The Jacobs Media Blog

Back in April, one of “the moments” at Kurt Hanson’s RAIN conference was the statement by Pandora’s Doug Sterne that while national ad dollars were the company’s “low hanging fruit,” the big focus would soon be on local advertising revenue. This struck me as a concern because as Pandora tops the 60 million registered listeners […]

In his recent book, Seth Godin talks about the importance of employees becoming indispensable to their organizations.  He calls them linchpins.   This is a frequent theme in many of our presentations to airstaffs because all too often, jocks fail to view a larger role for themselves at their stations.  The need to do more than […]

As the mobile wars heat up, and AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon beat each other up, while Apple, Google, and RIM engage in hand-to-hand combat for dominance, the marketing they’re using say a lot about where this space is moving. Verizon’s new campaign ought to resonate for radio people because it focuses on our inherent strength […]

Apple has announced that its highly anticipated white iPhone’s release has been delayed.  It is fascinating how this company can create demand in so many different ways. What is so different about the white iPhone besides the obvious?  No one knows.  And that’s what makes us curious.  That’s what makes us want one. White iPhone.  […]

S’plain this one to me: One of the most incredible web success stories of all time. 500 million subscribers. An unbelievable growth trajectory. A social game changer. And one of the most disliked companies on the Internet? According to a new University of Michigan American Customer Satisfaction report conducted with ForeSee Results, Facebook ranks in […]

"If you own, manage, or program a Classic Rock, Classic Hits, Alternative, or Active Rock station – and you’re in a PPM market – chances are you’ve taken up residence in 'Happy Land.'”   That’s not coming from a guy who’s consulted these formats for 27 years now.  It’s a quote from Arbitron’s Senior Vice President […]

If you looked at the airplay pattern for a band called the Disco Biscuits over the past year, you’d have to conclude this band is a total stiff: Yup, 11 spins nationally in the past 52 weeks is hardly a formula for success. But as The New York Times reported recently, this band is more than successful – […]

Regular JacoBLOG reader, Conclave maven, and Arch/St. Louis all-round pro, Jay Philpott loved yesterday's blog – “140 Characters” – and responds with this cartoon, a link and his allotted 140 characters: This 140 character caption (I counted, and spaces are included) is about 7 seconds when spoken. Has Twitter cracked the attention span code? <CLICK […]

A recent study by Deloitte ("New American Pantry") highlights a major problem for brands these days:  the recession has created a frenzy of savings, discounts, loyalty programs, and discount coupons.   And while consumers are out there looking for the next big deal, brand loyalty is out the window.  In fact, half say that when shopping […]

There’s a trend afoot and it has to be the beginning of a larger statement that we may see repeat itself several more times during the next few years. First, Radio Shack decided to drop the “R-word” and attempt to reposition itself as “The Shack.”  It doesn’t appear to have been very successful, but the […]

A fresh-out-of-the-research-oven survey from the Pew Research Center confirms what’s happening in App Land, and backs up this year’s Jacobs Media's Tech Survey VI: More smartphone owners are downloading music-centric apps.  And this is great news for broadcast radio. Pew notes that a third of mobile phone users now use these devices to play music, up from […]

How do you know when an experiment just isn't going to work? And when you figure it out, how much time do you give it? We've all seen or been involved with "still birth" formats and morning shows that were sadly destined to fail.  Is a year too much time – or is it not […]

Maybe it wasn’t the summer school you remember back in the day, but at the 35th annual Conclave in Minneapolis last week, a large crowd gathered in the Twin Cities for some great sessions and good times.  Dare I say that at times, it indeed felt like the good old days. And I’m not talking […]

We’ve all done them – morning show and station stunts designed with one thing in mind: To get attention and energize the audience Isn’t that essentially what this LeBron James "Decision" show was all about? But stunts can backfire and often produce unintended consequences.  And by studying other stunts and promotions, we can better understand what makes […]

Autobytel recently reported the results of a survey (sorry, no methodology or sample size provided) that points to the inevitable – consumers want Internet in their cars.  And it's young people leading the way. The fact that those under 35 are especially desirous of Internet on the go is no surprise.  As "The Bedroom Project" […]

I know what you’re thinking – not another acronym metric to think about! But in this case, a person’s TSF – or Time Spent Facebooking – may say a lot about her value to brands looking to take advantage of social media. Nielsen has a new study out that suggests there are many demographic factors […]

The dilemma that comes along with taking a cool, not-for-everyone brand and transforming it into a mass appeal entity has always been difficult. The "early adopters" and those who love to live on the "bleeding edge" are always in search of the hot new thing.  And once they find it, they often only want to […]

I was sitting in a perceptual research session a couple weeks ago reviewing a mega-telephone study for a cluster of stations we consult.  For the Classic Rock station in the group, the research pointed the way to some important action steps:  play more '80s, start a commercial-free sweep to kick off the workday, and make […]

If you think some people in your station or office are unproductive because of an addiction to computer games or Facebook, the combination of those two – FarmVille – is probably the culprit.  The creation of Zynga CEO Mark Pincus, Farmville is an amazing Facebook game that has now sucked in more than 70 million […]

What are people speculating most about this summer? For people in Cleveland (Chicago and Miami), it's the next destination for LeBron James. For millions of others, its whether Verizon and Apple will come together to produce an iPhone anytime soon. Now the rumors, buzz, and blog chat may be coming to an end as many […]