Mobile Marketing is Helping Radio

The past four years have been lean times in radio. Advertising budgets across the nation have been trimmed as marketing dollars are moved into trade marketing, sales promotions and new media. Radio, newspaper and TV have all experienced a decrease or flat sales due to these advertising cuts. The decreases in advertising have affected large, medium and small markets alike. To combat this loss in advertising sales, radio is looking to other sources of revenue. One area currently being developed by radio stations is mobile marketing. Mobile Marketing uses a mobile device such as a cellular phone or pda as a channel to deliver marketing communication either to the masses or an individual person. The most common type of mobile marketing is SMS (Short Message Service). SMS normally runs off a 5 or 6 digit short code that allows one way or two way communication and interaction depending on the setup.

Radio stations are using SMS to set up listener clubs, contesting, voting, and more. The focus of radio station SMS programs is to allow interaction between the announcer, station and the listener. Let’s say a station wants to know what their listeners think of three new songs being released. They can play pieces of the new songs and then ask listeners to text the word "song" to 68683 for their chance to vote for their favorite. The station can then decide what song to add based on listener votes.

Radio stations can also hold combination on-air/SMS contests. The radio station may promote an upcoming concert by playing a song from that artist. Next they will ask listeners to name the song for a chance to win a pair of tickets to the concert. Listeners are told to text in the word "concert" to a short code. Within moments they will receive a message reply from the station asking them to choose the song name from the four choices. The listener then chooses the correct answer from the four choices and clicks "send". Within moments the listener will receive a second message from the radio station letting him know if their answer was correct. Everyone getting the answer correct will have their name entered into a drawing for the tickets to be given away at the end of the show.

Winners and losers alike will both receive "thank-you" messages from the station as well as a message from a sponsor. The sponsor message may or may not include a premium or sales offer. If McDonalds is a sponsor of the concert they may want to offer all contestants an opportunity to redeem their phone message for a free burger or fries. Your phone becomes the coupon. Just bring it in and show McDonalds the message. New technology is currently being developed to offer UPC "coupon" codes that will make redemption of offers, prizes and premiums much easier.

Radio stations may also develop sponsorable "clubs” where participating members may receive sports scores, weather updates, cancellations, club member premiums, traffic updates, local news, and more. SMS also allows listeners an opportunity to find out the title and artist of the current song airing on the station as well as the next two songs coming up. All of these messages would include a short sponsor message or identification giving radio stations new revenue sources.

Radio stations can no longer rely on traditional advertising sales for revenue. They must develop new revenue streams including SMS, Bluetooth, MMS, and in-game marketing that can all be promoted and partnered with the stations off-air service. It is a true partnership of old and new media coming together to provide integrated marketing and advertising opportunities for business.