Wednesday, November 3, 1999
NOW HEAR THIS
By Sean Carton, Managing Partner Carton Donofrio Interactive
Did you know that one of the biggest up-and-coming advertising opportunities
may be right under your nose at this very moment...any you've never thought
about it?
Imagine a web-based advertising medium with an average 70 percent click-through
rate for content information, a 60 percent click-through rate for advertiser
information, and a 49 percent "buy" rate for online merchandise? Is
it possible? Am I smoking something? (Don't answer that!) Why haven't you heard
about it?
Perhaps you have.
This super-effective medium is streaming media, streaming Net radio, in
particular. According to some new studies from
Arbitron New Media, Net
radio may be the best untapped interactive marketing resource that you're not
using.
Unfortunately, most people who think of Net-radio or other streaming media put
it into one of two categories. Either Net radio is something they only think
teenage mutant hackers listen to in between MP3 pirating sessions, or Net radio
is something that sounds too bad to be taken seriously as an advertising
medium. They're wrong on both accounts. And here's why.
According to a January 1999 study, nearly one quarter of all Internet users
have tuned in to Internet radio. Mainly, these listeners are younger and male -
33 percent of listeners are 12-24, 28 percent are 25-44, and 19 percent are
45+.
They tend to listen out of market, with about half listening to stations inside
their own market and a few sampling stations from around the world.
Interestingly enough, many report that they're not listening at work (as
conventional wisdom has it) but are listening at home as they surf the web,
taking time away from other traditional media such as radio and television.
Some of the most interesting facts about web radio listeners is their
willingness to do the things that e-tailers love. First, web radio listeners
are far more likely to purchase from a web site than non-listeners - 43 percent
of web radio listeners have purchased online vs. 30 percent of non-listeners.
Online listeners are also a lot more likely to bookmark a site (70 percent vs.
46 percent). And they respond to advertising - 41 percent of streaming media
listeners (dubbed "streamies" by Arbitron) have visited web sites
they've heard on the radio vs. 24 percent of non-listeners.
But online streaming radio has several problems for advertisers.
With somewhere between 1,000 to 2,000 radio stations broadcasting online, ads
that play in any one local market are often playing all over the world via
streaming media. Most stations haven't quite gotten a handle on this yet and
haven't begun to target ads to the web or for broadcast.
And while many of the media players (such as
Microsoft's
Media Player of Real Networks' Real
Player) have some support for ads, no one has really figured out a way to
dynamically target audio ads like we target banners today. But they're working
on it.
Today, if you're going to go streaming media, then radio is the way to go.
Video quality is currently not good enough to make it very attractive to
advertisers (unless delivered over a high bandwidth connection). However, sound
quality is good now and getting better - streaming MP3 servers such as
SHOUTcast are beginning to become more
popular, and anyone who's ever experienced the sound quality knows why.
So how can you get on board with this stuff? Starting with the bit players like
NetRadio.com, Broadcast.com, and
Real.com is good for starters. But don't
neglect your local radio station. While they may seem a bit backward today,
market pressures are rapidly pushing them to the Leading Edge...which is where
you should be if you're not going to get left behind as streaming media becomes
more popular.
Sean
Carton is Manging Partner of Carton
Donofrio Interactive
Home
|