Robinson Radio News
Robinson Radio and TalkingSocial Team to Launch RadioRants™
Innovative Interactive Listener Service Transforms Existing Call-in Behavior into Gold for Local Radio Stations, National Radio Networks and their Advertisers
NEW YORK, NY (9/15/08) – Turning the widespread success of mobile, web 2.0 and online social networking into a revenue generating bonanza for the radio industry, full-service radio-dedicated advertising agency and direct marketing powerhouse Robinson Radio, Inc. has partnered with the mobile/entertainment/technology company TalkingSocial to launch RadioRants™.
A groundbreaking listener-engagement service that compliments both talk and music formats, RadioRants™ gives people a voice and adds powerful new revenue streams for stations by capturing and monetizing calls from the 94% of listeners who call-in everyday but never get on air.
Robinson Radio will serve as the exclusive licensing representative for the TalkingSocial-developed and owned RadioRants™ service.
An integrated mobile, web and audio advertising platform, RadioRants™ ushers in a new age for listeners, radio stations and radio advertisers. A talk show host or personality invites listeners to call the RadioRants™ hotline where they’re guaranteed to get their opinions heard. Listeners are greeted with a customized station or advertiser message and are then allowed to record their message. Their recorded “radio rant” is instantly uploaded to a digital locker where hosts can listen and decide what to play on-air for promos, content or entirely new segments. The recorded rant is also posted to the RadioRants™ page of the radio station or talk show’s website where the world can listen to it, comment on it and share it—turning every radio station’s site into a radio-driven social networking and user-generated content destination.
Advertising is seamlessly integrated throughout the entire process—offering highly targeted engagement via IVR, text messaging, pre and post-roll audio and banner ads. RadioRants™ affiliates can sell their own advertisers and/or revenue share national ads provided on a “turnkey” basis by RadioRants™ and Robinson Radio.
Buck Robinson, Robinson Radio’s president, considers Robinson Radio to be far more than just another advertising agency. “We see ourselves as revenue and business partners for our radio stations and networks, “ he says. “As such, we are constantly looking for ways to bring new, viable business opportunities to improve our partner stations’ bottom-line. RadioRants™ immediately struck us as exactly the kind of ‘plug-and-play’ opportunity that is ideal for both broadcast and network radio outlets. It gives stations five fantastic benefits:
• generates ‘found money’ without affecting their inventory, rate card, or even touching their core business
• improves the call-in experience by eliminating the frustration of waiting on hold and the disappointment of hanging up without sharing what you called in to say
• extends a station’s brand into mobile, web 2.0 and social media
• provides advertisers with powerful new ways to reach listeners
• generates ongoing traffic to and stickiness on a station’s website
“After developing RadioRants™, we wanted to find the ultimate partner to roll it out to the national radio industry,” said Marian Stier, co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of TalkingSocial. “Robinson Radio understands the power of the service, has a strong background in consumer-direct marketing, and has extensive radio industry contacts. It is the one company that surpasses our criteria and we are excited to join forces with this outstanding radio industry leader as our distribution partner.”
About Robinson Radio
Founded in 2004, the Glen Allen, Virginia-based Robinson Radio ranks as the leading full-service advertising and direct response marketing agency exclusively serving the radio industry. With more than $20 million in annual billings, Robinson Radio is recognized for its pioneering achievements in direct response radio (DRR) and introducing new models of transactional entertainment programming. The agency is well-respected for its ‘accountability advertising’ campaign opportunities for advertisers and radio stations nationwide, as well as prominent national radio programs, syndicators and networks.
About TalkingSocial
A Voice Content Management System™ for Social Media
TalkingSocial is a leader in applied mobile/Web 2.0 technologies for enhanced consumer engagement in the entertainment and advertising industries. The company’s proprietary Voice Content Management System™ (VCMS) powers three white label applications that help businesses generate incremental advertising revenue and build deeper customer engagement: (i) RadioRants™ (ii) Blurts™- A partner-integrated application that allows publishers to enhance their existing user-generated written reviews with spoken reviews, (iii) VoicePortraits™- an audio-scrapbooking™ application that gives publishers the ability to let users capture, save and share the audio memories, oral histories and spoken stories of their lives as easily as they do with pictures, videos, and text.
