RAB: Ad Agencies Call for Informed Digital Sellers

Radio’s digital extensions are important, growing components of media buys but the industry needs to better educate its sales force on selling digital assets if it wants to maximize the space, according to ad agency executives. "Clear Channel and CBS Radio have developed amazing [online radio] platforms and the space is growing," said Horizon Media VP/director of national radio Maja Mijatovic during one of more than a dozen sessions devoted to digital at the Radio Advertising Bureau conference here Tuesday. "We would like to see sellers be more on top of their game and know how to sell it. A bad seller can destroy it for everyone. A lot of terrestrial radio sellers have not been properly trained and don't know what they're talking about," she added. An estimated $12.9 billion was spent on local interactive advertising last year, up 70 percent from 2007, according to Borrell Associates. In many markets, local interactive has surpassed local radio in ad spend. To increase its meager share of local online ad buys, radio is dialing up digital efforts. Looking to extend into the digital space, radio groups are challenged to integrate thousands of individual sellers into digital initiatives. "Some want to do it, some don't and some don't understand it," said Eric Ronning, co-president of sales for Internet radio ad agency, TargetSpot. Part of the problem is that the digital space is less monetized than traditional sales. "Radio account execs will go where the money is," said Andy Lipset, co-president of sales for TargetSpot. Emmis Interactive co-president Deb Esayian echoed the need for better education during a Wednesday session where local interactive directors shared digital success stories. "You have to educate the entire staff," Esayian said. "You have to get everyone speaking the same language. There are account execs who don’t get this and, at some point, you have to acknowledge that they no longer fit your business goals and shed them."Kelly Wallace, director of interactive and account development for Greater Media’s Philadelphia cluster, said the company incentivizes account execs to make interactive components part of integrated campaigns with a 20 percent sales commission for interactive, a higher rate than for over-the-air spots. Once sellers meet a certain interactive sales threshold, they get bumped up to 25 percent retroactively, she said.A Digital Superstars program at Emmis that recognizes the top five digital sellers at individual stations is also helping, Esayian said. "Once someone gets on the interactive train, they never get off, whether it¹s an account executive or a client. You need to put a little sugar on the behavior change."For the second consecutive year, digital has been a primary conversation at the RAB conference, attracting high level executives from several of radio's top spenders, such as AT&T. During a Tuesday session, Chris Shembri, vp of media services for the telecom giant, said radio will always have a place in the company’s media mix. "It's about getting [radio] CEOs together [to] come up with ideas," Shembri said. "TV networks have gotten together and come up with unique ways to preserve their business in the digital space. Radio needs to do that too." Taking up the challenge, Katz Marketing Solutions president Bob McCurdy said he plans to convene a group of broadcasters to meet with AT&T to see what radio can collectively put together for the company.

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RAB: Ad Agencies Call for Informed Digital Sellers

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