Original Sponsored Programming for Radio
By the RadioActive Media Team
www.radioactivemedia.net
800-599-RADIO | DR Radio to 511-511 | 714-787-0101 International |
The beauty of thirty, sixty minute or 2 hour radio shows for advertisers is the opportunity to let your experts really interact with and build an audience. We like to develop experts into talk show hosts. It’s not only easier to make experts good radio hosts than to make radio personalities/host experts in particular areas, but also makes the programming more compelling. Oftentimes the hosts of the shows become celebrities and personalities that are more famous than other station personalities.
Typically we start by buying time on the top stations in the top 10 markets. Then we negotiate and barter with other stations where we usually retain 10 -12 minutes for the our client’s advertising and the rest of the available time, usually 5-7 minutes, is reserved for the local station to use and sell to non-competitors.
The difference is night and day from traditional infomercials:
1) These are live call-in shows as opposed to a single recorded, canned production with predictable formulaic content. The shows sound seamless and don’t sound like infomercials.
2) Commercials are not done by the experts, but by professional talent, preserving the expert’s credibility.
This type of call-in long programming is superior to the infomercial because the creative is new and different every week by topic and with new callers. Audiences have also become less responsive to canned infomercials. Today’s more sophisticated audiences are looking for programs that provide value. The proof is in the growth of the audience.
Case Study: Building a Following and Syndicating the Show
We took an expert in the financial category and built a long-running syndicated program. We started with KZLA in Los Angeles with a very early morning time period on Saturdays. We used a combination of live shows with replays of recorded episodes.
When the expert developed a following, we moved to a slightly better time period at 7AM.
Then we expanded the number of stations, building out a custom syndication of the show to 26 stations over 1 year using top stations on weekends.
Next we expanded the duration from 1 hour shows to 2 hours long.
If you are looking for a showcase for your experts with a media strategy that seeks interaction and a purpose to educate, inform, and/or entertain, give Jeff Pollak a call to brainstorm the best ways to present your content and wrap it in direct response mechanisms to measure your results.
@radioactivemed
44JMM5PQ839D
Tags: infomercials, KZLA radio, long-form sponsored radio programming, radio syndication
