AudioNET Newsletter March 8, 2011

Football, Long Weekend, Emails and Holding Pen

Public Holiday Monday 14th March

It's for different reasons in different states but Monday 14th is a public holiday in Victoria, South Australia, ACT and Tasmania.

Business as usual NSW, QLD and WA.

Rugby League Season Kicks off this Weekend

A reminder to all footy tragics who want to join the AudioNET footy tipping comps: rugby league starts Friday - this Friday, 11th March.

If you haven't done so yet, follow this link to join the AudioNET rugby league tipping competition.

For Rugby League tipping go to the Daily Telegraph tipping site
Hit the big green REGISTER button and fill in your details for registration.
At the bottom of the page, it will ask you which league you wish to join.
Select the circle saying you've been invited to join a private league and enter AudioNET's League code: 664617.

AFL is not far away either and there's also an AudioNET AFL comp.
For AFL tipping go to the Herald Sun site.
Hit the big blue Register button and fill in your details for registration.
At the bottom of the page, it will ask you which league you wish to join.
Select the circle saying you've been invited to join a private league and enter AudioNET's League code: 280146

Courtesy of News Limited, each of these tipping competitions has $10,000 for the top tipper of the year as well as weekly prizes.

So you're in with a chance of winning lots of cash, as well as the AudioNET prizes, which of course, are not so flash, but far more prestigious in terms of advertising industry currency!

At the end of the home and away season, the top tipper for each AudioNET League will receive a $500 Red Balloon Day gift voucher.

There will also be a wooden spoon award for each AudioNET League too.

Winners of each round will be glorified on the front page of the AudioNET website.

Happy Tipping and good luck.

Almost Faster than a Speeding Bullet and Definitely Leaves Email for Dead!

 
One of the nice things about having new AudioNET users is they remind us to appreciate things we've taken for granted.

We've had a couple of those reminders lately, that we thought would be useful to share, so you can pass them onto your clients, if you want to.

Firstly, we take for granted how fast AudioNET is.  A relatively new client mentioned to Sandy recently, that she was amazed how quickly she received her AudioNET Delivery Confirmation email.

It's because AudioNET dispatch is automatic. Once uploaded, the AudioNET system automatically alerts both traffic and production in the Radio Networks that the radio commercials are available for downloading and instantly sends the Delivery Confirmation email.

And of course, that means radio stations can get their commercials quickly.

Here are some dispatch times from last Friday, as examples.

The record for the fastest download goes to Matt Fulton at Triple M Brisbane.

He downloaded a spot for Cash Converters 18 seconds after it was uploaded.  Pretty good, considering it was uploaded at Soundbyte Studios in Perth, 4,337 kilometres away.

Here are a few regional examples:  Community station Fresh FM in Adelaide downloaded its Clipsal 500 spots within 3:30 minutes of them being uploaded.

Bay FM in Geelong took only 1:30 minutes to pick up their McDonalds spots.  Wave FM in Wollongong and Power FM in Ballarat only took 3:30 to get their Maccas tracks.

These few examples demonstrate clearly for clients that AudioNET delivers faster than email.  There are several other benefits too.

1.   AudioNET delivers faster than email.
2.   AudioNET is more reliable than email.
3.   AudioNET will show you when the radio stations have actually downloaded the spots.
4.   AudioNET has 24 hour support.

Please keep hammering this into your clients.  We had a stunning example last week of a large agency emailing radio commercials for a major client to major metropolitan radio stations.  Clients think email is cheap.

Yes it is. Cheap and nasty.

New reasons to use the Holding Pen

And here's another great AudioNET benefit - this one from Buzz Pringle at GAS Sydney.

We designed the Holding Pen so studios waiting on late client approval could upload and then leave the studio, because spots in the Holding Pen can be accessed anywhere over the Internet.

Buzz uses the Holding Pen for every radio dispatch he does.

"It's user-friendly and fool-proof. I upload the spots to the Holding Pen and my Producer dispatches!

It's a double-check system that never fails," Buzz says.
 
"The great thing about dispatching from the Holding Pen is that the spots disappear as they're sent.

"So you can double-check the key numbers as you're dispatching and when you're finished the Holding Pen should be empty. No backtracking and no unaccounted key numbers!"

Buy Radio Online

The Macquarie Radio network has launched a new website that provides online information for media buyers.

The Buy Radio website is basic, but user-friendly, very easy to navigate around and, in stark contrast to all other radio networks, backs up its website pronouncements with published advertising rates.

The site groups the programs on 2GB and 2CH into five categories such as news and current affairs, health and well-being and financial information.

The aim is to make it easier for media planners to buy radio. It also fits with the Media Federation of Australia's desire to move towards online trading for all media.

Now that 2GB and 2CH are getting online savvy we expect they'll ban email for radio commercials any day now.

New logo for ARN

ARN has a new logo to represent a new, more contemporary image to clients.

As well as the logo, the Network has begun a progressive research study called 2000 Moments.

This study explored how and why listeners aged 25-54 choose to engage with radio and on-line.

From the findings, ARN has defined eight different attitudes that represent the Moments of radio engagement. It will reveal the research later this month.

That's all for now - enjoy the long weekend and those without a long weekend can enjoy the start of the rugby league season. Except West Australians who don't need either a long weekend or rugby league to enjoy themselves.

Cheers from the AudioNET team.