Public radio in Sweden has been instructed not to encourage listeners to go and find them on Facebook. It’s against the law.

The country’s Review Board has “convicted” the popular radio station P4 for suggesting to listeners that they “like” its morning show on Facebook. The regulator’s concerns centre on promotion of a commercial business (Facebook) by a public utility (Swedish Radio).

Swedish journalist Anders Mildner says this presents a dilemma for the broadcaster because P4 wants to take advantage of the Facebook platform which many of its listeners use.

According to this latest ruling (pdf), the law in Sweden appears to allow public radio stations to acknowledge their presence on Facebook but not actually encourage people to go there. Now there’s an interesting brief for a promo.

It’s not often you hear it said, but compared to Swedish standards, our attitude and practice in the UK  is considerably relaxed.

Radio stations here regularly connect with listeners on third-party sites, largely Facebook and Twitter but also YouTube, Flickr and others, and use that connection to enhance the on-air programming.

The BBC’s set of social media guidelines encourages its broadcasters to engage in open, transparent use of social media while protecting against “undue prominence” on air. For example, it does not permit third party URLs to be read out on the radio but presenters can mention the sites and the activity when it’s directly editorially relevant.

However this isn’t the only possible model and I hear a range of views on the matter from media colleagues. Some find a protective closed wall approach to their content rather appealing. Of course Rupert Murdoch has taken this line with his paywall approach to online newspapers.

At the opposite extreme others suggest media businesses of the future will be able to operate perfectly well solely through social media outlets run by third parties. They may not need websites of their own.

Personally, I prefer the proven ‘middle way’: create an engaging presence in the places your listeners and target listeners are likely to frequent. Then use it to entice them deeper into your content on your own website and radio station.

This model allows tone of voice to be adapted for each social media environment and ensures that any revenues generated around your best content will drop into your pocket and not that of Mr Zuckerburg.

And even in Sweden it would seem to be permitted, so long as nobody tries promoting it on air.

Photo: Sparkly subway map in Stockholm by James Cridland, on Flickr. Used under licence.

Comments

• Wednesday 8 September, 2010, Tweets that mention Where talking about Facebook on air is illegal | Earshot -- Topsy.com writes: [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Matt Deegan and Stephen Martin, Andrew Newman. Andrew Newman said: RT @matt: RT @smartin: quick lunchtime blog post: where talking about Facebook on air is illegal. http://bit.ly/9pnOkj [...]

James Cridland and David Couch in typical showbusiness mood. Picture by Sally Walker.

You’ll learn a lot from this month’s Earshot Creative Review with David Couch and James Cridland. And you’ll hear a lot of radio ads.

Discover how Spotify is allowing advertisers to target audiences by postcode, what is the most important content to have on your radio station web site and what not to do with cameras in the studio. Hear ads from Cuervo, Kwik Fit, Transport for London and the Bentall Centre, plus an educational promo from Absolute Radio.

Play the audio here: Duration 42’17″

Download audio file (ecr_august10.mp3)

Download the mp3 (39.7M).

Subscribe via iTunes.

David Couch is Managing Director of Maple Street Studios and a former creative head at GCap and Global. You’ll hear him enthuse about some superb radio ads and discuss the freedom and new opportunities of product placement.

Radio futurologist James Cridland divulges tip after tip on radio’s multiplatform future. Be sure to take notes – James’s clients spend vast sums of money on his advice. You only have to pay attention.

And, as always, there’s tons of great audio including leading entrants to The Cow Moo Challenge and its ultimate winner. Thank goodness that’s over.

Credits

Thanks to London’s Somerset House for hosting our recording on their wonderful sunny terrace, thanks to radiobeds.co.uk for the music beds and thanks to Pascal Standaert from Belgium for the ident used towards the end of the podcast.

Next Month

Inside Glide – the story of the year’s biggest radio stunt so far direct from the people who pulled it off, and what’s going on at BBC Radio 2 and 6 Music? Christopher Reay shares his perspective from the production desk. Subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss it. There’ll be no cows.

If you’d like to comment on anything in the podcast or if you’d like us to include your audio just drop us a line to earshot@smartin.me

Any views expressed are those of the contributors and not of Maple Street Studios, the BBC or any of our associates, employers or clients. We acknowledge all rights held by the owners, creators and performers of the recorded works which are included solely for the purposes of education and review.

Comments

• Wednesday 1 September, 2010, The Earshot Creative Review - James Cridland writes: [...] Absolute, and am amazed at a rather brilliant ad featuring Brack Obama, you’re welcome to take a listen. (You’ll also find it on your PURE connected radio; just search for ‘Earshot’ in [...]
• Wednesday 1 September, 2010, Jonathan Marks writes: Great show as usual, although may I make a plea to return to the pub or the park for the upcoming editions. Somerset House sounds too distracting on headphones. May be the MP3 acts as a sort of Optimod.
• Friday 3 September, 2010, Stephen Martin writes: A plea to return to the pub, eh? Who am I to refuse?! It was rather hectic at Somerset House at the height of the school holidays. We're back there this month but it's much quieter now. Oh, and the thing that's acting like an Optimod is not the mp3 coding but, er, the Optimod. I'll turn it down a smidge.

A serene photo of Oxford since Glee photographs appear to be under strict copyright.

Mr Glazier, a teacher at my old school liked to embarrass us in front of our classmates. I guess it was character-forming.

One morning I crept in with a note from my Mum, having been off sick for a few days. Taking my seat in the classroom, Mr Glazier turned to the room and called, “Stephen!”. The class fell silent. “It’s clear from this note that your mother is a teacher. She can correctly spell diarrhoea!”.

Mr Glazier would also instruct “you have to know where you’re heading before you set out” which is as true in life as in the chemistry experiments he taught.

And so it is with the best promo campaigns. The real winners start succeeding even before they’re made. They’re not just creatively brilliant but built on a good strategy.

From the outside, Glide FM’s celebrated launch campaign in Oxford seems a good example of a promotion that knew very well where it was going. Its one purpose: make some noise.

Above all, its strategy was about awareness. Not repositioning or hours building or driving trial, just the singleminded pursuit of awareness.

Glide chose August for their launch when fun media stories are at their easiest to place (although what Glide achieved was remarkable) and a tactic that was calculated to be talkable, generating word-of-mouth among the likely target audience. After that everything else followed.

All the successful campaigns I’ve worked on have been driven by a singleminded strategy and the troubled ones often characterised by muddled thinking, too many stakeholders or uncertain objectives.

Here’s something I learned years after Mr Glazier’s lessons: if you ever find yourself producing creative work to a confused brief challenge that brief again and again until it’s truly focused and singleminded. It can mean some difficult conversations but invariably will be good for your creative, your listeners and your client’s results.

Forward promotion

I’m pleased to say that some of the brains behind the Glide FM launch, Ian, Sue and Sophie, will be telling their story in the September edition of the Earshot Creative Review. They might even explain to this somewhat off-target consumer what the Glee phenomenon is all about.

Comments

• Thursday 19 August, 2010, Tweets that mention The power of purpose | Earshot -- Topsy.com writes: [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by JACK fm Oxfordshire , Greg Burke. Greg Burke said: Not that I'm biased but @smartin's blog piece today is one of the best ever written. Don't you think? http://bit.ly/earshotblog [...]

Here’s a visual treat that promotes / celebrates / deepens the impact of a radio programme called Radiolab which is made by WNYC, the arts-influenced public radio station in New York city.

Hear the radio programme here.

The film is attributed to Will Hoffman and Daniel Mercadante at Everynone and has bounced around the internet for the last few days.

You’ll notice it’s not smothered with overt branding. WNYC is the kind of station that appeals to people who like to work things out for themselves.

Isn’t it great that good radio inspires people to be creative. And even better that this creativity has, in turn, introduced new listeners to the radio programme.

We all know that a good way to drive trial of your radio station is make it available in a new place. That’s what Classic FM has done with its current advertising activity across the Culture section of the Telegraph website.

Not just The Telegraph mind, but it’s Culture section. You’re trying to tell me this is a classy station, right? Beyond the upmarket association it gets even better. The call to action on the banner and the elegant right column ad is “listen now”.

A couple of clicks (not sure why it couldn’t be one) and you’re enjoying sweet classical music while browsing through the arts pages of the online newspaper.

When you finally stop reading the Telegraph, Classic FM stays with you because it’s running on a separate pop-up window. It’s a neat execution that’s only missing a “bookmark this” link on the player so you can find it easily again on another occasion.

If we want to make listening to radio while browsing the web a habitual behaviour for a few more people this is a great way to go about it.

And it needn’t be the preserve of national brands like Classic FM.

If you’re running a local station you could offer a similar service to non-profit community groups whose websites are a local resource. Or why not make carriage of your station part of a deal with a local advertiser?

The advertiser adds your station to their website and in return you offer them a few more spots. You could even customise the code so their own ad formed the pre-roll audio.

I’d be interested to see examples of where this is happening already so if you spot any do send them my way.

Comments

• Saturday 7 August, 2010, James Cridland writes: When I was at Virgin Radio, we did this on The Sun's website; and also on a few complementary Virgin-branded sites (notably Virgin Balloon Flights and Virgin Drinks). It's a good way to encourage trial. Classic are doing it well, because they've ensured they have a consistent placement, rather than just using advertising inventory.
• Sunday 8 August, 2010, Terry Purvis writes: A nice idea, but the execution leaves something to be desired. The listen-live only seems to work with Internet Explorer, not Firefox or similar, and even then the IE browser declares errors on the page.
• Sunday 8 August, 2010, Stephen Martin writes: worked for me on Chrome ok. I do hope the forthcoming UK radio player supports and encourages this kind of activity for all stations.