Over the weekend, I saw a news story about Bus Radio, a Massachusetts start-up that offers to pipe music (and ads) into school buses around the country via a private radio network.
The concept is simple. Schools can sign up for this private radio broadcast to play on school busses featuring programming aimed specifically at teens and tweens. During the piece, parents were featured voicing their concerns over the fact that their little angels will be forced to listen to advertising during their bus ride to and from school. “Who knows what he’ll come home demanding,” one mother responded.
Finally, we’ve found the elusive truly captive audience. Hooray!
Oh, but wait, the little buggers will still have access to the iPods and PSPs tucked inside their backpacks. AWWWW!!! Turns out the audience still won’t be truly “captive,” they’ll just be immobile. Once again, there is no such thing as a “captive audience.” If you fail to craft your content to be compelling and selling; to break through the clutter and reach a specific audience, then expect the ads to fail as well.
But I think this story shows us the innate POWER radio has to move and to motivate. Everyone has experienced the song you can’t stop running through your mind… and that’s what radio offers. Radio literally sneaks in under the radar and can plant seeds you didn’t know were being sown. Think about it.  Have you ever seen a story where parents are complaining about ads in the yearbook or ads in the school newspaper or even ads on the athletic programs? Of course not. Advertising in those media are considered to be “harmless.” However, now that a company has decided to create programming for a tightly targeted audience via one of the best “suggestive” media known to man, and suddenly it’s a subject worthy of news coverage.
The parents have a right to be concerned, but it’s not because their children are being held “captive,” which the story suggests. Instead, those children are being tightly targeted and their parents have reason to fear. Bus Radio is creating a tightly targeted audience will provide truly effective marketing message delivery via the most insidious path to your mind: radio.
Heads up; If you want to reach tweens and teens with your product or service, Bus Radio would be a great choice for your tightly targeted, compelling and selling marketing message.
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