The Jacobs Media Blog

You couldn’t have missed the big announcement from General Motors the other day that it plans to stop advertising on Facebook.  The timing was especially interesting with Facebook’s IPO around the corner, and many advertisers currently debating the effectiveness of the social network on its marketing efforts. The announcement was a déjà vu for me, […]

For some reasons, hoodies are in the news.  The Trayvon Martin case put hoodies in the spotlight, causing Geraldo Rivera to make a major faux pas about the symbolism of the hoodie as he urged parents not to let their kids wear them.  (He since apologized and retracted the statement.) And last week, Wall Street […]

When we designed and conducted the “Goin’ Mobile” ethnographic study with Arbitron back in 2010, we saw some amazing “stupid human smartphone tricks” that were precursors to major behavioral changes that have become societal in scope. While speaking with a friend the other day who has an iPad but is still using a flip phone, […]

During the past 12 months, I’ve joined Lori Lewis on a new kind of world tour, visiting radio stations, clusters, and companies – helping them unravel their digital mysteries.  We’ve had some frank conversations about social strategies, and we’ve led numerous brainstorm and staff sessions in an effort to bring clarity to station efforts. We […]

Did Samsung hire Randy Michaels?  Or was it BlackBerry?  Somehow the “Smartphone Wars” have devolved into tactical warfare that has “’80s radio” written all over it. After reading a story about how a mysterious black bus pulled up in front of an Apple Store in Sydney, Australia, to stage an apparent “protest,” I couldn’t help […]

Last weekend turned out to be a very special one for me.  I received a great honor from my alma mater, Michigan State University – an Outstanding Alumni Award from their College of Communications Arts and Sciences. It was truly a memorable occasion that I shared with other amazing honorees, as well as family and […]

So on Monday, we posted a blog about how Facebook’s IPO could be really big.  Today, Lori Lewis imagines a scenario where Facebook may disappear – or at least wane in importance.  Here’s an interesting viewpoint about how to make the most out of Facebook while the iron is hot.  As always, we welcome your comments. “Here’s […]

You may have seen it in Forbes.  One of those best/worst jobs lists recently came out, and yup, “broadcaster” made the list you don’t want to be on. The “research” was conducted by the job guidance site CareerCast.com and evaluated 200 professions.  Along with one of the worse jobs being a traditional broadcaster, the Forbes list also included waiter/waitress, […]

The coming Facebook IPO is all you’re going to hear about during the next few weeks whether you watch CNBC or not.  This is the biggest tech offering since Google (no, not Pandora), and all the “experts” will be chiming in about whether you should invest in Mark Zuckerberg’s stock or not. Before I launch into […]

While checking out my Twitter feed a couple weeks ago, someone offered up a great Seth Godin line that actually comes from a blog post that’s four years old.  It hasn’t lost an ounce of importance during that time: “The only reason to answer the phone when a customer calls is to make the customer happy.” […]

Public radio fan, Paul Jacobs, takes a look at program development at NPR and how it differs from traditional efforts.  Thanks to Larry Rosin for bringing the story to his attention. In the decade just concluded, we were fortunate to work closely with NPR on their overall strategy, programming, digital, and revenue development.  I don’t have to […]

We tried something very different for this year’s tech survey… and it worked. Thanks to some pushing from Joel Denver, we opened our annual tech study to everyone in radio.  And 170 stations and more than 57,300 respondents later, we have something very special. There’s data on everything from Pandora to in-car audio entertainment systems […]

You know that when a blog post is titled like this one, something amazing could happen. Actually, the chances of that are poor here because sadly, no one seems to have “the answer.”  That’s what makes navigating radio in 2012 a combination of exhilarating and frustrating. When I first started working in the business, I was […]

Many of us were taught about the importance of consistency when we got that first radio station gig. That’s how you won in the diary – giving them exactly what they expect day in and day out.  And many have come to believe that’s the secret of success in PPM, too. I beg to differ. Yes, […]

When you run into people who have gone to events like Bonnaroo or Lollapalooza, I always ask “What was the most memorable moment for you of the entire festival?” I have a feeling that if you bump into those who just experienced Coachella, they might tell you that the best live performance was a dead […]

We have used this space to discuss the Kodak failure to innovate with digital, while instead holding fast to their traditional film business.  A recent New York Times blog asked how a small start-up called Instagram could create a new application for photography, while Kodak, Nikon, Olympus, Canon and many others did not.  And that leads […]

I was the consultant for the team that helped launch Howard Stern’s syndicated career on WYSP in Philadelphia.  It’s easy to forget that most industry pundits were very bearish about Howard’s ability to “relate” outside of New York City.  And they also forget that in Philadelphia, Howard was not an instant success.  It took several ratings books […]