OOOOOhhhhhh Shiney Beads! Me Me Me!

When doing Hot Hits back in the day for Mike Joseph, at boot camp he always stayed in our face about each live break being referred to as “a relate”.  He never called them a break or whatever… only “a relate”.  Obviously, that meant whatever we said had damn sure better relate to the target audience in the moment or we’d never get out of boot camp and wind up back on our old stations somewhere.  You had to know and understand the target audience well enough to relate EVERY BREAK to build a connection to that listener one by one.  We had to earn their trust every day break by break.  There was never a throw away time n temp, never a simple call letters/title/artist… every break was a relate or you didn’t deserve to be in Hot Hits in a top 5 market.  Two boot camps and two different Hot Hits stations in two different top 5 markets, I still agreed with Mike on that and to this day that fundamental of the medium hasn’t changed for truly successful stations.  Lots of time and effort went into researching the audience and Philly was amazingly different from San Francisco, but the audience weren’t there to listen to me, they were listening to hear a reflection of what the station meant to them.  When I read this piece from Advertising Age this morning, it brought back that broadcast basic of making the connection with the listener every single break – oops – relate (sorry Mike).  Good reminder that it’s not just us, it’s a part of the fabric of life and our intercommunication at many levels.  See you in New Orleans!  Enjoy.         Garry Leigh      Snafu Consulting
Connect More, Advertise Less
What Mardi Gras Parades Can Teach You About Human Nature

Posted by Tom Martin on 01.21.09 @ 08:55 AM
Tom Martin
Here in New Orleans, the Christmas decorations have given way to the Mardi Gras decorations, which got me to thinking about an old blog post I wrote a few years ago about connections.
As I sat on the neutral ground one year during Mardi Gras helping my kids yell for and catch beads, toys, etc., I had an epiphany. Here we were, in the middle of what can only be characterized as organized chaos, and amidst the yelling, screaming music, an interesting thing happened — we made a connection.

As my 3-year-old (at the time), Hayes, sat slumped in his ladder, fast asleep (poor thing was sick), I was doing my best to keep him from being hit by a flying bead while also catching him a few trinkets so when he awoke he wouldn’t feel left out of the fun. And then a float stopped in front of us and on the top deck some 20 feet away a young woman (I think — not sure as riders are masked) made eye contact, gave a quick little frown and then reached down and launched a huge stuffed animal, but only after assuring she had my attention and that I realized she was throwing to Hayes. I caught it and waved a thank you to her and then she was off. Mission accomplished. I was a good dad.

Now if you’ve never ridden on a Mardi Gras float, you can’t fully understand how unique this situation is. As a rider you can’t hear anything but a constant swell of screaming and yelling. Hundreds, thousands of people screaming for your attention in hopes you’ll “throw them something mister.” Add to this the fact that you’re on a moving platform, it’s dark and maybe you’ve had a cocktail or two, and it is hard enough to pick people out of the crowd that you are looking for much less make a random connection. But it happens.

In fact, this same thing happened a dozen or more times as the parade continued to roll on. I didn’t know these people, they didn’t know me but they felt something. A connection. For a fleeting moment, a personal connection was made and the nameless rider put down the 25-cent plastic beads and tossed an item that costs them (Mardi Gras float riders pay for the stuff they throw out of their own pockets) not an insignificant amount of money.

Why?

And that has gotten me thinking. About this idea — connection — the simple human need to connect to others. Powerful. Powerful because it causes people to do things, feel things and act on those feelings. Powerful because connection lives beyond the transaction and creates feelings and memories that last. Powerful because in a world of hyperconnectivity, consumers have never been less connected to brands.

At first I thought it might just be me, but then one night I read a report of Anderson Coopers’ coverage of Mardi Gras that year — he rode in Endymion, a Super Krewe, the big parades that you see on TV. He remarked: “Rolling on the float late at night, I realized Mardi Gras is not about the beads or about Bourbon Street. It’s about making a connection, one person to another.” And it hit me. Anderson was right. He had captured the essence of Mardi Gras but more important he had captured this powerful human insight, one that I’m sure can be used to create more powerful and effective work. People really do want to connect. But as advertisers, we need to give them something worthy of connecting too.

So the next time you sit down to write a brief or review concepts, ask yourself if what you’re doing is advertising or trying to connect. If it is the former, try again. Who knows, you might just get rewarded with a nice prize for your efforts.

~ ~ ~
Tom Martin is president of Zehnder Communications, with offices in New Orleans and Baton Rouge. He can be reached at Tom.Martin@z-comm.com. Follow him on Twitter: @TomMartin .

Mass Communication – What?

For years we’ve been discussing ways to take radio across boundries and make aspects of the local station brand not just available, but as a “go to” at the top of your daily digital adgenda. In fact, the very first blog in the archives relates to exactly this and I think Ketchum’s research is screaming we need to take another look.    Garry Leigh     Snafu Consulting

Legacy Media and New Media Meld: Mass Communications Succumb to Communications by the Masses

According to the third annual U.S. Media Myths & Realities survey by Ketchum and the Annenberg Strategic Public Relations Center, the melding of media means that content deliverables once owned by a specific medium are now found on nearly all platforms, creating a participatory and fragmented media landscape.
As Americans buy products, seek information, plan their social lives, and make personal and business decisions, the lines between media channels in the 21st century have become increasingly blurred, says the study report.

Along with a steep rise in the use of shopping Web sites among consumers, doubling from 2006 to 2008, 44% of those visiting shopping Web sites read consumer reviews and comments there, showing that these sites have transformed into virtual social gathering places and information destinations, rather than just a place to purchase goods.

Consumers are (frequently) placing more trust in the experiences of their online peers than they are on the retailer’s product descriptions. This participatory media landscape, says the report, means media audiences are having just as much influence, if not more, as the content providers themselves.

Nicholas Scibetta, Ketchum partner and director of the agency’s Global Media Network, concludes that “… not only are people posting their thoughts via consumer-generated reviews, but they are also responding to each other’s comments… (creating) pockets of social networks found all over the Web… conversations among readers, information seekers, and reviewers can be found from The New York Times and The Huffington Post, to YouTube, to the neighborhood blogger… with the widespread availability of such conversations, the lines that once separated mediums have now melded.”

Jerry Swerling, founder and director of the USC Annenberg Strategic Public Relations Center, says “.. it’s a transformative time in which we are seeing outlets move from single-media to multi-media… “

Consumers are using a wider variety of channels than ever before. Newer channels, such as blogs and social networking sites, are gaining more and more traction. The survey found that 26% of consumers use social networking sites, compared to 17% in 2006. The usage of blogs nearly doubled (24% in 2008 compared to 13% in 2006).

Among influential consumers, the 10% to 15% of the population who initiate change in their communities, 32% read blogs written by journalists (vs. 8% of the general population), and:

43% read blogs by non-journalists, compared to     16% of the general population
70% of influencers use search engines, vs. 57%     of the general population
43% of influencers use video-sharing Web sites, vs.     25% of the  general population
29% of influencers use specialty information     portals (such as WebMD), vs.16% of the general population
Influencers also use more new media such as     videocasts (19%), RSS news feeds (15%), podcasts (12%), and mobile media (9%)
The use of more established media channels continues to wane. 65% of consumers use major network television news as a source of information (down from 71% in 2006). Local television news saw a sharper drop – 62% in 2008 compared to 74% in 2006.

Swerling concludes “… we’ve watched traditional mass communications give way to communications controlled by the masses… the melding of media is… demonstrated in the actions of legacy media, which are continuing to embrace and implement the principles of new media. Conversely, the journalistic principles that underline news organizations… accuracy, timeliness, objectivity… move to other delivery channels.”

For more information about melding media, please visit Ketchum here.

Welcome To Self-Employment And It’s All Good!

The day of the gold watch after time served with a single company is long gone and the project-by-project employment model has now been the norm for much of America for years, so why do we in broadcast and marketing so lament moving on to the next project? Maybe because we feel that all of the time and effort we put into the medium itself has somehow been wasted? Traditional media’s mutation to both new and emerging media platforms is necessary and natural, although challenging to each of us and to our individual skill sets.
Radio, from programming to sales, has always been an intensely personal medium for the producer as well as the consumer, so it stands to reason we all take any change very personally. Any good sales person has cultivated deep relationships with their clients and has thereby lived the ups and downs of each client’s business cycles and strategic decisions, good or bad for years. Sales people feel just as much loss from those relationships being severed as an on-air personality no longer being able to share in the daily life of each listener.
We are all being forced into making deeper decisions on our own path to success and relying less on any one company’s employment.
So lets try to separate ourselves from the emotion of the moment, and look at the bigger picture of starting our own business. Of course, this process begins with building a business plan for you own new company.
(From the myownbusiness.org site)
Does Your Plan Include the Following Necessary Factors:
* A sound business concept
* Understanding your market
* Healthy, growing and stable industry
* Capable management
* Able financial control
* Consistent business focus
* Mindset to anticipate change
* Plans for online business
We all need to be able to do our market research and build a model that will be in demand not just today, but into the future far enough for us to develop the skills and gather the capitol we’ll need for the next business cycle and then the process begins anew.
Now is the time for all of us to embrace our newfound independence and do everything possible to control our own destiny and no longer be working at the whim of some investment company and their momentary valuation of our worth to their strategic market play (most of those models crashed and took billions of investor’s capital with them).
Since deregulation began with the subsequent “right sizing” of some of the most creative minds in broadcast, we should do as many of them have and go about creating and building the next platform for the delivery of entertainment. As the number crunchers in San Antonio are literally executing their vision of corporate value for the next five minutes, so should we develop our own individual plan for the next several years and begin it’s implementation about right NOW! Research thoroughly, plan well, work hard and just as you always have, do it BIG! Let’s get started!     -     Garry Leigh          Snafu Consulting

New Music Merchandising On Display

OK, so we all are embracing new ways to expose new music and make it available for purchase at a time and in a way most convenient for the music fan.  I’m impressed that some of the oldest school companies on Earth are really getting creative in deploying assets to expose and monetize those exposures.  We should all be gathered around the conference table regularly brainstorming with “those people” to gain new momentum?  How about credit for just trying some new things and seeing what sticks?  Investing in new channels and giving them the time necessary for their viral spread to begin changing the users habits (parts of the program have been around a long time)!  By the way, when you get your sales reports weekly, do they tell you there was a huge AXE push with a particular artist and that may skew that figure?  Is there a way for you to now that and interpret the sales info from that perspective? Does it matter or is it just great for the industry that we are willing to experiment in these areas?

Take a look  at this AdAge article and let me know what you think….. Garry Leigh     Snafu Consulting

Walmart, Unilever Up Partnership in Retailer’s Music Site

Marketer Promotes Its Products on Soundcheck With the Likes of All-American Rejects, Nickelback

by Jack Neff

Published: December 29, 2008

BATAVIA, Ohio (AdAge.com) — As a means to sell more music and attract more visitors to its music microsite, Walmart has teamed up with Unilever for an entertainment- and shopper-marketing program that appears to be gaining momentum.

Bands like The All-American Rejects are featured alongside Unilever’s products on Walmart shelves as well as the retailer’s sponsored music portal, Soundcheck.

In the latest incarnation of the partnership, Unilever is merchandising its new Axe Hair lineup of hair-care products for the cheeky men’s brand in stores alongside CDs from All-American Rejects, Gym Class Heroes, David Cook and Nickelback, while simultaneously sponsoring Walmart’sSoundcheck microsite, which has been backed by the marketer’s personal-care brands since earlier this year.

Backed Beyonce’s new album
In similar fashion, Unilever backed the launch of Beyonce’s “I Am Sasha Fierce” CD last month with displays that promoted the album alongside Suave products, as well as promoting another release from Beyonce’s sister, Solange, who also had an exclusive interview on Soundcheck sponsored by Caress.

Unilever’s Suave also sponsored interviews and exclusive video performances by Beyonce on Soundcheck in November. And Axe sponsored a studio concert performance and a free MP3 download by All-American Rejects earlier this month.

For its part, Dove in October sponsored a “Women in Music” program on Soundcheck featuring videos of nine artists, including Miley Cyrus, Jennifer Hudson and Faith Hill, at the brand’s self-esteem workshops for girls.

Walmart’s Soundcheck initiative dates back to 2006, when it primarily focused on exclusive concerts played on the retailer’s in-store TV network operated by Thomson’s PRN. Procter & Gamble brands such as Gillette Fusion and Venus sponsored exclusive content on the microsite last year.

Program takes off
But the online program appears to have taken off considerably this year in terms of viewership and in-store merchandising support, as Unilever has featured it in programs with most of its major personal-care brands. Unilever and Walmart have gotten mentions about its promotions and exclusive content on Soundcheck in the blogosphere, using a giveaway of a Danity Kane CD and Degree products, for example, on one blog this spring.

URLfan.com now ranks Soundcheck in the top 1% of the 3.7 million sites it tracks in terms of blog mentions, averaging a mention about one every three days. A preview of Beyonce’s Suave-sponsored Soundcheck appearance last month has drawn about 844,000 views on YouTube, and a Soundcheck appearance by the lesser-known Danity Kane, sponsored by Degree deodorant, has garnered more than 400,000 YouTube views.

Newly In The Hunt?

It amazes all of us as we watch business people take over and reformulate art.  How many songs have been written by a senior accountant?  How many number one broadcasts have been hosted by major shareholders?  Did they buy into an accounting firm or a living breathing changing evolving creator of in-the-moment entertainment?  Yea.  It will come full circle as the artists are allowed to connect with the customers in so many new ways either with or without radio.  For those looking for a new outlet at the moment, don’t confine your search to what has been, but rather what will be.  Good luck and don’t let any of this change your artist’s perspective.  It is who you are!

This post may help too….   Gar

Commentary
Dear Bev: What Should I Expect If I’m Unexpectedly Laid Off?
by Beverly Weinstein, 2 hours ago

This holiday season has brought an unwelcome surprise to unprecedented numbers of people in the media business – pink slips.

If you’re among the unlucky, you’re probably going through some predictable emotions. Noted psychiatrist Elisabeth Kubler Ross’s five stages of grief pretty much sum up the emotional roller coaster many of you may be riding right now.

Denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. You may not experience them all and you may not experience them in rank order, but Ross says you can expect to experience at least two.

In my 12 years as a recruiter, I’ve talked to countless media executives that have lost jobs. I’d say denial and anger are the more common one-two punch with an overlay of depression.

Denial. Even with unemployment rates at an all time high and lay-offs occurring in every industry, we all can’t shake the “it won’t happen to me” delusion, until, of course, it happens. You’re crushed, left high and dry by the company you’ve been loyal to for years. Or maybe you were just unlucky enough to be part of the “last in/first out layoffs and it’s way too late to regret leaving that other job for a mere 15% to 20% salary boost. But the tears dry quickly as you move into phase two: Anger.

Now that you’ve had time to reflect on all you’ve done for the company, all the blood, sweat, tears, overtime, and lost weekends that went into producing the best work possible, you’re downright mad. And here’s where it can get tricky. Whether the anger is justified or not it is often rashly directed at the person who gave you the bad news.

Placing blame is easy in this state but burning bridges is something you will quickly regret once you’ve entered the acceptance stage. Avoid the temptation of trashing your boss or your company to anyone that will listen. If you have to complain, even if you’re justified, try to keep it to your loved ones and trusted friends that don’t work in media. And, this should go without saying but no angry e-mails, IM’s, Facebook postings or Twitters. In other words – no digital trail.

Once the anger has subsided, even if it hasn’t gone away completely, depression sets in. Feelings of hopelessness are normal, especially with daily announcements on the economy’s downward spiral flooding the news. But as with any break-up, you’ll find love again. So shove this phase aside and prepare yourself to move on. Who needed that job anyway?

Finally, the acceptance phase. You’ve come to terms with the harsh reality and now it’s time to reorganize and plan your next steps. Pull out your Rolodex and start planning your triumphant return, because they haven’t seen the last of you yet.

Editor’s note: If you’ve lost a job in the media industry recently, or are afraid of doing so, despair not. Beverly Weinstein’s column will reappear here regularly dispensing sound advice and practical tactics for managing your career in a volatile employment market. If you have specific questions about what you should do, please post them below, and Bev will help you out. Or if you feel uncomfortable posting your queries publicly, feel free to email Bev anonymously at bev@markhammedia.com

Mobile Marketing Metrics

I have now read so many executive summaries of the Nielsen Short Code Marketing Study that it’s easy to simply accept the quoted metrics and accompanying analysis. Are you convinced and are you seeing the same conversion rates and interactivity as the examples?

Before we bury everyone of our core constituents in a campaign, let’s make sure it is employs a strategic vision which takes into account all of the positives and negatives of each particular medium utilized. One recent study showed high burn factor on TV creative did more to harm the effort than the impression did good for the brand. No matter how much a message resonates initially, we all know each medium has it’s own very individual shelf-life for a message or tactic and a successful campaign will deploy very different messages and duration thereof for each particular medium. Mobile marketing or text message marketing is very much the same but the experience is so new to most, that we are really creating (or in some cases destroying) the environment and boundaries for this special new interaction between our brand and core customer and need to tread very carefully as we go to insure it’s future value.

I know we all say that hey… we’re not spamming anyone, but does the person on the other end of our message feel engaged and pleased to have received it or, increasingly numb to seeing something from us and thus we are actually eroding the value of the medium for all? I really fear many of us are doing the latter simply because we need to get another message out this week or there is a deadline approaching or maybe an event looming, so we’re not connecting with our customer with anything of real value to keep our side of the conversation going. Remember, to have a conversation both parties have to voluntarily engage and stay engaged until we communicate.  When we ask for the opt-in lets make sure we set a realistic expectation for the interaction and meet or exceed that level every time.

I guess what I’m saying is I’ve attended enough parties this Holiday Season and witnessed so many conversations with no real communication that I want to keep my damn phone out of it. It is a special place reserved for me to invite special friends to actually share something of value with each other. If that’s not a part of that equation, it better not be on my phone! I understand the psychology of texting being an option chosen because we don’t want to have to emotionally engage the other party completely and it is chosen to instead lower the importance of the exchange to a few sentence fragments with no real and lasting weight. The most magical text messages to me though, are the ones that not only prompt a response with a smile, but which force us to upgrade the conversation to something on a more personal level. Making us want to commit time, money, travel or any real consideration to continue an interaction is the metric that counts and if it’s not the goal of your next mobile marketing message, DON’T SEND IT but put it on a billboard or email it to me! Remember, at least as much thought, planning and creativity should go into the mobile medium as into any other if we are really committed to adding it to our arsenal long term (and we should be). So, did you hesitate before you hit send? Thanks!
Garry Leigh
Snafu Consulting

Live From The Steel Peer

This should generate some comments from the broadcast folks!  Why weren’t we streaming this concert as well as carrying it live?  We used to be the “go to” for events exactly like this.  How many even linked thru?  …..  Gar

So that’s what ‘The Golden Age of Radio’ was like …
Posted December 8th, 2008 by David
In the midst of a party with friends Saturday night, a handful of us huddled around my 8-year-old stereo in my neighbor’s apartment.

It’s a three-disc, two-cassette deck 50w detached double speaker system with auxiliary input. The radio tuner is rarely used now, a drastic change from when it sat in my bedroom at my parents’ place. The 3-disc changer hasn’t seen use since my junior year of high school. And, yes, in the very early days the cassette deck got some use. (Then I discovered Napster.)

Back to Saturday night. The stereo system now gets its greatest exercise when it’s hooked up to a computer or iPod, and such was the case here. Tonight’s main act was not our boy band megamix or Hulu watching, but my favorite artist.

John Mayer’s second annual Holiday Revue, “On His Own,” was streamed live at Mayer’s site, allowing fans across the country to listen in stunning clarity. A continuously updating photo slide show accompanied the live player page, adding some perspective as to the set, Mayer and his tone. That was all secondary, of course. It’s the music I was focused on. With a volume-maxed stereo, the show was in our living room.

I could close my eyes, allow my imagination to take over and soon I, too, was there. Two friends, also avid fans, joined in the stereo-huddling. A popular fan blog posted the set list as it developed, and its comments section served the equivalent as between-song side chatter with fellow fans. There we were, most of the way across the country, feeling like we were there.

I flash back to the scenes from “A Christmas Story,” where Ralphie runs to the radio to catch the latest broadcast of radio Orphan Annie. (Yea – this is my recollection of radio’s glory days, as this 1984-born product has always grown up with MTV, let alone transistor radios.) A remarkable Internet broadcast quality made me feel as if I was at Nokia Theatre.

So that’s how the dawning of radio and TV felt.

My generation takes for granted the power of “live.” We’ve grown up in a media-saturated environment where seeing or hearing in real time something elsewhere isn’t “cool” – just normal. Whether it’s a TV station live shot from across town, or a war correspondent on the opposite side of the Earth – we’re used to that.

Last week my best friend told me how he’d just come from chatting with a high school friend serving the country in Iraq. He initially brought up the subject with no real “ooo” or “awe” to it, and was more/less focusing on how bored his friend seemed there .. not so much the fact that he was talking to him in real time over Facebook Chat. He stopped and showed a contemplative look on his face after realizing what he’d said, and how remarkable it truly is.

That same friend was one of the two friends enjoying the sounds of Mayer’s set Saturday night. He had his “live” moment earlier in the week, as I was having mine right then and there. The two-hour, LA-based show started at midnight EST. We intently listened through every minute of it.

Then the feed cut out during the second-to-last song of the encore.

“S—.” It resumed minutes later, as Mayer finished a memorable blend of Coldplay’s “Lost” and his own “Clarity.”

Some general glitches posed some problems for the stream at the end, Mayer’s team blog acknowledged Sunday as they touted the replay of the show. Even now the site continues to stream the concert live, and recordings of the show are already floating about the fan base.

Not only could I hear it live, but now I can replay it like it is forever. Art and technology are beautiful things.