2008 Looks Like Another Mobile Year But With Radio Jocks
It's that time of year again when the predictions brigade publish their wise thoughts for 2008! Wipe off the crystal ball, bring out the Tarot cards, throw 'dem' bones.
Do whatever you think might help you to peer through the fog and work out what the next big thing could be.
For me, the big wonder is still mobile telecommunications.
Really, I can hear the gasps.
Surely, that is so yesterday.
Moving on now to something more exciting and newer would be a lot more sensible.
Ok.
Just to relent, I would imagine that 'surfaces' might make some noise, create a few tiny waves.
The technology has to get a lot cheaper before touch screens become ubiquitous.
That is besides mobile phones of course.
So I am going to add something to the mix that is even older than mobile phones, and that is radio.
And then I am going to converge these two communication tools.
Now stand back and see what will happen.
Of course this statement of mobile and radio will bring out the big arguments against the concept.
In fact the Big Bertha howitzer of all arguments will shoot this one down in flames.
I can feel it coming.
However, hold your disbelief just for a few moments.
The first time I read this, and regrettably I cannot claim ownership of this idea, was in a South African IT online newsletter a few days ago, namely ITWeb.
The person who was interviewed was Alan Knott-Craig, CEO of South African mobile service provider Vodacom.
What was interesting during this interview was that Mr Knott-Craig and his company had decided that to continue to grow their business in the rest of Africa would be too expensive and that they planned to actively pursue the local market for further business opportunities.
One could also read between the lines that the budget for bribes had been oversubscribed.
Just guessing of course.
One of their new services would involve their own radio station.
They are already broadcasting to the distribution channel and staff and this service would eventually also be available to Vodacom's customers.
Remember that with 23.
3 million customers, as per the period ending September 2007, in South Africa alone it's not a small listener base.
Of course this bright spark idea could already be old hat in other countries.
I just haven't seen it before.
What really gets me excited by this are the opportunities for marketers to send advertising to a gadget that is almost always on and at hand.
Radio is easily localised, which provides a more targeted service.
And by now marketers should be sitting up and straining to read further! Yes, exactly.
Advertising to customers in localised, specific, targeted, no waste bursts spells happy advertising heaven.
With other words, I foresee that anybody with some sense would turn around and start negotiating with mobile service providers to assist them with setting up radio stations and moving ad-spend budgets from online to mobile.
The huge sums of money that advertisers are now trying to spend effectively online are set to increase.
These are some stats, already outstripped by 2007 figures, of what the UK market spends on online advertising.
During 2006 the advertising industry spent £2 billion online, 57.
8% on boring search.
This is just in the UK alone.
Now everybody is breathing hot air about advertising on social networking sites as the BIG future.
However, they are not quite sure how to approach this market.
Ordinary banner advertising is just not going to excite the Facebook crowd.
They have become expert in ignoring online ads.
Read more about the problems facing marketers when wanting to crack the social media nut on iMedia.
All this advertising money needs to find a home somewhere.
TV and print are losing viewers/readers.
So where to throw that money? Radio and mobile sound good to me.
Of course for the modern person, radio doesn't seem to be the answer for the 21st century.
It's all visual media surely, with video, TV, movies, the world wide web leading the pack of offerings rather than dull radio.
One would think.
However, according to an article on today's MediaBuyerPlanner it states that radio reaches 95% of 18-49 with $50k income.
This means that in the USA a vast majority of adults in the very relevant age band, with college degrees and fair earning capacity tune in to radio over the course of a week.
Besides the listenership of people in developed countries, Africa where the internet is mostly but a dial-up nightmare, radio is a marketing tool made in heaven.
Why not ignore the bandwidth issue by streaming free radio to the mobile phone? The mind boggles at the possibilities.
And remember, where available, there is no reason not to stream the internet as well.
Still doubting this as a way forward? Surely at least for 2008!
Do whatever you think might help you to peer through the fog and work out what the next big thing could be.
For me, the big wonder is still mobile telecommunications.
Really, I can hear the gasps.
Surely, that is so yesterday.
Moving on now to something more exciting and newer would be a lot more sensible.
Ok.
Just to relent, I would imagine that 'surfaces' might make some noise, create a few tiny waves.
The technology has to get a lot cheaper before touch screens become ubiquitous.
That is besides mobile phones of course.
So I am going to add something to the mix that is even older than mobile phones, and that is radio.
And then I am going to converge these two communication tools.
Now stand back and see what will happen.
Of course this statement of mobile and radio will bring out the big arguments against the concept.
In fact the Big Bertha howitzer of all arguments will shoot this one down in flames.
I can feel it coming.
However, hold your disbelief just for a few moments.
The first time I read this, and regrettably I cannot claim ownership of this idea, was in a South African IT online newsletter a few days ago, namely ITWeb.
The person who was interviewed was Alan Knott-Craig, CEO of South African mobile service provider Vodacom.
What was interesting during this interview was that Mr Knott-Craig and his company had decided that to continue to grow their business in the rest of Africa would be too expensive and that they planned to actively pursue the local market for further business opportunities.
One could also read between the lines that the budget for bribes had been oversubscribed.
Just guessing of course.
One of their new services would involve their own radio station.
They are already broadcasting to the distribution channel and staff and this service would eventually also be available to Vodacom's customers.
Remember that with 23.
3 million customers, as per the period ending September 2007, in South Africa alone it's not a small listener base.
Of course this bright spark idea could already be old hat in other countries.
I just haven't seen it before.
What really gets me excited by this are the opportunities for marketers to send advertising to a gadget that is almost always on and at hand.
Radio is easily localised, which provides a more targeted service.
And by now marketers should be sitting up and straining to read further! Yes, exactly.
Advertising to customers in localised, specific, targeted, no waste bursts spells happy advertising heaven.
With other words, I foresee that anybody with some sense would turn around and start negotiating with mobile service providers to assist them with setting up radio stations and moving ad-spend budgets from online to mobile.
The huge sums of money that advertisers are now trying to spend effectively online are set to increase.
These are some stats, already outstripped by 2007 figures, of what the UK market spends on online advertising.
During 2006 the advertising industry spent £2 billion online, 57.
8% on boring search.
This is just in the UK alone.
Now everybody is breathing hot air about advertising on social networking sites as the BIG future.
However, they are not quite sure how to approach this market.
Ordinary banner advertising is just not going to excite the Facebook crowd.
They have become expert in ignoring online ads.
Read more about the problems facing marketers when wanting to crack the social media nut on iMedia.
All this advertising money needs to find a home somewhere.
TV and print are losing viewers/readers.
So where to throw that money? Radio and mobile sound good to me.
Of course for the modern person, radio doesn't seem to be the answer for the 21st century.
It's all visual media surely, with video, TV, movies, the world wide web leading the pack of offerings rather than dull radio.
One would think.
However, according to an article on today's MediaBuyerPlanner it states that radio reaches 95% of 18-49 with $50k income.
This means that in the USA a vast majority of adults in the very relevant age band, with college degrees and fair earning capacity tune in to radio over the course of a week.
Besides the listenership of people in developed countries, Africa where the internet is mostly but a dial-up nightmare, radio is a marketing tool made in heaven.
Why not ignore the bandwidth issue by streaming free radio to the mobile phone? The mind boggles at the possibilities.
And remember, where available, there is no reason not to stream the internet as well.
Still doubting this as a way forward? Surely at least for 2008!
