Archive for July 21, 2009
Web Radio Has Momentum
One thing that Web radio has going for it is momentum. So says MediaWeek, in a broadly informative article about Internet radio’s strengths, advertisers and audience metrics. The article features advertiser Esurance as an example of the kind of advertiser who bought into Internet radio early (the advertiser started running spots on Internet radio stations in November 2006), and has steadily increased its spending in the medium. The company’s media director Darren Howard says the medium’s targetability and popularity with the right demographic are appealing and Esurance now spends half of its radio budget on Internet radio stations.
They’re not alone – other early online radio advertisers such as Lending Tree, Orbitz, Match.com, Walmart, Ace Hardware and Proctor and Gamble. More and more national advertisers are seeing the value in online radio’s fast growing audience.
Revenue is growing, national advertising is increasing, so how much is the Internet radio ad space marketplace worth? Not so easy to find an answer to that one. There isn’t any easy way to determine that, given the lack of any central reporting for the industry. While hard numbers may be lacking in terms of revenue in the marketplace, there’s plenty of data available on the audience, as this comprehensive article points out. From Arbitron’s annual analysis of the marketplace, we know that 17% of the 12+ population is listening on a weekly basis, up from 8% a couple of years ago.
One of Internet radio’s greatest assets is its measurability. Online connections mean that each listener can be counted and every impression tracked. Internet radio tech startup Ando Media has made who’s listening to Internet radio its business, and earlier this year much of the marketplace consolidated in choosing Ando’s Webcast Metrics as its uniform audience measurement platform. That’s a good thing, according to MediaVest’s Melissa Colon, “It’s really hard to evaluate when they’re all on different measurements.”
Internet radio’s measureability is one of thebiggest attractions to advertisers, who are expecting more from their ad dollars. So says Maja Mijatovic, VP, Director of National Radio at Horizon. Internet radio’s “ability to guarantee impressions and provide a post within 48 hours after a campaign runs sets it apart from terrestrial radio.” This will lead the radio industry to greater accountability, she says.
Despite the title, (Stream it Like You Mean it), this is a good article. It’s great that more mainstream trades are taking note of Internet radio and writing about it!
