When Waterfalls Go Up - Part 1
As technology moves at lightning speed, it is increasingly difficult for radio companies (and all businesses) to track and respond to it - much less get ahead of it. When you consider that iPods, Google, YouTube, and MySpace have only been around a few short years, it can be mind-boggling to even think about what we'll all being doing in 2010.
But that's precisely what we're paid to do. Because as radio has learned - the hard way - continuing the same repetitive motions leads to stagnation, and ultimately being usurped by new media, and perceptions that we've become passé.
So how do we keep up with what's next? Well, the auto companies are grappling with the same issues. Finally, cassette decks in dashboards are vanishing. But do consumers want satellite radios, HD radios, GPS systems, or wireless communications systems?
Tom Steenman, VP of Intel's digital enterprise group puts it this way:
That is, in-car technology is something that young consumers "get" and appreciate, so car makers would be smart to load up affordable cars with the latest gadgets and services. "It is evolving rapidly, Steenman said. "The car is becoming the next frontier." Eventually, telematics (as the automotive business calls it) will work its way up to older demos who have more money to spend.
From our Tech Polls and the Arbitron "Bedroom Project" ethnographic study we conducted last year, that logic rings true. If you want to know what you'll be doing a few years from now, talk to a few 14 year-olds. One of our "Bedroom" respondents told us "Email is for old people," and that finding made us stop and think about the differences between adults and teens.
A few years ago, I remember watching my tween-aged daughter IMing seven of her friends simultaneously. At the time, I wondered who in their right mind would do this, and why she wouldn't just pick up our landline phone and call them all. A couple of years later, I found myself IMing my co-workers two doors down the hall. And who needs a landline?
The same might be said for social networking sites, blogs, cell phone texting, and many of the other tech trends that have taken societal hold in the past few years. They start with youth and "waterfall up." Radio has all but lost the teen audience, and technology mixed with corporate denial and arrogance ("Where else are they going to go?) have been the culprits. But it doesn't have to be that way. Teens will tell you what they want - and don't want - and their preferences are "techno-omens" about what's to come.
Tomorrow, we'll look at teens and Tech, along with Jon Coleman's new study about how we're at the techno "tipping point" when it comes to young people and music consumption.
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