches a cold, radio gets pneumonia. The auto industry is hot right now. When the industry is hot, radio performs in positive space. When the industry hits a speed bump, radio performs in negative space. The real questions in my head are:
1.What can radio do to super-serve the auto business so that we can become stronger partners with the industry on both a local and national level? We have the assets and consumer relationships to be an invaluable business partner.

2.In what ways might radio develop other revenue streams to reduce it’s reliance on automotive to drive its revenue? I'm silly enough to believe that there are new opportunities in our "new economy" that have yet to be exploited both in terms of business categories and how we deploy our assets within the programming, marketing and sales environment.

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