RemainComm

Now You Know...ACT!

A great post from Mark Ramsey today at Hear2.0. Mark is brilliant and has always lead the way in giving a collective smack on the backside of the broadcast industry to stay on top of changing communication. In fact, to be honest, I sometime worry about how much he smacks them. The fact is though...he's right. Be sure and listen to his presentation here.

Now that you've listened, act! Broadcast, The New Radio is out there waiting, but you can't get there on the cheap and you can't do it by making your "stick" a second thought. There needs to be understanding, a strategy, resources, real people to make it all work, and above all, a relationship with your clients...both listeners/users and clients.   

Attention Media Buyers: Brace Yourself for Verbiage

On April 16th the Association of Downloadable Media released two documents relating to Unit Standards and Download Measurement Guidelines. This is the main thrust of what the ADM was put together for…being able to bring some semblance of standardization to a medium that thrives on not having any.

My point to applying metrics to podcasting, etc has always been to provide a way of proving that the media is reaching users and it actually works for those who choose to advertise through that media. These new standards and guidelines move to do this, but still have a way to go.

The first document outlining unit standards is quite straight forward. Not much need to dwell on this one, though the phrase “Sponsored Interstitials” sounds more like invasive surgery than an advertising vehicle. Point of fact; interstitial, according to Webster, relates to interstices meaning a space that intervenes between things. Actually one of the definitions for interstitial itself is; situated within but not restricted to or characteristic of a particular organ or tissue. Ouch. I’d rethink this one.

The second document outlining measurement guidelines will scare the living crap out of any media buyer. This will take some serious education. Look, I pride myself on being able to translate new media speak to traditional media speak…and this one took me a few brain cells to get. (I also won’t swear to the fact I completely get all of it.) But I do get that the bottom line on these guidelines is to make sure your metrics are based on reality, not fantasy. Depending on their source, all downloads or IP requests are not created equal. What the ADM is trying to get to is what counts and what doesn’t as a download and the advertising therein. Buyers want to know they are spending money on reaching people not web robots, spiders, and crawlers (All together now, eeeeewwwww!).

Though this is a start, one that is necessary and one that you can freely comment on, it’s still all based on quantity not quality. Perhaps that’s something that can never really be standardized. Yes, we need to provide real numbers of real users but we, as online media providers, need to prove that we are impacting them as well. Moving them to act, giving the advertiser real return on investment.

Provide a consistent language and standard of measurement? Yes. Educate the buyer on those standards? Oh yeah!  But look to move past just this “quantity of audience”. Traditional media has based their livelihood on it and it is really starting to kick their butts. 

When It Comes to the Environment, Two Icons May Be Better Than One

Happy Earth Day! Yep, it’s that day again; the one that was born in 1969, first celebrated in 1970 and virtually ignored, at least by pop culture standards, by most between 1971 and 2006 with the release of The Inconvenient Truth. The environment is back in vogue for many reasons, both economic and health. If we can just keep it higher on the list for the next 35 years. Hey, if the last two years is any indication, we’re getting there.

We’ve all taken to calling it “Going Green”, “The Greening of America”, etc. Hell, Matt and Meredith are even getting “green”. No matter what we call it, there is real, honest to God, development of wind power, alternative bio-fuels, a better CFL light bulb (complete with rebates from our power cooperative, thank you very much), geo-thermal energy and even the odd solar panel here and there. In my house we sort recyclables like we’re possessed, use recycled products, and take our own bags to the grocery store. Though not completely to do with the environment (perhaps the only positive thing about high gas prices), we’re planning our driving better to cut down on their frequency. Not easy when you have two kids who want to be part of everything. But can we really make this all part of our lives forever? Yes, but not because it’s popular but because it’s right. Plus, we have two icons that will remind us.

You’ll note the two symbols I have included with this post. I think they reflect two sides of the “save the planet” campaign. First, there’s the trusty recycle logo that we’ve all seen everywhere from the bottom of our pop (or for my friends out east, “soda”) bottle to trash cans to reams of paper at the office supply store. This symbol really represents the “business” of the environment. And I mean that in a positive way.

On-air to On-line

I caught the live meeting online from Arbitron and Edison Media Research. The title; The Infinite Dial 2008: Radio’s Digital Future.  The topic: AM/FM, Online, Satellite, HD Radio, Podcasting, and a splash of social media.

Tom Webster, the presenter, is someone I count as a friend and I always look forward to whatever he has to say. At the appointed hour, after the attendee count climbed past 1000, he did not disappoint…me anyway. Others in radio…not so much. You can see and hear the presentation for yourself here. A few of my takeaways…

1. Broadband access is proliferating. 8 in 10 Americans have access to the net with 76% of them having broadband service. So how about we ditch the mp3 and use a larger file (WAV) for audio. We have the bandwidth now.
2. As far as the age breakout of online listeners, it’s fairly well distributed and surprisingly, the 35-44 year olds make up 27% of the audience. Take that you whacky millennials.
3. Satellite Radio, which shows similar demographics as online radio, has leveled off in growth. Something you might expect in light of the XM-Sirius merger and the consumer uncertainty that goes with it. In addition, with no big talent “gets” or development of some other press worthy announcements, the word of mouth is not helping in the marketing efforts for either service. There are only so many Howard Sterns out there.

Keeping Up..."I Haven’t Died Yet."

The quote, from Michael Arrington, is a bit sobering. Part of An interesting article from The New York Times…In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog Till They Drop...it really drove the point home to me about what to avoid in the “new media” world.

As much as I struggle to keep up with the vast amounts of information available at the click of a mouse, those generating it can struggle even more. The article points out the same thing that I recall Bill Gates mentioning in an interview, you worry every minute that someone will beat you to introducing something new.

I often worry about what is the next post going to be about? What can we create that will push our business to the next level? How many people have the same idea? This question alone is usually answered by a quick Google…roughly a bazillion. As I’ve mentioned here before, I invented Pandora…a mere 2 years after it was introduced. Who knew?

How do you keep up? The answer is…for most of us…you don’t. Look there will always be someone, many someones, who really get a rush out of the first to invent, the first to introduce, the first report. They think it’s fun! These people love doing it and there is no reason you should not love letting them. Especially when you can be the one that can help explain what that “first” means to the other 99.5% of the world. The fact is that if you’re reading this blog…any blog…you are already ahead of many in the world. Once you get into “the internet thing” it’s very easy to forget that for those over 25 or 30 (and that’s a lot of people) are not scratching the surface of it.

Can’t keep up with it all? Don’t try so hard. Find what you love and follow that. Use the technology open to you to do it efficiently if you’d like, but love it. Hang with others who have some similar interests, but more that are different. Count on them to expose you to new things. Maybe take a day or two a week to “search” for the latest…but don’t just sit in front of the computer or TV working on that special blue tint to your skin. Get out there and tell the world what you know. You might be surprised that you are the first…and maybe the best.