"Ninety percent of the art of living consists of getting on with people one cannot stand." Samuel Goldwyn

"We do not meet success except by reiterated efforts." Francoise de Maintenon

"Men of age object too much, consult too long, adventure too little, repent too soon, and seldom drive business home to the full period, but content themselves with a mediocrity of success." Francis Bacon

Today's image: You Win Again by trixie. Wonderful. Thank you for sharing.

Thanks to Ian Stewart we get a look at some interesting data from the third survey into music passion in Asia by MTV. 15-34 urban middle class respondents, N = 5,741. Three key points...

• 50% have downloaded music to their phone recently
• 74% want to replace their MP3 with a music phone
• "It's all going digital, fast. It's all going mobile, faster"

Check out the entire summary, Music Matters to MTV 2008, via slideshare here. My thanks to Ian for sharing.

Taddeo to shops - Drop Dead: Seems Jack Taddeo, among the latest to weigh in on the posting issue, is suggesting operators in the top ten markets are advancing posting merely to kiss up to agencies and buyers. Jack wants the RAB and big group owners to "leave the rest of us alone" his thought being lazy big market guys have created their own mess and need not visit their remedies on the hard working smaller market folk. The impression one gets is there's gold in them thar hills and things are, well, just peachy there, thank you very much.

Jack is right about one thing. Small market radio is different from major market radio. Further, measured markets are different from those not measured. With all respect to Jack, he and others are failing to recognize the sea change wrought by accountability and transparency. Nothing but great respect for operators who champion and succeed at direct, however, the world of direct is changing too.

One example. Our small market retail store. We are direct clients of broadcast. As part of every schedule we always include web assets. We track store and web traffic daily. We value traffic into our store and we also value traffic to our web site and to our web store. Our expectation is to generate online revenues equal to or greater than our in-store revenues. A friend and fellow local retailer is generating more dollars online than their very successful storefront. The world of online marketing and advertising is changing the rule set. This is not limited to major market environments, it's a rule set not bound by DMA. Buyer expectations are changing dramatically. Station A might well have better ratings than Station B but when Station B delivers more, is more accountable and appears to be more transparent, doing business with Station A gets questioned. Let me also applaud Jack on the merits of relationship selling. He's right. Local retailers understand that all things being equal we do business with the people we like and all things being unequal we do business with the people we like. What's emerging are new ways of keeping score.

Accountability and transparency are the real issues here. Advertisers and their AORs should hold media accountable. This is not to say that the same rules of accountability relevant in New York should be employed in New Orleans or New Buffalo. For radio to remain relevant and competitive it needs to embrace new measures of accountability and transparency.

LATER: Radio ace Jack Taddeo weighs in via comments. Jack also posted a comment via RBR here...

"For the record, I never said 'Drop dead' to anyone. Those were David Martin's words, not mine. My point is that the big groups can do whatever they want to do, even in conjunction with the NAB, but they should not be speaking for the business 'as a whole'. There are plenty of smaller owners who are doing just fine and have no problems with agnecies (sic) or advertisers because they produce results for them. Don't assume everyone in a 'flyover' state is an idiot. From 30+ years in the business I realize that accountability is of the utmost importance to any client. If the big groups screwed up then, by all means, they should fix their problems. Just don't assume that everyone is in that leaky boat."


My response to Jack: Jack is correct. "Drop dead" was my headline. The bigger point I was trying to make here is the rule set is changing. Online advertising initiatives are targeting clients without respect to size or geography. The internet reorders the traditional concepts of time and space. My suggestion being the very definitions of "...the business 'as a whole'" are changing. Google and Microsoft are developing and advancing tools for business owners to use no matter the size of market. In net effect, they are inventing, establishing new metrics, new scorecards. They are changing buyer expectations by changing the very experience of the advertising/media transaction/relationship. Moreover, Google and Microsoft are specifically targeting small business owners. Microsoft's Office Live Small Business offers free websites (including domain registration); Google Maps allows small retailers to design and offer printable online coupons for free. Local broadcasters are in an excellent position to take advantage of this sea change. As a second-generation broadcaster I'm optimistic that the glass is half-full and remain more concerned with who's pouring.

Previously: "You're making a big mistake" What radio sellers tell us when they don't get the order, how not to sell retailers - more here. "Working with Google to sell ads is not surrender" How broadcast needs to invent new sales channels - more here. "A technique to improve your closing by more than 80%" Lessons learned from legendary sales developer Kevin B. Sweeney - more here.

Word to the wise: Radio programming ace Lee Arnold holds a clinic on how to make the right things happen on the radio. You're invited here. Bravos, Lee! Well said.

Bonus video: Jan McGonigal talks about saving the world through game design. From The New Yorker Conference. What we can learn from the $50 billion multiplayer gaming world. [video]

Buzz: Yahoo! joins CBS Audience Network (video streaming).

Enjoy the video below, it's one minute and simply brilliant.