You know the feeling – you may live in a lovely home or condo, but there’s that moment when you walk in the place and it just looks a little tired. The familiarity is comforting, but the look and feel has become just a bit dated.
And so it is with our tech and entertainment lives. I got that feeling of mobile phone déjà vu after downloading iOS7 on my iPhone when I got home from the Radio Show Friday night.
It’s interesting – it operates much like previous Apple operating systems (albeit some “swiping” now makes things easier), but there are neat little enhancements and features that make iOS7 fun, a little surprising, and worthy of a few “oh wows” as you start navigating around.
But the most striking part is that it just looks cleaner, whiter, and sleeker. There’s a nice vibe to it that I think most people will respond to after they take the time to upgrade.
In short, it’s familiar and comfortable, but different in a mostly good way. Sure, a few things may take a bit getting used to (for a day or so), but the end result is that a device that I love to use just got refreshed, updated, and is also something I can show to friends – and you.
And so it goes with our entertainment choices – like the radio stations we program. Why wouldn’t we want to do mini-makeovers of our brands a couple times a year or so? It might be as simple as a minor logo tweak, adding a signature voice to the production, updating the website (please!), changing out the background slides on your jacAPPS app, adding a new benchmark in mornings, or even hiring a new DJ at night (or a LIVE DJ at night).
It doesn’t take that much – a change in color, tone, style, utility – to help update, upgrade, and reinvigorate your brand, especially as we head into that all important Q4.
Too often in radio, we stand pat, set it and forget it, lock it down, and believe that consistency – to a fault – is what our listeners are striving for.
The reality is that people have changed. What’s “new” is coveted and appreciated. Even cosmetic changes show your tribe that you’re on it, engaged, listening to them, and finding new and different ways to be – in Guy Kawasaki’s words – enchanting.
That’s really what iOS7 is about. Apple has made it cool to offer a new gold iPhone to their main line (while adding many new colors to their newest 5C models). They are still the same iPhones that consumers enjoy using and carrying around. They just look and act a little different.
They’re just fresh.
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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One thing that a week with iOS7 has done: every time I see a phone with iOS6, it looks drab and lifeless. That’s not something I would have predicted prior to Ive’s reboot.
And dated. Great point, Tom. An offshoot of redecorating is that it can make the competition look a bit tired. Always appreciate your POV.
The sad fact is that much of what you suggest while “right on the money” suggestions, would require all sorts of approvals that depending on the company/station, might take a month to get done, or might not be doable at all. Website and app changes often are in the hands of some inaccessible corporate fiefdom and in some big companies, universal, company wide conformity is required. Station imaging changes can usually get done with only a couple of approvals – which again, depending on schedules, stations and priorities can take as much as 6 weeks to firm up.
Referencing yesterday’s post, so much of what could/should be live and local is prefab, uniform and centralized. It’s a shame that things like station websites that are generally bad, viewed sparingly, are typically out of date yet require an act of congress to get modified.
If this system was working, I’d understand it. But station websites generally don’t generate enough traffic to convert to meaningful revenue so money is being moved around so that they can show large growth numbers. The main result of this is that traditional radio ad numbers are being underrepresented by at least 50% of the digital numbers and probably much more.
I admit that this is a rambling and cranky post. But when you run a good and simple idea like this one through the real world of consolidated radio it just looks sad.
Wait. What? Change the night guy?! Can’t I just get a haircut? 🙂 The other stuff is good, though.
Appreciate it, Russ. Thanks for checking in.