2008 looks like another mobile year, but with radio jocks

It’s that time of year again when the predictions brigade publish its wise thoughts for 2008. Wipe off the crystal ball, bring out the Tarot cards, throw “dem” bones. Do whatever you think might help you to peer through the fog and work out what the next big thing could be.

For me, the big wonder is still mobile telecommunications. Really, I can hear the gasps. Surely that is so yesterday. Moving on now to something more exciting and newer would be a lot more sensible. OK. Just to relent, I would imagine that interfaces might make some noise, create a few tiny waves. The technology has to get much cheaper before touch screens become ubiquitous. That is besides cellphones, of course.

So I am going to add something to the mix that is even older than cellphones, and that is radio. And then I am going to converge these two communication tools. Now stand back and see what happens.

Of course this statement of mobile and radio will bring out the big arguments against the concept. In fact the Big Bertha howitzer of all arguments will shoot this one down in flames. I can feel it coming. However, hold your disbelief just for a few moments.

The first time I read this, and regrettably I cannot claim ownership of this idea, was in a South African ITWeb online newsletter a few days ago. The person who was interviewed was Alan Knott-Craig, CEO of South African mobile service provider Vodacom. Read the interview here.

What was interesting during this interview was that Knott-Craig and his company had decided that to continue to grow their business in the rest of Africa would be too expensive and that they planned to pursue the local market actively for further business opportunities. One could also read between the lines that the budget for bribes had been oversubscribed. Just guessing, of course.

One of their new services would involve their own radio station. They are already broadcasting to the distribution channel and staff, and this service would eventually also be available to Vodacom’s customers. Remember that with 23,3-million customers in South Africa alone — for the period ending September 2007 — it’s not a small listener base.

Of course this bright-spark idea could already be old hat in other countries. I just haven’t seen it before. What really get me excited are the opportunities for marketers to send advertising to a gadget that is almost always on and at hand.

Radio is easily localised, which provides a more targeted service. And by now marketers should be sitting up and straining to read further! Yes, exactly. Advertising to customers in localised, specific, targeted, no-waste bursts spells happy advertising heaven.

In other words, I foresee that anybody with some sense would turn around and start negotiating with mobile service providers to assist them with setting up radio stations and moving ad-spend budgets from online to mobile.

The huge sums of money that advertisers are now trying to spend effectively online are set to increase. These are some stats, already outstripped by 2007 figures, of what the UK market spends on online advertising. During 2006, the advertising industry spent £2-billion online, 57,8% on boring search. This is just in the UK alone.

Now everybody is breathing hot air about advertising as the big future on social-networking sites. However, they are not quite sure how to approach this market. Ordinary banner advertising is just not going to excite the Facebook crowd. They have become experts in ignoring online ads. Read more about the problems facing marketers when wanting to crack the social-media nut on iMedia.

All this advertising money needs to find a home somewhere. TV and print are losing viewers and readers. So where to throw that money? Radio and mobile sound good to me.

Of course, for the modern person, radio doesn’t seem to be the answer for the 21st century. It’s all visual media, surely, with video, TV, movies and the world wide web leading the pack of offerings rather than dull radio. One would think.

However, according to an article on Wednesday’s MediaBuyerPlanner, radio reaches 95% of 18- to 49-year-olds with $50k income. This means that in the US the vast majority of adults in the very relevant age band, with college degrees and fair earning capacity, tune into radio over the course of a week.

Besides the listenership of people in developed countries, in Africa — where the internet is mostly but a dial-up nightmare — radio is a marketing tool made in heaven. Why not ignore the bandwidth issue by streaming free radio to cellphones? The mind boggles at the possibilities. And remember, where available, there is no reason not to stream the internet as well. Still doubting this as a way forward? Surely at least for 2008!