Advertisers using innovative digital branding vehicles co-developed with Clear Channel Radio are enjoying significantly increased levels of consumer engagement, the company announced today. In some cases, custom-designed digital experiences are driving consumer engagement with national brands up from the traditional 15 second pre-roll video ad to some three to five minutes of focused interaction per campaign, said the company.
“Our custom digital programs are connecting consumers to brands in entirely new ways,” said Evan Harrison, executive vice president of Clear Channel Radio and president of the company’s digital unit. “We’ve developed an integrated platform that enables us to stay connected with our audiences throughout the day. We now have an unmatched ability to deliver highly customized campaigns that produce meaningful results for major brands.”
*Experiential engagement beyond consumer sampling
An exceptional level of content sharing between MGM and Clear Channel Radio is enabling LG Mobile Phones to engage with consumers on an experiential, aspirational level prior to the release of the studio’s highly anticipated “Fame” film. Through the LG Mobile Phones and MGM partnership, LG created a movie-themed micro site – www.lgfameus.com – that gives movie fans a richer and deeper experience than the usual movie tie-in micro site. Also through the partnership, the “Fame” cast is participating in rich media online ads for LG Mobile Phones – where videos of the cast members singing and providing tips to aspiring young entertainers will be displayed on station Web sites inviting consumers to visit the movie-themed site. In addition to exclusive film features and photos, consumers can submit a video showcasing their rendition of the iconic “Fame” theme song for their chance win the grand prize of $50,000.
Clear Channel Radio’s innovative approach delivers a compelling experience to our target audience, greatly increasing the number of digital touchpoints available to us,” said Christine Batista, SVP of Marketing for National Partnerships at MGM. Ms. Batista has worked with Clear Channel Radio on several campaigns.
An equally innovative incorporation of content was used by Metromint to attract upscale, young female consumers to their mint-flavored beverage. Anchored by a “win a Vespa” contest, the campaign in several West Coast markets included a custom expandable homepage “sliver” ad unit that incorporated actual weather information, video pre-roll, streaming audio with synced banners, and weather-page sponsorships across station Web sites and within iheartradio. The home-page “sliver” carried the “cooling trend” brand invitation along with a rich-media product treatment. Each market also conducted heavy sampling at already planned station events and appearances, fully integrating the brand experience with the stations’ strong listener relationships. And to reinforce the connection for listeners of the station broadcast, Metromint received :15 tags after on-air talent mentioned the station events that also included mention of local retailers.
“This was a multi-faceted and complex campaign,” said Kathryn Lenhart, Media Strategist for Metromint. “Clear Channel Radio’s ability to manage all of the campaign’s experiential touchpoints and showcase our brand within a digital music format that so effectively engages young, hip women was something we couldn’t replicate with any other single media partner,” added Jon Weber, Creative Director for Metromint.
Showing off the power of integrated engagement was the Blue Oval Green Beaches campaign from Ford. Here, beachgoers showing significant interest in Ford Escape Hybrid demonstration vehicles at seven Los Angeles area beaches across a 15-week period were given the opportunity to go to a custom portal to design the truck of their dreams and enter a chance to win it. A series of banner ads ran on the local market-station Web sites; short-length adlets ran on air; and the campaign was promoted by local-market on-air talent. In all, the campaign delivered more than 63 million impressions across physical and digital consumer touchpoints and produced an additional 452 highly qualified opt-ins for local Ford dealers.
*Exceeding expectations
Brands who have aggressively ventured into the custom digital brand engagement space are seeing positive results.
To take advantage of The CW’s early fall launch for its new TV season, the network’s media buying agency OMD opted for an aggressive digital and on-air campaign across the top 10 markets that featured a complete takeover of the iheartradio mobile app and was strongly supported by top on-air talent. The campaign extended across Labor Day weekend and ran until the premiere of the network’s new series, The Vampire Diaries.
The focal point: ownership of the iheartradio mobile ad experience that started three weeks before the premieres. Here, a drop-down ad welcomed mobile users and then transformed into a persistent link that could be revisited. As the premieres got closer, an on-air, weekend-long sponsorship was complemented by a streaming audio schedule running across the company’s radio station Web sites. On-air, top personalities including Ryan Seacrest and Elvis Duran touted “The CW Weekend” along with the station ID at the top of every hour. Completing the integration, on the day of a series premiere, 15-second The CW ads “bookended” every commercial pod.
“As voracious consumers of media, The CW audience is met with a barrage of advertisements each day, so breaking through the clutter to reach our fans is more important than ever. Because of its strong online and mobile presence, iheartradio was the perfect complement to our more traditional media plans,” said Caty Burgess, Director of Media Strategies, The CW. “Being able to integrate live read mentions from the target audience’s favorite on-air personalities and deploying them across multiple platforms was a powerful opportunity, and the resulting campaign raised awareness and produced terrific results.”
The Vampire Diaries was the highest-rated series premiere ever for The CW.
Clear Channel Radio’s digital unit is made up of a massive content portfolio that includes more than 850 broadcast streams; differentiated digital channels focused on niche music genres and personalities; a vast library of on-demand music, news and entertainment content; and traffic data funneled to both in-vehicle navigation systems and mobile phones. The company’s active, unique monthly audience across all of its digital properties is now over 22 million, according to data from Omniture, Inc. More than 3 million unique users have downloaded the iheartradio mobile application for iPhone/iPod Touch and Blackberry.
About Clear Channel Radio
Clear Channel Radio is a leading radio company focused on serving local communities across the U.S. with more than 110 million listeners choosing Clear Channel Radio programming each week. The company’s content can be heard on AM/FM stations, HD digital radio channels, on the Internet, via iPods and cell phones and used via navigation systems from BMW, Volvo, TomTom, Garmin and others. The company’s operations include radio broadcasting, syndication and independent media representation. Clear Channel Radio is a division of Clear Channel Communications, Inc. (OTCBB:CCMO), a leading global media and entertainment company. More information on the company can be found at www.clearchannel.com.
Certain statements in this release could constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Other key risks are described in the Clear Channel Communications’ reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as otherwise stated in this news announcement, Clear Channel Communications does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements because of new information, future events or otherwise.
