Media Mentions

"Q&A: Emmis' Esayian on pulling radio advertising into the Internet age "
SNL Financial, 2.15.08

Despite well-documented troubles at some its core radio holdings, Emmis Communications Corp.'s Interactive segment continues to show success. Using a variety of media - most notably the Internet - to more effectively link advertisers and listeners, the division maintains relationships with all Emmis stations, and recently began taking on clients outside of the company, as well.

At RAB2008, the Radio Advertising Bureau's annual conference, SNL Kagan spoke to Deborah Esayian, Emmis vice president of integrated sales and head of the interactive division, about the segment's efforts to improve upon radio's current advertising model.
What follows is an edited transcript of that conversation.

SNL Kagan: How do you describe Emmis Interactive?
Deborah Esayian: Emmis Interactive is a company that creates serious revenue streams and ongoing business for radio companies and local media. We work with publishing houses as well. Our model incubated at Emmis radio for five years and we practiced perfecting how to generate revenue and what would be the important backend content management system requirements for a [Portable People Meter] world.

Emmis itself had a portfolio of stations in large markets. We actually found that there wasn't anything out there from a content management system that would service our needs. So we ended up - against our own better judgment - creating a content management system. We created something that would give us an advantage in a PPM world and we started using it with our radio stations. We also created that same system to capture revenue.

It was a business model. It wasn't just a content management system; it wasn't just a revenue development strategy. It was a business model for a sustainable profitable growing interactive franchise for years to come. So, you have technology and then you have to train account executives to look at this business differently. That takes about three years for that kind of paradigm shift if you're really working at it to seed in an organization.

Currently, what is the relationship between Emmis Interactive and Emmis? Do you have relationships with all Emmis radio stations and publications?
All the Emmis radio stations are on the Emmis Interactive platform and grew up using the Emmis Interactive revenue strategies.

Emmis publishing is a separate group, however one of those magazines, Texas Monthly, last year started using Emmis' revenue strategies and is now coming onto Emmis' platform this month. So they actually saw tremendous success with their revenue, knew that they would need some of the technology for those revenue gains to double and triple and are shifting over to this.

Can you give me an example of a particular campaign or initiative that was indicative of what you all do?
Let's take an old concept in radio called the remote. We bring a van, dancing bear, hot dog salesman, do all that dog and pony show and for two hours we entice the public to come to an advertiser's location. That is not a very practical thing in today's very busy world where people really have a hard time sneaking in the things that people really want to do in their lives. So the chances that someone is actually going to come during the two hours we are there is probably remote at best.

So what we invented was the concept of the cyber remote. In fact, we trademarked the phrase. We've actually started transferring our on-site remotes online instead. We run them for longer period of times. There's a special offer that, if you participate in the remote during that shot clock period of time, you can then get a special something once you interact with the advertiser. But you get to interact with the advertiser on your schedule, on your time as a consumer.

So the idea is the cyber remote is soliciting interest, then the client or advertiser follows up with that listener at a time when it's convenient for them, and finishes the transaction. But the cyber remote we found doesn't bring contest [enthusiasts] or ancillary people; it brings only really interested people to the organization. For instance, a car dealer does a cyber remote, nobody is participating unless they are 30 or 60 days out from buying a car. That makes it an unbelievably qualified lead right from the start.

What do you all mean by high-affinity targets?
High affinity means people who are brand loyal to our brands. Within that there are subsegments of people that at any one time are listening to one advertiser's message. During a commercial stop set, you could run four commercials, but one listener might only respond to one of those commercials because it's only relevant to them. So our job is to know our data bases really, really well and be able to subquery those databases and understand who is most appropriate for a particular message.

This is what the Internet is about. It's about developing an intimate one-to-one relationship. Radio's advantage is we already have an intimate relationship, we just take it to another level. That's what Yahoo! Inc. and Google Inc. can't do, because they don't start with an intimate relationship. We think this is the industry's greatest opportunity.

People sometimes lament that radio can be hesitant to change, but this is obviously a change. What sort of reaction do you get regarding your activities when you talk to your colleagues or advertisers? Do you have to sell it pretty hard, or do people get it quickly?
The answer is about 35% to 40% of a current radio stations' client base is looking for solutions in this place. Right away, not everybody needs this or wants this. The first job that every radio station needs to do is find those clients that really want to learn more, because this is actually an education process. There's no selling involved.

What we choose to do is prospect wisely those clients that have either shown a great interest in the Internet, maybe recently have redone their Web site, and those that are spending a lot on print as well as radio. We then bring those clients to our radio stations, we educate them on what exactly is going on in broadcasting with the Internet. It's not about what is happening with your business but how other advertisers are using integrated media to be effective.

So we pick the right clients, we educate them, we involve them in the brainstorming of the integrated solution so nowhere are we actually selling, because they are actually buying in early.

How do you think Emmis compares to other radio companies in this space? Are you well ahead of the curve? Are other companies doing similar things?
I think the industry overall is becoming aware and actually accepting that the Internet is something that we have to work with. I think it's also a positive sign that the industry is looking at the Internet a little less as an enemy and a little more as a friend as it should.

Certainly, Arbitron, years ago in doing their studies, proved to us that the Internet was a complementary media, not one that cannibalizes us. We are in the best position to capitalize on the Internet. I think Emmis was ahead of the curve. I think we got into this very early and we made some significant investments. If you are going to do this seriously, you are going to spend some money.

My message to a lot of other broadcasters is this is a really great time to get started and you will be stunned at where you will be in three years, because it accelerates very quickly.