BY KURT HANSON
In the entire history of media buying, no advertiser has ever purchased an ad schedule on every magazine in America. No advertiser has ever purchased a spot schedule on every radio station in America or every TV program in America.

Keep that idea in the back of your mind for a moment.

Meanwhile, note that the nascent medium of Internet radio has grown in audience size to be the equivalent (during the hours of Mon-Fri 9AM-5PM) of the 15th largest radio market in the U.S., with an AQH audience size of over 500,000 listeners and a cume of millions. (See Wednesday's RAIN here for details.)

And these are very desirable consumers: Employed, upscale, and attentive, with a tendency to be early-adopters!

Furthermore, delivering a radio spot schedule to them via Internet radio should, for several reasons, be at least as effective as — and probably more effective than — the same schedule delivered via terrestrial radio. (See Monday's and Thursday's RAIN issues here and here for some of those reasons.)

But national and network advertisers have not yet taken advantage of the opportunities in this space. (See Tuesday's RAIN here for some speculation on reasons why.)

High-concept, attention-getting idea
So, as a means of grabbing their attention and getting some action going, yesterday in RAIN (here) I suggested that what we need is a sexy, "high concept" idea

Here's what I proposed:

Let's put together a national road show, visiting top national and network radio advertisers and agencies, pitching them on the concept of one advertiser buying THE ENTIRE MEDIUM of Internet radio!

Specifically, let's offer one major national advertiser the opportunity to buy a radio spot schedule that would run every two hours for eight weeks on virtually every Internet radio station and channel in North America!

Hopefully this would be one of the most powerful, dramatic, and effective media buys in the history of media buying.

If we're successful, this would hopefully, be front-page news in Ad Age and Mediaweek and the "Business Day" section of the New York Times and elsewhere. As a result, the savvy advertiser (Office Depot? Heineken? BMW? Dell?) who makes this buy will get valuable media exposure far above-and-beyond the radio buy itself!

Response has been very positive
RAIN readers' response to this idea has been almost universally positive.

In fact, I've already got tentative commitments to participate from five of the largest Internet-only webcasters plus three of the largest terrestrial radio broadcasters who stream simulcasts of their broadcast stations on the web.

A "midsize" webcaster, Vytas Safroncikas, of BornAgainRadio.com, made a very good point (in his third and fourth sentences) when he wrote, "Awesome idea, Kurt! It's loaded with 'sizzle.' [But] I'd suggest we target advertisers with some care. Our choice can help create a general perception that (1) we have a broad, desirable, mainstream audience with varying tastes or (2) that we cater to the 'fringe.'"

And Susquehanna Radio's Dan Halyburton told me his group of stations is "in," but warned me that we'd better carefully think through all of the logistical issues. Also a good point.

Proposed game plan
I'm still absorbing advice as it comes in from various parties, but here's my first draft of a proposed game plan. I'd welcome your input on it:

• RAIN will set up a website next week to be a central location from which we can coordinate the logistics of the project.
  
  
• On that website, you'll be able to find and print a document in which you commit to running the schedule. You'll also be able to describe the type of inventory you can offer. (For example: Can you run in-stream ads — or can you only run "gateway" ads? Can you display a 468x60 banner ad while the spots run? (If not, can you give the advertiser some exposure on your home page?))
  
  
• We'll immediately start putting together the "pitch," using some elements from this week's series of articles and some elements from our "The Future of Radio" series (here).
  
  
• We'll also start putting together a team of people (example pictured) who can articulately tell this story once we start our road show. For each meeting, I envision putting together a group that might include one large webcaster, one small webcaster, one broadcaster, and a representative of one or two support firms (e.g., Arbitron and/or a national rep firm).
  
  
• As noted above, we need to give serious thought to developing a list of target advertisers. Should we concentrate on advertisers who are major national and network radio buyers already, or should we try to bring someone new into the medium? How upscale should we go in terms of our targets? (GM? BMW? Rolls-Royce?) How helpful will it be if the advertiser really cares about getting consumers to its website (e.g., Dell)? (I imagine very much so.)
  
  
• Regarding pricing: As I wrote yesterday, I believe our offer should, of course, be priced attractively, but I think we should start pitching it at the highish end of national spot pricing — e.g., at an $8 CPM — and learn what the market will bear.
  
  
• Unless you object, I'd like to take out 20% of the gross revenues to cover sales and administrative costs, as I envision that this is going to be an expensive project and that Paul and I are essentially going to be devoting our entire summer and much of our fall to this effort. (Also, we would use a significant portion of that money to pay a bonus to the webcaster or account executive who gets the initial appointment for us that results in the final buy.)
  
  
• As I mentioned yesterday, this needs to be run as simply as humanly possible for the advertiser: One contract, one invoice, one check.
  
  
• Similarly, there should be one single, central source of affidavits that the ads ran as scheduled — i.e., webcasters submit affidavits to someone who reviews them and submits a single affidavit attesting to all of the other affidavits.
  
  
• This initiative needs a catchy name: "BEM: Buy the Entire Medium"? Nope, not good enough. "MIRAC: Massive Internet Radio Ad Campaign"? Not even close. Here's an idea: I'll buy a free 10 Gb iPod (pictured) for the clever RAIN reader who comes up with the best name.
  
  
• And finally, let me reiterate: If we succeed in doing this, we should try to seriously overdeliver on this campaign! This advertiser deserves to earn webcasters' undying loyalty — and let's start out by making this the best media buy this advertiser has ever bought.

Hopefully, it will be clear in a couple of days whether or not this project is a "go." Let me know what you think.

Please use the form immediately below to send me your feedback, or e-mail me at kurt@kurthanson.com. I look forward to hearing from you!

From Wired.com: "Executives at Acacia Media Technologies say they've got patents on streaming, downloading and just about every other form of delivering movies and sounds electronically.

"Now the firm is enforcing its legal claim -- by going after Internet porn pushers.

"Twenty-one blue content providers are actively grappling with Acacia in US District Court. Several firms have agreed to settle rather than risk a lengthy, possibly crippling legal battle... Generally, Acacia has been asking for 1 to 2 percent of a company's gross revenues in return for calling off the wing-tipped attack dogs.

"It's a fight with more than the fiscal health of a few smut sellers at stake. If Acacia can line up enough legal victories against the triple-X adversaries, patent experts say, the company may have legal grounds to go after the giants of digital content distribution, like Apple, Real and Microsoft -- and just about every other major media and communications player, too.

"'If you could establish good law against someone who can't spend a lot of money to crush you,' said Margaret Jane Radin, a professor at Stanford Law School, 'then in the next suit you could rely on that law, to some extent.'..

"'Our guys put together all the steps necessary for streaming and downloading,' said Ron Berman, an Acacia senior vice president. 'But that's not all,' he added. 'Cable companies, satellites companies -- we really cover all the forms of transmission. Not just the Internet, but Wi-Fi, microwave, cable and satellite, too. They basically all work the same way.'

"So pretty much every website streaming songs, every cable company selling movies-on-demand, and every porno firm digitally dispensing dirty video clips, Berman figures, now owes Acacia money."

This entire article appears today in Wired, online here.

...	... RAIN readers may remember that Acacia is the company that entered a licensing deal with Radio Free Virgin, and attempted to establish a licensing arrangement with RadioIO. ...