Most people probably agree that only Seattleites enjoyed Sunday’s “Big Game.” But as is often the case, the ads were interesting this year (especially the ones I remember before I fell asleep in the third quarter).
The casting of Bob Dylan in the new Chrysler ad was inspired, especially for someone like me who’s connected to Detroit, cars, and Classic Rock. As a Motor City guy, it’s hard not to feel a deep sense of pride while watching this spot – especially as the city continues to be roiled by doubt and uncertainty makes a valiant effort to come back.
But from an entertainment and a marketing perspective, the Radio Shack commercial was a major standout. It was a fitting commercial for a brand that has wrestled with its raison d’être at times. You may recall four or so years ago, we ran a post questioning the concept of dropping the word “radio” from their handle and adopting the jive brand name “The Shack.”
That one didn’t work. And obviously, neither have other fixes because in Sunday’s Super Bowl, Radio Shack unveiled a funny, clever commercial that pretty much blows up the entire in-store experience with a an approach that is as bold and self-deprecating as it gets. I’ll let you be the judge – here’s the :60 version, loaded with ‘80s icons:
>EMAIL RECIPIENTS: CLICK HERE TO WATCH RADIO SHACK COMMERCIAL<
The analogies to radio were not lost on me. And maybe you picked up on them, too. Because our industry has some of the same “old school” issues that plague Radio Shack. Radio may be a solid, reliable go-to destination for information and entertainment, but there are hotter, sexier, more buzz-worthy destinations out there threatening the long-term health of the industry.
“The ‘70s Called. They Want Their Radio Back” could be emblematic of an industry campaign that focuses on some of the ways in which radio has already modernized – mobile apps, social media engagement and acknowledgment, on-demand podcasts, texting programs. And it could be done in a way that isn’t defensive, but presents radio broadcasting in a fun, wink-wink way that just might be the catalyst that helps get radio back on the water cooler map.
A barrage of statistics may tell a side of radio’s story, but as we know from hours of Super Bowl viewing, that’s not likely to get or hold your attention. Appealing to the Mr. Spock in consumers is not the best way to engage, delight, entertain, and convince consumers that radio is not living in the ‘70s. Perhaps boldness and self-deprecation are qualities that would help radio better re-engage its massive audience.
But there’s a twist.
Another part of thinking back to retro radio from the ‘70s goes beyond being old-fashioned, and speaks to the notion that many of the things that stations were doing back then were, in fact, very much in-line with the attributes that still resonate with consumers today: more personality, DJs around the clock, music discovery, stronger community presence, an element of surprise, less syndication, and more live programming. In fact, you could make the case that these traits are even more meaningful in today’s media world where the number of options most certainly outweighs their quality.
Whether you commission quantitative research about the best ways to compete against pure-plays like we do with our Techsurveys, or you conduct focus groups, listeners will tell you that those traditional values – the things they remember about the radio they grew up with – are many of the same emotional qualities they treasure today.
Pandora runs out of appeal after a while, creating a sense of isolation from the world. Even a library of 10,000 songs in an iPod is predictable and boring. And satellite radio has no connection to the communities in which consumers live.
“They want their radio back” has many interpretations. A return to the qualities of the past? A modern, contemporary approach to keep up with today’s consumers?
Or maybe a combination of both.
P.S. Less than 48 hours after the Radio Shack commercial aired, the company announced that it’s closing 500 stores in the near future. Obviously, the $4 million dollar Hail Mary pass they threw during the Super Bowl was too little, too late to save the struggling retailer. It is yet another indication that bad things happen when you take too long to face your core problems and reinvent your brand.
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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GREAT blog today! As a product of 70s radio in Los Angeles (my Dad worked for RKO’s KHJ and KRTH – I’d LOVE to see radio take back the audience just how you present it here…..
I just love following you Fred!
I am very appreciate of your kind of words and the comments. Sometimes nostalgia overwhelms the senses and our memories play tricks on us. Was radio back in the day that good, or does it seem that way from the perspective of now? Perhaps the answer is somewhere in the middle, but I think that many of the managers, programmers, and DJs back then intuitively understood how to serve and delight and audience, and why it was so important to be as much about your metro area as possible.
Wow, Fred. Nice to hear you invoke the notion that there might be some basic tenants from radios past that could be beneficial to radios future.
Could it be, that with the bath water long since evaporated, we find that the 70s baby was actually adopted and raised by wolves and now ready to return and help save a struggling industry?! Stay tuned…
I so love analogies and metaphors, and I cannot top yours, Keith. Stay tuned, indeed.
Interesting… That commercial kind of got me thinking the same thing. I got hooked on the radio from the early 70’s and walked away from the industry in the early 90’s after consultants (sorry..) and computers sucked all the fun out of the gig.
This, ultimately, is wishful thinking. The business has moved too far from those days to ever return. The attitudes of the people running modern radio have no direct connection to that era and could never understand how or why it was done that way.
Too bad really. The talent, tunes and times went together to make something special. One is left to appreciate the memory, and, like a group such as the Beatles, be thankful that it existed at all.
M.G., I hope you’re wrong and that some of these beliefs become self-evident over time. Sadly, some of the so-called “efficiencies” have obscured the customer experience. But competition has a way of creating serious resets. Hopefully, radio as an industry will see that light more quickly than Radio Shack did. You have to wonder how many of their execs wandered in and out of Apple Stores before someone realized there was a serious competitive problem. And least I can hope that it’s not all just memories. Thanks for the comment.
Fred: I have moved from a major market to a small market (not in radio) and am planning to have coffee with the local corporate radio GM, who now runs numerous transmitters with two stations serving 7 communities. He’s planning 2 more physical plants soon. What do think the chances are he’ll stop hiring recent broadcast school grads for morning and afternoon “drive” shows? They are the only shifts that are live at either plant currently, so the rookies get no peer training like we did in the good ‘ol days.
Sadly, what corp-radio found was that the sales keep coming in, talent or not. Sure, slower every year, but like the live frog in the increasingly hot water, never realizing that they’re boiling to death.
Color me cynical. Hope I’m wrong and you’re right.
Mark, you probably have this pretty right, and I appreciate the real world example. In the short term, talent may not matter all that much as those dollars roll in and the ratings hang on. But over a longer haul, it’s a shaky model that needs to be assessed beyond margins and quarterly profits. I’ll bet that Radio Shack had hung in there, too. Profits may have eroded and store traffic lessened, but with simple stores and employees that didn’t require much in the way of training (forget about the customer experience), they probably modeled out as a low cost provider. Until now. And this spot is emblematic of a last gasp attempt to somehow save the brand. Didn’t work for J.C. Penney either. Thanks for the comment and a healthy dose of cynicism.
You know that tingle you get when your iPod accidentally makes a great segue?
Yeah.
Here in Austin, I am fortunate to have a few non-commercial choices where it is evident that the talent – and yes, I mean that word- has picked the music thoughtfully. It makes for such a nice listening experience, even when I don’t love all the tunes.
In an age where everything is curated, where each person, through their Instagrams and their Pintrests, show the importance of humans choosing, we have radio where it is clearly not a product of thoughtful choice.
We have artisan cheese, artisan beer, artisan everything. Could artisan radio survive?
Sure there are plenty of services that will ” play what you like” but I have found them tiresome and redundant.
And you know how quickly you FF thru the songs that create an awful segue on your iPod even though you yourself put them there?
Do the kids know what a human curated listening experience sounds like? Would they prefer it?
I have no idea. But they like the old music and the scratchy sound of vinyl.
And you’re onto something. Your comment reminded me of Slacker’s Jack Isquith who I saw at CES. He underscored that at his channel, there’s a human on top of the pyramid on all their channels. Between music scheduling software and cluster economies, radio has systematically eroded that element. And while imperfect or even off-putting things can and do happen, you wonder if cool surprises aren’t part of the trade-off. Mike Henry wrote a piece the other talking about how the best discovery on FM radio is happening at public radio stations, and there’s probably a lot of truth to that claim. Thanks, Sheila, for the aesthetic reminder.
Wow! Another book I could but won’t write. For my money, radio’s golden age was the 80s, not the 70s. Everything was still live and local, but research and 20th century marketing in general were applied to the spontaneity and attitudes of the 70s. So there was great between the records content, but the records were the right ones so it really worked. Think about the legendary rock stations of the past – WBCN, WMMR, WEBN, KQRS, WMMS, WNOR, (there are others – I’m not writing the book) and their best days were in the 80s.
If eliminating a PD or personality is radio’s equivalent to closing a store, then radio has closed many more than 500 of them. When Blackberry finally woke up and smelled the coffee (decent browser, apps, OS) it was too late. Radio is flirting with that now. Its long since passed time to get Charles Laquidara, Jeff and Flash, Henry Del Toro and Ron and Ron to say they want their medium back.
I debated with choosing the ’80s over the ’70s, Bob, so I find your analysis interesting. Actually rock radio’s best days probably straddled both decades, but that’s water under the bridge. Your comment about eliminating PDs/personalities = store closings stopped me cold. And it helps cement the connection I was trying to make when I first saw the Radio Shack and looked at it through the radio lens. Thanks for the comment and the observation.
I loved the Radio Shack ad. But the others watching the game with me barely noticed. Maybe it had a special relatability for radio people.
I also remember the “This Is Not Your Father’s Oldsmobile” ad. While one of the most memorable car ads ever, if helped contribute to the brands demise by reminding people that this was an “old persons” car.
It will be interesting to see whether the ad boosts Radio Shack’s brand perception, or just reminds us old guys that Radio Shack was a great place to buy inexpensive reel-to-reel tape.
Not surprising to get a right-on-point automotive analogy from you, Jeff. But that’s the risk you take when you admit that your brand has seen better days and is in desperate need of modernization. It’s a tough pill to swallow. And yes, while there were never any “geniuses” in Radio Shack, they usually had what you needed (and they always asked you for your phone number). Thanks for chiming in.