Internet Radio Bridges the Daytime Gap

The Online Publishers Association this week released another study confirming that daytime is primetime on the Internet, and while the rest of the online world is still trying to figure out what to do with that information, one group is putting the data to work.

The Internet Radio Marketing Group (IRMG), a group of 6 online radio stations, is working hard to convince advertisers that their medium is a really terrific way to reach the 25-54-year-olds at work, where they are most prone to respond to advertising, as David Landis, founder of the group, puts it.

Landis, who runs Ultimate-80s.com, says that the IRMG, which was founded just a few months ago, just landed their first major advertiser for a two-week Mother's Day promotion. He says that all 6 members of the group - Ultimate-80s.com, Beethoven.com, MVYRadio.com, SmoothJazz.com, BoomerRadio.com and WARX.com - are streaming the spots to their combined audience of half a million people, offering the advertiser unprecedented measurability of results.

"This is a monitored medium," says Landis, explaining that Internet broadcasters are able to tell advertisers "exactly how many people heard their ad."

President/CEO of Integrity Media Group's BoomerRadio.com Ron Rubin says, "As someone who comes from 30+ years in traditional broadcasting, I look at Internet Radio as the next derivation of the medium."

He says that from an Advertising perspective, IRMG's greatest challenge is convincing media planners to "create a new line item in their annual budgets for Internet Radio. Until this happens, we will continue to receive remnant and experimental dollars. In addition, we need to foster greater awareness among advertisers and planners of the medium and its unique capabilities. And, we need to discern what frequency and reach metrics are needed by media buyers."

IRMG's major selling point is that consumers are increasingly accepting the medium, especially in the office. Landis says that there are several draws. The first is the increasing penetration of broadband, which makes it easy for people to stream. Second, he says, most people don't have radios in the office, but prefer to have something playing in the background while they work. And, third, judging by the feedback, consumers like the freedom of programming formats that most internet radio stations enjoy.

"What is indisputable is that tens of millions of people listen to Internet Radio every day in the workplace," confirms Rubin. "It is a captive audience, and an educated and affluent one. This is prime real estate for Advertisers, and favorable deals can now be made that lock-in rates for years to come."

"As a radio product," he says, "we are the only radio medium that reaches large numbers of at-work listeners, and we do this on a nationwide basis. Traditional radio delivers their audience in morning and afternoon drive times. We bridge that gap during the workday. This is an advertising opportunity that is not currently being exploited. Radio has worked successfully as an ad medium for more than 80 years, and we are extension of this heritage."

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