The Jacobs Media Blog

I want to know how many PhD dissertations will be written about the technical end of both President Obama’s and Governor Romney’s campaigns. As a great source for some in-depth graduate school research, there’s a very long but insightful article in The Atlantic by Alexis C. Madrigal that explores the back end of the Obama […]

“Brands will be more successful in this space by knowing who their target audience is, what content will be relevant for them and which platform will be most effective in reaching this audience.” Werner Brell, Red Bull And with that quote, the managing director of Red Bull Media House lobbed a content grenade at every […]

Many years ago when my brother Bill joined the company, he asked me what title he should have.  The Oliver North scandal was the big news story of that day (long before General Petraeus), so I offered up “Lieutenant Colonel.”  He was not amused. But here we are, more than 25 years later, and this […]

The announcement of Hostess’ demise a couple weeks back was probably one of those moments that signified for many of us the sad truth that many venerable brands that have been around for decades are vulnerable.  For many of us, Hostess products were part of our wonder years. It’s hard to imagine a world without Twinkies […]

Back on Monday with fresh content.  No leftovers.

Yes, we’re headed into another incredible season where radio’s involvement with the holidays will be… the same as it ever was. Many stations have already gone wall-to-wall Christmas (or holiday) music.  Some will be involved in community fundraisers, while still others will give away any numbers of prizes, mall shopping sprees, or the “__ Days Of […]

I have become a fan of blogger and marketer Greg Satell and his Digital Tonto musings.  In a recent post, Greg addressed head-on the value of a strategic philosophy as opposed to an ideology. And as he dug deeper, this thought jumped off the screen: The Myth of “Great Strategy and Poor Execution” A popular […]

The tablet revolution is amazing.  Techsurvey8 indicated that a quarter of our mega-sample already owned one of these devices as of this past February.  And remarkably, about a third of those who haven’t yet taken the plunge say they’re very or somewhat likely to do so at some point this year.  So lots of growth […]

Yesterday, we highlighted a Swedish advertising agency – Honesty – and its decision to remove “digital” from all their employees’ titles. As CEO Walter Naeslund explained in an Ad Age piece, this was an effort to get the entire staff engaged in digital and mobile.  His thinking was that using “digital” in titles essentially siloed […]

Several weeks ago, Saga’s Steve Goldstein shook up the radio world with the announcement that his company was ending the title of “Program Director” in favor of “Brand Manager.”  We covered that story – and added our views – in a blog post. Now, nearly 4,000 miles away in Stockholm, Sweden, an ad agency has upped the […]

I have run across a number of articles and blogs that spell out lessons learned from the election last week.  It’s interesting that in spite of all the media, the hype, and the analyses, we have to wait for the results in order to truly understand what it was all about. But that’s often the […]

There was lots of buzz late last week about an NPD Group study that revealed not only that Internet radio and on-demand music services are growing, but that some of it these increases appear to be coming at broadcast radio’s expense. Overall, listening to Internet radio has climbed 27% year to year, and while AM/FM radio only […]

What a week! The East is still trying to recover from Sandy and another storm blows through. The election is over (but somehow not in Florida), and apparently, going after older white guys turns out not to be a great strategy.  (Are you listening, Rock PDs?)  And then there’s Diane Sawyer and Karl Rove, both of […]

As the guy who brought Classic Rock to radio, I am frequently asked why Rock has not produced another band of the magnitude of the Beatles.  The reasonable answer is that the media world of the ‘60s was so much more simplified and focused than it is today. When you think back on those famous […]

Paul Jacobs took a few minutes out of his hectic schedule to offer his thoughts as our jacAPPS division reaches another milestone.  Here are his perspectives about how the mobile space has evolved and exploded over the past four years. Four years ago this week, we took our own advice.  We had been advising our […]

Bill Weston, program director of legendary WMMR/Philadelphia, is a guy who truly stands at the intersection of media and technology.  The MMR team has embraced the digital tools, with strong participation from the airstaff – especially morning icons, Preston & Steve – right up to Greater Media’s corner office.  This morning, Bill brings home the […]

Back in September, we wrote a post about the Obama campaign’s use of radio.  Now as it turns out, radio may end up being the key game-changer in this seemingly endless election campaign. If you read Politico, you’re obviously a political geek who checks updated polls every day, follows every press conference, and knows precisely where […]

Regular JacoBLOG reader – and commenter – Mike Anthony gave us a provocative link earlier this week that struck me as a catalyst for some weekend thinking. It comes from GigaOM’s Matthew Ingram, and it started the wheels turning.  As Mike noted, “The simple things matter – such as giving users something that serves their […]

A recent article in TUAW (The Unofficial Apple Weblog) took a look at a study from Flurry about mobile app loyalty and usage.  It says a great deal about how consumers use mobile apps, and it’s worthy of your attention – especially if your brand has embraced mobile. Techsurvey8 offered a great deal of information about mobile […]

The news that Apple showed the door to Scott Forstall, the guy who was in charge of the company’s mobile software initiatives, is a reminder that even the best companies make mistakes. In the case of Apple, it is the infamous story of how their troubled maps software replaced the ubiquitous Google Maps in iOS […]