Is the Internet TV’s “secret sauce?”  And how can it be the same for radio? From MediaPost: Even with the boom in social media, TV is apparently roaring. One reason: a certain synergy has developed, where TV brand-building is driving Internet deep-diving. The dynamic has an element of direct response to it, with advertisers eager to drive people to the Web to make a purchase, get more information about a product, watch an added video, or become a Facebook friend and, if excee

Everyone knows the old story of how the the railroad business faltered because they thought they were in the railroad business rather than the transportation business.  Yet the lesson of that story is lost on many broadcasters today. In fact, the lesson is worse than lost.  Because many broadcasters see themselves not even as being in the radio business.  Instead, they think they are in the “making money” business. The problem is that there is no “making money” business.  You

Last week I wrote that Pandora is, without any doubt, a radio substitute in the ears of the audience who might consume both. In one sense a “substitute” or suitable alternative to radio is what the audience says it is, not what the broadcasters say it is.  But in another even more critical sense a radio “substitute” is what your advertisers say it is. Let me explain. Let’s say the advertiser has a dollar to spend.  She wants to spend that dollar to connect her product or serv

A local media company. That’s what broadcast groups are thinking of themselves as nowadays, thanks to lots of folks like me (even if too many of them remain radio or TV groups with tangential digital assets, but that’s another story). If you’re a local media company, part of your job is to maximize the success of your client partners on their terms, whatever those are:  Foot traffic, awareness, the ring of the cash register, etc.  It’s not simply to stock more items in more c

From Inside Radio: Where does radio fit in the marketing universe? Radio needs to see itself as one part of the larger media world if it wants to remain relevant to advertisers. That’s the message from Donna Speciale, president of investment & activation for the ad agency Mediavest. She believes the various media need to see where they fit into the overall marketing universe. “The conversation has to be holistic,” Speciale told the Digital Hollywood Conference yesterday in Ne

Okay, that’s an exaggeration.  Let’s just say the average program director and the average seller don’t always see eye-to-eye. And who can blame them? After all, on one side they’re protecting the product experience for the audience, and on the other side they’re protecting the business model for the clients, the owners, and the employees. But here’s the newsflash:  All that is changing. Watch this video and see how the structure of the average radio station is all wrong.  An

“Did it work?” is rarely the question since most radio sales operations don’t care to know (and neither do many agencies). But “most” certainly does not mean “all.” And in this age of rampant accountability – an era when return-on-investment is a readily available metric as close as a Google Adword, some broadcasters are offering up something to advertisers that they’re not accustomed to seeing from radio: Proof. Proof that their radio buy works. Lurking in the sales pit at C

It’s not at all about “positioning your radio station.” What Tribune CEO Randy Michaels is talking about here is creating radio worth listening to and worth buying. Creating radio that makes audiences sit up and listen and makes cash registers ring for our clients. So stuff this in your PPM pipe and smoke it. #costperpoint #arbitron #radio #randymichaels #hear20 #markramsey #tribune #Media #sales #radioindustry #markramseymedia #ppm #hear2com

One of the reasons why ratings are less important than ever is because accountability – measuring what works – is more important than ever. In an ideal world, you need both reach and accountability.  You need stuff to be heard (and seen) by a broad audience – AND you need results for your advertisers.  This, of course, is one of radio’s great opportunities in the new – more accountable – world. One of my great frustrations about radio is that we invest so much effort in being