We’re Hot! 

That may be an understatement given the blistering weather searing the country this past week. But it is the best way to describe the mind sets of our sales teams as they focus on the important work of growing market share in our divisions and across our platforms. They’re hot – just like our media – and they’re getting hotter. 

Whether you look at radio or outdoor, we know that consumers spend a higher portion of their time engaged with our platforms than the share of budgets that advertisers traditionally invest in our inventory. Television for years has grabbed way more than its share (about half of all ad dollars each week go to network, cable, and local TV), while consumers spend just over one third of their time watching the tube. 

At Clear Channel, we’re in the trenches working on changing that equation and grabbing a higher percentage of the advertising pie.   

CCR is using innovative content and platforms to deepen and make more visible the engagement radio creates with listeners. Like the exciting content we create at our P.C. Richard & Son Theater in New York, and the Artist Personal Experience (A.P.E.) stations on iheartradio that pull listeners into closer relationships with their favorite performers. And investing in research to demonstrate that our 850+ stations connect with 62 million daily listeners, and that our 90 nationally-syndicated personalities are heard by 190 million a week. We can even show that iPod and satellite radio users listen to more broadcast radio than non-users.   

CCO is in the market building on the out-of-home industry’s new research methodology, Eyes On, that for the first time hands media planners a tool to integrate outdoor advertising into the buying programs they use to dole out dollars across media. It gives us a seat at the main table as ad budgets are carved up and gives us the information we need to rebalance calculations that put only 5% of all ad dollars into outdoor – even though the average consumer spends 25% of their time exposed to outdoor advertising. Combining research with the creative flexibility and immediacy of digital display enables CCO to sell more effectively against rival media. 

Our selling fire has been on prominent display in New York these past two weeks, as John Partilla and our Global Media Sales team has partnered with sales and marketing execs across CCR and CCO to take our messages to the heart of the advertising universe, presenting to top agencies and making the case for our platforms. We’ve invaded the Upfront Selling Season with a first-ever Upfront roadshow, telling Clear Channel’s story directly to the people who control ad spending. 

That sets the stage for a further sales push when the advertising world gathers in New York for Advertising Week in September, and we’ll have more in the pipeline in October, when Clear Channel is a leading sponsor of the biggest annual event for Chief Marketing Officers, the ANA Masters of Marketing Conference in Orlando.   

Summer Doldrums? Not at Clear Channel. Thanks for all you do to help fan the flames of our continued success. 

Mark Mays

Source: Clear Channel Radio