We saw it loud and clear in this year’s Jacobs Media Tech Poll III. Most listeners simply haven’t actually heard HD Radio and/or don’t know anyone who owns one. Unlike XM and Sirius, available through car rental companies, it is actually difficult to sample HD Radio without going into an electronics store. And consumers don’t typically buy something unless they know someone who owns one and/or they’ve experienced it themselves.
So let’s suspend the idea of whether HD2 content is compelling enough to sell radios, and just focus for a moment on exposing the product to consumers.
You hit ’em where they live. And these days, it’s shopping malls. XM Canada has the right idea, working with a company called the Pop Up Retail Group. The latter is a Toronto-based company that sets up kiosks in shopping centers so that consumers can sample XM while they’re out shopping.
At this juncture for HD Radio (content aside, of course), it’s about sampling. And a billboard isn’t going to make you run out and buy a product. Checking it out for yourself at a mall? Priceless.
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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I have sampled clearchannelmusic.com/hdradio and the HD channels are just clever remakes of what is already on the analog channels. Instead of selling this snake-oil product, which of course is not selling, broadcasters need to figure out real soon how to lure listeners back to their main analog channels. Broadcast radio stocks are tanking and HD Radio is not going to help. HD Radio is nothing but a farse:
https://hdradiofarce.blogspot.com/