The following is a quick introduction to Marketron's content experience, The Evolution and Resilience of the Broadcast Media Industry: From Dinosaurs to Birds.
The broadcast media industry isn't that old compared to most of those that make up Wall Street and Main Street, yet it's changed so much over the last 100-plus years. The drivers behind this come from many factors -- technology advancements, consumer demand, how businesses seek to generate buyer interest, competition for ad dollars and more. They didn't happen all at once; it's been gradual and incremental as the framework of the broadcast media industry reinvents itself.
In the first quarter of the 21st century, there's uncertainty about where the industry will go as it faces both challenges and opportunities. However, this is an irrepressible and ingenious field, so this moment we face now is pivotal and the start of an evolution. While some inside and outside the industry may use the term "dinosaur" to describe it negatively, they may not realize the resilience of such a species; the dinosaurs of billions of years ago evolved into present-day birds. It's a fitting metaphor for the broadcast media landscape, and it's got wings.
We Must Address Challenges to Evolve, Grow and Modernize
So, what is the right path for the industry to evolve? You can't progress with growth and modernization without looking at the challenges that stand in the way. There are both existing and emerging obstacles. The first is grasping how expansive the content ecosystem has become. We live in an omnichannel world, making everything a little more complicated.
Complicated doesn't mean bad, necessarily. Broadcast media sellers now have more products than ever to connect advertisers with audiences. However, that also means there are more ways for companies to spend those budgets, and they all want a presence everywhere.
As a result, many stations have integrated these new tactics into their portfolio. Success and revenue increases haven't been instantaneous, as organizations needed to invest in technology, people and processes. You're taking your once simpler model and expanding and reimagining it to meet the needs of today's advertisers.
You've been evolving to keep pace, yet the tools you use haven't always given you the room to grow and modernize. Have the industry's technology partners been too slow to respond to change?
Technology Must Move In Step with Local Broadcast and Media Sales
If you look across your tech stack now, you may see areas in need of improvement or be overwhelmed by the many platforms needed just to function as a local media seller today. You've seen innovation in operations and production areas. Why have things been slow in technology that builds and drives revenue?
It's not a lack of innovation, but we're in a niche industry with a limited market that requires deep knowledge. While we haven't had to wait billions of years like the dinosaur-to-bird evolution, modernization of the technology you need to sell more seamlessly has taken some time because of the unbelievable change that's transpired just in the last decade. Developing flexible, reliable, intuitive technology built specifically for media companies required an investment of time and resources. So, where has innovation taken us thus far?
The Next Generation of Technology Is Fueling the Future of Local Radio, TV and Digital Sales
Every part of the broadcast media industry can survive and thrive with the right tools, processes and strategies. Here's what the evolution of technology now enables for radio, TV and digital.
For radio, your pain points have been disparate systems, manual work and a lack of data to drive decisions. Solving this requires integration, automation and data insights from a traffic and revenue platform. Upgrading and expanding your tech stack with these solutions will keep you agile in this evolution.
The local TV sales process has had its technology challenges -- fragmentation, inconsistent pricing and the inability to sell multiple formats. Ultimately, you need technology that optimizes pricing, placement, strategy and workflows based on data in a comprehensive solution. It's not too much to ask; you can find it with a true end-to-end TV sales platform.
Third-party digital has become an effective way to grow revenue and be a complete partner to local businesses. The problems that have kept this from being a smooth transition include using technology that's too complex and struggling to level up seller knowledge. What you seek is a platform that makes it easy to pitch, sell and execute, and most don't deliver on this because they weren't designed for sellers like you. However, you can now adopt a total solution that does the ad ops for you and provides the upskilling education and support that local sales professionals need to win digital business.
Another aspect of this next generation of technology is how it aligns with your workflows. Getting this right improves efficiency and productivity. This parallel accelerates the processes and consolidates the systems required, ensuring sellers spend more time selling, not typing.
The third component is your people. They need regular training on tactics and selling strategies. Finally, they need knowledge resources to keep learning things like how to create a winning ad mix to achieve a goal or handle objections.
Start your experience here. We go into all these topics in depth in a visually exciting way because we know our audience and how much you enjoy great media.
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The opinions expressed here are the author's views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillage.org/MyersBizNet.