Here are links to all five parts of last week's RAIN series, "Internet radio's next frontier: Real, significant ad schedules!" Monday: Millions of listeners, but no advertisers Tuesday: Why Internet radio isn't selling ad schedules Wednesday: How big is the medium? (Audience size estimates) Thursday: The idea: One advertiser buys ENTIRE MEDIUM! Friday: Proposed game plan Please continue to send us feedback on the idea, as your input on the initiative (including a clever and catchy name) will be instrumental to its success. We're continuing to work the phones on this and will report to you in a couple of days on our progress... Want to discuss this project in more detail? Write feedback@kurthanson.com. Thanks!

BY KURT HANSON AND PAUL MALONEY
As we begin to hammer our "one advertiser / entire medium" initiative into shape, we thought now would be a good time to make a list of potential "ideal" clients for the campaign. (For reference, you may want to use the links in the khaki box above to access all five parts of last week's special series on jump-starting ad sales in the Internet radio industry.)

Last week, we proposed several criteria with which to focus our targeting of what we would consider the "ideal" client for such extraordinary venture. While there certainly will be other issues that hopefully you can suggest, here are five points we should initially consider:


(1) A savvy advertiser
In the history of media and advertising, the idea of one advertiser purchasing an ad schedule simultaneously across an entire medium is unprecedented. No one has ever placed ads in every magazine and newspaper, or every radio station, or on every television program in American.

Such a buy would be groundbreaking, and a savvy advertiser would understand that the event of such a buy will bring awareness even beyond the actual spot impressions.

That's why we think our project requires an advertiser that doesn't shy away from the unorthodox, outside-the-box marketing strategy.


(2) "Mainstream" or "fringe"?
You may remember from last week that Vytas Safroncikas, of BornAgainRadio.com, made an excellent suggestion when he advised "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.'"

His point, we believe, is this: Our industry is trying to establish a foothold with the idea of eventually competing with other advertising media (television, print, etc.). We need to show that Internet radio is at least as effective a means of reaching the same spending and consuming public as the more established media.

A campaign featuring a reputable, recognized, "mainstream" advertiser will show other potential buyers the truth in this.

Note that "mainstream" does not mean "lowest common denominator" or that the campaign is not "targeted." We can be both upscale and still mainstream (more on this below).

In addition, keep in mind the wide range of audiences across the Internet radio medium. There are webcasters featuring almost countless varieties of music and talk, and thus a wide range of listener demographics to consider (age, sex, location, ethnicity, income, etc.). Such a wide-spanning campaign would likely be most effective for a product or service that appeals to a significant range of listeners.


(3) Current radio advertiser... or someone new?
On one hand, an established major national and network radio buyer is already "sold" on the importance of marketing and the power of radio to deliver the advertising message. Established radio advertisers may be more likely to have the financial means to try something like this. Moreover, there's the chance that webcasters (especially those with "past lives" on the broadcast side) taking part in our venture might have significant and strong relationships with buyers or potential clients.

On the other hand, companies that purchase national and network advertising are often large, and have rigid procedures and well-established set of expectations for ad spending that would not allow the flexibility to try something so unorthodox as our plan. By the same token, a company for which radio advertising is new ground may be more open to starting a relationship with the industry on a "clean slate," and building procedures and expectations incrementally.

We'd be very interested in your input on this question. Which way should we go?


(4) How upscale?
We've know that our medium reaches an audience desirable to advertisers. As we'll show potential advertisers, Internet radio is largely an "at-work" phenomenon at this point. As such, the majority of listeners are gainfully employed (with disposable income), work in professions that provide them with their own PCs, usually, with high-speed Internet access, and often exhibit the cultural lean that makes them seek out atypical varieties of music and other programming.

So we have "quality," but we need "volume" too. We've decided that we want to show the industry that Internet radio reaches the same mainstream audiences that print, television, broadcast radio, outdoor, and other Internet applications reach. And again, keep in mind that the ideal buy will span the range of webcast programming, reaching all sorts of listeners. These are arguments for not going too upscale.

In terms of a potential advertiser, as Kurt suggested, we're looking for a place on a continuum from "GM to BMW to Rolls-Royce"... but probably not too far on the "Rolls-Royce" end of that continuum.


(4) Driving consumers to a website
Another benefit of Internet radio advertising that we plan to tout is the fact it allows (and can encourage) instant response by the listener, in the form of clicking on a link to visit the advertiser's website.

Internet radio has a unique advantage over almost all other media in that (A) the listener can be persuaded with a 30-second piece of audio, yet (B) virtually 100% of the listeners are, at that very moment, online and with a browser window open!

So it seems to logically follow that an advertiser interested in driving traffic to its web site would be an ideal target for our pitch. While companies like Nabisco and Anheuser-Busch probably aren't so reliant on their site traffic, a company like, say, Orbitz, absolutely depends on it. That's why their advertising is already so prevalent on the Internet. Similarly, the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority seems to put a lot of emphasis on driving traffic to their site, VegasFreedom.com. Firms like that seem like logical prospects.

And a company like BMW which has a major website-based promotion as a key part of their marketing strategy (in their case, BMW Films) would also be a likely prospect.

We need your input!
We're brainstorming these ideas, and hope to have a plan of attack within the next few days. As always, input from RAIN Readers is invaluable. Please share your thoughts with us via the feedback form on this page, or send us an e-mail at feedback@kurthanson.com.

For ideas on possible advertisers, you might want to consult AdAge's 2003 Leading National Advertiser's Report (here), or their "Top 200 Megabrands" (first half 2002) (here).

From a column in ZDNet UK by David Coursey: "You may not believe this, but it's 1:50 a.m. and I've gotten out of bed and come downstairs to write this column just so I can tell you how much I love 'It.' No, not the column. Or almost falling down the darkened staircase as my size 12.5s slid out from under me.

"No, I'm here to tell you how much I love It, a special programme that's been running continuously for the past 10 days on XM Satellite Radio (currently only available in the United States), in which every record that's made the pop music charts since the Depression is being played back in chronological order...

"Lest you think this is a column about a radio show, let me tell you what it's really about: satellite radio is saving a dying medium, one which I happen to love very much.

"Lying in bed for the past couple of nights, I've listened to music that I haven't heard since it played on KLIF, the great Top 40 station of my misspent Texas youth, stuff I never thought I'd hear again. Because the songs are running chronologically, It is like listening to the music as it happened. Heard in the correct temporal context, even songs I don't like make some sense...

"Yes, I know I'm gushing. But, truth be told, I love radio, which I think of as magic, a lot more than I love computers, which I think of as smart dirt. (Computers are silicon, silicon is sand, sand is part of soil, and soil is dirt, hence computers are smart dirt). Of all the technology I've purchased lately, the XM Radio is the probably the best -- it's certainly made me the happiest...

"The best thing about XM (and this applies to Sirius as well) is that it's saving radio. When the only thing decent on your local airwaves is the National Public Radio (NPR) station, the satellite services come to the rescue. My friend Andy bought a SkyFi two weekends ago because there's no country music on in the San Francisco area; XM has something like five channels of the stuff...

"Until XM came into my life, listening to commercial radio had convinced me the Buggles were right, that video really did kill the radio star. But with XM, I've found out something different -- that radio is being revived. And there are a hundred XM channels that prove it."

Read Coursey's entire column online here. This story was suggested by RAIN Reader Laurel Ornish (see Reader Feedback below).

"We need better PR..."

Why aren't they writing more stories about, "How Internet is Saving Radio?"

We need better PR!

"With a renegade approach..."

Kurt, how about Starbucks as a good target for the campaign? They have an upscale image, target computer users as their customers, sell music in their stores, and seem to understand how to build a lifestyle based relationship between their product and their customers.

As far as a name for the campaign, I've been trying to spell the word PIRATE, or PIRACY, thinking we're looking for an advertiser with a renegade approach to advertising (and not ignoring Internet radio's renegade approach to radio), maybe some variation of: Power (of) Internet Radio Advertiser Challenge (of the) Year.

"AIR: Aggregated Internet Radio..."

The winning entry for your naming competition ;-) Aggregated Internet Radio

You can buy "AIR Time" or say you're "on the AIR" or employ any of the other wide variety of other very marketable phrases. More quick brainstormed taglines: "AIR - Pure Internet Radio", "Stressing on how to reach your audience? - You need some AIR"... Endless opportunities.

"Will sell well to people in the ad business..."

Here's my suggestion for a name for the initiative: "MORAD": Massive Online Radio Ad Delivery.

M - Massive. Conveys the sheer size of the ad buy. OR - Online Radio. Clearly indicates the medium. AD - Advertising Delivery. Concisely explains what the initiative does.

Having "AD" in the name will sell well to people in the advertising business. The name sounds like "More Ad," adding to the perception that this method of ad delivery can delivery "more advertising." It's easy to pronounce, and doesn't sound like a name contrived to fit a cool acronym. Keep up the good work! Hoping for an iPod...