"The highest reward for a man's toil is not what he gets for it but what he becomes by it." John Ruskin

"The world isn't interested in the storms you encountered, but whether or not you brought in the ship." Raul Armesto

"Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it." Dwight D. Eisenhower

True or false? If you build it they will come.

That line from the film Field of Dreams reminds almost everyone of another line.

Emerson most often gets the credit for it - "If you build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door."

Scott Berkun brings this up in his cool little book The Myths of Marketing. Scott writes "More than 4000 mousetrap patents exist, yet only around 20 ever became profitable products." Scott goes on to reference the work of historian John H. Lienhard...

"Rarely, if ever are the networks that surround an innovation in its
earliest stages given the credit they are due...a better mousetrap,
like anything else, will succeed only when those who envision
the idea convince others to join in their new venture - as
investors, suppliers, employees, retailers, customers, and
even competitors."

Berkun then tells us "When we bemoan our favorite restaurant going out of business ('but they make the best cannelloni!') or why our favorite band can't sell albums ('they have the best lyrics!'), we're focusing on the small part of the picture that effects us personally, which is only one factor in the environment determining its fate. These environmental, or secondary, factors have as much influence as the quality of the idea, the talent, or the innovation itself." (ibid)

We are living in times of significant and wonderful change. In the media business the object of the exercise is to reach out, to get into the places where people happen to be, to be a part of their moment. To earn and therefore deserve the big prize, the honor of repeated invitation. The privilege of being in the evoked set of daily media. My sense is this is complex and subtle, calculus rather than arithmetic. Perhaps the best metaphor is fashion, in fact, fashion retail.

Enjoyed a really good conversation about widgets last evening. The take away is we need to stop expecting people to come to us, that is, expect 100% of our traffic to end up dead ending at a specific destination, some single url. We must begin to imagine/invent ways for us to get present, be present, stay present, to play a part in the world of others. Widgets are an attempt to do just that (so is TiVo, VOD, the iPod, et al). It's becoming more about export and the trend in media consumption seem to be less about import (a complete reverse of the traditional producers' perspective).

Marshall Field got it right - "Give the lady what she wants" - the only update needed to that wise counsel is "Provide it when and where she wants." Utility. We should be focused on exporting valuable stuff rather than simply and only importing people. What is value to the user? How can we make it simple and easy for them to get value from a sustained relationship with us? Loyalty and engagement are the first products, the second and third effects, of trust. Trust is earned. Get into the export business, time to focus less (even prepare to someday abandon) the aging import model. Arbitron PPM is about getting into places, it's about penetration of personal and public spaces; you need to be played to be exposed and to be played you're going to need to be invited. Getting invited requires you to be known and "findable." Export vs. import.

Reach

It will become critical to dominate the commons of your target demo.
The winners will be those who discover ways to play some persistent role on a much bigger stage, that of the commons at large.

Imputed: an added importance in the dimension of occasions, that being sense of place. The skill set required is an acuity, a sensitivity to space. The player with the greatest and most consistent measure of reach, that is, the player that is most cognizant of place, the one able to be present, without regard to elected usage (or preference), becomes the player most likely to succeed.

This starts with an understanding of where they are, where they happen to be and it takes you to everywhere they want to be. Therefore, the only standard of pure excellence becomes nothing less than ubiquity. Places are properly defined by they. And, now, after an entire career of learning about what they say and what they want, you need to discover and study where they are (and in real time). May I please show you something in geo-parsing? Place, the next important frontier. Be there.

Building the better mousetrap, creating engaging content, offering the best programming is certainly important, yet, it's not really enough to ensure sustained success. It is becoming the start, the first big step whereas, once upon a time, the very same work product was considered to be the finished art. It would seem that the best used by date on that traditional approach is drawing near. Welcome to the 21st century. Game on!

Thank you very much: Programming ace Lester St. James for the ping and kind words.

Congrats & cheers: Hey!Nielsen getting ready to go public, days away now. My thanks to Steve Ciabattoni for the very cool HeyNielsen sneak preview. Powerset Labs is set to swing their doors open, standby for launch! (Thanks to Mark Johnson for keeping me dialed-in). Michael Rosenblum on the occasion of Current's Emmy win. We can all learn something from Michael Rosenblum (and he's just getting started).

Have an amazing weekend. Back next week with a brand new show.

Photo by Ron Fell. Wonderful shot. Thank you very much!

"The power of imagination makes us infinite." John Muir

"Facts are the most important thing in business. Study facts and do more than is expected of you." Frederick Ecker

"An executive is a man who decides; sometimes he decides right, but always he decides." John H. Patterson

What can broadcast do today that no one else can? Make people special. Make heroes happen.

Recognition. Local. Forget name dropping Paris, again. People in your DMA have cause to celebrate, take notice, spread the word!

Those of us working in the trade forget how very, very cool it is to hear our name on the radio, see and hear our name on the screen.

The best part - it's not the person we mention that hears or sees it in real time, it's all of their friends, their family, the people important in their lives who tell them about it.

Names make news! Local, local, local!

Bonus: Tom Asacker - this is one you do not want to miss. Highly recommended. Bravo Tom!

Bonus 2: Leave it to ace programmer Lee Arnold to share stuff we need to be reading, here and here. Suggested with every pixel at my command. Each a good read - thank you very much, Lee.

Countdown to the sweeps: Want an edge in the sweeps? Invite an outsider in, a person without an agenda, someone who is not dialed-in to your situation. The professional who will ask the obvious questions, the questions you are no longer sensitive enough to note because you are too close to the action - too involved in the work to notice. It's about perspective.

If I owned, managed or programmed a rock radio station of any flavor, no matter how well positioned, without respect to how right we were for the upcoming sweep I would invite Lee Arnold in for a day. If you're #1 he could help you create a greater lead, if you're #2 he could help you to reach or close on #1, and if you're not #1 or #2 then you really need to get him into your discussions now. Reach him via his blog here.

One million dollars: That's how much Coca-Cola paid to have their logo on the MySpace home page for one day (8/17).

Buzz: Hearing a good deal of chatter about HeyNielsen. Stay tuned. It will probably go public this fall. In the meantime check out their blog here (do sign up for the beta).

"Culture is more important than technology"
"Transparency is viral... it's really fundamental"

Video: Google chief Eric Schmidt on net neutrality, free speech, universal access, advertising, ip and more via YouTube here. Related story by Timothy Karr via HP here. Eric says "Keep it free and open" and he is spot-on. Eric, thank you very much for getting out in front of these issues!

Video: Process Enacted by Jordan C. Greenhalgh. Amazing. Bravos! Watch Jordan's short here.

Video: CitizeNews - Michael Rosenblum has the back story here. Congrats & cheers Michael! What is so very cool about the work that Michael does is the work that Michael does. He's not just talking about doing something, he's out there making something happen. If you are not following his blog you are not watching the future happen and the future is happening right before our eyes. We are fortunate Michael favors us by sharing. Join the future, already in progress, just jump over to his blog here.

Please make a note of it: Doc is now blogging at Harvard. "Same old blog, brand new place" here.

Might as well start up a new blog: All about Arbitron's Portable People Meter (PPM). Day one of beta, your comments, suggestions and contributions invited. PPM News & Comment

Then you get the bill: iJustine gets her first iPhone bill from AT&T, in a box.