In the era of social media, smartphone devices and live streaming, it’s easy to assume that marketing your brand via radio would be completely archaic. While it’s been around for a long time, radio actually has many advantages over other communication channels in terms of generating positive PR. Here are some of the reasons it’s worth considering radio as a PR tool.
Targeted demographics
If you’re looking to target a teenage demographic, Snapchat is arguably the best tool out there. However, if your demographic is more wide-ranging or older (particularly 55 years old and up), radio can provide you with the perfect communication channel. In addition to targeting an audience by age, you can also target them by interests, since different radio stations will pertain to different character traits and hobbies. From a PR perspective, you can really laser focus your message onto the kind of people that you want to attract – much like Facebook ads but using good old-fashioned technology!
It’s also worth remembering that many people listen to the radio on the internet now. As business expert, Kim T. Gordon writes: “Many stations now stream their programming on the internet and reach additional local and even national audiences. What’s more, if online listeners like what they hear in your streaming radio spot, they’re just one click away from your website.”
Interviews, phone-ins and radio days
In order to get your message heard by the right demographic, a radio interview is usually a great strategy and time investment. Obviously, radio is not there for overt commercial promotion, it is essential to have a strong story with human interest angles in order for a programme planner to consider your involvement. As with all good PR, your story must be fresh, interesting, objective and provide value for listeners.
There are many ways of developing brand profile through radio, for example, building your reputation as an expert who comments on specialist topics. You will have heard many such people on talk radio and news shows – they cover everything from reviewing ‘the morning’s papers’ to giving opinions and advice on areas such as property, finance, health and legal matters through interviews or phone-ins. A good way to start in this area is to offer yourself as an expert commentator to a relevant local station and demonstrate that you are a reliable, authoritative speaker by giving a great interview or comments.
You can also work with a PR and broadcast agency to build an exciting broadcast (radio, TV, online) campaign around a major initiative – you might have a new report, statistics, research or invention to unpin a product/service goal. Whatever the topic, it must be important to some sector of society, not be purely focused on your corporate objectives. A broadcast campaign can involve a full day of down-the-line radio interviews on the initiative with the company spokesperson and perhaps an external authority on the subject or even a celebrity. Such campaigns can be supported with live-streaming of the story over the internet, as well as social and print media stories.
Full attention not required
One of the drawbacks of printed media is that it requires a person’s immediate and absolute attention in order to fully absorb the message. Because people’s attention spans are shortening at a rapid pace (thanks to our digital lifestyles), communicating via radio enables brands to communicate their message without having their audience’s full attention. People can drive to work, browse the internet and enjoy a tasty meal; all while being exposed to your brand via the radio.
No geographical boundaries
You can conduct interviews on the phone and appear live on air, all from the comfort of your house or office. The expertise of the radio presenter means no one would ever know you’re not in the studio… and it saves your travelling time. Also, if your business is online and your customers are international, you can reach people in different countries more effectively and boost your brand awareness by appearing on international radio programmes.
Recyclable content
Legendary entrepreneur and marketer, Gary Vaynerchuk, regularly appears on radio stations to discuss his latest project or book. He often brings his videographer with him to record segments of the interviews and repurpose them as short motivational clips on his Youtube channel. This helps him to promote his brand to the fans of the radio channel while simultaneously giving his fans some new content – great!
Radio is very much alive and kicking, so make sure it’s part of your communications plan – it may just be able to take your brand to the next level without the expense of advertising.
Tags: brand building, message promotion, radio
