Broadcast dollars are shrinking. How can I serve with all of this digital content and monetize that? Every heritage brand, be it newspaper, TV, radio, what have you, should be thinking, how can I take that content and make it more on demand and more relevant? Welcome to BRANDwidth On Demand, your guide to rebooting radio.
My mission, my New Year's resolution, uh, for the side hustle that I have of still working with a few of my friends in broadcast is to help them figure out how to monetize the on demand content, the digital content, because it's They know how to make that content. What they have not figured out is on a local basis how to sell that content.
BRANDwidth On Demand. Rebooting radio with a different take on all radio can be. Now your guides through the mediamorphosis, David Martin and author of the book BRANDwidth On Demand Media Branding Coach Kipper McGee.
This time around, we hear from a seasoned consultant, media brand creator with a remarkable track record. Places like MTV, VH1, ABC, CBS, NPR, iHeart, and Lionsgate. After a long run as senior consultant and Fred Jacobs right hand guy really at Jacobs Media, Dave pioneered the use of video in social media. As the architect of 100. 3 FM, the sound in LA. Gosh, we miss that station there. Now he creates Digital Audio as the founder and CEO of Sound That Brands.
They produce podcasts that are part of marketing strategies of big brands like AAA Motor Club, mattress firm Pepsi, and a popular grocery chain that shall remain contractually nameless.
Although I will mention that I ate a lot of Jingle Jangle over the holidays, too much.
Oh, okay. Dave is still, in his heart, a radio guy. He was a top broadcast strategist and now, he can take a look at the industry, that being radio, strengths and weaknesses with a unique perspective, that of a digital guy. Brand with On Demand is proud to welcome the founder of Sound Brands. The very well known Dave Beasing. Hey, Dave.
Hey. Hey,
thank you, Dave. Thank you, Kipper. It's a pleasure to be here. Love what you guys do.
And it's great to have you back, Dave. So we talked to you a couple of years ago, but I guess the question now that I've got is what do you see as the state of podcasting for 2024?
It's, it's good overall. I mean, it's Is it difficult for the average content creator to make a living? Absolutely, but that's nothing new and it is difficult for content creators in any media to, to make a living these days, sadly, because of the long tail, but we won't get into that. Internet Advertising Bureau, their stats, they say in 2023, when it's all added up, there'll be a 25 percent increase in revenue.
So 2. 3 billion for the podcast industry, a long way to go still, but 25 percent year over year growth. If you can find another medium that can boast that, I want a piece of it. The problem, I guess, is that the podcast sales managers Projected a 40 percent increase for 2023. Some of them, and of course going into the year, it looked that way, but the podcast ad market, all of the ad market was very difficult in 2023. So they had to settle for, for, for 25%.
So what are they? Radio sales guys?
Yeah, right. When it's 20. Yeah. Well, you know, this was a tough year for everybody. And I think the radio sales people missed their projections for the most part as well. Roughly 10 percent of podcast revenue is a category called branded podcasts. That's what we specialize in at Sound of Brands. And these are podcasts that are part of a brand's Marketing strategy we start with the client and then build the content instead of the other way around.
Well, Dave, you've written a lot on podcast measurement metrics, especially those KPIs, the key performance indicators. What do you tell your clients to look at? What would make the world different for radio station?
Well, the KPIs that we look at in podcasts, and I think there are some definite parallels because broadcast as I know you want to talk about, has to rethink things a bit. Immediate sales is certainly a big part of what podcasts are able to tout and what we tout with the branded podcasts as well. We were proud to work on a project for iHeart for a mattress firm where they were able to do some really sophisticated research and track direct. results at the cash register at mattress firm stores.
Second would be brand awareness and affinity. We do a lot of research in the podcast business about what the impact of sponsoring a podcast is on the perception of the brand. So rather than think reach and frequency, we think about impact, about deeper connection with the audience.
And you, there's a great story to tell there in podcasting with I think Signal Insights says on average from a branded podcast like we do, 6 in 10 listeners are going to go away saying, Oh, yeah, I'd have a much more positive view of the sponsor of that podcast, even though the sponsor of that podcast was only subtly mentioned. usually in that content. And of course, the intention and engagement and, how does it affect other perceptions of the brand?
Earned Media the grocery store podcast that you delicately mentioned, gets a ton of earned media on the Today Show website, on People Magazine website, you name it, every time we put out a podcast for them. Because, that brand Is beloved and so it's clickbait online, but earned media is certainly a possible impact as well.
Well, Dave, when we were talking a while back, you said that linear content is really the next basic frontier, but can you define what you mean by linear content and also then how it might apply to radio?
Well, what my mantra has been is that Heritage Media is too linear, Kipper. That's the us to them effect of we put on a show for you or we deliver this and you can listen or watch or not. That's going to soon be I shouldn't say that it'll be a thing of the past, but it's definitely diminishing in importance. The Edison Research shows that on- demand and digital content, audio content has now the lines have crossed. It is now surpassed linear content in listenership.
So the traditional forms of audio, radio. Even satellite radio and streaming where you have no control whatsoever over what song is next, as an example, that's linear content. And that's definitely on a decline over the past 10, 15 years. The trend is very clear. So my mission, my New Year's resolution for the side hustle that I have of still working with a few of my friends in broadcast is to help them figure out how to monetize.
The on demand content, the digital content, because they know how to make that content. What they have not figured out is on a local basis, how to sell that content. They're selling great digital stuff that's national. they're helping local advertisers find their way into search and social and other websites. But what they're struggling with is how to get advertisers on their own owned digital media.
Dave, again, council to station guys, what kind of on demand content should they be creating the sales issue aside for a moment... What about the content itself?
Sports is a huge opportunity for a lot of local brands. News is too. I think, uh, If you look at what KSL, the Bonneville folks in Salt Lake City, and they've done it as well, starting to do it at least in Seattle and Phoenix with their news stations, KIRO and KTAR, they're the big stations, Heritage Stations, they are, Cheryl Worsley in Salt Lake City.
It has created lots of very popular podcasts, national podcasts, including two number one rated podcasts right out of Salt Lake City in the news department there. They've won the Crystal Award from the NAB for podcasts at least two years in a row as I recall. So those opportunities are definitely there. Yes, you can repurpose your shows from earlier time shift them, but it's the individual features it's taking.
If you, if you think of it as a hub and spoke sort of a model, what content are you creating? That could be repackaged in some way, a tiny piece of that content might become social. A tiny piece might become a podcast. A tiny piece might become video. How do you take all of that content and put it out into the all these different spokes away from the initial hub of the content itself?
Interesting. So what would you say to the broadcast manager or group person who is totally convinced that podcasting is really declining monetization is impossible and that despite the data to the contrary that you're talking about that online revenue is going to always be digital dimes versus broadcast dollars.
Broadcast dollars are shrinking. That's what I would say to them. And yeah, they better be thinking about this. Those digital dimes, I think they're up to digital half dollars by now, and they're getting bigger and bigger. The trend is clear. Now if your plan is to retire in two years, don't worry about it. But if you need to build. Something for the long haul.
If you have a heritage brand that you want to continue to matter well into the future, and that's where the biggest opportunity is for these big heritage brands to figure out how to be less linear that us to them, linear content, audio stream, and instead figure out, okay, if I'm the big sports station in my town, or I'm the big news station, Or, I want to be a great community servant in a smaller market... how can I serve with all of this digital content and monetize that and not be a quote
unquote radio station? I've got nothing wrong, there's no beef here with the term radio, but every heritage brand, be it newspaper, TV, radio, what have you, should be thinking, how can I take that content and make it more on demand and more relevant for, for the future?
And, I think having started in small town radio myself in Nebraska, what we would use to do is anything that somebody would sponsor would go on the air, whether it was high school sports or the obituaries or the, yes, lost pet patrol or the training post or the, uh, the hospital admissions report, or whatever. You know, putting somebody on the air from a small town 30 miles away that could tell you what all was happening in that tiny town, whatever.
Think of all those things that we used to put on small town radio, and maybe still do in some cases. And, how can we now put that on the website? How can that become digital content? High school football games, with video. And by the way, Maybe you don't need to have a professional play by play person go out and do that. Maybe there are student crews that could be trusted with doing those.
And you could have 10 or 20 different games on your website on a Friday night, and every one of them will be sponsored and produced at a fairly low cost. There's a station in Carrollton, Missouri near and dear to me because I used to work there, KMZU, they created a whole website for local sports. And so they cover all kinds of local sports over central Missouri or Missour-ah, excuse me, I should say it right.
And they're serving that local community with these highly monetizable digital products.
Good stuff. We are with Dave Beasing. What a sharp guy. He's the CEO of Sounds that brand. Somebody you'd love to hear from. We'd love to hear your suggestion. Just email show@BRANDwidth On Demandondemand.com or reach out to us on social BRANDwidthPlus that's BRANDwidthPlus. On Gram, Facebook, and X. That's BRANDwidth PLUS, BRANDwidth Plus.
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Coming up, Dave Beasing shares one opportunity for station people that may be hiding in plain sight.
Musicmaster. Less stress, more yes. Hey, this is Dave Tyler, and maybe it's just me, but I love up tempo songs coming out of the Legal ID at the top of the hour, as well as out of my stop set. It's kind of like saying, alright, we're done with business, let's get back to the party. To do this, I use clock filters in these Positions that only choose medium up or uptempo songs. Sounds great every time. And it's easy to set up. If you have any questions, just shoot me an email at dave@musicmaster.
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Opportunities, hidden and sight,,,BRANDwidth On Demand.
We're with one of radio and media's A students. We can all learn something from him. Dave Beasing, Dave thinking about it for a moment. What's the one opportunity that station people may find hiding in plain sight, that's really obvious to you.
It's selling what you already have. So many of your content folks are taking the initiative and sometimes with a nudge from management to create fantastic digital content, whether it's a video for social media, whether it's doing great blogs and posts or getting out and about doing things on the side, some places, you know, I think of the morning show on KVGS in Las Vegas, like many others, but he's an expert at it.
Doing live video of the morning show and I'm thinking of one morning show that has a great video feature about cool local things similar to, uh, for Southern Californians, they would remember the Huell Hauser show on, Southern California public television, where he would go to local landmarks and everything.
Sure.
John Smith is doing this in Salt Lake City for 103. 5 the Arrow. Cool stuff in Utah. He calls it, and it's a great feature. These things can be sold, but...it isn't vabout reach and frequency. It isn't about the traditional spot sale. You need to get out there and find people that want to be associated with these features, even though they have pretty big audiences. Don't sell the audience size.
Sell the qualitative aspects of that audience, and how great it'll be for your brand, Mr. or Ms. Advertiser, to be associated with that content.
Our thanks to Dave Beasing. He's terrific at the sound that brands guy, we have links to his website, some great blog posts, client podcasts, and more all in the show notes. Just scroll down on your phone.
We want to thank our exec producer, Cindy Huber for putting this all together and Hannah B. who helps out with booking.
That's a wrap, Kipper. Take control of your destiny. It's next in One Minute Martinizing because it's all about your movie. I'm Dave Martin.
And I'm Kipper McGee. May all yourBRANDwidth be wide.