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BY KURT HANSON
From the day RAIN was launched (over four years ago!), we designed it to be an ideal advertising vehicle for companies that sell products and services to radio broadcasters and webcasters.

RAIN's readership is comprised of over 4,500 executives in the worlds of broadcast and Internet radio, including virtually all of the key decision-makers (for Internet-related issues) in North America's top broadcast groups, including Clear Channel, Susquehanna, Cox, Standard Radio (Canada), and others. RAIN's readership also includes top executives of virtually all of the major Internet-only webcasters.

RAIN's audience is a loyal and attentive one, thanks to RAIN's attractive mix of aggregation of key news stories, original editorial content, insightful commentary, stimulating "RAIN Reader Feedback" dialog, and, when appropriate, effective advocacy journalism. (Example: Our efforts to help the industry obtain a reasonable CARP royalty rate, including our leadership role in last year's "Day of Silence" event.)

And within the design of RAIN, we've designed several positions that can help you achieve awareness of your firm, build interest in your product or service, and generate leads that you can successfully convert to sales. As such, a program of consistent exposure in RAIN can be a key part of your marketing plan for 2003!

RAIN readers include top execs at these broadcast groups and many others!

The following marketing opportunities are available to you in RAIN:

Avail #1:

Visitors to the RAIN website are greeted by a "splashscreen" reminding them who is bringing them this fine publication. (Your logo, of course, links directly to your website.)

Essentially, the page is a compendium of a dozen of the industry's leading firms.

Price:
$500 per month
with a minimum six-month commitment.

Avail #2:

This 200x150-pixel logo in the upper-right-hand corner of the RAIN home page is our most visible advertising position.

This position includes not only features an attractive presentation of your logo and positioning statement, but it also gives your firm the "halo effect" of being the company that is bringing the reader that day's issue of RAIN and allowing you to derive the goodwill generated by doing so.

Price: $700 per day with a minimum of a five-day commitment, which can either be scheduled as five consecutive days or spaced out as infrequently as one day per week.

This position can also be purchased as part of our "Full-issue sponsorship" plan (see below).




Avail #3:

Would you like to tell the story of your company or product in more detail than a simple banner or tile allows? The solution is RAIN's unique "Logo-and-Two-Paragraphs" advertising avail!

These positions fall within the main body of RAIN in a manner designed to encourage readership from the vast majority of RAIN's readers that day. The position features your logo (subtle animation acceptable) of up to 200x150 pixels in size plus two paragraphs about your company (up to 150 words total).

Price: $300 per day with a five-day minimum commitment. The position can also be purchased as part of our "Full-issue sponsorship"plan (see below).




Avail #4:

If you've got a 468x60-pixel banner ad, we've got positions available for it within the context of the main RAIN editorial page -- i.e., not in the "No Man's Land" at the top and bottom of a web page that readers have become acclimated to ignoring.

Price: $200 per day with a five-day minimum commitment. This position can also be purchased as part of our "Full-issue sponsorship"plan (see below).




Avail #5:

Get your message delivered to RAIN's entire e-mail database (currently at 4,500 executives and growing) as part of well-read daily e-mail newsletter update.

To ensure maximum attention, your message is a one-sentence piece of editorial (approximately 20 words) within the main body of the e-mail.

Price: $300 per day with a five-day minimum commitment. This position is also included in our "Full-issue sponsorship" plan (below).



Avail #6 -- GREAT VALUE:

The key to successful advertising is to get your message to a consumer with sufficient frequency within a limited period of time. RAIN's "Full-issue sponsorship" package is designed to make that happen for you as effectively as possible.

When you buy a day's "RAIN Full-issue sponsorship" package, you deliver up to four impressions of your message to a prospect on a single day!

First, they see a mention of your firm in the morning e-mail. When they go to RAIN, they see your logo at the top of the page -- you're bringing them the day's issue. After the lead story, your logo is repeated and accompanied by two paragraphs about your product or service. Then, as they finish reading the issue, they see a banner ad for your firm. That's a powerful "1-2-3-4 punch!"

Discounted price: $995 per day with a five-day minimum commitment.



Avail #7:

One of the most-successful features in RAIN are our occasional special "RAIN Vendor Guide" issues. These issues, which are each accompanied by two weeks of front-promotion and several weeks of follow-up promotion, allow RAIN readers to efficiently learn which companies are offering products and services across the full spectrum of product categories -- and the key benefits being promoted by each firm.

We plan to resume quarterly issues beginning in Summer 2004, plus we will draw additional attention to the guide throughout the year with a prominently-displaced link on the RAIN home page to the full issue plus a column of logos in the left-hand margin of RAIN (see illustration below).

The price of participating in each "RAIN Vendor Guide" is only $400/month for a listing with a 100x100 logo (with a minimum six-month commitment). This pricing also includes a 75x23 logo and link in the left-hand margin of each day's issue of RAIN during the period purchased.

Details: All prices are for a 35-word listing; additional words are available at $15/issue per word). Additional listings in other product categories for the same company are available at a 50% discount.

The price includes promotion in RAIN for several days before and after the issue date.




Avail #8:

Once you've established visibility and awareness for your firm, there's nothing like the kind of face-to-face contact you can get at an industry conference, if you can meet the right prospect in the right venue. That's what our "RAIN Reader Cocktail Parties" are all about.

At virtually every major industry conference, we sponsor a "no-host" cocktail party at a conveniently-located, fun venue (e.g. the Acme Oyster Bar in New Orleans, Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant in Las Vegas and Seattle, etc.).

Typically, about 100 to 200 RAIN readers stop by for a couple hours of appetizers, drinks and networking -- and the guests include the prospects you probably most want to meet!

Price: Varies by event

Sample event: NAB 2003 Our third annual Las Vegas gathering was held at Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant on Tuesday, April 8th, with a private presentation of Kurt's "The Future of Internet Radio" speech at 5:15pm followed by cocktails from 5:45 to 7pm. Vendors are welcome to "co-sponsor" such events. You'll get logo credit "above the fold" in several issues of RAIN and in our daily e-mails preceding the event ("If you'd like to meet representatives of ____ while you're in Las Vegas, stop by the RAIN Reader Cocktail Party...")

Avail #9: As you may recall, RAIN's crack team of interns has spent the past two-and-a-half years building out a twelve-channel Internet radio station, which we have been writing about throughout the process and which we formally launched in December 2002 under the name "AccuRadio." Among other things, AccuRadio is designed to be a product showcase for products and services offered by RAIN's advertisers -- e.g., streaming providers, e-mail marketing programs, rep firms, etc. If you've got a product or service that would be appropriate for AccuRadio, click here for additional details.

RAIN's readers, whether they come from the world of terrestrial radio or are involved in an Internet-only venture, want to make something happen in Internet radio.

They're standing by for your message!

Contact Kurt Hanson for details. Call Kurt at 1-312-527-3879 or send an e-mail to kurt@kurthanson.com.