Radio (Not) Heard Here ... Yet

The radio industry just launched its "Radio Heard Here" ad campaign meant to get people talking about just that — radio. The effort includes print ads, billboards, Internet videos, a website...

Wait a sec.

Something's missing from the media mix.

Radio!

While radio will ultimately pocket the biggest portion of the media campaign's budget, radio ads weren't included in Tuesday's big reveal based at the National Association of Broadcasters Conference in Las Vegas. Instead, the radio ads are scheduled to launch May 1.

"We simply wanted to spend a little bit more time refining production on the radio product before it went out," says Kelly O'Keefe, chairman of O'Keefe Brands, which led the campaign's brand strategy. "In an ideal world we would have launched them all together.

"The tricky part with radio is, it's their medium," O'Keefe adds. "So they are very sensitive to it. And if we, for instance, had a music background that was country, a rock and roll station wouldn't run the spot."

The "Radio Heard Here" campaign, from the National Association of Broadcasters, the Radio Advertising Bureau, and the HD Digital Radio Alliance, is not necessarily meant to increase how much radio people listen to or to encourage people to buy more radios, O'Keefe says. Most people already listen to the radio. This campaign is meant to get people talking, he explains. The more chatter about radio, the healthier and more vibrant the medium appears.

In 2007, advertiser spending on radio dropped 2 percent from the year before, according to the Radio Advertising Bureau.

"The ability to see the industry as up-to-date, in tune with consumers, taking advantage of technology; not stale, tired, and in decline has a direct impact" on how much the industry makes and how fast it expands, O'Keefe says. "There's a tie between consumer perceptions and the growth and vitality of the industry."

So why is it that when a consumer goes to www.radioheardhere.com that they see black and white images (example above) of people listening to old radios larger than most laptop computers?

"If we show somebody listening with a pair of earphones come up to their ears and maybe the device in their pocket, it doesn't read as radio. It reads as MP3," Kelly says. "We have some educating to do."

by Willow Duttge

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