{"id":6095,"date":"2024-04-05T12:02:21","date_gmt":"2024-04-05T01:02:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bprworld.com\/?p=6095"},"modified":"2025-12-05T14:54:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T03:54:13","slug":"looking-to-the-future-of-radio-advertising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bprworld.com\/de\/news\/looking-to-the-future-of-radio-advertising\/","title":{"rendered":"Looking to the Future of Radio Advertising"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Excerpt from radoinfo.com, written by Jen Seyderhelm.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>It has been 25 years since\u00a0<strong>Media Watch<\/strong>\u00a0first alerted Australians that the original influencer\u00a0<strong>John Laws<\/strong>\u00a0might be receiving cash for comments he was making on air on his radio station\u00a0<strong>2UE<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The legal ramifications were large fines for 2UE, the resignation of the head of the\u00a0<strong>Australian Broadcasting Authority, David Flint,<\/strong>\u00a0and a clearer delineation between the airing of opinions by a radio personality (like Laws) versus a journalist. Laws didn\u2019t lose his job but the Media Watch team won the\u00a0<strong>Gold Walkley award<\/strong>\u00a0that year for excellence in journalism with the aired television recording of such cultural significance is has been\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/aso.gov.au\/titles\/tv\/media-watch-series-11-ep-18\/clip1\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">kept by the<strong>\u00a0NFSA<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.austlit.edu.au\/austlit\/page\/9361981\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Laws\u2019 cowbell<\/a>\u00a0and the cash for comments scandal will not mean much to Gen Y &amp; Z. At the time, through the 80s and 90s, Laws and\u00a0<strong>Alan Jones<\/strong>\u00a0were so powerful they could enhance a brand (Valvoline for example), shape public opinion and election results and were seen as being voices representing regular Australians.<\/p>\n<p>I take this trip down memory lane because\u00a0<strong>Emily Copeland<\/strong>\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/radioinfo.com.au\/news\/creating-an-invitation-to-come-back-to-radio-to-youth-rde24\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">recent presentation<\/a>\u00a0at\u00a0<strong>RadioDays Europe 2024<\/strong>\u00a0is still resonating with me.<\/p>\n<p>She said, in research conducted before the establishment of youth DAB+ station\u00a0<strong>CADA<\/strong>, of which she was General Manager, that Gen Z:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Dislike ads but don\u2019t hate advertising<\/li>\n<li>Are always searching for content<\/li>\n<li>Can find commercial radio anxiety inducing<\/li>\n<li>Trust certain content creators more than traditional media<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>As a result of the above CADA employed content creators, not trained radio presenters, who had a significant social media following and presence. The contracts offered were flexible so that existing sponsorship relationships the creators had, and future ones, could be integrated into their on air role with CADA, or not, if it was against their \u201cbrand\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>I want to compare this scenario to the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/radioinfo.com.au\/news\/3aws-new-line-up-announced\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">employment of Jacqui Felgate<\/a>\u00a0by Melbourne\u2019s\u00a0<strong>3AW<\/strong>\u00a0last September. Felgate, who has 320K followers just on\u00a0<strong>Instagram<\/strong>, was immediately in hot water because<strong>\u00a0Nine Radio<\/strong>\u00a0didn\u2019t declare all her many and varied commercial partnerships. Felgate is a journalist,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.3aw.com.au\/jacqui-felgate-addresses-articles-about-her-paid-partnerships\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Nine has rectified the situation<\/a>\u00a0but every day she does her Drive show she must have to think very carefully before she discusses anything even as trivial as how she got to work or what she cooked for dinner lest it not seem impartial.<\/p>\n<p>The CADA experiment was abandoned after two years, with only\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/radioinfo.com.au\/news\/cadas-2024-line-up-announced\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>K-Sera being retained<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0of the original lineup. I probably also don\u2019t need to mention that most Australian\u00a0<strong>ABC<\/strong>\u00a0presenters have a disclaimer on their X accounts that \u201cviews expressed are their own\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Over the Easter weekend I was a passenger in the car across several shopping journeys responsible for the music selection. Every time we got back in the car it would drop my<strong>\u00a0Spotify<\/strong>\u00a0playlist and revert to the local FM radio station. Invariably they were playing a cool song but as soon as it hit an ad break or catchup replay I would switch back to Spotify again.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve also been binging old episodes of\u00a0<strong>Masterchef<\/strong>, which means we have to sit through ad breaks on\u00a0<strong>10 play<\/strong>. I\u2019ve been astonished at how little variation there is (so many ads for dishwasher tablet brands followed by a car manufacturer). Half were plugs for other\u00a0<strong>Network 10<\/strong>\u00a0shows.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, this morning I went to post a\u00a0<strong>Radioinfo<\/strong>\u00a0story onto\u00a0<strong>LinkedIn<\/strong>. Up popped a message from a guy called Brad (not his real name) saying,<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cDon\u2019t worry, I\u2019m not here to sell you anything! I know how many crappy copied and pasted sales pitches must be in your inbox haha!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Then, of course, he offered to send me a \u2018free\u2019 something not at all aligned to my interests and showing exactly how he must be copying and pasting the same offer across the LinkedIn board.<\/p>\n<p>I realised, as I deleted him, how much I now identify with Emily Copeland\u2019s research findings of Gen Z, even though I\u2019m old enough to parent that group.<\/p>\n<p>I find I generally don\u2019t mind reading or listening to someone\u2019s paid sponsorship post or message, especially if I like the personality or have an interest in the product. Regular or unsolicitied advertising now just wash over or irritate me and, while I appreciate the premiums attached to a live read, it\u2019s not the same as the bespoke experience some brand ambassadors now offer.<\/p>\n<p>There has to be a middle ground between cash for comment cowbells and allowing our big-name radio identities to align with products and services that speak personally to their brand.<\/p>\n<p>ACMA\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.acma.gov.au\/sites\/default\/files\/2020-01\/News%20in%20Australia_Impartiality%20and%20commercial%20influence_Review%20of%20literature%20and%20research.docx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">commissioned a review<\/a>\u00a0of literature and research into impartiality and commercial influence in news in Australia that was released just prior to the pandemic and is an interesting, and logical, read. 10 years earlier they also released an\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.legislation.gov.au\/F2012L00698\/asmade\/2012-03-27\/supportingmaterial1\/original\/word\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">issues paper<\/a>\u00a0which showed that 75 per cent of Australians believed advertising should be clearly distinguishable from other content, but also that 60% understood that commercial radio is a business.<\/p>\n<p>Radio will live and die by its advertising revenue. Big businesses are more and more turning to recognised names, social media and content creating influencers to get their brand message across instead of traditional radio or television stations or print media formats. John Laws realised this 25 years ago.<\/p>\n<p>If a radio presenter is allowed spruik their sponsorships deals online, separate to their on-air contract, because of impartiality or conflicting arrangements with similar station advertisers, their network misses out on any share of the associated revenue. What surely would work better is something similar to where CADA was headed: flexible contracts where individual talent can align with businesses directly as an employee of X network too, and spread that message across on air, socials, podcasts and all their other associated spaces of radio \u201cwork\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Because we are constantly on the hunt for information and content there will always be a place for radio advertising when someone is looking for a new bed or car, a special deal or something to do this Saturday night.<\/p>\n<p>What radio has yet to find is a way of integrating the increasing tendency of not just Gen Z to trust in certain content creators more than traditional media. Beyond a live read.<\/p>\n<p>I think we all can accept that someone can be an award winning and impartial journalist and still have favourite products, destinations and food. Aligning business advertising with individual radio people and their unique brands and personalities surely is essential to broadcast\u2019s survival. Podcasts are embracing this. It\u2019s working out a seamless way \u201chow\u201d, without involving complicated disclaimers, ACMA intervention, or cowbells.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>First published by <em>RadioInfo<\/em>. Read original <a href=\"https:\/\/radioinfo.com.au\/news\/looking-to-the-future-of-radio-advertising-sans-cowbells\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Excerpt from radoinfo.com, written by Jen Seyderhelm. It has been 25 years since\u00a0Media Watch\u00a0first alerted [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7151,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bprworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/pexels-marcus-herzberg-1058276-1-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1440","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bprworld.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bprworld.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bprworld.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bprworld.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bprworld.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6095"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/bprworld.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6095\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6113,"href":"http:\/\/bprworld.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6095\/revisions\/6113"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bprworld.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bprworld.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bprworld.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bprworld.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}