Happy Friday, everyone!
This week we're revisiting one of our very first poll questions. Since it's been a number of years, we thought it was worth discussing again:
Are you a member of the Radio Advertising Bureau?
a. If so, what membership resources or services do you use the most?
b. If not, why not?
c. What could the RAB do to attract more radio stations as members?
Looking forward to reading your answers!
I have been a member of RAB personally forever and have made sure that every radio station or group I have ever been involved with were members. Great resource for sales and the research information they offer is invaluable. If you have ever called them for information you already know they respond quickly and completely.
Guess you might figure out I am a big supporter of RAB
Yes, we absolutely use RAB daily. It offers a wealth of information, sales tools, promotional and copy ideas and much more. Our sales staff uses the Account Manager system daily as our appointment scheduler, reminders, notes and information on each account, claiming of new accounts, etc. Our sales manager has access to each AE's account obviously and should one of us "get run over by a mack truck" as she says, she can go in to RAB Account Manager, look up accounts and see where we left off, what needs to be done by what day, notes we made regarding past and upcoming appointments, etc. And this actually DID happen (not the mack truck part, haha!) but a sales rep had to have emergency surgery and was out for 6 weeks so it was extremely valuable. We'd be lost without RAB!
No. I wish the RAB would lobby for agency business in smaller markets. However, I thought the membership resouces were great.
We are not members, but have been in the past -- great resources. Instant Background and article clips so very helpful at the local level. I would sign up for an individual membership if it was available, but it's not. Too bad.
Our stations use RAB absolutely! I've only been in radio sales for a month (yesterday was my one month anniversary!) so I haven't gotten into it much but we are going through the RAB training courses and they are really great. Especially at this stage of my career, its nice to be building that foundation.
Rebecca you are on the start of a fantastic journey .. pay close attention to the training and follow what you learn .. there is success in those sessions. I am recently retired after 58 years in the business.
We have been a member of the RAB for a number of years. I first became acquainted with the Bureau when I was a newsman. Our station owner sent me to one of their week long workshops because he wanted me to be more aware of the job done by the sales staff. When I moved to the sales side many years later I found the RAB to be very helpful. For me the area I use the most deal with creative ideas, newspaper reports, copy resources, research, etc. I have not been close to many of their more involved programs but that doesn't mean I don't see their value. RAB is a great resource.
a.) No. Our local association of broadcasters.
b.) It's extremely expensive for a very limited return.
c.) Update its image and resources. The RAB proposal template is out of touch, the resources for handling objections are dated and lack relevance to today's marketing landscape, the way industry data is laid out is messy and difficult to understand, many of their studies which promote the ROI of radio haven't been updated for almost 3 years (marketing/media usage shifts every year), the cost especially for small stations is way too high, the copywriting samples are just ok-- far from not sensational. The list goes on. All of these need to be improved upon.
A lot of the justification people put behind RAB is that "everyone else is a member, so we have to be too." That's not good enough for us. Especially when we consider all of the drawbacks I outlined.
In my opinion, this website where real radio advertising professionals having are conversations about what's happening on the streets TODAY is a more valuable resource
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I used to be with a station that was a member of RAB. Qualitative research from Nielson (which at the time was Arbitron) + our company's campaign portfolio + industry research were much more powerful AND impressive to local clients. Every time I put anything from RAB in a proposal, the client rolled their eyes. RAB limits the AE to being "the radio rep" for the client, rather than "their marketing guy" ... the latter gets the bigger piece of the budget.
Thanks for the kind words, Alex!
Absolutely! You know I love RSC!!!
I am a week new to the radio industry. I was wondering please if you would be willing to help me with some information? Is membership to RAB by station or individual? What are the benefits and purpose for such a membership? What are the best ways to utilize said membership? If by individual what are the requirements to join and what are the steps one takes to join?
Thank you kindly,
Kathleen
I love "The Pitch" that comes monthly. Good ideas and can be self-contained. Some of the training is very good. Some not so good. The Why Radio data does not "pop" at all from a graphics stand point. RAB is better today than it was 12 months ago.
Jack what are the improvements they've made over the last 12 months? The Why Radio data last time I looked at it was a few years old. They need to update those surveys every year...
They are having more relevant topics on the webinar. I feel staff responds much more quickly to questions/inquiries. Leadership is better.
Kathleen,
Membership to the Radio Advertising Bureau is offered only to radio stations, to the best of my knowledge. Several years ago, they introduced Personal Memberships for individuals wanting to join RAB, but these were discontinued after a year or two.
You can visit their website and poke around the public areas to get some inkling of what they offer, but as several RSC members have said, RAB's resources can be most helpful to radio sales and management folks.
I'm going to invite RAB's John Potter, who happens to be an RSC member as well, to answer your question more fully from his perspective.
Glad to have you join our community of radio sales professionals, Kathleen - and thanks for your question!
Thanks to all our members for the positive input. For those of you who aren’t as familiar with the RAB, we serve more than 6,000 member Radio stations in the U.S. Our primary objective is to drive revenue growth through advocacy, providing the tools and resources to help the industry attract new sales talent to the medium and enhance industry professionalism through training and support. Membership for Radio stations provides many benefits including access to some of the many products mentioned above. If you’re interested in learning how you can become an RAB member, contact us at 1-800-232-3131 or to see how you could get the most out of your Membership check out the Member Benefits webinar here: http://www.rab.com/public/about/mbw.cfm
Yep, member through the station. We run all our new sales people through the initial training. As a senior sales person, I am in the middle of the second level certification. I also hop in there for ideas or radio facts when putting together sales proposals. And early on I found a few commercial samples to inspire me, but I don't go back for that often because the database isn't updated frequently or the ads are much too well-polished to be anything I could duplicate locally.
Nope.... left after the last good trainer left... Mark Levy. Back in the day... Mike Mahone... Radio Wayne... Dave Gifford... now that is when RAB was worth something. Now they are just an aggregate of information that is readily available in any Google search.
How could RAB attract more members? Remember that you must GIVE before you receive.
about 40,000 pieces of copy that are real ads that can be done at your place. Half are good, half, not so good. www.wikicopy.com and its free
Exactly
