Local Search Will Damage Radio Industry
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Although the potential for competition from local search has been around for a couple of years, Yahoo! and Google's local search programs are only now making the rounds in radio industry trades. One scant mention comes at the end of a story at Radio & Records in 33 words: ""We now fear that in 2007 Yahoo! and Google local tools may siphon 2%-3% of local advertising share. We see risk of further downside of 10%-15% by year's end, even after declines of 20% to date."
This should give you an indication of how far behind radio is in defending itself from the near-certain adaption of local search by many radio advertisers, which is what all radio trades should be pounding away at.
Local search has been a hot topic at Audio Graphics for a long time, mainly because of how easy it is to use as an advertising vehicle. I'm not talking about grabbing the top rankings on a product search, either (as was shown here on Monday).
The services being provided by Yahoo!, Google, and even MSN, today, remind me of when full service grocery stores first started pushing the family grocer off the corner. It was a time when consumers went from asking for a can of Campbell's soup that "Mom's Grocery" had on the rack behind the counter, to actually plucking the can off the shelf.
There's no reason to think the majority of people reading this are old enough to relate to the above grocery mention, so let's give a little example of what's in store for radio as local search gets its foothold. We'll use Google to demonstrate but, beware, all of the systems operate the same way with only small differences.
Because car dealers are one of radio's biggest categories of advertisers, take a look at what local search is doing for them. It's only a short time before the public realizes that what's to follow is as easy as listening to a radio ad, but it offers a lot more information. And, when that happens, car dealers will all jump heavily into local search.
1) Type in "car dealers (your city, state)" into Google's search box. (For this demonstration, I've used Cleveland, Ohio.) Notice how, right up at the top, there's a listing for "Local Results for car dealers near Cleveland Ohio.
Click to enlarge.
2) View the resulting display when this "Local Results..." is clicked, and how it gives pinpoint locations of each dealer. Also, notice the "Sponsored links" resting at the top of the page. Pay attention to this, because this is the beginning of a more focused online advertising experience for car dealers in your area.
3) To wet the appetite of your current advertisers for "local search," and to show how the message provided via this form of advertising reaches a far greater depth than anything a :60 commercial can provide, click on one of the icons on the map adjacent to this search return. To keep on the same page, let's say that icon carries the letter "N."
4) "N," when clicked, shows a pop up box that has the dealer's name, address, map, phone number(s), and a link to the dealer's web site. There's also a "details" tab that gives whatever information is desired, in this case it's a Better Business Bureau Member listing.
As radio moves into this century it's finding that the traditional copy that has been airing isn't cutting it anymore. The reason is simple; for car dealers, the fact that they have a "$3000 dollars for any trade in" promotion can't compete with all the other information consumers are finding online - including that lame $3000 trade in offer.
Worse is that to obtain a top position on a search engine when a "local search" is done requires only a little effort, and less dollars than any radio campaign. All it takes is a few minutes spent at the Google "Local Business Center" (which really hasn't received all that much publicity, yet).
Take a few minutes and see what's at the "Local Business Center." After signing up, you can see how easy it is to add/change your listing information. Here's a screen shot from the page of one of my clients, if you don't want to enroll.
What's at Google is very similar to what's offered by MSN, and Yahoo!. All are easy to use for a consumer or advertiser, which is why there's only a short time before we begin seeing more of radio's advertisers spending time and money on being listed in local search returns. Once that action begins watch for those advertisers to begin placing more money on optimzing their listings. I showed how important this was, and the results to expect, in a previous Audio Graphics' article.
Advertising has stepped beyond the point of where only a few copywriters, producers, and media have control.
With Google, MSN, and Yahoo! Local Search advertising is beginning to come out from behind the counter, just like that can of Campbell's soup.
With local search, advertising is going to where any business may reach out and help themself.
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