What would a new year be without someone whispering in your ear, reminding you to think about how you can improve your game in 2013?
And that’s what the first new jacoBLOG post of the new year is all about. For the past couple of weeks, I’d been thinking about what the best action steps for broadcasters to tackle in the new year, and then an amazing thing happened – someone beat me to it.
I ran across a Mashable article by Robyn Peterson that frankly covers much of the ground I had planned on discussing. So the full article is linked here, but I have some commentary on Peterson’s “4 Things Media Companies Must Do…or Die,” along with an addition.
I think the “or Die” part is a bit melodramatic, but it does get your attention. Peterson believes that the biggest impediments to media companies surviving the challenges come down to three fears:
- Fear of change
- Fear of technology
- Fear of product development
A fourth one might be Fear of the ability to monetize. This last one has a lot to do with the troublesome economy. But even before the stock market cratered in 2008, broadcasters were using this fear as an excuse to sit back and wait.
Back to Peterson. He boils it down to a four-item to-do list. None is easy, but each provides a pathway to success. My comments are in italics, and I’ve add a fifth to-do item for you to consider, too.
Step 1: Think Social First, Then Search
We’re on the same page here. Peterson’s focus is on baking social media into our products from the ground floor, using lots of pictures, simple sharing, and other tools. This is an area where marketing-starved radio stations should be viewing social media as the white knight. Instead, broadcasters often ask those impossible questions, like “What’s the ROI of social media?” instead of embracing these incredible tools.
In just a few short weeks, Lori Lewis celebrates her second anniversary with Jacobs Media, and it’s been a time of great learning and big opportunity for our clients that embrace creating great stuff that’s easy and fun to share with their friends, communities, and networks. That old Greg Verdino quote “Everyone in the audience has an audience” will take you far in 2013. But your company and your brand need to do more than random acts of social if you’re going to maximize success here.
Step 2: Embrace Mobile, Before it Runs You Over
Our views here are well-known. We saw this one coming, thanks to our Techsurveys, and our bet on mobile has paid off. Mobile apps afford radio the ability to regain its portability – a critical element moving forward.
It’s all about portability. Just ask Nielsen. Arbitron’s PPM – while often criticized by its radio broadcast clients – allows for media measurement on the go. This is a critical element that defines how content has moved, as consumers take their media with them.
For content creators, the masses have spoken. This past holiday season, sales of tablets, smartphones, and other mobile gadgets continued their amazing trajectory. Now even the laggards are jumping on the bandwagon. I’m sure you know many people who received their first iPhone or Amazon Fire tablet over the last few weeks. Or maybe I’ve just described you.
Broadcasters are in an excellent position to take advantage of mobility. It’s in radio’s DNA, and now that consumers have totally embraced gadget portability, great media brands have to be there.
Step 3: Redefine Advertising
This is the truly difficult one, but an area where radio may be finally coming to grips with the challenges – and the opportunities. In just the past few months, I’ve heard Erica Farber say it at the Arbitron Client Conference, along with the media mavens who spoke at “Forecast 2013.” Radio needs to redefine its terms, its capabilities, its social reach, and its local and personality connections.
Again, the Arbitron/Nielsen marriage could be at the epicenter of recasting radio’s inbred ability to reach consumers on the go, in their hometowns, and right in front of the windshield. But all the great data in the world isn’t going to change the prehistoric account rep paradigm that exists at too many stations and clusters in both big metros and small unrated towns. Radio’s sales marketers need to be trained to power and harness great AM and FM brands to solve customer problems. Radio isn’t in the CPM business – it’s in the solutions business.
Step 4: Become Product-Driven
Peterson’s take on this is that most media companies outsource their technological assets to others, essentially turning tech folks into “service organizations.” He notes that media isn’t just about content but about creating an experience for consumers on digital platforms.
No argument here, but I would turn this step on its side, and also exhort broadcasters to stay focused on creating great content and meaningful brands in the first place. Too often these past few years, there is less and less proprietary goodness coming from local radio – period. It goes without saying that apps, websites, podcasts, and other assets need to be user-friendly, easy to use and access. But no one will care about them if the product is sub-standard or nothing special.
And here’s my Step 5:
Step 5: Encourage Innovation
This is my step – or resolution – for success in 2013 for radio broadcasters. I hear a lot of corporate dictates about hitting certain numbers, but not enough encouragement for staffers to try new things, develop new formats, experiment with platforms, and just plain innovate. This was Gary Shapiro’s (the CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association) mantra a couple of years back to kick off CES 2011. While Gary often gets under the skin of broadcasters, his prodding to try new things and reward and encourage innovation is the foundation of his organization and his Las Vegas mega-convention that kicks off next week.
Broadcasters on the local level are simply not going to proactively create and innovate if the environment doesn’t encourage or reward it. And the status quo is not going to get it done for radio this year. Ratings and sales goals may have been sufficient in past decades, but in a declining revenue situation and an accelerating competitive arena, they will only facilitate radio falling further behind.
There are many sharp, motivated, and creative people still working in radio. Their energies and ideas need to be acknowledged, encouraged, and welcomed.
What steps would you add to this list? A new year presents a new opportunity to motivate, energize, and create. Let’s make these steps radio’s new year resolutions. And unlike that goal to join a health club, let’s actually make them happen.
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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