The latest survey from Borrell & Associates of nearly one thousand radio buyers shows they are poised to spend more in 2021. Gordon Borrell cautions that this should be used only as barometer that will be influenced by several factors and how those looking for those dollars present themselves.
“Advertising budgets are going up 15.7 percent in 2021. For the past 10 years the average has been about 3.3 percent. It’s never been in the double digits. We don’t think local advertising is going to increase by this amount, because advertisers don’t always do what they say in these surveys. It is a barometric reading on what may happen and this is a pretty good phenomenal thing.”
The buyers, according to Borrell, are getting smarter about marketing and they are reducing media partnership. He urges that these are two points to pay attention to.
“Advertisers are doing more and more of their marketing in house, they are almost turning into small marketing or media companies. The more that you can have skilled sales reps to keep pace with this new marketing, the more you are going to be able to create that conversation.”
The Covid chaos of 2020 has left a segment of buyers wondering what they are going to spend money on in the new year. It’s these undecideds that Borrell believes radio can cash in on.
“A lot of respondents didn’t know what they will be spending on various media in 2021. You can cultivate some of the undecideds. About a fourth said they didn’t know. We think there is a great, great opportunity out there to influence them. Influence them away from a competitor, and by that I mean broadcast TV, or print or some other form of digital media. Influence their budget over to you.”
It’s about understanding what the advertiser wants people to know about their brand and being creative in getting the word out. For Borrell, radio wins the creativity battle.
“More and more of them want their story told so they are intensifying content marketing efforts. This is where radio plays a key. Radio is a more creative medium then competitors in the Newspaper, TV, Direct Mail or Outdoor Advertising.”
Radio can also cash in on disruption, where you have two incumbent mediums (in this case radio and digital) where the focus on overlap blurs the potential to grow.
“This a great time for radio to cash in on disruption. There are potential new customers for radio in digital media particularly in video. It’s a great opportunity for radio to migrate over and do some disrupting to television, to claim a new client base and to sell digital video to it’s client base.”
Overall, Borrell believes the ad dollars will be returning to radio in the new year; but not the first thing out of the gate on January 2, 2021
