Radio, TV still primary medium of MarCom despite SM revolution – Odutayo
By Felicia Nwosu
Greg Odutayo, the Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer of Royal Roots Nigeria, has stated that radio and television as marketing communication channels still remain effective primary mediums for targeting broad audience demographics, despite ongoing social media revolution. He added that the two mediums are great tools for reaching a dedicated listener base as long as practitioners continue to evolve and reinvent with technological adoption that keeps them in tune with new realities in the Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) industry.
Taking this position during an interactive knowledge sharing session on the topic: “Leveraging Premium Broadcast Content for Brand Success”, with Benji on “Brands AndU” on Classic 97.3 FM, the veteran producer also debunked the cliché that the Internet or social media will lead to the extinction of radio and television in the long run.
“A lot of people say social media or the Internet is going to drive away TV and radio. It is not going to happen. That is why MNet will continue to do a big production like Big Brother, because it is a puller. There are spin-offs that come out of it. In fact, you cannot quantify the value that goes into it. If you look at them in isolation, you will think that it’s a small product, but they are actually massive. Radio goes to places that you cannot imagine. Everybody has a radio, even the phone that is supposed to be the game changer carries a radio,” he said.
The Royal Roots Television (R2TV) and R2 92.9FM’s boss noted that, overtime, there has been a tremendous evolution in the broadcast space, especially with radio that was formerly known as a blind medium, alongside a new approach of delivery by the practitioners. He argued boldly and optimistically that radio and television will continue to deliver effectively, especially in increasing clients’ return on investment with a wider reach of eyeballs and listeners.
“How do radio and television continue to evolve themselves, even with digital? It is that evolution, the ability to twist and turn that will make radio and television to continue to be relevant. You can’t come into the studio wearing whatever you like anymore. Some presenters used to dress anyhow, but you can’t do that anymore. Nowadays people are calling in; you’re interacting on various social media platforms, the same platforms that are supposed to drive radio away. It is also about how we as practitioners are evolving with what is going on all around us. So long as we continue to evolve, so long as we continue to reinvent ourselves, radio and TV are going nowhere,” he said.
According to him, radio remains a force to be reckoned with as it continues to retain its status of giving birth to a million images in a million brains, all at the same time in its value as a tool of communication.
“Today, radio can reach places social media cannot reach. How many of us can really afford to spend as much time as we want on social media? But you can on radio. I warned my broadcasters to be careful how they handle that medium; there must be a synergy between your personal brand and your corporate brand. It has built so much credibility around itself among its users.
“A lot of things happen but there are still people today who will say until the traditional media carries it, they won’t believe it. Those in the traditional space are holding a big responsibility and trust. We need to be careful, social media is faceless because you can’t hold people accountable for stories posted. But when a story has an attribution and source, it is more believable. For me, radio is still the most powerful medium,” he said.
Odutayo commended the efforts of Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON) in its fight for the promotion of local contents while urging for such stringent regulations to sensitize the industry for professionalism.
“There was a time when the Nigeria Broadcasting Commission (NBC) gave a directive that, between 7:00 and 10:00, you can only have locally produced content series on TV and a lot of stations complained. But that was the brightest era for content producers in Nigeria, because, suddenly, that airtime was available for us to fill. This is something that even some producers like us would go abroad to get, and this content sells for sometimes as low as $10 per episode because they’ve been produced years ago, and then we brought it and pushed it on TV without even understanding the cultural values that are in those content.
“If we have that legislation still running today, our industry values would have improved because then, all advertisers did was just go and buy me something between 7:00 and 10:00, no matter what it was that was running, you had local content being pushed. It increased and it improved the quality because everybody had to up their game. But now, it is all comers’ affairs,” he lamented.
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