Audio Kills The Radio Noir, Agency Broadly Redefines Medium

The amorphous, platform-shifting nature of the current media marketplace is driving at least one major shop to redefine a medium based not on its distribution, but on the fundamental nature of its content format. According to MediaVest, radio is now "audio."

In a new report being circulated to clients, MediaVest has adopted the position that terrestrial broadcast radio should no longer be looked at as a discrete medium in communications plans, but as part of a greater array of audio media--including satellite, online, mobile and a variety of personal media device technologies, such as iPods, other MP3 players, and even television, which increasingly is being used as an audio-only medium. MediaVest's new view of audio also includes such homey analog technologies as vinyl records, which may seem quaint, but are undergoing a resurgence in popularity among audiophiles.

MediaVest's new approach to audio planning is part of a growing industry shift away from defining media based on their distribution platforms and toward understanding how consumers interact with the essential nature of their content and formats.

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That argument is at the heart of "StrADegy: Advertising In The Digital Age," authored by TNS Media Intelligence President-CEO Steven Fredericks. In it, he argues that in the future, "Content is defined not by its old media name, but by its core property: text, video and audio. All content, clarified and freed, can be distributed via any converged technology."

In terms of audio, MediaVest seems to think we are already there. In fact, the "single source audio study" looks at how people are using audio devices like iPods to watch video, and how they are using television to listen to audio.

The important thing, the agency concludes, is to understand why people are using new technologies and where they are using them. That opens new opportunities to connect people with audio content.

As disconcerting as this new perspective might seem for some traditional media operators, the MediaVest report actually finds good news for conventional broadcast radio.

"Traditional AM/FM radio continues to hold a special place in people's lives," the report notes. "With some expected demographic-based differences, the appeal of traditional AM/FM is consistent across age, gender, income and locale, meaning that traditional radio remains a viable way to connect with consumers."

Among other things, MediaVest notes that traditional radio still reaches nearly 93% of people 12 years and older on a weekly basis, and "remains one of the most used and highly valued media in the country."

Among audio media, conventional terrestrial radio was cited by four out of 10 consumers as their favorite audio-based medium--slightly ahead of CDs and DVDs and more than four times greater than the number of people who favor technologies such as MP3 players, Internet radio or satellite radio.

"Free-delivery into homes, cars and headsets plays a role in radio's continued appeal," and "radio remains uniquely able to deliver on consumer needs," the study finds, noting that news and entertainment (cited by 69% of consumers) is still its biggest draw, followed by music (57%) and news, traffic and weather reports (53%).

One issue with MediaVest's switch to an audio-based view of media is that many of the new audio technologies are not ad-supported. "That's a huge problem," says David Shiffman, senior vice president-research director at MediaVest, who still thinks more ad-supported and sponsorship models will find their way into premium audio content for one simple reason: "People don't like paying for more and more media content."

On the plus side, he says new audio platforms will spawn new ways of reaching consumers, and new ways to target them based on what's most relevant to them. "This will lead to vastly improved targetability," Shiffman says. "Any time people can pick and choose, and we can zero in on their interest areas, it creates opportunities to put the right messaging and advertising content into environments that we could not have done before."

As an example, he cites the burgeoning podcast marketplace, which is spawning special-interest programming and advertising opportunities that seem perfect for many ad categories, "like car insurance advertising on car-related podcasts."

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