The New Breed of Account Managers is Among Us
By Matt Mise
This is one of the most exciting times to be in radio. Yes – this is coming from a millennial!
For the past five decades, radio has remained, for all intents and purposes, the same and still a major player in the media landscape. But, now we’re in a transition period from simply broadcasters to media publishers using a channel specific approach to build audience and revenue opportunities using radio for awareness and digital properties to target and engage. Digital advertising revenue in Canada is poised for double digit growth to continue in 2016, with a forecast 21% increase to $5.6 billion. Radio has the properties to capture our share, now it’s time to get the right people in the right seats – and those people probably don’t come from within our industry.
The role of the new breed of Account Manager is to get attention on their client’s brand, with the right audience.
One major theme at the Ontario Association of Broadcaster’s Connection 2016 Conference in Toronto was The New Breed of Account Manager; so long to the cringe-worthy Herb Tarleks of our world. The new breed of Account Manager understands how radio campaigns drive organic Google search actions, build trust for local brands and how channel-specific digital content can target and engage a potential customer for that client. The role of the new breed of Account Manager is to get attention on their client’s brand, with the right audience.
“My clients are moving radio dollars to digital.”
I have worked with radio account managers and clients in markets ranging from 20,000 to 2.5 million, and there is a common theme. “My clients are moving radio dollars to digital.” Clients have more advertising choices than ever before outside of local competition. Facebook, Google search and display network, Instagram, programmatic, Snapchat geo-filters …the list is endless. These advertising products have a low cost of entry, and can be executed without a pushy sales person. If you’re an account manager who relies 100% on commission, this should make you nervous.
Content is still King, but context is Queen
Radio’s ad product builds mass reach and frequency for brand affinity, digital targets and engages. The New Breed of Account Manager must create content campaigns that live on their radio station website, are amplified on social media and tell stories thatpsychographically target their key demographic. Content is still King, but context is Queen.
Let’s look at this situation: a local travel agent is looking to promote domestic travel options in response to the under-performing dollar which has negatively impacted the number of Canadians flying abroad. An example of a storytelling content campaign is a 6-week, 3-part series on contextual based website posts and Instagram stories, which includes display ad units and keywords that are deep-linked to the client’s properties. Distributing through organic social posts from the station page drives traffic to the content while utilizing Facebook’s branded content tag and a 15-second spot highlighting the content series with the client’s name and tag could be produced. Brand impressions could be furthered by utilizing available digital media inventory to promote current product/service initiatives. Engagements are your new metric of success An engagement is an action taken on a content campaign, such as a like, share, comment, or tag. An engagement displays that the campaign has grabbed attention of the target audience, resonated with them and the audience took action. That piece of branded content worked!
When you add digital you’re adding additional measurement
Each market and format leverages online platforms in a different manner. There is no one size fits all model. The common thread however is: tell great stories, on the proper, channels and you will gain attention for your client’s brand. And when you add digital you’re adding additional measurement that clients insist upon and are willing to pay for.
Matt Mise is Digital Sales & Partnerships with Indie88 in Toronto.
