The O’Reilly Factor

I wrote down this quote last summer and sent to all of our air talent:

“Go back and tell your personalities – if they are not on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and writing a daily blog two years from now – at the latest – they will be irrelevant.” (Leo Laporte at the Jacobs Media Summit XIII)

With all due respect to Mr. Laporte, I don’t think irrelevance is that far away.  It’s here.  Now.  I’ll even take his assertion one step further:  talent’s new media presence must include on demand demand – especially video – which is portable and compelling enough to be viral.

It’s 2009 and time for a serious review of your talent’s commitment to your digital platform.

Bill O’Reilly is a timely case study for the subject.  O’Reilly is leaving his nationally syndicated “The Radio Factor” at the end of February.  He claims that he’s too busy on the Fox News Channel for radio.  Tom Taylor notes on Radio-Info.com that Bill’s real plans are to spend more time working on his website and premium membership.  Here’s the posting:

Radio influences online behavior.

Audio4Cast.com says radio plays a major role influencing behavior of online consumers.  A survey of 1,000 “digital influencers” by MS&L and IPSOS found traditional media like radio played a “vital role in igniting the process that leads influencers to share information online.”

84% said they go online to learn more after hearing something on the radio.

The study quantifies the connection between online and offline media.  Online marketing has become a nearly essential element of most advertisers’ marketing strategies.  Hopefully, this study will open doors to new cross-platform opportunities between digital and traditional media creating successful marketing strategies.

“This research supports the need for influencer marketing campaigns to leverage both traditional and online tools to connect with consumers,” said MS&L/NEW YORK’s RENNE WILSON.

Want to actually be moved by a commercial?

Here’s a great example of creative, inspiring, even emotional advertising for a product never mentioned by name.  It proves great writing and production, even in commercials, can still be good content.  It’s worth the time spent to craft both your message and medium in today’s marketing world.  I bet this becomes a viral smash with … well, I won’t tell you who … just watch the video.

Ads on Local Media Websites are more effective, research shows.

A new project conducted by Jupiter Research for the Online Publishers Association has found ads placed on local media websites are more effective than other local sites.  Download the entire study here.

Newspapers ranked first with 46% of consumers taking action after viewing a local ad, followed by local TV sites (44%), local magazine sites (42%), user review sites (39%), and portals (37%).  Newspaper, TV and Magazine sites also attracted significant percentages of consumers who spent more than $500 online in the past 12 months, compared to portal visitors and the general online population.

Unfortunately, OPA did not include local radio station websites in their study, but marketers can easily make the leap to assume similar results would be found with ads placed on radio sites considering the Top 3 response sites were local media and within 4% points of each other.

“Our analysis of Jupiter data finds that consumers are more likely to act on the ads they see on local TV, newspaper and magazine sites. Just as we see on a national scale, media sites outpace portals and all other online media at delivering meaningful advertising results,” said Pam Horan, president of OPA.

Download the entire study here.