Spot e Web radio, il messaggio sul mezzo nel mezzo

Secondo uno studio J. P. Morgan, ci sono 80 milioni di americani che ascoltano la radio via Internet. E l'industria della pubblicità comincia a chiedersi come fare a instradare gli spot audio (e le informazioni visuali) verso gli stream online. Su Forbes ho letto questo interessante editoriale di Doug Perlson, CEO di TargetSpot. La società di Perlson offre agli inserzionisti l'opportunità di confezionare gli spot radiofonici e inviarli a una centrale di smistamento su Web che si occupa di piazzare la pubblicità in un network di stazioni su Web. I vantaggi? Semplicità a parte, il "mezzo nel mezzo" della radio su Internet consente di far arrivare il proprio messaggio in un contesto più mirato e al riparo dall'interferenza dalle altre pubblicità che possono affollare una normale pagina Web.

The Coming Online Radio Ad Boom
Doug Perlson 03.06.08

For over half a century, radio has been derided as a collapsing medium, soon to be merely an exhibit in the information museum as it gives way to better, more visual technologies. Radio has continued to prove all its critics wrong. Nowhere is the continued vitality of radio more apparent than online.
According to a J.P. Morgan survey, Internet radio's listener base has grown 27% annually since 2000. Online radio now has upwards of 80 million listeners in the U.S. alone. The only problem for broadcasters has been how to make streaming the product online pay. There have been a lot of false starts and wrong turns. But, looking at the history of the monetization of the Internet, the direction in which online radio must go is clear.

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What is interesting is that the same phenomenon is occurring in Internet radio. Because broadcasters have split off terrestrial and online radio sales, there is an abundance of available ad inventory in online radio. For a variety of reasons, broadcasters typically have a harder time selling their streaming advertising than other traditional media companies have selling online ads.

Yet, ironically, this is exactly the type of high-quality online inventory that advertisers are asking for--it is associated with major media companies with respected brands in their own right (unlike, for example, the unpredictable user- generated video sites that seem to be garnering all the headlines these days). Furthermore, with all the ad clutter on a given Web site (display, video and text--sometimes all on the same page), Internet radio advertising offers a unique ability to cut through the noise and deliver a message that is both literally and figuratively heard. It's a high-impact medium that has only recently opened up to the advertising masses through advanced technology solutions.
Advertisers are starting to see the benefits of tapping this high-quality, brand friendly inventory. What makes Internet radio so appealing is the growth in the audience, the possibility of immediate feedback, technological breakthroughs that allow the inexpensive and easy creation of professional-sounding ads and the ability to target your ads to a select audience.
The precise targeting ability that online radio promises is particularly critical for the vast, untapped field of small advertisers. Most broadcast mediums, and even many newspapers, are not within reach of the small advertiser due to high upfront costs for ads and the fact that advertisers are paying for a broad brush, thereby creating geographic waste. Internet radio changes the dynamic, allowing advertisers to create and deliver messages to the specific audience they want to reach, and only that audience.
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