Take heart, radio programmers and general managers. Major American industry may be following you, for a change. The new Chrysler has just announced a new initiative that will allow their customers to advise their corporate types. In a new program called an online Customer Advisory Board (or CAB), about 2,000 Chrysler owners will have the chance to provide input, ideas, and feedback about their vehicles, and ones they hope to drive in the future.
If this sounds a lot like the LABs that Jacobs Media clients have been conducting for many years now, you’re right. Inspired by former KSAN GM, Dwight Walker (he called them Listener Advisory Panels – or LAPs), the idea was to tap the power of the station database to provide input from some of radio’s most loyal listeners. Over the past several years, Jacobs Media consultants have conducted hundreds of these groups for clients, at very little cost and at very great value.
As Justin Cooper, a key player at Passenger, the company that created Chrysler’s CAB forum notes, "At a time when consumers are actively avoiding marketing, brands are trying to figure out how to engage these people. While it contradicts traditional marketing, it offers a mutual value proposition."
As we’ve learned in radio, consumers feel part of the process, especially as they detect changes that were inspired by the process. And the radio station derives valuable information from the people who matter most – the audience. Those databases are about the most valuable marketing tools that stations have, and LABs are just one way to tap them.
Jacobs Media has consistently walked the walk in the digital space, providing insights and guidance through its well-read national Techsurveys.
In 2008, jacapps was launched - a mobile apps company that has designed and built more than 1,300 apps for both the Apple and Android platforms. In 2013, the DASH Conference was created - a mashup of radio and automotive, designed to foster better understanding of the "connected car" and its impact.
Along with providing the creative and intellectual direction for the company, Fred consults many of Jacobs Media's commercial and public radio clients, in addition to media brands looking to thrive in the rapidly changing tech environment.
Fred was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2018.
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