Do influencers really influence anything? And… Adidas unfriends Facebook. Maybe your brand should, too. Plus, rants and raves about the Earth-shattering consequences of Best Buy’s new logo, a newspaper’s wet-look ad that looks too real, and Google’s new AI that’s almost too human. It’s episode 83 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 button below: And if yo

The evolution of the car dashboard: It’s all some folks in radio want to talk about. Understandably, since such a large fraction of radio listening happens while driving. But isn’t it just the nature of disruption to change the conversation all at once? And that’s what happened today with the news that consumers wanting Android Auto no longer need to wait to buy a compatible car to use the platform. Now the platform is coming to them!Look out #radio: #android #auto is coming

We all know the folks in the print business are being squeezed by digital. At the New York Times total revenue fell 1% while Gannett Co. reported revenues down almost 9%. And remember, those declines take into account any growth in digital. But this note from MediaPost is particularly telling: It’s worth noting that [circulation] revenues now make up 59.7% of NYTCO’s total, up from 41.3% in the third quarter of 2010. The proportion derived from advertising has fallen from 51.

When we all create content, nobody’s left to consume it! And… Will Facebook’s new Instant Articles wreck your favorite media brands? It’s episode 20 of Media Unplugged with branding authority Tom Asacker and media strategist Mark Ramsey. Plus rants and raves on topics like crap articles with brand pedigrees, a silly plea for Google to spend more money on ads, the Pizza Hut movie projector, and “I had UBER’s idea first!” Listen as we go inside media to reveal the ugly truth! C

There’s much interest and much consternation about the entry of Google and Apple into operating-system extensions for the car dashboard with Android Auto and CarPlay, respectively. According to BI Intelligence: By 2020, nearly 40 million cars will be using Android Auto and 37.1 million will be using CarPlay, and that will cover nearly all cars launching connected car services, according to BI Intelligence estimates. That conclusion springs from a premium-priced report from BI

Is online video killing the TV star? Absolutely not! Also: What does it mean when the debut novel from a YouTube star breaks records and outsells even Harry Potter? It’s episode 9 of Media Unplugged with branding authority Tom Asacker and media strategist Mark Ramsey. Listen as we go inside media to reveal the ugly truth! And if you’re reading this by email, click here for the audio. For show notes go to the Media Unplugged site. Don’t forget to subscribe to Media Unplugged a

The battle for real estate and attention on mobile devices is even tougher than you think. This past week Techcrunch reported on a study by comScore which indicated… U.S. users are now spending the majority of their time consuming digital media within mobile applications. That means mobile apps, including the number 1 most popular app Facebook, eat up more of our time than desktop usage or mobile web surfing, accounting for 52% of the time spent using digital media. Combined

Last week, Google announced Android Auto, which – like Apple’s CarPlay – aims to fully fulfill the promise of the so-called connected car. Watch this video to see an illustration of how the platform integrates music, both from Google Play and from third party apps like Pandora or iHeartRadio: So what does this mean for radio? Well let’s take a step back. Broadcasters have been obsessed over the dashboard lately because they smell big trouble. But the trouble is much bigger th

I just delivered a research project for a broadcaster in a relatively small market. The study contained the opinions of 600 people. Now this market, like virtually all markets, has its radio usage measured by Nielsen – in this case, by diaries. Do you know how long it takes Nielsen to recruit a sample in this market as large as the sample in my research project? Two years. That’s right. The sample sizes in markets like this one – and markets like yours – are almost laughably

In January, Google will reportedly release a “modular smartphone” in an attempt to disrupt market leaders Apple and Samsung. From Business Insider: Project Ara is Google’s attempt to make a mobile device where the major components, including the camera, speakers, GPS and other common features of modern smartphones, can be swapped out for new ones, mixing and matching modules to customise the phone to do what the user needs it to do. “Designed exclusively for 6 billion people,

By now you’ve heard about Apple’s new CarPlay platform which is gearing up for battle with Google’s Open Automotive Alliance, not to mention all the other platforms making a land grab for that whitest of spaces, the car dashboard. The Apple platform – coming soon – will only be available on a few new car models and will be integrated with only the newest iPhone models and features only a few non-Apple app partners (notably excluding Pandora). But this is how change comes, one

Dear Radio Listeners: Apple and Google want you! Even (and perhaps especially) when you’re in your car. Here’s a video showing some of the navigation functionality of the “coming soon” iOS upgrade: But don’t imagine that the functions will be limited to maps and directions. From 9to5Mac: iOS in the Car is a feature that allows customers to attach an iOS device to a compatible car center console via either wireless protocols or over a USB cable. An iOS interface for managing M

At least that’s what they say. We can be led astray by this, of course, because we can prove almost any point when we go to consumers and ask them “what if we also gave you this?” They will almost always say “yes.” This is true of new features to our products and new choices in our portfolios. We say we want a zillion choices then become so paralyzed by these choices that we very often opt out of the decision to choose altogether in favor of something simpler and more familia

Among the presenters at this year’s hivio radio ideas festival were two Google execs: Gabriela D’Addario and Maggie Ferrante. They are part of the team introducing media companies to Google’s social and communication platforms: Google+ and Hangouts (I just peeked at Google+ and jumped on a live Q&A between the LA Times and Aaron Paul from AMC’s Breaking Bad). We live-streamed hivio on Hangouts Live and built our event base on Google+, and it worked great. It seems to me that

We had a full house and a massive amount of social media conversation last week for the debut of http://hivio.com, the first-ever radio ideas festival, a free event in San Diego. The event streamed live. Click the video/image below to watch the morning sessions (tomorrow I’ll post the afternoon ones). Because this is a real-time stream, feel free to scrub to whatever point in the morning that interests you. Over the coming weeks we will be publishing every individual Q&A and

And if you’re not here in San Diego in person, you can watch it live! It’s the first-ever radio ideas festival and it’s happening on Thursday this week. It’s FREE – and it’s invitation-only. We have a room full of people attending at a quirky downtown San Diego location. The day will include in-depth Q&A with brands, agencies, and media as well as trend-defining presentations. It will stream live in two parts – morning and afternoon. I’ll update this blog post to share the UR

It’s called hivio, and it’s just over two weeks away! It’s radio’s first-ever ideas festival – a free, invitation-only event. We’ve got a full house at our secret location in San Diego on June 20 – dozens of folks have been formally invited and RSVP’d. If you’re not on the guest list. don’t sweat it. You can watch the whole thing online live! It’s a day full of presentations, demos, and discussion with tons of authorities from outside radio about the radio and audio space and

Have you joined the hive yet? Last week I introduced hivio, radio’s first-ever ideas festival. It’s a FREE event and you can watch it and participate in it, either in person or on-demand. This is my last abject pitch in this blog for you to sign up for the event. So don’t miss out! It’s going to be an exciting day, including Q&A with Pandora founder Tim Westergren, a presentation from the folks at Google – and much more. So far, the positive response has been overwhelming. M

In this era of choice and abundance and consumer control, people will continue to embrace radio primarily because it offers them something they can’t get anywhere else, something unique and compelling. Or they won’t embrace radio at all. So how to explain the results of a survey I conducted last week – 1,000 random US respondents ages 18 and up. The question: Agree or Disagree – “Radio brands create unique and compelling content” The results? That’s more than 3-to-1 in the

It has been a day of dazzling conversations for me on behalf of one non-radio client. From emails and conversations with movie studios, a TV network, major entertainment blogs, and even a Hangout with the folks at Google, it’s all about drumming up action surrounding an event – a piece of content. It’s a reminder that stars align around worthy content – worthy ideas made real. Activity and ideas and passion and interest are attracted to activity and ideas and passion and inte