In my satirical novel "$everance" I predicted the future Nascar-ization of television and radio. It wasn't really a joke...I honestly believed it was going to happen. It's been happening on television for the last few years (think those pop up ads that constantly fill up part of your screen), but now it's happening in radio too.
From Tom Taylor's column this morning...
The CBS folks on the “Future of radio” panel said they’re now selling spots as short as five seconds and as long as two minutes. Scott Herman says the flexibility of local radio is such that “if somebody wants to come in and buy the whole four-minute spot set” and sponsor a song, they’re open to that. He and Michael Weiss agree that there’s been a turnaround in the thinking about sales calls. Years ago, an in-person visit might have been 80% the sales rep talking and then 20% of the time the client. They’d like to reverse that, then have the sellers come back to the station where they (in Herman’s favorite new word) “ideate” about the client’s needs. CBS is also selling “the Allstate route” during traffic reports in multiple markets, keyed to the insurance company. Weiss says they’re also pursuing selling naming rights to stations. He says “we just did it with [all-news] WBBM in Chicago, which says it’s broadcasting from the MB Financial Studios, one time an hour, 24/7.” Agency rep Michael Maze of Local Broadcast Initiative welcomes the new flexibility – “it’s great that we’ve moved away from the standard :60s and :30s.”
