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.

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.

Media Battle?

Traditional vs. Emerging?

(as published this week in Consultant Tips on AllAccess.com)

In digesting some new research from Sapient on social networks, mobile, search and other forms of emerging (or non-traditional) media, and building marketing plans to utilize them, I was reminded of my first days in broadcasting back in the 1970s. Questions I never got adequate answers to then remain today, 30-odd years later. What measurements best sum up our interaction or relationship with our audience … and are they remotely accurate? Arbitron, Pulse, callout, Predictor, focus groups, results at remotes … come on, my compensation is tied to a metric and I need one that works. Of course, none of these have really been able to gauge the special bond that occurs between core listeners and all that makes up their favorite radio stations. The most successful and memorable stations go beyond anything measurable and into simply sharing in, and of, the day-to-day life of a listener.

There are no metrics for trusting Kidd Kraddick’s opinion on whether I should volunteer my precious time this weekend to help a cause benefiting people I’ve never met in a town I may never visit, but he communicates the need for a Habitat Home in New Orleans so strongly that I do change my schedule and thereby change my life for the better forever. Time Spent Listening, P1, core listener, cume, cost per point, reach and frequency, number of clicks, time spent per page, unique visitors, number of hits … none have any relevance in this equation. Explain to a buyer or help them explain to the client what this bond is, and why it blows research out of the water.

Now, add the ability to build out the personality of a station with other forms of entertainment via our site or other social networking sites. In fact, let the listeners build a mash-up or two relating to their experience with the station — it’s music, our town, the personalities — and then let them save it to virally spread to their friends, thus giving it a personal endorsement, and you have the strongest marketing campaign possible, but one impossible to measure.

It started with a relationship developed through traditional media, moved to social networks, mobile and probably e-mail, plus was downloaded to at least one, if not several devices for continued interaction in the future. That’s spectacular by any measure. Let’s not think of this as Traditional vs. Emerging but rather Traditional + Emerging = more and deeper engagement with our medium via other media. We are the common thread in the fabric of the daily life of a connected listener — and if that’s not the goal, the form of measurement is irrelevant and so are we. It’s time to get engaged. Your listeners already are.

Garry Leigh