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Week of August 3, 2009
August 3, 2009
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Friday 8/7, 2009
I read one of the great, early books on positive thinking last week - "As a Man Thinketh" by James Allen. It was written in 1902 as he tried to make sense of the Industrial Revolution in England. It is interesting if you read it from that perspective and superimpose it on the Information Revolution we are experiencing.
The theme of the book is something we should all remember: Everything we are stems from our own thoughts. We create our life situations through strong, positive thoughts or weak, negative thoughts.
As we deal with the economy it might be good to keep this quote in mind:
Man is buffeted by circumstances so long as he believes himself to be the creature of outside conditions. But when he realizes that he may command the hidden soil and seeds of his being out of which circumstances grow, he then becomes the rightful master of himself. Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves.
I'm sure there are many ways to interpret that quote, but I prefer to look at it as a call to not let your environment be your master ... instead, master your environment. Through these tough economic times the people who keep working and searching will be those who come out the other end stronger than they went in.
Doubts and fears are as prevalent now as barnacles on a dock but if you are going to succeed you need to knock them down. Allen says it well:
He who has conquered doubt and fear has conquered failure. His every thought is allied with power, and all difficulties are bravely met and wisely overcome.
Get a copy of the book. It's an easy read of less than 100 pages, but will be a great inspiration. This last quote is especially good:
The dreamers are the saviors of the world. Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become.
Humans (including clients and listeners) can tell when they are dealing with a happy or unhappy person. This week, put your doubts and fears aside and think positively; think only about success. Dream this week ... kill the nightmares. Let me know what happens.
Thursday 8/6, 2009Roger Penske expects to have his acquisition of Saturn done by the end of September. so I will say it again ... GET CLOSE TO YOUR LOCAL SATURN DEALER! There are about 350 Saturn dealerships run by 200 dealers. Penske plans to offer contracts to all 200 dealers, which should be comforting to them.
Penske is a shrewd operator and I am sure there will be both local and national dollars for advertising.
Under the tentative deal, GM will provide the Penske-run company with Aura sedans, Vue SUVs and Outlook crossover vehicles until at least 2011. Also, Penske will acquire the inventory of replacement parts for the 3.5 million Saturns currently on the road.
Penske is looking for other partners to build Saturns after 2011, both domestically and overseas. So look for a big change in a couple of years and the advertising necessary to support it. Your Saturn relationship needs to be long term to capitalize on everything coming down over the next few years.
Wednesday 8/5, 2009The good news is that Southern Comfort whisky is increasing its media budget from $8 million last year to $10 million this year. For us, is it good news or bad news that last year Southern Comfort spent nearly its entire budget on cable TV and magazines and this year that number drops to zero with the budget going to online properties as they try to narrowly focus on the 21-29 year old demographic. They are going to things like Facebook, Spin, and Fader, along with online spots on NBC local and network websites, full player takeovers around prime time shows on CBS, Fox and FX. They also want to bolster their presence in bars and at events.
Can radio and our digital assets target 21-29? Can we partner in bars? Do we have our own huge events targeting that demo? Do we partner with other events? Can Southern Comfort be a digital partner with us? The answers are yes, yes, yes, yes and yes.
A lot of their budget has already been allocated, but if you have a young demo station it would be in your best interest to dive deeply for this money before it is completely gone.
Tuesday 8/4, 2009I took a walk down memory lane this week when I read that Clear Channel and some other companies are turning down ads for MusicFirst, which ask listeners to support the Performance Rights Act. For, me it was a blast from the past when we would regularly turn down ads not in the best interest of the station. We turned down high-intensity spots on many stations when they didn't fit the format. Remember the "no sirens/screeching tires" ban? That was actually a thing nearly everyone followed called the "NAB Code." It was an old idea when we thought that people cared about what they heard on the radio.
For the last several years revenue has trumped listener gratification. Who among us can't raise our hand and plead guilty? It's nothing new; we've created expectations among our listeners that they will hear lawyer-referral service ads with disgusting stories about limbs ripped off by drunk drivers, ads that insult one's intelligence, and very few Production Directors would flag sirens and screeching tires as an issue.
Another blast from the past is the just released Alan Burns study into the percentage of spoken word on music station relevant to listeners. We are so engaged in station and advertiser promotion that we seem to be forgetting there is actually a guy named Bob and a girl named Jane listening who care about what's going on in their world.
Here's a quiz: Why do people tune in to music radio? Rank them and then rank how they are being done on your station.
- To hear where this week's remote is happening.
- To find out how many hits in a row are being played.
- To understand that this station is the #1 hit station.
- To hear the kind of music they expect.
- To occasionally hear something interesting about the music.
- To have an engaging jock tell them in a clear, concise way something interesting about their world.
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I hope you agree that in this list D, E, and F should be #1, #2, and #3. Make your own list and be honest. How relevant are your stations?
Do you expect the PD to "just know" what music to play without a research tool? The only thing you've got going for you in the real world is most of your competitors also don't put a high priority on making sure the right music is being played.
Engaging listeners in a clear, concise way? Oops, that would take training the air personalities over a long period of time; usually beginning in a small market and working up to the bigs. It's much easier to find someone who reads well with a decent voice and stick liner cards in front of him/her.
I hope you take time to read Alan's full article. It is well thought out and hits the target. The article isn't a Programming Nazi thing insisting that station business must take a back seat. Quite the opposite. He realizes the need for revenue, positioning, promotion, and platforms, but challenges us all to not forget the necessity of listener relevance.
We have our huge terrestrial radio audiences and every opportunity to build eyes and ears with our digital assets. For the next seven days, find ways to be relevant while creating revenue.
Monday 8/3, 2009
The statistics on the Cash for Clunkers program are interesting. With the backlog of over 200,000 clunkers turned in, the first $1billion is gone and Congress is scrambling to get another couple billion to keep the program going for at least a couple of weeks.
Chalk another one up for a group of people representing us who don't have a good handle on how much something will do for business. Doesn't common sense dictate that there is a large group of folks who have held back on buying a new car, not because they can't afford it, but because they are afraid of the economy? Now, couldn't you have told them that $4,500 for a car not worth that much was going to break through and bring rust buckets out of the woodwork?
Lucky for us, they now are probably going to pump more money into the program, giving us a chance at more advertising.
In rough figures, the average paid for each clunker is $4,200, so each billion dollars is going to pump about 240,000 cars into the junk pile and a like number off the new car lots. When you do the math and figure cities with highly mobile populations that will get more than their fair share of the money, there's going to be a lot of activity. I figure a highly mobile city like Phoenix will sell roughly 3,500 to 4,000 new cars under the program. How many clunkers are out there and are there enough to do another $2 billion? Who knows, but we need to be on the crest of the wave with innovative ideas for our automotive clients so they can maximize sales.