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Black Friday

Have you checked out our new blog? Visit www.jacobsmediablog.com for the new design and features, as well as the latest posts and the full archives. We’re going to be phasing this site out over the next few days, so please be sure to update your links and bookmarks with the new site.

20 years ago today, the face of rock music officially changed.  Metallica’s Metallica (also known as The Black Album) hit the retail shelves.  Jacobs Media consultant and Metallica aficionado, Keith Cunningham, provides some perspective.

While the album debuted at #1 in ten countries, had six U.S. radio hits, went on to sell 22 million copies worldwide, and is reportedly the largest selling album of the SoundScan era, there’s no need to further chronicle the band’s history in this space.  We know radio programmers and frequent readers of the JacoBLOG speak fluent Metallica.

Yes, the band started gaining momentum before The Black Album – thanks to a U.S. tour with Ozzy and an underground scene that was tired of spandex and hair.  But as we look back two decades, what strikes us is not that Metallica helped re-shape the sound of rock, sold out stadiums or made a much harder sound of Rock more acceptable to the mainstream.  Metallica is symbolic of the power of ‘90s Rock.

We can debate ad nauseam about whether it’s Metallica, Nirvana, Pearl Jam or even the Red Hot Chili Peppers that should be considered the Led Zeppelin of the ‘90s.  But we thought on this Black Friday, we’d tip our hats to one of the biggest and best Rock bands of the 20th century.  If not for them and a few of their friends from Seattle and L.A., who knows what Rock radio stations would be playing today and what would be blasting from the earbuds of iPods and smartphones?

This weekend, try not to worry about the stock market or that summer’s almost over.  Just crank up some Metallica and we’ll see you back here Monday morning.  And if you’d like to participate in a debate we’re having internally at Jacobs Media, feel free to comment about the question below.

Which band should be considered the Led Zeppelin of the ‘90s, and why?

• Metallica
• Nirvana
• Pearl Jam
• Red Hot Chili Peppers
• Other _____________
• None of them

A (Happy) Face For Radio

Have you checked out our new blog? Visit www.jacobsmediablog.com for the new design and features, as well as the latest posts and the full archives. We’re going to be phasing this site out over the next few days, so please be sure to update your links and bookmarks with the new site.

Leave it to the RAB in the UK to come up with something a little different that supports radio listening – as a mood lifter.

In a study conducted by Sparkler Research (which sounds pretty happy, too), a sample of 1,000 people affirmed that radio listeners report higher levels of happiness and energy – especially compared to television.   So maybe you've already read this study, nodded at the results, and moved on.  But there is a lot to think about when considering the emotional state of your audience - not just the way they rate songs in music tests. 

If you think about it, TV is a lean-back medium – you’re often sedentary, on the couch, and maybe eating while you watch.  Radio tends to be more lean-forward – you’re active, doing something else while listening and being entertained in the background.  That accompaniment of activity – cleaning out the garage, jogging, doing homework, or driving – probably has a great deal to do with radio complementing something else.  Radio is at its best when it allows you to get on with your life, while enhancing it at the same time. 

As Mark Barber, head of the UK's RAB noted, "People are the happiest and most energetic when listening to radio.  It plays an important emotional role in people's lives."  We frequently don't consider attitude, vibe, and emotion when we conduct research.  And when that's the case, we may be missing the whole point of the consumer experience.

Here's why: I recently conducted a Listener Advisory Group among women for an AC station.  While trying to work around the margins to get respondents to articulate what it was they liked about the station, I probed music - all the eras, new stuff, oldies, dancey music, and softer songs - all the basic food groups.

Then one of the women blurted out, “It's not about those things really.  I like them because they're the happiest station in town.”  And when I asked her to elaborate, she explained that the station’s upbeat, positive attitude rubbed off on her daily activities and routines. It made her feel better, it was uplifting, and it helped get her through her day.

Not every station exudes this vibe, and in fact, PDs would do well to think about strategies and tactics that bring out the upbeat and happy characteristics of their target audiences.  The “5 O’Clock Funnies” and even humorous commercials are often additive to the overall mood setting that radio has the ability to pull off.

We’ve all heard radio that is simply too dark – rock stations that are too heavy or talk stations that are too serious or even angry.  Part of this goes with the territory.  News/talk outlets have to deliver bad news.  Classic Rock stations, in particular, are going to increasingly have more “Clarence Clemons” moments in the next few years. 

But that doesn’t change the need to entertain, to uplift, to energize, and to keep listeners company.  Radio, at its best, reflects the emotions of its audience.  Even in death, there is reason to celebrate good times, great music, and the collective experience of sharing meaningful pop culture moments.

Understanding how consumers use the medium is a key to delivering programming that resonates and that's why this UK study has value.  Radio has the ability to change and impact lives, but it also is charged with helping consumers get through the tough and challenging times. And there is no shortage of those.

So, keep that smile on your audience’s face – and perhaps fulfill radio’s greatest potential.

Always With You, Always “On”

Our lives continue to change right before our eyes.

And that’s why we partnered with Arbitron last year to create “Goin’ Mobile,” an ethnographic study about smartphone usage.  As the population rapidly gravitates to these devices, sociologists and psychologists will continue to grapple with the effects these gadgets have on our lives, and why we do the things we do.

One such activity is what I call ESU – or “Excessive Smartphone Use.”  You see it all the time, and it was recently the topic of a CNN Health web article.

They cited a study in a journal called “Personal and Ubiquitous Computing” that tracked the "checking" habits of smartphone users.  The research showed that respondents checked their phones on average of 34 times a day.  Most of these “checks” lasted under 30 seconds and typically had a 10 minute separation.

Many of the people that we observed in “Goin’ Mobile" checked their phones more often than that.  Andrew (pictured here), an IT professional in Baltimore, gave us a live demo of ESU while scarfing down a sandwich at Quiznos.  His smartphone checks (email, Facebook, Foursquare) were more like every 90 seconds.  He could not put his iPhone down for more than a bite or two.

A neuroscientist at UCSF, Loren Frank, believes the motivation behind this is two-fold:

1. The brain enjoys receiving an email.  It signifies something new.

2. An email is a symbol that you’re important.

I would add these reasons to that list that go beyond receiving email on smartphones:

3. Smartphone owners have a strong desire to be in touch and connected.

4. They are becoming accustomed to being interrupted.  A text, email, or push alert almost always gets their attention no matter what else they're doing.

5. The smartphone is becoming the center of their communication universe.  Everything they value in life – pictures, contacts, Facebook, email, news and entertainment – is now in their pockets, purses, or hands.

This last point is so important because it is a reminder of the value of your brand being accessible and visible on smartphones.

Back just a decade or so, radios were everywhere, and thus, every station was theoretically “there.”  As consumers moved from clock radios to car radios to desktop radios at work to Walkmans or transistor radios, your station always had a solid chance of getting cumed.

In a recent study, Mark Ramsey took a look at consumers and smartphones.  He made some convincing points about the need for radio apps to be more than just a Walkman and for the need for apps to “solve problems” for consumers.  Mark also noted that many stations still don’t have an app, and of the ones that do, promotion and marketing for them is spotty at best.

We see some of the same things from a jacAPPS perspective, but with a few twists.

First, this space is so hot that broadcasters should run, not walk, to develop a mobile strategy and get their brands on iPhones and Android devices.

Second, your individual brand is key.  Just as you would want your station’s logo in an ad or on the back of a T-shirt for a charity event – rather than your parent company’s – the iHeartRadio initiative is good for Clear Channel, but perhaps less good for their individual stations.  Great branding means having your station's app on smartphone desktops right alongside Facebook, Pandora, and Google Maps.

Third, you can easily research the functions and features that your audience values in apps.  This is why you have a database.  Before you simply throw an app in the store, take the time to understand how your audience will use and value it.

Habit played a major role in radio listening over many decades.  Consumers easily fell into daily usage patterns that played to radio’s strengths. Today, that ubiquity and obsessive habitual behavior gravitating to smartphones.  They are the only device we own that is always with us and always “on.”  Radio needs to tap into the ESU that is so much a part of the way that consumers use these gadgets.  As programmers once focused on getting their stations on pushbutton presets in the '60s and '70s, smartphone desktops are the gateways today.

Get there.

Let's Make A Deal

I am beginning to believe that even if the economy rebounds in a significant way this year (and after yesterday's drubbing on Wall Street??), America’s relationship with savings, deals, discounts, and coupons may be set in stone for a generation.

Our Tech Surveys indicate that, in fact, most consumers are worried less about the economy than they were last year or the year before.  And yet, the discount momentum has not slowed.  In fact, it has amped up as looking for deals has become a cool pursuit.

The NCH Resource Center claims that through the first six months of this year, U.S. consumers saved $2 billion dollars using coupons – an increase of more than 5% over the first half of 2010.

This suggests that even as jobs slowly come back and consumers aren’t as stressed as they were just a couple of years ago, coupon redemption volume continues to soar.

As we have consistently argued in this blog, a viable, current, and strategically sound coupon plan for local radio isn’t just a good idea – it’s essential.

But now we are seriously wondering whether the retail business mindset hasn’t been altered as well.  Remember that it is just regular folks who own and manage the companies that dot your local landscape.

While they may have become addicted to the Yellow Pages, the newspaper, and even radio over these many decades, the coupon wave has struck them, too.  The seductiveness of being able to track new and old business, store traffic, and the sales of highlighted merchandise is impacting the way in which they think about their own marketing strategies.

The leap of faith that traditional media have always espoused about the effectiveness of advertising may be a bit shaky in light of the direct results of couponing.  This suggests that radio doesn’t just need coupon programs, but has to come up with ways for small businesses (the ones who supposedly “can’t afford to be on the radio”) to participate.

In short, local radio stations need to solve problems – not just sell spots.  Today, retailers expect a reaction to their stimulus.  With Groupon or Living Social or any of the other deal sites that are popping up in market after market, they can truly measure results.

Once again, the half-full view is that radio has assets that cannot be matched by Groupon.  Station cumes, the use of other support platforms, live reads by influential announcers, and the ability to be on-site are all part of strategic packaging concepts that radio needs to create – not to mention the great, well-known and trusted brands that are in every local market.

Project Small Biz ought to be in the planning process at every radio station in America.  It’s time for general sales managers to do more than head up sales meetings and publish rate cards.  Creative, clever, effective strategies are what’s needed – and they’re needed now.

And by the way, this isn’t just a good idea to play some much-needed defense against coupon sites.  Creative solutions to attracting smaller businesses to radio are the pathway to growing radio’s share of the pie which has been shrinking for several years.

It’s time to get serious about making deals.

Your Core 20

In a business' quest to excel, there’s often a tendency to focus on several segments of the target, from hard core fans to casual users.  But the “80:20 Rule” has always pointed to better results by gearing efforts toward the smaller part of the customer base that produces the greatest return.

A couple of Decembers ago, Arbitron featured Bill Black, a Starbucks marketing pro, who boiled it down well.  Starbucks essentially has two core groups – “Super Regulars” and “Coffee House Enthusiasts.”  While other segments contribute to the whole, it is these two types of customers that drive the majority of their revenue.

Most businesses operate this way, and yet, radio programming debates abound as stations often try to “convert” P2s into P1s while often not super-serving those folks who are already very core to the station in the first place.

A new infographic (and a slice of it is below) does a nice job of illustrating the “80:20 Rule.”  Note that the rule was first developed more than 100 years ago.

In radio, programmers and managers would do well to truly understand and provide a better customer experience (CX) to their “Core 20.”

But where do you find them?  Simple.  Vast numbers of them are in your database.  And while some listeners who gave you their email address did so primarily to win concert tickets and other prizes, most others are “Super P1s” to your station - the "Core 20."  Using targeted web surveys that filter out these VIP listeners is something our company is actively doing for clients.  If you ask the right questions, you can isolate these key listeners, determine their needs, and simply give them what they want.

Like in the case of Starbucks, it often has little to do with freebies, and much more to do with access, communication, special treatment, service, and the ability to participate in discussions about your station brand.

The next time you’re in one of those strategy sessions, and the conversation turns to ways to convert cumers into P1s, think instead about ways in which you can do a better job taking care of the listeners who are already behind you, listening no matter what, and always willing to help you with your marketing.

Your “Core 20” is the secret to continued success.

No Sale 2

In yesterday’s post, we talked about the growing pains that Pandora is enduring as they successfully build audience and platforms, while lagging behind in selling mobile advertising. While they may be growing listeners, they're now measured by Wall Street, and those of us in radio know all about those pressures. 

Generating streaming income is challenging, period, even with the aura of newness and coolness Pandora exudes.  Many in broadcast radio feel that pain, too.  Most radio companies have also been hard-pressed to crank streaming revenue, often just selling dirt cheap spots at best, or using streaming as “value added” at worst.  The good news is that radio has an entire on-air inventory that is part of the advertising menu mainstream.  Rates may go up and down, but the ad world views radio as a viable marketing medium and always has.

For Pandora, making money with their stream is essentially their only revenue source.  It’s their inventory, their bread and butter, the only viable way they can ever make good on their IPO.  And as we have learned in radio since Gary Stevens took the commercial-free route with Doubleday rock stations back in the ‘80s, adding spots to a commercial-free value proposition can be fatal.

In Pandora’s case, while user control and customization are part of their value proposition, so is the lack of commercials.  The more they add, the more they’re going to end up sounding like…us.

So what options do broadcast companies have with their streams?  Well, making money on the stream would be optimal, but in the big picture, it’s more like icing on the revenue cake.

Unlike Pandora, the real money-maker for radio has always been the on-air spotload.  While it has become bloated and abused over the past decade, it is those 10+ commercials radio plays every hour of every day that pays the bills.

So, in its effort to out-Pandora Pandora, why doesn’t radio consider simply taking all its streams commercial-free?

(Did he just suggest jettisoning all the commercials from the main streaming channel for broadcast radio?)

Yup, kill them all, clean up the streams, and offer an online commercial-free radio experience.  Instead of filling up those “holes” with a handful of commercials that make trickles of dollars, why not offer something that Pandora can’t?

A streaming experience that is cleaner and crisper than Pandora's.

Replace those spots (and annoying PSAs, out of context comedy tracks, and lame sound effects) with…another great song.  If you can insert ads, you can insert songs.  And in the process, provide a stream that has your great brand, your strong music, your local personalities – in a clean, uncluttered environment. At the very least, try it for one year. 

And all the while, continue to sell those terrestrial :30s and :60s, as well as your podcasts, web ads, banners, skyscrapers, mobile sponsorships, and NTR events - because you can.  Of course, you could and should sell gateway ads to kick off the streams, as well as ads that live on the player.  But keep the streams devoid of commercials, which sets up a cleaner experience than most of the pure-plays out there who finally have to get serious and make some money.  Radio has lots of assets in its arsenal, some more mature than others, but lots of commercial vehicles from which to generate revenue.

Obey the “Law of Sacrifice,” walk away from those el cheapo streaming spots, and get serious about competing in this space.

In other words, use the strength of your brands, your sales history and relationships, to frankly put the squeeze on pure-plays that try to out-commercial-free and "out cool" broadcast radio. To compete in this new arena, radio needs to re-examine its model and adapt.  Bob Pittman, quoted recently in Fortune, noted that "you can't maintain the status quo. The world will walk away from you if you don't catch up."

Go ahead - tell me I’m crazy.

No Sale

One of the more interesting and potentially compelling stories to come out of the Pandora Files this year has to do with a difficult topic for those folks – sales.

Obviously, there’s incredible consumer interest in Pandora – especially on mobile devices where listening has surpassed usage on computers.  While the radio industry debates whether Pandora is “radio,” the fact is that many consumers from diverse backgrounds enjoy it immensely.

Last week, Edison Research released their version of July audience ratings, based on Pandora's data.  According to Edison's calculations, Pandora has an impressive .5 or .6 AQH rating in NYC, LA, Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Houston, Atlanta, Philly, and D.C. 

There are ratings and then there's audience research, and this chart from our recent Techsurvey 7 is proof positive that core radio listeners are turning to Pandora.  Our surveys are comprised primawrily of station database members, often P1s to radio.  And while perhaps much of this listening may be additive to broadcast radio, time spent is…well, time spent.

Among those who stream, nearly three in ten listen to Pandora weekly.  Note how both men and women are turning to this pure-play option, while usage is especially strong among 18-34 year-olds and smartphone owners.

Buzz, usage, momentum, mobile.  These are all qualities that are synonymous with Pandora.

So what's the problem? 

The missing word is sales.  In a story that broke last week, it turns out that even with all these positive arrows, Pandora is having a heap of trouble selling its mobile inventory from which 60% of its overall listening occurs.

Pandora’s CEO, Joe Kennedy, recently admitted that "The sheer level of aggregate advertiser demand for mobile is limited.”  So while Pandora is ahead of the game in many fronts – ubiquity, access, and mobile usage – the speed bumps associated with streaming sales (especially mobile) along with rising streaming fees (as the audience grows) creates unique challenges for the new IPO.

If you’re in radio and you’re selling your stream, you can clearly relate to Pandora’s problems.  And in tomorrow’s post, we’ll talk how radio might respond strategically to what Pandora is up to. As readers of this blog know very well, we have warned about the Pandora challenge for well more than a year, based on the results and reactions we've measure in our Techsurveys, as well as "Goin' Mobile." 

Get ready for a radical idea.

The Big House

This post will not make the many Spartan fans who work for Jacobs Media and jacAPPS too happy.  But too bad, because those rocket scientists at the University of Michigan have done it again.

When you figure that Michigan Stadium a.k.a. “The Big House” probably sits empty for more than 100 days a year, how do you “repurpose” it to generate additional revenue and continue to build the storied “Go Blue” brand?

Simple – you provide the ultimate fan experience: the chance to get married right on the block M on the 50-yard line.

U-of-M (as it’s known in these parts) has set up the following rate card:

•  A one-hour on-field ceremony  $6,000
•  The stadium press box            $4,000
•  An individual suite                  $2,000
•  The Jack Roth Stadium Club    $9,000
•  The fan experience                 Priceless

Yes, this is great NTR – a chance to utilize facilities that otherwise go unused – but it is also a novel way to create the ultimate fan event.  As Katy Hepner, special events coordinator for Michigan’s Athletic Department, notes, “We know that we have passionate fans who, it would be their dream to have their wedding on the 50.  So we said, ‘Why not use the space some more and at the same time, we can kind of help make the dreams of our fans come true?’”  (And it's a lot cheaper than those "destination weddings" in Cozumel.) 

So, what does this mean to the well-branded, popular radio station?

Ask yourself this: what facilities, assets, and/or people sit unused that would make for that incredible fan experience?

Which of your personnel could contribute to creating “a moment” for your most passionate fans?

Whether it’s sitting in on a show, partying with the staff at a concert, or even attending a music meeting, most radio stations have the opportunity to generate more revenue – as well as incredible memories for true fans, not to mention the buzz that goes with it.

At our Summer School event at Conclave, KISS market consultant Mike Brandvold reminded us of the creation of the very first VIP Platinum Ticket program, which are now common in the concert industry.  They launched this initiative for KISS’ 2003 60-date U.S. tour, and achieved 100% sellout of the $1,000 tickets generating $1.5 million.

Great brands can provide listeners with a backstage, behind-the-velvet ropes experience.  Sometimes it’s just a matter of imagining your station through the eyes of your fans.

That’s why they call it CX – the Customer Experience.

Make A New Plan, Stan

Like many of you, I’m inundated by research, email advisories, push messages from Mashable, and a variety of other studies, lists, trends, and predictions.

The best you can do is read as many as possible, sift through the best of the lot, and then do a lot of synthesis in an effort to learn more and identify bona fide trends.

That’s why two different emails I received within an hour of one another last week caught me off guard – and made me laugh.

The first was an article in Inside Radio titled “Social media now routine part of the buy.”  It quoted Omnicom CEO John Wren who stated that social media has become routine in designing campaigns – that it is simply “becoming just part of the normal process that we go through.”  He described social media elements as “pretty much the norm” for advertising and client promotions.

And then there was the second article in eMarketer Daily – “Executives Fail To Focus On Social Media Marketing Strategy.”  And you can count on the fact that it essentially contradicts the Inside Radio piece.

The story estimates that while 80% of companies with 100 employees or more will use social media marketing in 2011, most don’t believe that crafting a social strategy is a major priority.

In fact, the chart below shows that nearly half of these companies – 47% - contend that social media is “necessary, but not a strategic priority.”  This is true for both small and large companies.

So, a bit of a disconnect, right?

But perhaps the main takeaway is that social media is very much in the mix.  And it’s a real topic in business and agencies.  But as the eMarketer article notes, there is still considerable confusion about social media strategy.

This feels a lot like what’s happening in radio.  I’d bet that at least 80% of stations are involved in one way or another.  But many come up short on strategy.  There’s a lot of confusion, no shortage of “experts,” and new social networks, plug-ins, or components popping up seemingly on a daily basis.

Perhaps this is the year when radio makes a giant leap in the “figuring it out” department.  We’ve hired Lori Lewis to help our clients make sense of it all, devise their strategies, and connect with their audiences.  One of our tools is a basic chart (a piece of which is shown below) that categorizes 13 different channels, pointing out the areas in which they are especiallly effective as well as those where perhaps they come up short.

What is your company’s social media strategy?  What about your station?  And what about you?

Let’s continue to talk about social media in this blog and when we connect with each other at conferences and during market visits. 

The strategy is indeed the thing. 

Big Footprints

The other day, the graph below starting making the rounds through my TweetDeck silos.

It’s pretty impressive, right?

But it didn’t take long for many web critics and pundits to jump all over Google+’s impressive ascension.  And in fact, comparisons to Facebook, in particular, aren’t fair.  Facebook has defined social networking, and it takes time to carve out the cultural/techno phenomenon that this activity has become.

So maybe Google had it easy.  Millions and millions of users to begin with while Facebook did the heavy lifting.

But that simple explanation overlooks the power of a mega brand and the value of taking risks.  Since Facebook has become the 8 million pound gorilla in the social media room, hundreds of other “networks” have popped up.  And while some have had an impressive degree of success (Twitter, Foursquare, etc.), many you’ve never heard of.

That’s why Google’s accomplishment shouldn’t be overlooked.  Its past forays into social media haven’t been especially successful (Buzz, Wave).  So the strong start for Google+ is noteworthy, driven by fun, compelling, and simple features like Circles and Hangouts, which Lori Lewis has pointed out in this blog and on “Merge.”

Success in this space isn’t just due to Google’s heft.  But it sure didn’t hurt.

And that speaks to the power of big brands and vast communities.  It’s one of the reasons why iHeartRadio is in position to become more valuable and functional. iHeartRadio has spent the last few years adding millions of people and cool features, putting it in the position of being a popular, go-to mobile application.  That gives Clear Channel the chance to do big things with Thumbplay, because they have a huge population, massive cume to drive downloads and page views, and a solid degree of consumer trust in their brand.

Pandora has moved into that stratosphere as well.  Earlier in the month, they announced passing the 100 million mark in listening audience – a large footprint that enables this brand to branch out into comedy and try other experiments and projects.  When you’re that big with a mass audience, there’s ample opportunity to grow your brand via extensions.

So what about the small company – the one that isn’t Pandora, Amazon, or Google+ but has to compete in the same space?  Well, that describes most of us – AccuRadio, jacAPPS, Livio, and smaller radio companies like Greater Media or even individual broadcasters like Jerry Lee.

The “long tail” quality that the Internet has defined makes it possible for independent artists, entrepreneurs, and small enterprises to grow and prosper – but if and only if they innovate and take risks.  The opportunity is there, enabled by the real-time web.  Where else can you tweet back and forth with world famous celebrities, innovators, and movers and shakers?  How else can you share ideas with thought leaders like Guy Kawasaki, Jeff Pulver, and Tomi Ahonen as easily as you share photos with your sister or your best friend from college who moved to Iowa?

But the ideas have to be there.  And that’s the challenge we all face, whether we’re at the helm of the biggest company or in the process of trying to get a start-up off the ground.

This is the time to push ourselves, take the plunge, give it a shot, and if necessary, deal with a misfire and move on to something else.  Even companies with small footprints can do amazing things.  In fact, many would argue that smaller, more agile businesses have a bit of an edge in this fluid environment. 

But the one thing that defines failure whether you're part of a big brand or an up-and-comer is doing nothing and standing pat.

It’s almost guaranteed.

I Am Lion, Hear Me Roar

Today, thoughts on Apple's latest major offering from Jacobs Media's Mac-Geek-In-Residence, Ralph Cipolla, and why our laptops and desktops are “Goin’ Mobile.”

Last week, we saw the much-anticipated release of Mac OS X Lion, Apple's latest iteration of the Mac operating system.  Now if you’re not an “Apple Person,” you might wonder what this could possibly mean to you.

When smartphones came out, they mimicked computers in many ways.  The release of Lion accelerates the reverse trend.  Your desktop and laptop are looking more and more like your mobile phone or tablet.

It is statistics like the chart below that tell the story.  Smartphones are overtaking regular computers.  That’s going to have a direct influence on how your computer looks, feels, and operates.  And it’s not a surprise that Apple is leading the way.

With Lion, the mobile experience is moving to our laptops and desktops.  And even if you’re a PC user, you know the influence that Apple has on the world of computers.

Here are three big things about Lion and what it means to you:

1. Up In The Cloud:  Lion isn't available in a box, like Snow Leopard and every Mac and Windows operating system released before this week.  You download it from the online Mac App Store.  Once you make an App purchase, from the $29.99 Lion update to any of the free Mac Apps, it resides in the Apple Cloud.  This is how the iTunes Store will soon operate when it comes to all your songs, videos, TV shows, movies, and App Store mobile apps - all your content stored in one place, available for download and use on all your devices - MacBook, iPhone, iPod, iPad, etc.

2. Lion & iOS: Lion users will note a stark similarity between their late-generation iPhone or iPad when it comes to look, feel, function, and organization of programs.  One of the big functional and aesthetic advances in Apple’s last major mobile OS release was the ability to group apps into folders and organize them across scrolling desktops.  That’s essentially what Lion is all about on desktops and laptops.

3. A is for Apps: In 2010, linguists declared that the word of the year was app.  Apple seems to agree because anything you install in Lion is called an “app.”  Microsoft may still call them programs, but the operative word is now apps.

So here’s where it’s going: the manner in which Apple’s mobile devices operate, navigate, organize, look, and feel is setting the standard for all computing devices whether they fit in your pocket or sit permanently on your desk at home or work.

You download "apps" and content from the iTunes Store, it lives in your account in the Cloud, and it's readily available for use across all your devices.

The world of personal computing is now “Goin’ Mobile.”

As your Lion-powered Mac computer now navigates more like a mobile device, there’s one exception – you can't touch the screen directly with your fingers and manipulate data.

Yet.

Your New Call Letters

Now the speculation about what Randy Michaels will do in Chicago and New York revolves around the call letters that have been selected for the old WKQX and WRXP.

In Chicago, it will apparently be WWWN, and in New York City, WEMP.  So now the guesswork begins.  What do these call letters portend about possible format options for Merlin Media?  Is there anything that we could read into these call letter combinations that would help us interpret what’s coming?  Maybe we should hire a cryptanalyst to crack the code of exactly what these call letters mean.

Or maybe we should be focusing on a different set of call letters.

I’m here to suggest that the four most important letters in radio today are these:

CXUX

No, this isn’t a hip-hop station in Red Deer, Alberta.  It’s the acronym for Customer Experience/User Experience – a concept that is sadly foreign to many in radio.

We’re not alone.  According to B.L. Ochman, president of whatsnextonline.com, only three of the Fortune 50 companies bother to provide a simple phone number so that consumers can speak to a human being when they have a complaint, an issue, or even a compliment. (That would be Dell, Home Depot, and Lowe’s.)

Sure, there are many many customers on Facebook and Twitter, but even providing a simple telephone contact isn’t too much to ask these global companies, is it?   (As Ochman points out, even Verizon and AT&T – phone companies – don’t have phone numbers.)

The importance of CXUX should not be underestimated.  A piece of this infographic below illustrates the value of providing a positive consumer interface.  

The power of a good customer experience – or a bad one – is growing as businesses gain a better understanding of the value of recommendation.  This is a big topic, and it’s only going to gain importance over time.

While radio has done a generally solid job over the years of serving its various audiences – advertisers, listeners, communities – the focus has rarely been on improving that all-important customer experience.

Brands that combine stellar content, local service, and the ways in which the audience can interact with them will have a leg up over the competition.  As the graphic shows, customers will leave or switch.

Think about these seven ways in which your station interfaces with your public.  Here are a few things to consider and some questions to ask yourself and your team:

1. If a listener attempts to contact the program director, are there multiple ways to do so and are they clear to your audience?  And how long will that listener have to wait for a response?
2. What are the “touch points” on the station website?  Like B.L. Ochman’s survey, is there a phone number, email addresses, and other easy conduits so that consumers can get their questions or concerns handled?
3. Is there a firm policy in place for interaction with station personalities?  Are they all up-to-speed with how to use common channels like the station Facebook page, Twitter, email, and text?  Are there guidelines so that every personality understands the strategies and the rules?  Are there response time standards, as well as requirements they engage in converssation with listeners, and not just promote ticket giveaways and upcoming bits?
4. What is the policy for answering a studio or request line?  Are these calls promptly and respectfully answered?
5. Is the receptionist aware of how to refer to each station, current contests and promotions, and positioning?  Is he courteous, helpful, and in-touch with station goals?  When someone visits the station or stops by to claim a prize, does she present the best possible image for the brand(s)?
6. What guidelines are in place at station events?  Are airstaff members, as well as interns and the “street team,” showing the best side of the station?
7. Do clients get prompt answers to their questions – copy issues, schedules, etc.?  Does the station have people and policies in place to ensure that the station’s marketing efforts are responsive?

CXUX should be more than four letters – it should be the mantra that market managers, programmers, and DOS’ disseminate to every person at the station.

How’s that for a new set of calls?

No Brands Allowed

Our resident Google+ fan, Lori Lewis, is back with an update about this new social media channel.  For those of you dabbling, it's a must-read: 

When Google+ launched a few weeks ago, the company’s group product manager, Christian Oestlien, pointed out that they haven’t created Google+ pages for businesses -- just yet:

“For now we are actively discouraging businesses to adopt profiles, but we have heard the feedback and will obviously do what we can down the line to build optimal experiences for all. This is just the beginning of a very long journey towards making Google more social.”

Translation: If we catch you creating a business profile on Google+, we will suspend your account.

It’s been happening sporadically and yesterday AllAccess.com was a high-profile victim.  All Access created its page just 5 days into the launch of Google+, way ahead of most brands.

They began building a new community, something beyond what you experience on Twitter and Facebook with All Access.  Then yesterday, this note:

When you go to the All Access Google+ page right now, you see this:

This is unfortunate for All Access and for many of you and your brands.  I have to give Joel and his group credit for stepping out here with Google+.  But clearly, Google is thinking individuals – not brands.

So here’s a suggestion for all you radio stations itching to get going on Google+: focus on establishing your personalities on this site.  Identify one or more key shows or DJs, and look for ways to create new online appointments and habits with the audience, using features such as “Hangouts” and “Huddle.”

Create unique experiences on Google+.  Don’t regurgitate what you’re already doing on Facebook and Twitter.  Find new opportunities, explore, and take advantage of Google+’s unique features.

But most importantly, hold off on creating station Google+ pages.  The last thing you want is to amass a ton of folks in your “Circles” and not have access to them until Google officially opens this up to brands.

(As of yesterday, you could put your name down to be part of the beta-testing of brands on Google+ but that link is no longer working, which may mean they have already decided on which brands will now be part of the beta process.)

For those who currently have a profile page, if you don’t already know of this tool – you can create a vanity URL for your page here.

For more on Google+, click here.

If you would like an invite to Google+, email me or leave your email in the comments section below with comments and questions.  We all knew that Facebook wouldn’t be the only social network of merit.  Now Google has something interesting going, but for brands, this may be a bit of a speed bump.

We’ll keep an eye on Google+ for you, and update as necessary.  Stay cool and have a great weekend. 

Underwear On Their Heads

True story.

More than a decade ago, our company partnered with a couple of other smart players to launch a web-based advertising company called “Fastblast.”  It was a cool idea that involved geo-targeted ads on websites to drive traffic to radio station sites. 

At the time, we also were pitching a global-based web company that you have all heard of and used.  The idea was to use the power of local morning radio to drive traffic to this site. They were just a startup, attempting to figure out their media and marketing strategy, and our little group was in the mix to help them build awareness and web visits.  The radio component was novel, and there was definite interest.

Several people in this fledgling company were very high on us, but the last hurdle was to get the green light from their New York City-based ad agency.  Our entire team flew to the Big Apple for our meeting. As we sat in one of the most spacious conference rooms I’d ever seen populated by their upper echelon of their executives, we rolled out our plan that heavily involved influential morning shows in key media markets to get the word out about this web-based program.

As we got up a head of steam, a question arose from one of the higher-ups in the agency:

“Morning radio, you say.  Isn’t that just a bunch of DJs running around wearing underwear on their heads?”

The room went silent, and the meeting essentially ended with that comment.  As we scrambled to try to counter that perception with anecdotal and statistical evidence about the value of morning/personality radio, the air was rapidly hissing out of our balloon.  Perceptions run deep, and in this case, they were more than six feet under.  Their impression of morning DJs was akin to the barker at a cheap circus carnival - a low-rate, zany form of entertainment that was clearly thought to be well below the image of their valuable up-and-coming web company. 

And so we think about radio a dozen years later.  Have we come that much farther?  Has morning radio made itself a more viable part of our business, and have our DJs grown up?

I’ve been thinking about that lately with the return of Randy Michaels to major market radio.  There’s talk of “stunting” (one of my least favorite tactics, by the way), there are already C&Ds flying around, and you can’t help but wonder whether some of those dated Jacorian stunts and antics will make their way into the Chicago and New York markets.

They get attention, to be sure, but they also help to solidify some of the sophomoric perceptions that we witnessed in that agency get-together many years ago.  Guys like Letterman in the ‘90s and Jon Stewart today do a great job of shaking it up within the confines of civility and mainstream entertainment.  On the radio, that’s what Ryan Seacrest is all about, along with hundreds of other morning and personality shows.  So the hope here is that Merlin Media is all about doing great radio, while helping to lift radio as an industry into a positive spotlight.

On that note, there was an interesting episode last week that took place in a small market that did just that.  I realize that whenever there’s a natural disaster, like a tornado, hurricane, flood, or fire, local radio is there to hold it together, help the community, and provide true service.

I am not denigrating that coverage because it is often courageous and beyond the call of duty.  But it is also expected.  It’s like commending firefighters for doing their jobs in stressful situations – well deserved, but also mandatory.

That’s why when 97X, a Panama City Beach rock station, offered an hour of airtime to the Westboro Baptist Church in exchange for them not disturbing the funeral of a family that suffered a major tragedy, it was a shining moment for local radio. 

Westboro Baptist Church has become (in)famous for their protests of high-profile and celebrity funerals.  They had planned to picket at the funeral of seven members of the Teutenberg family, killed in a plane crash.  And this “deal” by 97X – an hour on the air in return for allowing the family to grieve - effectively derailed the protest.  This story did not get anywhere near the trade press that Merlin Media has received, but it should have.

Stroke Mastro of 97X (of the Doctor Stroke & ShortBus Show) noted that his station made this bold move “to let the family and friends mourn their loss in this tragic event.”  It should also be pointed out that this station is not owned by any of the CEOs featured in Radio Ink’s “Most Powerful” list – but perhaps these are the types of executives and programmers that Eric Rhoads and crew should be thinking about for 2012.

It should also be noted that 97X is a rock station.  They carry Lex & Terry in the morning, and they play bands like Disturbed, Linkin Park, Nickelback, and Papa Roach.  It is of interest to us that given some of the trades’ recent coverage claiming that the rock format is “dead” following the demise of WRXP and Q101, rock stations like 97X continue to serve their communities and stand out as trailblazers.

The list of highly-successful, involved, attitudinal rock stations that are winning in the diary or PPM is too long to mention here.  The rock format (and its variations) is challenged to be sure, but in market after market, it is among the leaders in key demographics like 18-49 adults and 25-54 adults.  And in Jenny Tsao’s Arbitron presentation at their Client Conference last December, the two best-performing stations in the U.S. in those demos were 98Rock (Entercom/Sacramento) and WDVE (Clear Channel/Pittsburgh).  Yes, a couple of great rock stations. 

So, long live rock, congratulations and thanks to 97X in Panama City Beach, and let’s hope for great formats and entertainment from new ownership as well as veteran companies.  There's a whole world of agencies and buyers out there who need to understand just how powerful and incredible radio can be. 

Summer School 2011

We’re back from the 36th Annual Conclave, and Jacobs Media’s “Summer School” sessions.  For the second straight year, we put together solid “classes” that featured some great learning.  And thanks to the continued revival of Conclave, we presented our curriculum to an enthusiastically large crowd, eager to advance their education. It was a fun morning. 

Lori Lewis (bottom left), our newest digital and social staffer, brought her social media skills to the classroom with a great session that helped attendees better understand the rules of interactivity with the audience.  Bill Jacobs (top left) connected the dots between PPM and diaries, while Ralph Cipolla (top right) schooled us on the art of tease writing, complete with a great re-enactment of an old SNL bit that originally featured Jerry Seinfeld, but was acted out by the “Mighty Conclave Players.”

Our “guest lecturers” were excellent, each bringing great content, experience, and credibility to "Summer School."  Arbitron’s SVP of Digital Media and Analytics, Paul Krasinski, (middle left) took charge and talked about “Total Audience,” a new service that’s designed to track listeners throughout their day, as they move from one platform to another.  As radio becomes more adept at shifting from on-air to online to mobile, Arbitron’s goal is to connect streaming data with PPM listening to help determine “what they’re doing and how they’re engaging with you.”  This was exciting information, and we were thrilled it was the lead story in Inside Radio last Friday.

As many of you know, we have worked with public radio since the late ‘90s, and we always have an eye on how these stations are approaching some of the same challenges that commercial broadcasters face.  To provide that context, Mike Reszler (bottom middle) – Minnesota’s Public Radio’s Managing Online Editor – put together a great presentation that offered strong evidence about the power of digital assets – how they can be programmed, managed, and generate revenue.

To describe the various ways in which the MPR audience accesses their content, Mike presented one of the best “pie charts” I’ve ever seen:

I’ll have a slice of the pecan, please.

Mike also reminded us of the importance of mobile and social, noting that broadcasters need to set goals and get serious about their digital activities.

And our final “guest professor” was marketer Michael Brandvold, the guy behind the online marketing of KISS and other iconic rock and pop performers.  Mike (top middle) has been on the front lines, learning from Gene Simmons, as well as our favorite teachers – success and failure.

The KISS formula is simple – it’s all about the brand.  Mike reminded the classroom about the importance of listening to the fans, and tapping into their passion.  That’s been a big part of KISS’s online success.  He also emphasized the importance of retrenching when mistakes are made, and not being afraid to change minds and strategies.  At one point, KISS got too “family friendly,” drifting too far away from their rock roots.  Acknowledging errors, moving on, and changing directions are all part of mastering the learning curve, and Michael gave us proof positive about why he’s a great marketer.

As has been the case for decades, the Conclave continues to be a standout event, and we’re proud to be a part of it.  We hope that attendees got their money’s worth for their tuition payments.

Thanks again to all who attended, and please give us feedback on our sessions, our agenda, and the overall experience.  "Summer School" can be enjoyable. 

LOMO

Our resident apps maven, Paul Jacobs, takes a look at the mobile phenomenon and a recently released set of numbers that are truly impressive.  Let’s take a ride on the mobile juggernaut.  This post ties in to yesterday's SoMo discussion.

In a recent presentation, the head of digital venture capital leader Kleiner Perkins, John Doerr, summed up the future of digital with three cryptic abbreviations:  So Lo Mo

Doerr was referring where all digital is unstoppably heading:  Social   Local   Mobile.

Now, data has come out that makes us sit up and take notice - the explosive growth of local/mobile ad spending.

According to a recent study released by BIA/Kelsey, mobile ad spending is going to explode from $790 million in 2010 to a projected $4 billion by 2015.  And what is going to fuel this growth?  It will be driven by local businesses who will account for a projected 70% of that total.

The issue isn't that local advertisers aren't spending money.  Not enough of them are spending money on radio.  But they will be spending it, and it’s goin’ mobile.

If you work at a radio station, check in with your traffic department and see how many businesses you have on the air this week.  It’s probably fewer than 100.  Now, how many businesses are there in your market?  Thousands?  Hundreds of thousands?  And how many are using radio? 

Sadly, not enough... And it’s largely due to new digital options like Google AdWords, Groupon, and Living Social.  Too many advertisers are reasoning they don't need a 12-time spot schedule to reach their target effectively.  Their focused on that bright, shiny object known as digital interactive.

Fortunately, radio has the ability to provide consumers and advertisers with great digital options and solutions, driven by trusted, familiar brands that they’ve known for years.  Our mobile division, jacAPPS, has built apps with significant sponsorships, and will soon announce a scalable digital platform for mobile that combines aspects of Groupon and AroundMe, baked into a station's mobile app.

Our company is providing a local display advertising package with our partnership with Verve Wireless.  And of course, CBS and Clear Channel are creating competitors for Pandora, which will have sponsorship potential.  Many radio stations have created “perks” or other discount programs (although those haven't fully gravitated to mobile devices yet).

The bottom line is that radio is moving toward digital, and there’s new momentum and data that suggest that speed and strategy are both of the essence.

Mobile is the ultimate game changer.  While many radio broadcasters have recognized the mobile opportunity by creating mobile applications, there is so much more opportunity to make mobile a bona fide revenue generator.

Stations can create apps for major station events and concerts.  Taking it further, they could create an app that is exclusively devoted to participating bars and restaurants in the area.  Or a local concert/event guide.  Ski reports.  Women's issues, if you're an AC station.

And on and on.

And what is radio's advantage over Groupon and other digital competitors?  Radio has cume that can drive audiences to download these apps, giving them a real jumpstart in the mobile marketplace.  Stations also have the ability to promote them on multiple platforms, including websites, their email database, social media, etc.

Radio truly holds the cards.  So the question is whether it has the vision and “the stones” to aggressively play them?

Success is more than a competitive rank in this month’s Miller-Kaplan.  That’s a game where “winning” is getting smaller and smaller.

Digital can be the difference-maker.   These local mobile revenue projections signal opportunity with a capital “O.”

It’s time to focus on Lo Mo.

SOMO

As we learned up close and personal in “Goin’ Mobile” last year, social media and mobile are dual accelerants – each feeding off the other – and growing in ways that were previously unimaginable.

Facebook’s impact on our lives continues to amaze us, as the numbers rise meteorically, including people that we never dreamed would be involved with social media.  How many times a day do you hear the word Facebook in conversation and in media?  (More than you hear Google.)

And then there’s mobile.  In Techsurvey 7, we saw smartphone acquisition rise 56% from last year’s study.  And we’re nearing that majority tipping point with our rock radio respondents.  Many analysts believe that smartphone sales will grow by more than 50% in 2011 in the U.S.

Social feeds off mobile – and vice-versa.  And to illustrate this symbiotic relationship, a newly released comScore study, “The State of the U.S. Mobile Advertising Industry and What Lies Ahead,” shows that the biggest year to year increase in mobile is its use for social networking.

In March 2010, 40 million U.S. consumers accessed social media with their phones.  One year later, and that number has exploded to 60 million – up 45.7% (circled on the chart below).

So how does this data inform your mobile strategy?  If you have a mobile app – congratulations.  The opportunity to be on the hottest devices ever is a plus for your station and helps to give your listeners a chance to hear you in more places, not to mention a sense of cool.  Give yourself an extra 10 points if you have an individual station app, allowing you to truly showcase your brand right alongside Pandora, Facebook, Google Maps, and the New York Times.

But if your app doesn’t include social media connectivity, the comScore data suggests that you may be missing a golden opportunity to better engage with your rapidly mobile audience.  The chance to go right to your Facebook page or your morning DJ’s Twitter feed while your audience is in the dentist’s waiting room or watching their kid’s ballet recital or in between innings of that baseball game is too big to pass up.

Give your app the once-over and make sure that it’s socially in-sync with the changing tastes and habits of your audience.  Google’s Eric Schmidt pointed out in a speech earlier this year that one of the implications of smartphone ownership is that we’ll never be bored again.  If you carry a smartphone, you know exactly what he’s talking about.  We have never seen a time or boredom killer quite like the smartphone (or tablet).

And given the consumer’s need to be in touch – especially via social media – chronicling even the most mundane aspects of their lives in words, pictures, and videos – social media connectivity via phones is a natural confluence of culture, connectivity, and technology.

We have not witnessed a greater change in overall lifestyle and business communications in our lifetimes.

Decades ago, radio set the pace for live and local entertainment, music discovery, and current events in hometowns everywhere.

Now more than ever, radio needs to keep pace with its listeners who are very much setting the pace themselves.

Tomorrow, we'll get a little LOMO on you as we take a look at he incredible local mobile revenue opporunity and why it will only get better.

They Call Me Dr. KISS

How does your brand stand out in a crowded industry where you’re surrounded by strong competition?

Simple.  You distinguish yourself, your services, and your services from all the others.

Actually, not so simple.  Drug stores, car dealers, and radio stations struggle with this challenge every day.

That’s why when you see something innovative in an industry that’s frankly not known for its style and creativity, you have to smile and give out a few kudos.

Like dentistry, for example.  Can you think of a service that while necessary, is something that most of us avoid, or certainly don’t look forward to?  And among the hundreds or even thousands of dentists in your town, how can you stand out in a meaningful way?

When you combine your passion with your business, you come out a winner.  That’s what Jim McBride a.k.a. Mr. Skin did back in 1999, and today he has a global media brand.

And on a smaller stage in Buffalo, New York, Dr. Eric Schroeder turned his entire dental office into a KISS shrine.  In Dr. Schroeder’s practice, “dentist office music” is actually “Detroit Rock City,” “Shout It Out Loud,” and of course, “Strutter.”

After hours, he and his buddies dress up like the band, and of course, can be found at KISS concerts, conventions, etc.  In the picture below, Dr. Schroeder and his buddies are with Jixster from 97Rock in Buffalo.  Suffice to say, this dentist takes his KISS fandom very seriously.

You might think that this dentist may be narrowing his appeal, but in fact, his KISS-ness has been covered by local news outlets, he’s been featured on 97Rock, and he stands out like no other dentist in Buffalo.

You have to be famous for something.

And in an incredibly crowded marketplace, just another dentist – or another radio station – isn’t buzzworthy enough to make a ripple.  As Seth Godin preached in Purple Cow, being good at what you do doesn’t cut it anymore.  You have to be remarkable.

Dr. Schroeder may be the most purple dentist in America, giving new meaning to the cliché request: “Open wide.”

What’s remarkable about your brand?

How do you stand out in the crowd?

Speaking of KISS, media marketer Michael Brandvold will present his “10 Lessons I Learned From KISS At Their School Of Marketing” at the 36th Conclave Summer Learning Conference on Thursday morning, July 14, as part of Jacobs Media’s “Summer School” curriculum.  This guy was an integral part of KISS for many years, so we're excited to have him on our agenda.  Register here.

Thanks to John Hager and 97Rock for the inspiration for today’s post.

Write To Engage

Did you ever get a cool gift from someone who cared about you – and instead of unwrapping it and putting it to use, you let it sit on a shelf because you were too busy to enjoy it?

I’m hoping that doesn’t happen with the gift that B101’s Jerry Lee has given the radio industry.  While everyone was buzzing about Jerry's pronouncement that streaming is a bad business model, the industry may have missed the bigger headline.

After years of research – and who knows how many thousands of dollars – Jerry has gifted the industry he loves – RADIO – with a toolkit that any station, big or small, can immediately put right to use.  It’s called Write To Engage.

Jerry was one of our featured orators at the “President of Radio” panel, part of our Jacobs Summit in Austin back in 2008.  When we met in our conference room and said our hellos, Jerry immediately started speaking to me about the science of facial coding, and how it is a window into the emotions of consumers.  He told me that it was an amazing technology with which to test commercials. 

I had no idea what he was talking about, but as a researcher, I was intrigued.  Back from the conference, I Googled the topic, and thought about some of the emotional research concepts that my former boss, Frank Magid, worked on back in Marion, Iowa, in the ‘70s.  

Now three years later, Jerry has come forward with the not-surprising news that only one of five radio ads engages the listener.  (Actually, that sounds on the high side.)  Very few copywriters have the time or training to really think about the messages they write.  And when salespeople are creating much of the copy that stations end up producing, we shouldn’t be shocked to learn these spots are simply ineffective.

And consider the result of bad copywriting.  The chances are good that commercials that fail to engage don’t work.  And when the advertiser connects the dots, the odds that they’ll return to your station – or to radio – diminish greatly.

I have worked with so many clients who make statements like “Outdoor doesn’t work,” when in fact, the lack of their impact was due in large part of lousy billboards that didn’t connect with consumers.  That happens to radio, too, at a time when we can least afford to lose any categories to online or other advertising sources.

Gordon Borrell’s new study about automotive advertising, for example, forecasts a 7% overall gain in 2011, but only a 2% increase for radio.  Interactive, in the meantime, is predicted to increase by 11%, so the pressure for radio reps to break through and get noticed will only intensify.

Great creative can help.  And after engaging Dan Hill, the head of Sensory Logic, Jerry believes he has hit on a basic tutorial in how radio can bring its A Game to copywriting.

And because he is a fan of radio, he’s giving it to the industry.  So the ball’s in our court.  Will this program become a mandate for every production director, copywriter, salesperson, and even programmer who has a hand in crafting those commercials that we hear in two, three, or more stopsets an hour?

One can only hope.

You can access Jerry’s 30-minute course at www.writetoengage.com.

Then send him a thank-you note.

Out Of SYNC

The not-so-good news last week out of Detroit was that Ford’s J.D. Power ratings dropped the automaker to 23rd on the list of automotive brands for IQS rankings – Initial Quality Ratings.

For Ford – the American automaker that did not take the bailout money – this was a pail of ice water because in 2010, Ford was sitting pretty at #5.

What drove this precipitous drop?  It had very little to do with the way the car runs – its handling, safety, stability, braking.  It has everything to do with problems with its electronic features, mainly SYNC.  Drivers registered 116 complaints for every 100 vehicles, much of them having to do with issues surrounding MyFord and MyLincoln Touch systems.

I get it, because I’ve experienced similar issues with my 2011 Ford Edge.  (Of course, I lease a vehicle called “The Edge.”) SYNC was seriously the main reason why I chose the Edge, and I’ve had my share of problems with it, ranging from outages to volume control problems to just plain inconsistencies.

According to J.D. Power, SYNC is simply too complicated for many consumers.  Truth be told, my salesperson didn’t understand it very well either.  So that first weekend, I dragged my laptop into the garage, inserted the SYNC DVD, and sat through for 90 minutes watching every chapter.

Clearly, SYNC is cool and amazing, packed with more options than most consumers can imagine.  Look at my desktop in this picture.  Down the left hand side, you can see my array of choices.  But there’s a lot of stuff on this screen – and it’s only a portion of the different views I have available, including services, climate, information, and of course, the phone.

And that’s a big part of the problem.  It’s confusing for someone who just wants to jump in their car and listen to the Classic Rock station in town or connect their smartphone to listen to the audio from a favorite app.

You get the feeling that Ford engineers weren’t thinking CX – the Customer Experience – when they loaded SYNC with just about every feature, option, bell, and whistle imaginable.  And that’s the problem with many consumer electronic innovations – whether it’s SYNC or the remote control that came with your plasma TV.  Too often, engineers trump designers and researchers.

For broadcast radio, systems like Ford SYNC and Toyota Entune need work.  But they’re going to get better, easier, and more intuitive.  Ford is addressing many of the flaws that led to their “bad book.”  And you can bet that consumers are looking for these options when they hit the showrooms.

Techsurvey 7 asked about systems like SYNC, and we found out that nearly one in ten of our core radio sample already has a vehicle like mine.  And their impact on radio listening could be a problem.  We asked these respondents if these high-tech entertainment systems had affected AM/FM listening.  And one-fifth indicated they are spending less time with local broadcast stations.

Radio’s entitlement in cars is rapidly eroding.  As more and more consumers buy and lease vehicles that are loaded with options, and as the automakers pay attention to their complaints and suggestions, you can bet that down the road, the challenge will grow.

Our apps division – jacAPPS – is now involved with research before we build apps, and usability testing after the fact for just this reason.  Our experience with ethnographic research tells us that looking at content and innovation from the view of the end-user is the secret to creating and producing great products.

Ford will figure this out – if they already haven’t started dumbing SYNC down to be congruent with consumer habits and tendencies.

Look at your station’s website, your Facebook page, and your app, and consider it from the consumer’s point of view.

It’s all about CX.

Are You Experienced?

In radio, we often spend a lot of time and a lot of money bribing the audience to listen to our stations.  Sometimes, contests have strategic value – like the “Workforce Payroll” promotion that supports at-work listening.

But for the most part, contests are steroids.  They can move the needle temporarily and perhaps help “buy a month,” but their lasting value to an increasingly fickle audience is debatable.

That’s why Techsurvey 7 was an eye-opener for many of our stakeholder stations.  We asked respondents about what type of relationship they want with stations, and more than a third voted for the strongest relationship possible.  That says a lot.

It suggests to us that brand affinity is important.  And that’s why “liking” a company or a station on Facebook continues to be more common, and shows signs of increasing overall loyalty to businesses...or radio stations.

When we then followed through and asked about the types of things they’d like to be involved in with stations, there were two very interesting findings that support this notion of brand participation that doesn’t involve winning money or concert tickets.

The top response is participating in a station advisory board – to have a say in what the station plays or programs.  And right near the top of the list is taking part in charity and community events the station sponsors.

This is encouraging, and our list also contained some experiential opportunities for fans – sitting in one of the shows was a solid winner, too.  And this tells us that core listeners are looking for experiences with your station.

For too long, radio has over-relied on cash, tickets, and other swag to keep listeners interested.  But for true fans, the ability to be able to have “moments” with the station and the airstaff is priceless.  If you take the time to set up and conduct Listener Advisosry Board groups with your core fans - the "20" in the 80:20 Rule - you'll hear them for yourself.  These are the indelible memories that elevate your station above and beyond the faceless pure-play streaming companies or nationally syndicated satelite radio channels that can't possibly connect with someone on Main Street USA. 

And oftentimes, these experiences aren't expensive, and they're often free. But they’re the types of experience that are so truly viral that people will talk about them, tell their friends, and “buzz” on social media sites.

I was reminded of this a few days ago when I received an email from an Obama campaign coordinator.  It offered me an experience – dinner with the President.  For a minimum $5 donation, here’s something interesting that is a brand builder for any fan of Barack Obama.

Here’s a piece of the copy from the brief email:

It’s clever, unique, and buzzworthy.  And that’s the point.

What’s viral about your brand?  What experiences could you offer your true fans that would be unforgettable, viral, and unique to your station?

As you walk down the hallways of your radio station, breezing past the plaques and gold and platinum albums, stop for a moment and think like a listener.  Remember their visits to your station and how it is often equivalent to walking through a cool pop culture museum. 

If you think like a listener – and consider the Consumer Experience – you might just get away from 10th caller contests and start offering the audience an experience they would truly value – and remember for the rest of their lives.

Stern’s Weiner: A Lesson in Treatment

Our resident personality coach and morning radio fan, Keith Cunningham, just about got Weinered-out last week.  Here are some thoughts about how any show can use smart treatment strategies to be just like Howard.

While he may be further out of the media limelight these days, Howard Stern still knows how to stir it up and make lots of noise.

You may have heard a Stern crew member, Benjy Bronk, invaded Anthony Weiner’s press conferences and asked obnoxious questions.  Of course, it made national news and turned into a story of its own.

While disrupting press conferences and generating controveries aren’t new tactics for Stern, there is a lesson here that applies for all shows – and it’s a lesson in treatment.

Everyone covers the big stories, so it’s about how shows talk about them and where they take it that makes the difference.  Is your show’s treatment unique and does it crack through the competitive noise?

Let’s look at two recent stories that were on the tips-of-the-tongues for shows nationwide.

Anthony Weiner:  Most brands sounded similar while rattling off their versions of Weiner headlines, double entendres (too easy), and jokes, or asking questions like – Is sexting cheating? or Should his wife stay with him?

That’s treatment that probably covered the story, but it was also predictable and disposable – it’s what everyone from morning radio to cable news was doing.

Now let’s shift gears to American Idol.  When it comes to treatment of that show, it’s a lot of the same old same old, season after season, playing clips from the previous night, agreeing/disagreeing with and mocking the judges, offering predictions of who will win.

Great entertainers share a goal of wanting the audience to share what they heard with their friends.  You know the drill – viral marketing – you tell two friends, they tell two friends, and so on.

Treatment can play a big role here and be a real difference maker.

The best, most compelling treatment and personalities eventually find their way to the top.  Here’s a three-step progress for fine-tuning treatment on your show:

1. Take whatever story or topic a show is considering, and brainstorm 5-10 different treatment concepts.
2. The first few ideas are likely the most predictable and probably should be rejected – or expanded upon or used as launching pads to something bigger and better.  Most of the time, the earliest concepts are the tried-and-true – things the show typically does (a parody song, let’s open up the phones, etc.).
3. When they dig for ideas 5, 6, and beyond, that’s when they’re really using their brains and getting creative.  That’s when the best treatment options will surface.  The American Idol Drinking Game and/or invading Weiner’s press conference may not be the first ideas to pop up.  They’re often further down the brainstorming curve when the sharper creativity starts to kick in.

While it’s easy to use Howard Stern as an example because he has a team of talented pros, many resources, and the ability to wing it and still be hilarious, that’s neither an excuse nor the point of this post.

The Stern show plays clips from Idol like everyone else and they very likely told Weiner jokes and asked many of the same moral questions other shows did.

But they don’t stop with the predictable, they build from there … just ask Anthony Weiner.  And BTW – remember when Stern got a ton of press for trying to KILL American Idol by asking everyone to vote for Sanjaya?  That’s great treatment, too, and the kind of down-the-list treatment that often breaks through.

Try it for yourself.

Risky Business

OK, it started with this screaming headline in Radio Ink. (You have to hand it to Eric Rhoads – he loves a good controversy and enjoys using his publication as a forum.)

JERRY LEE: “STREAMING YOUR STATION IS A BAD BUSINESS MODEL”

And from there, a digital can of worms opened, eliciting comments – often emotional – from many different sides of the question.

We have the utmost respect for Jerry.  He is one of the most enigmatic broadcasters of all time, having accomplished so much in Philadelphia that he has indelibly impacted the entire industry.  Jerry is not just a thought-leader – he’s a bona fide icon and philanthropist who puts his resources and efforts behind causes and business ventures he believes in.  That’s one of the reasons we selected him to participate in our memorable “President of Radio” session at our Summit back in 2008 in Austin.

Some of the comments that appeared in Radio Ink in response to Jerry’s statement even suggest that supporters of streaming are somehow anti-broadcast radio.  Or that focusing on streaming takes our eye off revenue generation for the main product.

Perhaps we can lend some clarity to the conversation.

First, CX – or the Consumer Experience – something that we have written about extensively in this blog.  Simply put, broadcasters (or book sellers or travel agencies or phone companies) have got to acknowledge what the customer wants or else face the truth that she will simply go elsewhere.

Today, the options are many and they are easily accessible.  If a fan of B101 or any other radio station wants to listen on their iPhone or office computer or laptop while sitting in a Starbucks, the station’s audio better be available on a quality stream.  Otherwise, she’s gone.

And as we well know, buying a standard AM/FM radio is simply not as easy or attractive as it was back in the ‘70s.  Many consumers don’t even have a working radio at home, aren’t allowed to have one in the workplace, or simply find it convenient to stream on the aforementioned devices.  To deny the changing ways and new channels in which the audience entertains themselves is folly.  To not provide great radio content on these devices is to simply walk away from listening – and revenue opportunities - and hand over your audience to another source.

Radio’s “problem” with digital isn’t an argument about technology.  It’s a debate about whether the consumer matters.  Too often, broadcasters see the world through their narrow “What’s in it for us?” lens.  If we cannot monetize it, cannot market it, or cannot somehow fit it into the budget, it simply isn’t viable.  Listeners don’t see it that way.  Their propensity to multi-task, their shortening attention spans, and their expanding options all work against an industry that is in denial or simply turns its back on them.

Second, investment in infrastructure and platforms is the key – and in that regard, radio has an advantage over Pandora, Slacker, and the other pure-play Internet broadcasters.  Our brands, our personalities, our local market reputation and know-how can come together to leverage viable digital strategies and multi-platform successes.  Instead of looking at new technology as an albatross, broadcasters need to start viewing it an opportunity. 

If you think back to what radio’s pioneers must have been thinking back in the 1930’s and 1940’s, consider that the U.S. economy was in far worse shape than it is today.  And yet, those entrepreneurs bought land, erected expensive towers, built buildings, and hired staffs – all on a bet that radio would one day be ubiquitous in homes, cars, and workplaces. And that the revenue would follow.  At that time, Americans entertained and informed themselves mostly through print media – magazines and newspapers – and at movie theaters.  Radio was not a sure thing, and you can bet that naysayers were in abundance.

Tim Westergen is all about building infrastructure and amassing fans.  His bet is that if Pandora is available in enough locations, channels, devices, and avenues, ubiquious access to his product will eventually turn into dollars.  We can debate this logic as many have, especially since the IPO launched.  But to sit around and spend time haggling over Pandora’s financial viability misses the point of Westergren’s goal and his brand’s impact on traditional radio stations – to offer his content to consumers wherever and whenever they want it. And Pandora fans aren't concerned with profitability.  They simply want entertaining content wherever and whenever they can get it.

That’s CX – and whether or not it’s a money maker for Pandora and its investors – what is the logic of this argument when it comes to radio?  Why wouldn’t broadcasters want to study consumer behavior, gadget acquisition, and media usage, and then be sure their content is available to their audiences in modern, cool locations?  Don’t digital and its new channels present an incredible, exciting opportunity to modernize radio, providing currency through accessibility via new gadgets and technologies?

Third, these arguments are all about monetization, and it is frankly still too early on the digital revenue curve to know precisely where it’s all going to end up.  While Eric Rhoads was writing his headline about Jerry Lee, these other stories were all over the trades last week:

Clear Channel angers a media buyer because they reduce the available inventory in their streams

iBiquity puts up money to encourage radio salespeople to generate revenue from HD Radio

Pandora's IPO puts their value at close to $3 billion, but the CEO can't answer questions on CNBC about if or when they will be profitable

What does this tell us about the challenges and opportunities that are in front of us today in radio – and the ones that the industry will be facing in the not-so-distant future?  Yes, it's the money.  And no, we don't know right now today exactly how this is all going to shake out.

This argument isn’t about “To stream or not to stream.”  It’s about the difficulty of facing change and about the eventual challenges to aggregate audience, and to generate profits from these efforts.  In the early days, few new businesses are profitable in their embryonic stages – Amazon, Google, Facebook, and now Pandora are all modern examples.  All of these brands have done what radio’s pioneers did eight decades ago – focused on consumers, recognized opportunity, took a risk, built infrastructure and access, created content and functionality, and then developed a business model that made the venture successful.

Finally, there’s the matter of focus.  Radio, its employees, and its trades publications enjoy a good conversation, a good debate, and lots of back-and-forth.  And that’s what makes our business interesting.

But too often these days, we find ourselves arguing over questions that do exactly what Jerry Lee warned against in the Radio Ink piece – losing our ability to stay zeroed in on what’s important because we’re debating tertiary and often irrelevant issues that miss the point of where consumer tastes are heading.

When we spend time debating whether Pandora is radio or whether streaming is a good business model, our competitors take the opportunity to keep furthering their missions to dominate the world of new media.

On their big IPO day, Pandora executives spent the better part of a day reiterating their goal to redefine radio. That's what they're focused on.

Radio broadcasters would do well to beat Pandora and other challengers to the punch, and modernize their medium proactively.  In the early years, Kodak could have developed digital cameras.  Barnes & Noble could have launched an eCommerce site to sell its books while Border’s might have created an eReader of their own to match or improve upon Amazon’s Kindle.  But that would have required a recognition and acceptance of the Consumer Experience.  It would have also meant not being in denial about societal and technological change.

Radio could lead the way toward a multi-platform “anywhere anytime” model leveraged on its great personalities, familiar brands, and local roots – if it stops debating meaningless issues and focuses its strengths and assets on providing its great content to its audience, whenever and wherever they like it.  CBS Radio's annoucement yesterday about Radio.com, Last.fm, and MP3.com suggest that this thinking is most definitelly in-play in corporate radio headquarters.  It is in keeping with the spirit of radio's early swashbucklers. 

If we build it, the audience – and the revenue – will surely come.

The Fall Of RIM

Imagine the frustration and humiliation of being a market leader in an industry that is exploding – only to lose your dominance and even your respect.

Ask Rupert Murdoch how he feels about the demise of MySpace at a time when social media has become a dominant part of the culture.

And now Research in Motion finds itself in the same boat in the mobile space.  It wasn’t that long ago that seemingly every business person – including most CEOs – relied on their BlackBerrys, swore by them, and became totally addicted to them.  The term “CrackBerry” symbolized the hypnotic pull of smartphones, and Research In Motion ruled the roost.

Until the iPhone came along.

And we now know the rest of the story.  In the first quarter of this year, Apple sold more than 18 million iPhones in a marketplace where many analysts estimate a 50%+ increase this year.  In fact, research firm IDC pegs smartphone sales growth at 55%.

In the meantime, BlackBerry sales continue to lag, sparking layoffs, streamlining, and all those other words that you don’t want to hear from a company that was once the big dog.  RIM profits fell nearly 10% in that same quarter due to disappointing sales.

It gets worse.  The investment community is finally onto RIM's problems.  Its sixth largest investor, Jarislowsky Fraser Limited, announced it was paring back its stake by 50% or more.  As Stephen Jarislowsky told Bloomberg, " We are on the way out."

Who knew?

We knew – and those of you who participated in Techsurvey 7 (and their earlier editions) saw this coming, too.

In this fluid, crazy, fast-moving world of technology that is sparking a sea change in the basic ways in which people communicate with each other, it is our jobs – yours and mine – to try to know what’s coming.

As it relates to smartphones and apps, our design team at jacAPPS needs to know where it’s going before it gets there.  And as media professionals assigned with developing our brands' tech strategies, you need to be sure you’re attuned with your consumers,and understand what platforms and brands matter to them.  Otherwise, you can make very costly mistakes at a time when every dollar counts.

In the smartphone market, it’s about passion, utility, and loyalty.  (If that sounds like radio, you’re thinking along the same lines.)  We saw hard evidence in this year’s study that Apple (and Android) have all three assets, whereas BlackBerry lacks them all.

Consider that on average, consumers replace their cell phones about every 18 months – and most of us have a pretty good idea of what’s coming next.  For Apple, customer loyalty is at the top of the heap; for BlackBerry, its current customers are headed to Apple and Android, as you can see on the chart below:

More than 80% of iPhone owners are staying with that brand next time – for RIM, it’s a grim story.

But as mentioned, your smartphone isn’t just a device that does a lot of stuff.  We’ve learned in research from “Goin’ Mobile” to our Tech Surveys that your phone is a reflection of who you are.  Smartphones make a statement about their owners, and some – like Apple – evoke passion with a capital “P.”  BlackBerry owners, as the chart below clearly shows, are much more lukewarm with their praise.

All that blue for iPhone translates to “love.”  And that’s a big driver in this marketplace.

But RIM’s ultimate downfall is in the world of apps.  Somehow, while BlackBerry owners were busy firing off emails and texts, the Apple team conceived the “App Store.”  And the different experience between platforms today suggests that RIM’s inability to comprehend the importance of apps is a big reason why they find themselves on the mat.

From Techsurvey 7, the number of apps that smartphone owners download differs greatly by device.  Apple owners – iPads, iPhones, and iPod Touch devices – are more likely to have more than 40 apps.  Compare that to BlackBerry customers, about half of whom have fewer than 10 apps.

Somehow a major player like RIM missed the app phenomenon, assuming it somehow wasn’t of importance to consumers.  But you don’t have to be in the dark because basic research among your own database members – the same ones you send “eBlasts” to every week - can open the doors of your understanding, and provide guidance for your fiscal and strategic decision making.

As they used to say on The X-Files, “The truth is out there.”

You just have to ask the right questions.

New Cume

Every day we are barraged by articles, blogs, and research about media and technology.  It’s easy to miss something important amidst all the new gadget releases and pundit observations.

That was the case with a recent MediaPost email I received.  Buried at the bottom was this headline: “Smartphone sales up 80%.”

The piece itself was just a few short sentences, summarizing that first quarter sales of smartphones were spiked by the rush of new models.  Overall, nearly 100 million units were sold in Q1, almost doubling the same quarter last year.

We also know that in that same quarter, Apple sold 18 million iPhones, which accounted for about one-fifth of these sales.

Holy crap!  What goes up 80% these days?  Not even gas prices.  But that speaks to the ongoing meteoric growth that is occurring in the smartphone sector.

So what does this mean to those of us who are developing mobile strategies, and for those of you who have built and developed apps for your station or company?

First, think of these new smartphone owners as new cumers moving into your market. Radio programmers know the challenge of building new listeners, but in the case of smartphones, thousands of these consumers are showing up in your metro every month.

Second, they are excited about their new purchases and, in most cases, they can’t wait to “test drive” them, download apps, and find out what their friends and family members have been talking about.

Third, they are new to these devices, and may not have previously dealt with the app store experience.  They may not totally “get” what an app is and what it does.

Fourth, they have probably forgotten that YOU have an app.  That’s because you probably promoted it when the app first went live, but now you’ve likely replaced those promos with your 9-to-5 contest, your music festival, or your “Rock Girls” promotion.

Our jacAPPS division has now designed and built more than 425 apps generating upwards of 9 million downloads in less than three years.  We track app downloads every month, and we can see the close relationship between stations that regularly market their apps on their air versus those who have moved on to talk about the morning show’s charity jello jump.

Stations that have a strategy for app promotion and marketing, connect the dots for listeners, and embrace the mobile technology have steadily rising app download metrics, which will in fact translate to better revenue generation as well as stronger engagement with listeners – most of whom appreciate that the station “gets it” by launching a mobile application.

But stations need to provide the basic A-B-C's of how to use and when to use apps.  It's the same for streaming.  Just because your audio is available via a stream doesn't mean that your audience has gotten the message about all the new locations and situations in which they can now access your content.  So often, programmers take it for granted that listeners simply inherently know what to do. There is benefit in providing simple, helpful explanations. 

One thing that we have learned as app developers is that not every brand has a radio station connected to it. When you think about it, radio truly has an advantage when it comes to getting the word out.  At jacAPPS, we are also building applications for non-media brands – companies and entities that do not have a built-in megaphone.  Not surprisingly, these businesses often struggle to get the word out about their apps, having only word of mouth and email marketing as promotion vehicles.  When it comes to self-marketing, radio has it pretty good - if it uses its genetic assets strategically.

Radio’s powerful cume, brand equity, and trust via personalities and shows make the medium the perfect candidate to not just participate in the mobile experience but to thrive within it.

Use it.

The MIG?

As you may have read yesterday on AllAccess, an A&E produced show, in partnership with Popular Mechanics, rated all of the most important, innovative, and incredible devices in history.

On “101 Gadgets of All Time,” the #1 most important device is the smartphone.

And sitting at a solid #2 (above TV, the hypodermic syringe, and the light bulb) is good old RADIO.

The smartphone and radio.

OK, everyone at Jacobs Media and jacAPPS, let’s take the rest of the day off.  Maybe we’re in the right business after all.

See you Monday morning.

On B-A-L-A-N-C-E

We know that consumers behave differently today. They carry their phones with them everywhere they go. They ask if “there’s an app for that?” They say whatever they want when they comment on blogs. They meet in social networks, they create and share content, and they spread their voices.

Ultimately, they can redefine our brands if we don’t take the time to understand the interaction and cultivate relationships by relating to their needs.

For the past seven Fridays, the B-A-L-A-N-C-E series was intended to demystify how to grow the skills that are required today and learn how to merge them with radio’s traditional strengths.

B-A-L-A-N-C-E is:

Being aware of how dialogue contributes to the brand, the product experience.

Adapting to consumer behaviors & cultural trends.

Leveraging trust & know your objectives with every single communication.

Analyzing issues, patterns and trends on our digital and social properties as well as our competitor's.

Noticing what it takes to build loyal, motivated relationships.

Creating a metrics system for time and resource efficiencies.

Establishing and then maintaining credibility in the community.

We are communicating with a fragmented audience. Beyond email – which remains the number one source for sharing and informing – consumers now have Facebook, apps, texting, Twitter (slightly) and other avenues from which to communicate.

We should be using these channels to reach consumers, build social communities, cultivate relationships, tell stories and create dialogue around our brands.

We have a new league of consumers and a new kind of distribution that requires strategic thinking. It’s not about barging in – it’s about gaining permission through trust to deliver conversations around your brand.

Failing to equally analyze the risk of our behaviors as much as we seek the rewards is almost a guaranteed mess. People are becoming more popular within their own social media circles and networks. If behavior from brands doesn’t look and feel like a personalized message, they’ll dismiss you and move on.

Notice what it takes to build loyal, motivated relationships.

It’s our quest to bring clarity to the development of a comprehensive digital and social presence, so you’ll hear us Jacobs folks talk about having a metrics/monitoring system in place. You’ll also hear us talk about the importance of building your community before you need it (or it needs you).

Yet of everything you hear us discuss, the most striking element of social and digital technology today brings truth to an old biblical saying, “What’s done in the dark shall come to light.”

How many times do we have to keep witnessing character unbecoming of any brand? Whether it’s a Congressman tweeting inappropriate pictures or it’s a radio station neglecting interaction with the people who chose to talk with them on all these different platforms. Understand that your behavior on these channels is always on display and it is being judged.

I hope to see you at The Conclave this year. We’ll be there live to run down the B-A-L-A-N-C-E series with actionable takeaways on how to merge the traditional skills that have worked so far in radio with what’s needed today. It's all part of Jacobs Media's "Summer School" program and we hope to see you there. 

In the meantime, keep your B-A-L-A-N-C-E.

Special thanks to The Joy of Tech. 

Learning To Fly 2

Yesterday’s post showcased Southwest Airlines, a company that has truly stood apart from the field – by design – during its historic 40 years in the business. Today, we’ll take a look at Spirit.

In a tough industry, it’s hard to stand out. But Spirit has done just that – trying very hard to, at times, out-Southwest Southwest.

One of their avenues is advertising and marketing. And last week, at the height of the Anthony Weiner revelations – I received this email from Spirit that many of you undoubtedly saw in various news sources.

So, a good move or a crazy move? On the day this email made the rounds, Twitter exploded, and here’s a sample of tweets that responded to this fare sale:

OK, but that’s Twitter. Is this brilliant marketing that generates buzz, or is it brand suicide? For a little point-counterpoint, here’re Jacobs Media’s Tim Davis and Lori Lewis arguing both sides of the issue.

So, there you have it.  Where do you weigh in?  Where’s the tipping point where shock's effectiveness in generating buzz creates collateral damage to the brand?

Please comment below.

Learning To Fly

I’m a Delta guy, largely because they’re hubbed in Detroit.  Like with Northwest before them, I’m your typical Platinum frequent flyer who is virtually oblivious to cabin announcements, seat belt instructions, and all the other formalities of air travel.  Like George Clooney in Up In The Air, except for the physical looks and hot girls part.

But recently, I found myself on a Southwest flight, and while I dislike the lining-up-for-an-open-seat policy, I was actually quite surprised – happily – by the experience.

Before we took off, our captain stood outside the cockpit sporting a loud airplane-themed tie, and started to walk us through the weather information back in Detroit and our flight route.  And to conclude his speech, he said something that totally blew me out of my airplane haze:

“I know the shortcuts.  And I’m gonna drive it like we stole it.”

Talk about cutting through the usual cockpit blather.

But that’s Southwest for you.  And I noticed that in the cabin, the loose, informal attitude exuded by their employees has an effect on the passengers.  People become friendlier in a less rigid, bureaucratic environment.  For a moment, flying actually feels like it could be fun again.

And as it happens, Southwest is celebrating its 40th birthday this month, and their magazine (named Spirit of all things) is loaded with stories and pictures about their very successful four decade run.

In an article titled “40 Lessons To Learn From Southwest,” they lay out their techniques and successes – and there’s some good stuff here for brands that are trying to stand out from the pack in a dog-eat-dog industry.

Here are a few examples that should resonate for us in media from Southwest’s “top 40” lessons:

12. Gain talk equity. This speaks to word-of-mouth before we called it that and this airline understood its importance decades ago.  Southwest’s “free spirited, maverick, irreverent, sexy” vibe created a saucy image that people buzzed about.  It was different from the formatted, rigid ways in which all other airlines acted. Southwest makes the average person view air travel as fun and something for everyone.

15. Invent your own culture and put a top person in charge of it.  In Southwest’s case, it was Colleen Barrett who was originally former CEO’s Herb Kelleher’s legal secretary.  Colleen was the litmus tester for Southwest’s tone and culture.  She focused on everything from gate agent behavior to the company’s legendary Halloween bash.  Every brand needs a Colleen – the “vibe sheriff” who impresses that attitude on everyone in the organization.  So often, we encounter media brands that are defined differently by various staffers. The result is confusion, blandness, or both.

25. Get into fun advertising wars. Like those classic ads for the VW Bug, Southwest’s ads were famous for channeling the competitiveness of the airline business into frivolous, humorous, but often on point – like the one pictured here.  You’ll never catch Southwest doing “Your Favorites Commercial-Free” type advertising.  Their ads reflect that fun, irreverent vibe.  And they stand out from the crowd.

28. Put the worker first. Southwest is the most unionized airline but brags about its “amiable relations” and flexible work rules.  It’s interesting that in all literature they put out, words like Employee and Flight Crews are always capitalized.  This may sound like lip service (including their version of a mission statement), but the more you observe Southwest employees, you actually see this in action.  Seriously, have you ever run into a surly Southwest gate agent or aloof pilot or snooty flight attendant?  Probably not.

35. It’s about Customer Service, not “scalability.” Note that the word Customer is always capitalized, too.  Southwest typically ranks low on the consumer complaint ranker.  CX – or Consumer Experience – is a big deal in the airline industry, too. It’s something that radio needs to address – and not just with words, but with actions and attitude.  The world is waking up to the reality that the customer is in the driver’s seat – or cockpit.

Tomorrow, we’ll look at another airline that also is famous for taking risks.  The question is whether their style and attitude works for them or actually gets in the way of their success.

Making It Happen

Our resident sales guru, Paul Jacobs, sees the tide turning out there in Agency Land.  Hey, men shop, too.  Read on.

When I first became a general manager, my new boss told me something that always stuck with me:

“There are two types of people – those who let things happen and those who make things happen.”

He was right, and as I’ve worked with numerous radio station sales staffs over the years, I’ve found the same thing is true.  Unfortunately, too many reps simply let things happen.  They rely too heavily on ratings and avails, and not enough on aggressively developing a sales strategy designed to increase their station and audience’s worth and value.

Last fall, after listening to too many of our rock clients complain about the lack of agency buys targeting their core male listeners, I began to ask these stations how they intended to address this important issue.

For years, the perceived value of men has been declining in many advertiser minds.  I was hearing numerous complaints from rock salespeople, promising they could generate more revenue if only their stations had more female listeners.  Others simply focused on the low hanging fruit - beers and bars - and wondered why their revenue wasn't growing.

But no one seemed to have a strategy to effectively address this problem.

That’s why we created the “Marketing To Men” initiative, and it’s working.

The study has been covered in hundreds of publications across many different products, brands, and categories.  We’ve received inquiries about the data from major agencies like Leo Burnett as well as trade associations for shopping malls, bedding, and other female-targeted categories.

We’re now hearing actual success stories from several clients who used the data to generate revenue from traditionally hard-to-close advertisers like local grocery stores.  Or who used it to counter many of the myths about men and their shopping habits.

And now, there’s even more evidence that with a strategy, research, and elbow-grease, we can turn things around.

Old Navy has announced they are beginning to target men, who they describe as a “no-nonsense shopper you can’t reach on TV.”

And here’s the money line in a recent AdAge article that discussed the Old Navy strategy and their Senior VP/Marketing, Amy Curtis-McIntyre:

When it comes to clothing, it's often assumed that men rely on the women in their lives to shop for them, making women the key target for marketers. But Ms. Curtis-McIntyre said Old Navy's qualitative research shows that men are shopping for themselves and when they do, they tend to purchase in bulk, making them valuable customers.

The takeaway from the “Marketing To Men” initiative isn’t simply about trying to change a few hearts and minds.  Instead, the lesson is that every sales entity needs to think strategically.  Sitting back and waiting for a great book, a priority change at the agency level, or a competitor to change formats isn’t a plan – it’s a hope.

Programming departments think strategically.  They have to.  They conduct research; they put together an action plan.  And then they go into action.

Now we know that sales can and should do the same thing.  Poke the box.  Initiate.  Ship.

If you have a story about cracking the "man code" with an agency or advertiser, we want to hear about it. Please leave your comments below.