Report: Radio’s Great Hope Is Content Marketing

Local media is going to see a huge surge in revenue this year, $19 billion, or 16 percent over 2015.

Radio will not.

Almost all of that spending surge will go to digital media, such as social. Radio’s share of local ad dollars will actually shrink by 1 percent.

Clearly radio, like other traditional media, has problems.

But, reports Media Life, unlike those other media, radio has a solution right at hand, though it’s not much talked about in the rancorous squabble traditional radio wages against all things digital.

It is something radio already does very well, better than any other traditional medium, though under different names: content marketing.

Content marketing is traditional radio’s path into the digital age. The essence of content marketing — good storytelling and engagement — is what makes radio radio.

It’s the give-away contest, sponsored by an advertiser. It’s the DJ touting Joe’s Barbershop in his afternoon broadcast. It’s the news brought to you by Bill Smick’s Ford, (“the friendliest car salesmen in town”) and the weather sponsored by the Billups Reliable Roof Repair and Gutter Service.

The radio station teams up with the advertiser to provide content around what that advertiser sells. It’s total localness–local personalities and local businesses in local storytelling listeners can relate to.

Radio executives talk about embracing digital and social, but it’s mostly talk. What radio has failed to do is integrate digital into its content marketing strategies.

But it’s a natural fit–and it holds great promise for boosting revenues, tapping into the billions of dollars local businesses are investing in digital.

The timing is ideal; 2016 is the year digital ad spending surpasses the combined total revenue of traditional media, according to Borrell Associates. By 2020, Borrell forecasts that two-thirds of local ad dollars will flow to digital.