"No Argument Here. The marketplace is changing but as we change, we also remain the same. Humans need other humans; and radio, especially when we are alone, offers a special personal connection and reaches elusive target groups in a way that no other media can."
Melissa Kunde, Executive Director 2008
Remember the DOTCOM era in the late 1990's when every pundit, graduate student and venture capitalist were saying that bricks and mortar commerce we're dead and the Internet was the new "store front". I remember it clearly because I was apart of those meetings and the Groupthink fervor can be summed up in one sentence:
"The Internet will kill everything bricks and mortar: grocery stores, banks, bookstores, and clothing stores will all disappear and the Internet will take over commerce."
It's March 2008 and I believe Safeway, Winco, Albertsons, Macy's, Ikea, Nordstrom's, Wellsfargo, US Bank, Costco and other "dead bricks and mortar" businesses are still thriving.
Here's the analogy: These old bricks and mortar businesses may have been slow to adopt new technology but in time they all embraced the services of the world wide web and these businesses continue prosper and serve the public well.
Cutting edge doesn't always mean profitability, adoption or long term growth. Early sellers and adopters of marketing technology have pundit rolling over pundit talking about the death of broadcast media. Does this tech marketing fervor sounds familiar to you? It does to me.
Radio, in the eyes of new marketers, maybe slow to adopt cutting edge technology but in time radio will leverage it's strong, on-air driven social communities and adopt the best of the best technologies to entertain, capture and serve American audiences and advertisers.
Radio audiences are healthy in 2008. No one knows what the advertising landscape will look like 20 years from now and it doesn't matter because as Eckart Tolle states brilliantly The Power of Now is what matters. And right NOW, radio is a major thread in the tapestry of American daily life.
The question is not "either radio or e-marketing" but what's works "NOW" and how can I be a partner with my local radio station to combine ideas, integrate technology and use Radio "NOW" to be a growing human brand in Portland.....and perhaps beyond.
