Interep’s ‘Power of Urban Radio’ Symposium.

Interep hosted its 7th “Power of Urban Radio” at the Grand Hyatt in New York. The theme of this year’s symposium was “The Emergence of the Urban Market as the New General Market,” focusing on the integral role of African-American consumers in today’s economic and cultural landscape, and marketers’ scurry to secure relationships with Urban consumers.

The symposium featured a mix of speakers, presentations and panel discussions. Wendy Williams, on-air personality for Superadio and WBLS-FM/New York, and Michael Baisden, on-air personality for ABC Radio Networks served as co-hosts. Zemira Jones, Vice President of Operations, Radio One, Barry Mayo, Sr. Vice President, Emmis Communications, and Charles Warfield, President/COO of Inner City Broadcasting were co-chairs of this year’s event.

Sherman Kizart, Sr. Vice President/ Director of Urban Marketing for Interep, opened the event by restating Interep’s commitment to Urban marketing and its quest to increase the share of advertising dollars for its Urban Radio clients.

Dr. Nat Irvin II, founder and president of Future Focus 2020, delivered the thought-provoking keynote address. Dr. Irvin challenged the group’s assumptions on a variety of social and demographic issues, pointing out that there is a “cultural storm” on the horizon in a world where 90% of the U.S. population will be part of minority group by 2050. In light of these changes, Dr. Irvin is very optimistic about the future of both the Urban community and Urban Radio. He encouraged Urban radio stations to work together to share in what he called the “culture of the commons,” urging innovation and stressing the need to anticipate and adapt to change.

A panel moderated by Ed Rutland, Executive Vice President of Matlock Advertising, brought together representatives from six Urban advertising agencies to discuss effective strategies for delivering their clients’ messages to multicultural customers. Sharilyn Franklin, EVP/COO of the Fuse Agency in St. Louis, was an outspoken advocate for radio saying, “Radio is the best way to reach the Urban consumer, even though advertisers are often enamored with television … radio is target marketing’s secret weapon.

Local Urban Radio hits the consumer where they work and play … clients need to change their perspective regarding radio, taking it more seriously and doing a better job of budgeting for the Urban consumer.” Other panelists included Aretta Baldon, Media Supervisor, RET Media (Atlanta); Roy Brannon, Vice President Multicultural Marketing, Camelot Communications (Dallas); Ella Britton, Vice President/Account Management Director of Burrell Communications Group (Chicago); Greg Smith, Group Account Director, Vigilante Advertising (New York); Deborah Gray-Young, Media Director, E. Morris Agency (Chicago). A panel entitled “It Ain’t Your Father’s Customer Base: Building Revenue by Effectively Embracing Multicultural Strategies,” explored how some of the nation’s largest brands recognize and actively pursue the consumer power of African-Americans. The panel’s moderator was Yvette Moyo, president and founder of MOBE and Real Men Cook. Panelists included Trey Hall/Quiznos, Gwen Kelly/ American Family Insurance, Larry Robinson/ St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Carol Sagers/McDonald’s and Clark Sanford, Sanford Marketing Consultants (formerly with GMC). According to Robinson, “Radio is the only way that I have found to effectively tell our story to the African-American market.” Additional advice from Clark Sanford to Urban radio broadcasters was to remain innovative and recognize that competing media, including satellite radio, are coming after a piece of the Urban market.

During a luncheon panel, event co-chairs Zemira Jones/Radio One, Barry Mayo/Emmis Communications and Charles Warfield/Inner City Broadcasting took the hot seats. Moderator Rich Russo, Sr. Vice President/Director of Broadcast Services at JL Media, served as moderator. Russo asked about the level of training that Urban Radio sellers currently receive, to which Jones replied, “Today I would put our salespeople up against any seller in any medium. Our sellers need to be stronger sellers to educate marketers about our format.”

In response to Russo’s assertion that Urban radio stations sometimes negatively sell against each other, Mayo added “Sometimes you (agencies) pit us against each other in such a way that forces us to defend ourselves. That is unfortunate. It can’t just be about driving us down to the lowest price and it shouldn’t be.” Warfield weighed in on the subject, adding “As an industry, we don’t always do a good job of marketing ourselves. We need to sell the value of our medium and not of one station, or one format over another.

That’s when the negative selling comes in. We are here today to learn how to better market the community that we represent.”

For more information at http://www.powerofurbanradio.com