BRX Pro Tip: Why Sponsors Move from Clients to Media Transcript
Stone Payton: [00:00:01] Welcome back to BRX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you. Lee, we’ve had this happen more than a few times. I’m sure it’s happening in other studios across the network. Why is it do you think that sponsors who are initially focused on growing their business and getting more clients have a tendency to get enamored with and, often, take specific steps toward getting in the media business?
Lee Kantor: [00:00:26] I think the bottom line part of it is it’s fun. I mean, it’s fun to do. It’s rewarding. You get a lot of strokes from the guests. They all tell you how smart you are, what a great interviewer you are, and it’s it’s not that big of a leap to go, “You know what, my job, I’m not that thrilled with my job. There’s a lot of my job I don’t like. So, if I could do this all day long interviewing people, and be the smart person, and being told how smart I am, I wonder if I can build a sponsor base, and just do this and make money while I sleep, and do the thing that I love to do?”
Lee Kantor: [00:00:59] So, that, to me, is at the heart of why this happens. but it’s something you have to be aware of and you really have to protect yourself against when you’re kind of nurturing the relationships with your sponsors. You have to keep them focused on building their book of business. You have to make sure that they’re saying, “Hey, is that person going to write your checks?” Because once they start bringing in these thought leaders and these micro celebrities in their space, they start thinking that they’re a micro celebrity, and then it’s a short leap to saying, “You know what, I just want to host this show. And I’m going to get my own sponsors. And then, I’m going to make money and not do what I set out to do initially.”
Stone Payton: [00:01:36] And then, that’s where they seek the compensation and the ROI, which is our built-in ROI that works – it always works, and never doesn’t work – is building relationships with the people in their market that they could and should be serving.
Lee Kantor: [00:01:49] Right. And then, now it moves to, “I got to build an audience, so I can get a sponsor, so I can tell them how many people this is in front of, so they will buy an ad or a sponsorship based on an audience.”
Stone Payton: [00:01:58] And we already know that’s a tough row to hoe. That’s why so much terrestrial radio is on such a rapid decline and very few podcasters, if any, make any real money.
