Radio One Selects Marketron Mobile to Power Its Mobile Community and Advertising to Drive Audience Engagement and Sales

HAILEY, Idaho, June 22, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Radio One, Inc., the nation's largest radio broadcasting company that primarily serves African-American and urban listeners, today announced that it has chosen Marketron Mobile, a Mediascape Service, as its primary technology solution to power audience engagement and sales efforts across mobile for its more than 50 stations in 15 major markets. Marketron is the leading provider of business software solutions and services for the media industry. In addition to Radio One's partnership with Marketron to power its mobile efforts, Radio One also launched the Radio One Mobile Network today.

Released in September 2010 as part of Marketron's acquisition of mSnap, Marketron Mobile offers media organizations a highly scalable mobile marketing and advertising solution that makes broadcast programming more interactive and engaging for advertisers and listeners. RadioOne will use Marketron Mobile to create programming that encourages audience loyalty and engagement through messaging-based formats such as text-to-win contests, dedications, requests and loyalty programs. With African-Americans more likely than whites to use various mobile features, such as web surfing and playing music or sending and receiving text messages (Pew, 2010), the opportunity for media companies to reach this highly engaged demographic through the mobile channel cannot be denied and is now a reality due to Radio One's partnership with and use of Marketron's mobile technology.

"Radio One is committed to helping advertisers better connect with our African-American and urban listener audience on the devices where they are consuming and engaging radio content," said Dan Shelley, General Manager of Digital for Radio One. "Through the integration of Marketron Mobile, we will be able to increase ratings and offer a channel through which advertisers can penetrate this demographic in an effective way.  Since the launch of our mobile strategy with Marketron in January of this year, we have implemented the Marketron Monetizing Mobile Workshops across seven markets, which have resulted in significant new mobile and spot revenues for our business."

Empowered by Marketron's mobile technology, Radio One also launched today the Radio One Mobile Network. This is the industry's first urban mobile ad network that provides an effective solution for advertisers seeking to connect with African-American and urban segments of the U.S. population via mobile. The vertical mobile ad network provided by Radio One will enable advertisers to reach this powerful demographic across all of Radio One's mobile destinations.  

"Marketron remains fully committed to aligning ourselves to drive revenue for our radio group and media company customers in light of the industry's shift towards digital media content consumption and advertiser/consumer engagement," said Martin Kristiseter, Vice President of Mobile Solutions at Marketron. "Marketron has transferred the risk of getting into mobile away from publishers, eliminating a huge hurdle for radio groups and media companies interested in new growth and revenue opportunities found within the mobile advertising channel."

For more information about Marketron Mobile, please visit here.

About Radio One, Inc.

Radio One, Inc., (www.radio-one.com) is a diversified media company that primarily targets African-American and urban consumers. The Company is one of the nation's largest radio broadcasting companies, currently owning 53 broadcast stations located in 16 urban markets in the United States. As a part of its core broadcasting business, Radio One operates syndicated programming including the Russ Parr Morning Show, the Yolanda Adams Morning Show, the Rickey Smiley Morning Show, CoCo Brother Live, CoCo Brother's "Spirit" program, Bishop T.D. Jakes' "Empowering Moments", the Reverend Al Sharpton Show, and the Warren Ballentine Show. The Company also owns a controlling interest in Reach Media, Inc. (www.blackamericaweb.com), owner of the Tom Joyner Morning Show and other businesses associated with Tom Joyner. Beyond its core radio broadcasting business, Radio One owns Interactive One (www.interactiveone.com), an online platform serving the African-American community through social content, news, information, and entertainment, which operates a number of branded sites, including News One, UrbanDaily, HelloBeautiful, Community Connect Inc. (www.communityconnect.com), an online social networking company, which operates a number of branded websites, including BlackPlanet, MiGente, and Asian Avenue and an interest in TV One, LLC (www.tvoneonline.com), a cable/satellite network programming primarily to African-Americans.

About Marketron

Marketron is the leading provider of business software solutions and services for the media industry. The Marketron Mediascape Platform, Traffic and Suite of Services drive innovation to create new growth opportunities that produce the maximum value for our clients and facilitate their evolution into digital. Relied on by more than 7,000 media organizations, Marketron solutions are the most widely-used media solutions in the world, managing an estimated $15 billion dollars of annual advertising revenue. Marketron is an affiliate of The Wicks Group of Companies, LLC of New York, which specializes in communications, information and media businesses.

Radio One Contact:
Linda J. Vilardo
Chief Administrative Officer
301-429-2646
[email protected]

Marketron Contact:
Brynn Moynihan
Horn Group for Marketron
646-202-9753
[email protected]

SOURCE Marketron