Hat tip to Paul Porter of IndustryEars.com. This article is long, but interesting reading if you, like me, are interested in the future of radio:
Radio’s Revenue Falls Even as Audience Grows By STEPHANIE CLIFFORD CAN radio save itself?
Listeners are diverted by iPods and Internet and satellite radio. Companies are loaded with debt. Advertisers are heading to television or the Web — and the advertisers that have continued to advertise on radio, like auto dealers and retailers, are being hit by the economic crisis and pulling back.
And even though the audience for broadcast radio is actually growing, stations cannot seem to increase their revenue.
Radio advertising was down 10 percent last month from October 2007, according to the Radio Advertising Bureau, the 18th consecutive month of declines.
And the third-quarter numbers are dismal. CBS Radio reported a revenue drop of 12 percent. Citadel Broadcasting’s revenue dropped by 10.9 percent. CC Media Holdings, which owns Clear Channel Communications, said radio revenue was down 7 percent. Cox Radio revenue fell 6.2 percent; Emmis Communications’ radio revenue decreased 1.5 percent; and Radio One revenue was down 2 percent.
Problems in the radio industry have been piling up for years, said Marci L. Ryvicker, an analyst at Wachovia Capital Markets. In the 1990s, radio companies consolidated, then began increasing the ad time available. “They started to fight for share, instead of being proactive and thinking of new ways to generate revenue,” Ms. Ryvicker said.
Then, when advertisers decreased their spending around 2001, radio stations were stuck with too much time and too few advertisers. “There was too much inventory out there, and rates kept going down, down, down,” Ms. Ryvicker said.
Recent years have not changed the fortunes of radio. Many companies borrowed money to buy back their stock, leaving them saddled with debt.
And the industries that supported radio advertising — finance, retail and autos — have all been particularly hard-hit by the current economy. Radio advertising declined 8 percent in the second quarter of this year from a year earlier, according to TNS Media Intelligence. That was worse than any other category except newspapers.
From an advertiser’s perspective, the consolidation of radio companies has resulted in sound-alike stations, said Jim Poh, vice president and a director of analytics and media planning at Crispin Porter & Bogusky, which handles radio ads for clients like Burger King and Domino’s.
“The group ownerships in various markets tended to blunt the edges of the formats, so that each of the stations could play across more demographic groups, and that way could share more of the revenue from various advertisers,” Mr. Poh said. “The downfall of that is the medium isn’t as relevant, the stations aren’t as relevant to people as they were.” ...
Read the rest here. Radio will have to find points of difference if it wants to survive. The killing off of local programming by swarms of syndicated content is one problem. Reliance on so few advertising industries is another. And like the rest of the music industry, radio will have to find a way to play with the online world. It's a challenge, but radio still enjoys two advantages: the morning commute and the evening commute. Putting good, relevant programming on during the drive times will help. But it's time to wake up, if radio intends to survive.
Kentucky Fried Chicken has stepped over the line. They have reached out to align their all-American product with the bain of American cultural existence: Sanjaya Malakar. When the offer of a lifetime of free chicken bowls failed to woo the talentless wonder of American Idol, KFC sweetened the deal.
Here is the text of the horror:
April 9, 2007
An open letter to Sanjaya Malakar:
Congratulations on surviving yet another tough elimination.
Last week, Kentucky Fried Chicken® offered you a free lifetime supply of KFC Famous Bowls® if you donned a bowl hairdo. You chose instead to wow the judges with a slicked-back do, a white tuxedo and your trademark showmanship.
The judges and critics may think you're a long shot for a recording contract, but at KFC, we think you're a real "original." And as the experts in Original Recipe® Chicken, we know an original when we see one! In fact, today, I would like to sweeten our tasty offer by serving you up your very first recording deal.
If you sport a bowlcut hairdo in a nationally televised performance, KFC will grant you a free lifetime supply of KFC Famous Bowls and a charitable donation in your name - plus $5,000 in cash and your own starring role in our next KFC Famous Bowls advertisement.
Now, that's an offer almost as juicy as our KFC world famous chicken and a deal that could help provide young people with much needed college scholarships via our Colonel's Scholars charity.
Win or lose, we're confident that KFC's deal will help turn millions of viewers around the globe into "fanjayas."
Your Fan,
Gregg Dedrick President of KFC
We'll find out tonight if Sajaya, and and his hair, took the bait.
Like taking candy from a baby: how Snickers played everybody
It occurred to me during a marketing meeting for the station this morning that the Snickers ad that's caused so much consternation was a brilliant piece of advertising for two reasons. First, it was the most memorable ad on Super Bowl Sunday -- and it also has had the longest after-game shelf life, generating tens of millions of dollars worth of free media for the brand due to the news stories, blog drama, protests and angst that it generated. And second, it succeeded in stealth, achieving its marketing goals without anybody noticing what the advertiser was up to.
Here's what I mean.
When Masterfoods' ad agency first conceived the ad, I understand they originally approached some gay rights advocates to ask them to view the ads and comment, but at the eleventh hour, they pulled back, and never showed the groups the ads. The company probably knew how they would be received. They also knew that the masses of men and women of all ages who watch the Super Bowl aren't Snickers' target market. Who is the target market? Young, mostly male candy eaters.
... and where can you reach millions of young, male candy eaters who probably don't catch a lot of prime time television?
And once the ads hit, and caused the expected uproar, both from gay advocates (who objected to the reaction of the male smoochers to their accidental kiss, and the NFL players whose cringy reactions were uploaded on a Snickers web-site) and from Family Research Council types, who objected to the ads because of the man-on-man smooching itself, Masterfoods promptly pulled them, issued a statement, and then failed to take the next logical step: demanding that the ads also be pulled from Youtube and other viral video sites.
Because I would speculate, getting the ads the buzz they needed to burn up the blogs, as well as those viral video sites, was precisely the point. Once the viral video success was achieved, the company no longer needed to run the ads, on television, or online.
It's either that, or M&M Mars is just damned lucky.
There are times when I think the left reads way too much into things. This is one of those times. John Aravosis' rather overwrought reaction to the Snickers SuperBowl ad (one of the few funny ones on an otherwise dull ad night) is, to me, way over the top. Dude, it's just a stupid commercial. And sorry, but most straight guys (and women) do react with winces at the sight of two men kissing on the lips. As Shabba Ranks used to say, it's just reality. And more importantly, it's just a commercial...
Update: the New York Times picks up the story ... and Snickers backs down, pulling the ad. This is actually quite unbelievable to me. Watch the ad for yourself, below, and tell me you seriously, seriously see violent homophobia at work. Seriously:
And here's Snickers' statement:
“As with all of our Snickers advertising, our goal was to capture the attention of our core Snickers consumer, primarily 18-to-24-year-old adult males,” said a spokeswoman for Masterfoods, Alice Nathanson. “Feedback from our target consumers has been positive, and many media and Web site commentators on this year’s Super Bowl lineup ranked the commercial among this year’s best.”
“We know that humor is highly subjective and we understand that some consumers have found the commercial offensive,” Ms. Nathanson said, adding: “Clearly that was not our intent. We do not plan to continue the ad on television or on our Web site.”
That apparently, is not good enough for John Aravosis and his commenters, who want a major league apology and even new ads showing gay men in them. Try to follow me here ... Snickers bars are primarily eaten by children, and by young men -- as the company says, its target market is college aged men. And those two groups ... follow me now ... would definitely react with laughter or "gross-out" to the same situation. Right? Isn't that why the ad works?
Update: Just for reference here is the other Snickers ad, called "Wrench." Note how many commenters who themselves are gay say they found the ad funny. Go figure...
Here's the version called "Motor Oil":
And here's are the reaction spots, from the Colts:
...and from the Bears:
Now when you listen to the reactions, I can see where someone who is gay might have had their feelings hurt by hearing the reactions of rather typical straight men to seeing two men kiss. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but those reactions, if disheartening to a gay person, are very, very typical. EVERYONE at the Super Bowl party I was at reacted the same way. We can't ALL be violent homophobes. It's human nature to expect romantic pairings to be male-female. The visceral reaction people have to this ad is, I hate to say it, rather normal. Maybe gays don't want it to remain that way, but for now, it is.
But more importantly, it's JUST A FREAKING CANDY COMMERCIAL.
Oh, okay, if you hated that one, check out this Snicker's ad from Australia:
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%>
Tell a friend
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Else
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'sets variables
dim email, sendmail
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sendmail.To = email
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sendmail.Subject = "Check out this website"
'send a specific page or send a site url
dim url
'url = Request.ServerVariables("HTTP_REFERER")
url = "http://www.aspbasics.net"
'This is the content of the message.
sendmail.Body = "Site recommendation from a friend!" & _
vbCrlf & vbCrlf & "A friend has sent you this email and thought you would should check out this site." & _
vbCrlf & url & vbCrlf
'this sets mail priority.... 0=low 1=normal 2=high
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sendmail.Send 'Send the email!
response.redirect Request.ServerVariables("HTTP_REFERER")
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%>
"[T]he practice of arbitrary imprisonments, have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.' Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 84, August, 1788
