The Day The Media Died

Mad Avenue Blues

Did You Know 4.0

This is another official update to the original "Shift Happens" video. This completely new Fall 2009 version includes facts and stats focusing on the changing media landscape, including convergence and technology, and was developed in partnership with The Economist. For more information, or to join the conversation, please visit http://mediaconvergence.economist.com/ and http://shifthappens.wikispaces.com/.

Content by XPLANE, The Economist, Karl Fisch, Scott McLeod and Laura Bestler. Design and development by XPLANE, http://www.xplane.com/.

Accountability is King

From today's Inside Radio:

Marketers Seek Accountability
Do more with less isn’t just radio’s operating standard. A new survey shows two-thirds of marketers are being told by their companies to drive more sales with the same or lower budget -- and three-quarters say their marketing budget has shrunk this year. Facing that challenge, accountability has taken on a much greater significance.

The St. Louis Business Journal report the same trend in their article about ad agencies taking a hit from Anheuser-Busch spending...

Anheuser-Bush has changed it's "free-wheeling, let’s-give-it-a-try attitude" for a more "scrutinized and calculated" results-based approach.

From the article...
"A-B has always been good at listening to agencies with good ideas. But now you’ve got to do more back-end research,” Litwicki said. “The way they make decisions is a lot more mathematical. It used to be enough to do brand building and create an image that would ultimately drive sales. Now they also want to see the component that will actually incentivize the consumer to pick up the product. When you come in with those solutions, they are very receptive."

Measurable results are beginning to matter more and more to advertisers, and they are cutting spending with their agencies to find marketing resources elsewhere who can provide those results. As the article above states, when you have an idea that is based on delivering actual results (rather than just another branding campaign) companies are ready to listen.

A New Perspective on "Added Value"

The expectation of SOME advertising clients is that they are entitled to free radio spots, van stops, on-location broadcasts, web banners, email blasts, etc. that all seem to fall under the mysterious category of "Value Add" -- simply because they bought an advertising schedule. This expectation is utterly ridiculous. I don't know how media companies (especially Radio) ever let themselves get roped into this one-sided deal. What happened to the "win-win" deal?

Clients like this are either asking the media outlet to outright LIE to them about their "real" price (by hiding the costs of all the freebies deep within the traditional spot costs), or they really believe that media companies can afford this sort of "buy and bribe" practice.

My opinion has always been that this sort of "value add" would NEVER be permitted in any other business. Can you imagine walking into McDonald's and ordering a "Value-Add Meal?" That's where you buy the fries and drink and they give you the burger (and some McDonaldland Cookies) for free.

What about going to the movie theater and buying two tickets to see a show, and then expecting to receive free popcorn and Snowcaps from the refreshment stand?

Buying a new car and getting a boat for free?

Why are media companies (hello, Radio!) the only ones expected to do these sorts of things? The next time you have a client hitting you up for a bribe... er... I mean "value add" send them a link to the video below. Perhaps they gain a little insight into just how outlandish these expectations really are.



You want to offer your clients some REAL value-add?
The added value I bring to MY clients is that of creativity, experience, marketing savvy, and personal dedication to help them grow their business. If they're really interested in elevating the success of their company -- I want truly to help them solve their toughest marketing challenges. If, on the other hand, they just want the cheapest rates and to have the station van out on a Saturday handing out balloons and hotdogs (or worse yet -- will only buy into an advertising campaign to get seats at the next game or concert) they really aren't seriously interested in their marketing success so much as getting all the "free stuff" they can from the media company. If their business can be earned by those sorts of bribes, they really aren't a client that I'd be interested in working with. Let them pick someone else's pocket.

I'm a creative marketing professional that works tirelessly for my clients, and I expect a fair rate for my services. How about you?

VBR for Video

Inside Radio shares these Nielsen stats in regard to increased interaction with online video:
Nielsen released May video viewing data that shows 134 million Americans watched online video content last month. That's up 13% from a year ago. The number of minutes a typical online video user watched jumped 49% to 189 minutes.

If you have a client that you know is using using tv spots now or in the past, a video pre-roll opportunity on the radio site can take advantage of video that has already been produced, but perhaps not fully utilized due to the higher cost of television airtime.

If the client has a product or service that would benefit from visual expores to our audience in addition to the audio spots already being aired, a landing page featuring product demonstration, client testimonials, or an amusing video that drives home an important point of their service can greatly increase the likelyhood of response by your audience.

Some great examples of video used to promote products:
1. http://www.insurance-mitchell.com/
Take a look about halfway down the page to see this creative use of a simple YouTube video embedding to brand his services and point out some perfect reasons why you need great insurance coverage.

2. http://www.savingsanity.com/
Simple 'talking head' video that promotes the advertiser's product while providing real informational content to the audience via the free tips presented in the video.

3. https://www.getsnuggie.com/
And the classic -- Snuggie. Sales not only increased exponentially once this landing page was created to enhance their already successful television spot, but a cult following developed by simple virtue of the new internet audience being reached. It wasn't long before people took the brand and product and started using it for their own creative ends:
Snuggie Remix (over 300,000 views)
Snuggie Pubcrawls (video from Chicago - WGN Radio, NYC, and San Diego - complete with media coverage)
Snuggie Parody (warning: strong - but hilarious - language) (4 MILLION views and climbing!)

Encourage your clients and prospects to use video.
Who knows where it might lead?

Social network ads are tough sell to Gen-Y

Seeking to grab the attention of Gen Y's on social networks? Better put away the old online display ads if you're seeking to grab the attention of Gen Y's on social networks. A new study by the Participatory Marketing Network and Pace University shows traditional banner ads to be ineffective to young adults aged 18-24.

Researchers asked a group of Gen Y's if they notice ads at all when navigating through a social community, and if they approve of them. While 84% said they notice ads on social networks, only 19% said they find them "relevant."

Researchers also found that 74% of the young consumers in the study click on social network ads "infrequently," and 36% don't click on the ads at all.

There were a few signs of hope in the results --
62% of the respondents said they have "visited a brand or fan page on a social network" and 48% said they have "become a fan or friend of the company or organization" showcased on a brand or fan page.

The top three reasons respondents cited for joining a brand or fan group were: get product updates ( 67%), view promotions (64%) and view or download music videos (41%).

Read full article: http://www.internetretailer.com/dailyNews.asp?id=29703

Are You Helping Your Clients 'Work the Room?'

...or are you just selling them advertising?

Nationwide Is All A Twitter

Meet Shawn Morton.
He's the Senior Consultant for Social Media at Nationwide Insurance.

Nationwide Insurance hired a full-time guy to oversee their social media. That's huuuuge. Shawn's job (according to his linkedin.com profile) is "establishing the enterprise social media strategy and advocating social media within the organization." (Watch your back Shawn. I want that job.)

Shawn recently held a Twitter 101 seminar for his Nationwide associates and was kind enough to post his slides on a (what else?) social website dedicated to sharing presentations.

Twitter 101

View more presentations from Shawn Morton. (tags: socialmedia twitter)

Slide 12 should be of special interest to any of you with 'boring old insurance accounts who cut all their advertising budgets this year...' It's a screen filled with some logos of corporate entities who are using Twitter. Among them: State Farm Insurance, Allstate, and of course Nationwide.

For any of you who've wondered why I send links to companies and articles and examples of businesses who are embracing new media as an option to traditional advertising -- THIS is the reason. Because, although they've reduced their spending on traditional media advertising, they are embracing and investing time AND MONEY into developing their social media efforts.

Become an expert in social media and apply the concepts of effective marketing principles to this new way of communicating to your audience and YOU will be the expert to whom they turn when they decide to reallocate advertising dollars to social media dollars. YOU can be the social media expert who gets rewarded for helping these companies strike up a dialogue with the audience that already loves YOUR brand and communicates through YOUR traditional media and social media tools.

Dismantling Trusted Marketing Strategies

Great post from Brian Massey at the Society for Word of Mouth Marketing.

Your Wake-Up Call...

• TV is not an effective way to communicate, video is.
• Radio is not an effective way to communicate, the human voice is.
• Print is not an effective way to communicate, words and images are.
• Web sites are not an effective way to communicate, solving problems is.

Reality Shift

Nice video illustrating the dramatic shift in media/marketing reality.

Don't you have something interesting to say?

Do Ads Work?

A great post to kick-off the new year for anyone buying (or selling!) advertising. Forward this post to your favorite media salesperson or buyer.

Do ads work?
by Seth Godin

If the local bank were offering a sale on dollar bills, ninety cents each, how many would you buy?
Most rational people would say, "I'll take them all please." Especially if you had thirty days to pay for them.

So, why, precisely, do you have an ad budget?
If your ads work, if you can measure them and they return more profit than they cost, why not keep buying them until they stop working?

And if they don't work, why are you running them?

The time-tested response is that you're not sure, that ads are risky, that you can't tell. And for some sorts of products and some sorts of ads, you'll get no argument from me.

Digital ads are different (or they should be). You should know cost per click and revenue per click and be able to make a smart guess about lifetime value of a click. And if that's positive, buy, buy, buy.

And if you don't know those things, why are you buying digital ads?

When Amazon was at its key growth peak, the mantra there was $33. They would buy unlimited ads, of any kind, as long as they generated new customers for $33 or less each. There was a risk that $33 was too high a number for the business to sustain, but the ads were no risk at all. As long as they came in under that number, there was unlimited money to buy them.
How often do year the marketing person say, "that's a neat idea, but we don't have the budget this year"?

Shouldn't she say, "We have an unlimited budget for ads that work"...

Traditional Media Drives Interactive Usage

Survey Uncovers Drivers of Digital Influence and Reveals How Information is Shared Online
A new research study gleaned from a field of nearly 1,000 digital influencers demonstrates traditional and online media are both important sources when it comes to sharing news. The study by IM MS&L finds that traditional media play a vital role in igniting the process that leads influencers to share information online and via word of mouth.

Eight in ten influencers often go online to find out more after:

• Reading something in a magazine or newspaper (84%)
• Hearing something on TV or the Radio (84%)

"This research supports the need for influencer marketing campaigns to leverage both traditional and online tools to connect with consumers."
~ Renee Wilson
Deputy MD of MS&L New York
Director of the agency's IM MS&L practice.


Source: MSL News Release, 11/16/08.
Full release:
http://www.mslworldwide.com/in-the-news/press-releases/traditional-media-sparks-word-of-mouth

Godin Delivers the Goods

Video recording of a live seminar with Seth Godin.
Well worth the investment of an hour to view.
Pass this opportunity up at your own risk!

Newspapers (Try To) Think Locally for Online Ads

Nice coverage in WSJ about challenges facing "The Dead Tree Society" as they seek to increase their share of local Web dollars.

Though the article focuses on Newspapers, one need only review the Borrell Associates chart to the left in order to realize Radio has the great potential for growth in Online Advertising.

Some of the article highlights...

Scrambling Cannibals

In an effort to make up for their plunging print-ad revenues, newspaper companies have been scrambling to train their sales teams in the intricacies of selling online ads to local marketers.
But in many cases they aren't selling a lot of ads and at least some of the new ads they are managing to sell are cannibalizing their print-ad revenues, industry analysts say. A common scenario is that a trusty local print advertiser -- a car dealership, say -- that used to spend $20,000 a year on advertising might now spend a quarter of that with the newspaper online and nothing in the print product. Thus, the newspaper company is now selling more digital ads, but the new sale is taking away from its bottom line.

Losing Their Edge

Whatever edge Newspaper may have had in capturing web revenue appears to have evaporated. Newspapers now control only 27.4% of the local online ad market, down from a 35.9% share in 2006, according to Borrell.

Cracks and Gaps

There are several reasons why newspapers so far have failed to crack this market.

• Online ads are far less expensive than print ads and thus offer lower commissions, making it difficult to get salespeople to focus on selling the digital products
• Newspaper is typically selling banner ads which don't meet the needs of local businesses
• Most local online revenue growth comes from small and medium-size local businesses -- a market segment that Newspapers have typically ignored

Read the entire article here.

How/Why Consumers Share Info

ShareThis.com has just completed an extensive study on sharing with Forrester Research. Forrester and ShareThis, teamed up to find out what and how people are sharing information online with one another. The study, which will be released next week, provides some interesting statistics around how people share online information --

• 69% of adults cite email as the primary source of sharing information
• Less than 1/3 of online adults said they learned about the new content from shared content sources such as YouTube, a wiki, or social networking sites
• 84% of people still use the traditional cut and paste method to share a URL or information
• 81% of adults claim that they share to help others -- believing a person will benefit from the information they share
• Sharing increases site traffic 2x, thus increasing ad dollars or revenue for publishers
• Men are more likely to share recommendations and videos than women; 77% of adult males and 74% of younger males shared news and web links
• Women are more likely to share products or ideas they like via easy or direct sharing methods (ie texting.)

You can read the full press release here.

Goodbye Yellow Pages?

Borrell Research predicts 39% of yellow page revenues will vanish as local advertisers shift spending to the internet.

This doesn't mean one less competitor for your Radio dollars!

Other Borrell findings report there are now more than 34,000 local sales reps peddling online products -- more than for any other medium. The chart at right shows that 84% of these reps are being fielded by newspaper and yellow pages companies, all cross-training sales reps to rush toward their most-promising growth opportunity. To date, and in the foreseeable future, directory companies have fared better than any other legacy media at this strategy, garnering about 14% of their total gross revenues from online sales.

Their report also details how online video commercials have emerged as the fastest-growing online ad format for small businesses. By 2012, they expect streaming video advertising to surpass all other formats, including banners and paid search. The report includes local online spending estimates for search advertising and streaming video for 210 markets.

Download a free executive summary of the report by clicking here.

My advice is to continue focusing on the task of finding a real customer need -- the one that goes beyond driving traffic, selling more ('whatevers'), and branding/awareness. Find the customer's pain and create a custom marketing strategy that integrates Radio and Web to provide both audience reach and message trackability in order to take their pain away. Solve the real problem and you'll have a customer for life.

VBR: Staycations

With the already established MixFunGuide.com and TheFanGuide.com websites, the trend toward families cutting costs by reducing the travel and expense of their family vacation is a prime marketing challenge for our advertisers and real revenue opportunity for the creative account executive.

The latest buzzword for the trend mentioned above is "Staycation" and here is some information that can help you craft a compelling VBR that gains the attention of your prospects...

Let's start with Weber, the grill-maker, which released some survey results last month that say this is the summer of staycations and grilling. They surveyed over 1,000 people and received some interesting results:

• Among grill owners planning staycations, a whopping 80% plan to grill weekly
  
• 41% plan to grill at least several times each week
  
• Once having the term explained to them, 51% of the respondents said they plan to take one or more staycations this summer
  
• 24% who are changing their traditional summer vacations to include a staycation this year
  
• 40% say they plan to try new grilled foods or grilling recipes
  
• 13% plan to purchase a new outdoor grill this summer
  
• 7% plan to update or improve their current grill
  
• Others plan on buying grilling accessories (11%) or a grilling cookbook (8%)

What about state tourism organizations as a target?

• In Pennsylvania The Constitutional Walking Tour of Philadelphia is pushing its staycation not only as inexpensive and educational, but as a green-friendly trip.
  
• Connecticut created a web site that highlights staycation destinations in the Constitution State and offers discounts to many of those places.
  
• The Arlington (Texas) Convention & Visitors Bureau has a local and regional campaign designed to get the locals to go to Six Flags Over Arlington and spend the night with the family in a hotel.

Retailers can be Staycation destinations, too!
Wal-Mart is making things interesting for consumers, with its subsite makeyourdollarstretch.com and a downloadable desktop Widget called 101 Days of Summer Staycations.

The Staycation trend may have been created the need to cut spending on the rising cost of gasoline (and everything else!) but it may also have been created to help the innovative marketing professionals earn additional profits this summer!

Ad Networks Devalue Content Power

Great, great, GREAT article about ESPN's view of the value of their web content versus the commoditization of internet advertising.

ESPN Turns Off Ad Nets
Excerpts from the article:
Top Web publishers are planning a revolt. Even as more prominent sites experiment with selling remnant inventory through online ad networks, and in some cases ad exchanges, ESPN.com is saying thanks, but no thanks.

ESPN's decision crystallizes a philosophical debate in the online ad sales industry that has intensified since the Interactive Advertising Bureau's annual meeting last month when during a keynote address, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia media president Wenda Harris Millard gave her now famous warning against selling Web inventory like "pork bellies."

Two sides have formed—those who want to protect traditional, direct selling of premium content brands and the math-loving crowd that favors automation and data. The math lovers make the traditional sellers nervous."There is a genuine concern about commoditization of brand inventory by some of the networks," said Millard in an interview.

...ESPN, see networks as profiting on their brand investments and their user data, while also threatening their own marketer relationships. Many just think using networks devalues the power of content.

Knowledge is Power... and Profit

The Radio Audience Has Changed -- Has Your Marketing Strategy?
The two articles below paint a pretty clear picture of the evolution of the traditional Radio listener. Do your client proposals reflect these changes by incorporating effective Internet strategies to better reach your audience?

New ratings have been released, and a lot of stations have taken a hit. It's likely that analytics from your station website do not reflect the same data you're receiving from traditional ratings-by-sample-diary reports. Perhaps you've even seen a significant increase in Internet traffic. Do you know why? Do your clients? Are you educating them on the way today's Radio audience uses your broadcast and your website? Probably not.

The articles linked below provide valuable advice about your audience, but it's up to you to learn it and share it with your advertisers. Educating yourself on the new ways your audience uses media is the only way to continue creating more effective solutions to your client's marketing problems.

What's The Digital Application?
Interesting insights about how radio listeners -- in this case, members of station databases -- use other media and technologies, along with other revelations about how radio listeners' time is being sliced and diced by new media options.

Highlights...

• Nearly three in ten report they listen to AM/FM radio less or a lot less at home.
  
• More than 95% have access to a high-speed Internet connection.
  
• About 95% have a cell phone -- seven in ten text regularly.
  
• Nearly six in ten now own an iPod or a similar device.
  
• Four in ten have a TiVo or DVR.
  
• Over half regularly visit social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, and Classmates.com.
  
• More than four in ten have played Guitar Hero or Rock Band in the past year.
  
• Nearly one-fourth have participated in a fantasy league in the past year or so.
  
• More than two-thirds download/stream videos from sites like YouTube frequently/occasionally.
  
• Nearly half shop online each month.

Podcast Consumer Information
The Podcast Consumer Revealed 2008 is the third study in this annual series on podcast consumption, and contains data derived from the 2008 Arbitron/Edison Media Research Internet and Multimedia study. Highlights of this study were originally presented on April 16th at ad:tech SF.

Highlights:

• The audience for both audio and video podcasts has grown tremendously since last year.
  
• Podcast listeners enjoy additional listening opportunities.
  
• Podcast consumers are extremely attractive advertising targets, though difficult to reach via traditional interruption models.
  
• Podcast consumers are heavily involved with social networking.
  
• Podcasting is a viable alternative means to target attractive consumers who are otherwise proving difficult to reach with traditional advertising.
  
• Podcasters should consider lifestyles, context and even potential 'dayparting' for their audiences.

What's Next?

Great presentation from slideshare.com.

Thanks to Bill Harman for the link.

| View | Upload your own