Clear Channel Gets Lost in the Fog

Clear Channel is contemplating selling one-second ads. What could they possibly be thinking?

I couldn't believe this when I saw it in Ad Age today:

"Clear Channel, the country's largest operator of radio stations, is discussing the idea of one-second radio spots with marketers and media buyers. Called “Blinks” the new format is being promoted as something that could be used between music tracks by, say, McDonald's to play part of its “I'm lovin' it” jingle or Intel to play its chime..."

Where have they been? Is this really the same enlightened radio company that announced that they were reducing the number of commercial minutes per hour? (check out this link and read CEO John Hogan's quote in the sidebar.)

This strikes me as the audio equivalent of pop-up ads. Did they sleep through that consumer backlash?

And in the age where the entire industry is talking about learning to live with consumer control, is this the only thing they can think of: to try to sneak in ads that are over before the listener's finger has time to hit the “Seek” button.

Surely there's a better way than to keep pushing ads at consumers who don't want them, using any trick in the book to sneak them by consumers' defenses.

Surely in a medium like radio that has proven it has so many ways to create a two-way relationship with its audience -- call-in shows, on-air personalities' involvement in local events, broadcasts from local shopping malls, fairs, community events -- they can find ways to increase the participation of their audience and monetize that.

I have two recommendations for Clear Channel:

1) go read my post yesterday about Seth Godin's view on the state of marketing

2) come back to this blog on Monday.

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