Disney wants Fox…Now what? And… What consumers REALLY want from brands. And… Consumers are running away from advertising in droves. Plus, rants and raves about Netflix’s personalization not just of recommendations but even artwork images, James Franco’s terrific movie, The Disaster Artist, and more. It’s episode 76 of Media Unplugged with branding authority Tom Asacker and media strategist Mark Ramsey. Listen as we go inside media to reveal the ugly truth! Click the play butt

There’s lots of chatter about podcasting today – from hobbyists, from fans, and from the companies deeply embedded in the space. But all that is nothing compared to what’s coming. Every year comes another statistic about the growth of podcasting among consumers, but even that doesn’t touch what’s coming. What’s coming is that podcasting is going to be big business, and it’s going to happen sooner than you think. ART19 is one of the new companies at the center of that transfor

Now I am as pro-technology as anyone you’ll find in the audio space, but the reason to be pro-technology is to be pro-consumer. Because any technology that doesn’t serve the interests and desires of consumers is a solution that, by definition, nobody wants. And the only thing worse than not being wanted is being UNwanted. So it is with the ridiculous decision of BMW and Tesla to dispense with AM radio in some of their recent EV vehicle lines. Not surprisingly, some consumers

“Share-of-ear.” It’s a mantra among broadcasters nowadays. And I’m going to explain why you should forget about it. You know what it means: We compare the time listened to radio with time devoted to other audio forms: Online radio, podcasting, mp3’s, whatever. The theory holds that any platform’s “share-of-ear” comes largely at the expense of any other audio-centric platform. So when podcasting listenership grows, that means radio listening (for example) might shrink. I can o

Recently, Seth Godin penned a great piece on ad blocking. Yes, I know – you can’t block the ads on your local radio station. That’s the beauty of a linear, non-digital programming stream. Hooray! But actually, people block radio ads all the time. Every time a consumer switches stations or switches from radio to a platform that is not radio it’s to hear something that is not on right now, because often what’s on right now is a commercial. And for digital audio the problem is j

It may be the most popular presentation from hivio 2015, the audio future festival. It’s branding authority and celebrated author Tom Asacker on what folks in the audio space can learn from the big brands and the critical trends shaping the winners and losers in the modern media world. Tom cuts to the chase and spells out not only what’s going on out there but what you and I should do to leverage consumer and business trends and emerge on top. Many people told me this was a h

Alex Blumberg is the creator of the popular podcast Startup and founder of the new podcasting network, Gimlet Media. Given his deep background in public media, it’s fair to ask what anyone in the commercial audio space might learn from Alex about audio advertising. What the heck does he know, anyway? Well, Gimlet Media is powered in no small part by advertisers, and Alex brings his knowledge of storytelling to bear when he crafts ads for his clients. His goal is to extract wh

“When it comes to mobile devices, we need to remind listeners that radio is FREE – that its use does not sap so much precious battery energy and even more precious data plan bandwidth.” So argue the folks I call the “freeks.” These are the well intentioned folks in the radio industry who believe that listeners do not have their own best interests at heart. That listeners are, as a group, a bit dull-minded. Thus, listeners must be marketed at and advertised to in order to conv

“What’s the future of radio?” “How does radio compete against Pandora et. al.?” “How can we get FM on mobile devices?” “How do we stay in a prominent place on the car dashboard?” These are typical of the questions I hear. And what makes them all similar is that they are asked from the inside-out. That is, the implicit assumption is that radio’s past must be sustained into the future, and with a few tweaks here and there we can dial up our relevance (pun intended) and dial dow

Why does any consumer behave in the way that she does? It’s because she has a problem and she wants a solution.  And the more effective, convenient, and simple that solution is, the more she will gravitate towards it. A “problem” doesn’t necessarily mean some vexing dilemma.  It could be as simple as the desire to hear a familiar voice on the way to work. The great thing about technology is that it creatively enables a whole host of problems to be solved in clever and powerfu

There’s a difference between giving people what they desire and messaging them to convince them that what you have is what they desire. That’s one point from my friend, branding authority Tom Asacker, in the conversation we had on the stage of the recent Public Radio Program Director’s conference in Las Vegas. Watch (or click on the post title if there’s no video image): Prefer audio?  Try this: Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audi

“Will you talk to me?” I mean, one-on-one? It’s my observation that most program directors spend infinitely more time talking to the ratings reports than talking to actual listeners.  Needless to say, this confuses input (listeners) and outcome (ratings). As a practitioner of consumer research, I’m not foolish enough to believe that one conversation with one listener represents a fact, but it does represent a story.  And the sum total of all listener behavior is the sum total

Will FM radio ever end up pre-installed in mobile phones in the US? I doubt it, because consumers aren’t asking for radio to be built into their mobile phones (and here’s a full overview of the issue). But what’s more interesting to me is that radio industry leaders keep driving for this, obsessively wishing and hoping and planning for it. Why is that more interesting to me?  Because it’s not only deaf to what consumers are asking for, it’s blind to the direction of consumer

This is a segment from my presentation at the recent Radio Ink Convergence conference. In this portion, I highlight the key way in which radio has an advantage vis-a-vis its competitors. If you really want to understand where radio can be headed – watch this. The value of radio's "megaphone" isn't simply in pimping the airwaves to reach faceless ears. The value is in connecting consumers with our clients by rallying the attention we so uniquely enjoy no matter where those con

More than one radio "industry." There will be the folks who see the world through the lens of 1999.  These are the people who see nothing but Arbitron's 100-share world in all its tenuous splendor.  All good things will come in over-the-air buys to this crowd.  These are the traditionalists.  The folks who drive with a great view out the rear view mirror. There will be the broadcasters who see digital as non-traditional revenue and are content (relatively speaking) to deliver