According to eMarketer, advertisers will spend more than $1.5 billion on mobile advertising in 2013. It is expected that mobile will grow significantly faster than online ad spending as a whole. In addition local advertising spending will outpacing the national spend in the US. You should start thinking of a strategy to take advantage of those new trends right now!

This is a great opportunity for radio broadcasters, and here’s why. Based on the following figures, your audience would be interested in getting location-based mobile alerts from most of your advertisers. In fact, 42% of 18-to-34-year-olds and 33% of 35-to-44-year-olds are at least slightly interested in receiving opt-in mobile alerts from their favorite places*. They are mostly interested in getting alerts from restaurants, movie/event tickets, weather, and clearance sales. Furthermore, consumers are more likely to buy goods from local offers that are served at the right place and time*. These figures are expected to grow since the adoption of Smartphones is increasing at a rapid pace.

Offer a new service to your audience and make money out of it.
Your brands are already trusted by your audience; radio is a local phenomenon, is accessible everywhere on any device and is now more than ever part of consumers’ lives. Therefore, radio is the most relevant media for local advertisers. Why not become a reliable source of information to your audience by providing on-time, on-place advertisements as SMS, direct messages, and displays, directly into your Smartphone applications? Your mobile alerts should be seen as a service, not as an intrusion, as consumers respond better to a service than to pure advertisement. It’s a perfect fit for your local advertisers as they will definitely benefit from your new service because it is coupled with your trusted brands, increased reach, and localization.

I think it’s time for radio broadcasters to take advantage of new digital trends and grasp more and more of that “new” money. But don’t wait for others to figure it out first. Own this new trend by being the first to efficiently exploit it.

Contact us for more information on how that model could work for you.


By Vincent Grenier, VP Marketing
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*Harris Interactive survey, October 2009