"Each advertisement must make a proposition to the consumer. Not just words, not just product puffery, not just show-window advertising. Each advertisement must say to each reader: 'Buy this product, and you will get this specific benefit.'"

"The proposition must be one that the competition either cannot, or does not, offer. It must be unique - either a uniqueness of the brand or a claim not otherwise made in that particular field of advertising."

"The proposition must be so strong that it can move the mass millions, i.e., pull over new customers to your product."

"These three points are summed up in the phrase 'UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION.'

This is a U.S.P." Rosser Reeves. Reality in Advertising

Today's image: Howl. By Fred Winston. Great shot. Thanks, again, for sharing.

We can all learn something from the great Rosser Reeves. Celebrated as one of the creators of modern advertising, Reeves invented the notion of U.S.P. or what we now commonly refer to as positioning. In his 1961 book, from which we have liberated the above excerpts, Reeves also offered a new definition of advertising.

"ADVERTISING IS THE ART OF GETTING

A UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION

INTO THE HEADS OF THE MOST

PEOPLE AT THE LOWEST

POSSIBLE COST."

The definition is as he originally wrote it, in all caps.

My thought is Reeves' thinking is as fresh, relevant and important today as when first published. This classic writing belongs in your library, and you're in luck. After being out of print for decades, it's again available at a very affordable price. Use the link above - the book title - to purchase via Amazon. Reality in Advertising is a must-read for every serious student of media, marketing and advertising.

More good reads and a great listen deserving of your attention:

Kipper McGee, the venerable radio programming ace and marketing maven, has a book out. Brandwidth has dropped and available now in soft cover here and Kindle here. Don't have a Kindle? No worries, the Kindle eBook version can also be read on any computer by downloading a free reader. Highly recommended.

It's official, we have a winner. Sean Ross delivers the dernier cri and reveals the Summer Song of 2015, here Bravos, Sean. Thanks for again doing a thoughtful and thorough judging.

There's a bunch of good writing on the web but none finer on the subject matter relevant to radio than jacoBLOG. Fred Jacobs and his Jacobs Media gang do a simply exceptional job of presenting the important and interesting. Fred's latest post, Making the Donuts AND Driving the Trucks, is another example of why you need to make jacoBLOG a part of your daily weekday reading. Don't miss it if you can, here.

Related: We wrote about this distribution premise of Fred's post as a paradigm shift, one we called "Export vs Import" in 2007. It was the first year we began to advise clients on the importance of exporting content. My sense is our thinking, while perhaps ahead of its time, remains relevant today. Read the post, here

Creating killer content

has become the first

big step. It's no longer

the finished art.

Vox Jox Redux: The great Claude Hall in collaboration with the always amazing Rollye James delivers the goods via a cool new site. Updated each Monday morning, it's a curation of interesting conversations about radio and more. Rollye is also providing a killer set of links to all manner of good stuff. Congrats and cheers to Claude and Rollye on a wonderful, fun read! Worth the jump, here

Highly recommended: Penn Jillette's Marathon Life in Magic. Here's The Thing, a podcast by Alec Baldwin via WNYC, here

As many of you know, I have been absent from this space for some time. Some 48.5K tweets later, I've decided to come home and invest more attention here. Now, how to get used to a channel that is longer than 140 characters. Thanks to all for your support and encouragement.

"The whole point of any medium, where it is video or writing or painting or film is to expand our thinking and expose us to new ideas, not repeat the same ones over and over ad infinitum...Tell me what I don't know. Tell me what I never even thought about before." Michael Rosenblum

" For it to be a content business, content people have to run the company. The business has to be obsessed with what it’s consumers want and be able to give them that and much more. In fact then need to give them things that they didn’t know they wanted. Content consumers ultimately need to be surprised and fully expect their sources of information to be smarter than they are about the topics they are reading or viewing." Larry Kramer

"It will be very hard for people to watch or consume something that has not in some sense been tailored for them." Eric Schmidt

Today's image: Leaning Tulip by Fred Winston. Wonderful. Thank you for sharing.

Let's suppose you launched a business in November of 2008 and in April of 2010 your business had achieved a value of approx $1.35 billion. Let us say your revenues that Spring were on pace to make $1 billion in sales faster than any other business in history. Let's agree that in October of 2010 your business was operating in over 150 markets in the USA, over 100 markets in Europe, Asia and South America and you had over 35 million registered users.

Now...
What if?

What if in the Fall of 2010 you were offered $3 billion to sell that business and then weeks later you're approached by another suitor who offers you over $5 billion to sell?

What if your 2011 projections indicated you were in good shape, pacing to deliver between $3 and $4 billion in revenues. Would you dare change anything?

It's the true story of Groupon and here's how they've answered those two what if questions...

They said no. They were not interested in selling (Yahoo! and Google were the rumored buyers)

and

They decided while business was good it was time to change things, invent another product and introduce a different business model.

Imagine that.

A company that's about two and a half years old which is on track to produce revenue equal to about 21% of US radio's total revenue in 2010 (using BIA/Kelsey estimate of $14.1 bil, and $3 bil rev assumption for Groupon) and instead of being laser focused on tweaking and optimizing their existing business model they've decided to also change up their own game, innovate and launch another business.

Before you continue reading, please watch the following video.



Clearly, Groupon and its competitors (over 100 similar US sites) are having an impact on local ad spending.

Allow me to suggest that Groupon Now has the potential of changing the local direct game yet again because its value proposition is fundamentally different. Groupon is putting the third screen to work and doing it in real-time, they've entered the brave new world of the mobile pure play.

"Mobile is huge for Groupon...I believe we could see us doing 50 percents of deals sold/purchased in the next couple of years" said Michael Shim, Groupon VP Mobile Partnerships. As eMoney writer Tricia Duryee reports "Mobile, along with social and local, will be one of the largest drivers for Groupon's deals business over the next few years...Shim said the service has also exceeded expectations, with more than 1,000 merchants already signed up to offer real-time deals. 'We’ve been inundated with demand. Groupon Now is about local discovery. What can I find around me?…We are just getting going on where we think it will take our business.'" [ref]

Introduced last week and more than 1,000 merchants already signed up. Pop quiz: what's your best take rate story? Is it a compelling one-sheet being used on the street and on your site?

My sense is there are strategic issues involved. Here are four to consider.

1. The practical notion of "Local" is being redefined. We're moving from the traditional big/generalized (e.g., DMA, SMSA, US Census block code) to the new small/personalized (think GPS or exact position within three meters). A new marketing grammar, a new sense of place, will be one of the second or third-order effects in the growing adoption of location-based services.

2. New players want in, others want bigger local shares. Local has not been 100% owned and operated by the usual suspects (i.e., the traditional incumbents including print, broadcast and out of home) for a while now but it's getting ever more competitive. Local and hyper-local is where everyone wants to be next. Everyone includes Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Pandora, and [insert the name of an advertising or ad-supported company here].

3. New rules of engagement are emerging and with them new expectations are being created. The metrics used in buying and evaluating local media will likely change and affect some share of local ad spend. From buys based upon audience estimates and proof of performance (run as ordered?) to registered users and completed transactions (products/services sold). Moreover, performance pressure will increase. From flights evaluated over days and weeks to flights evaluated over hours in real-time. In this new always-on connected world it's certainly possible that price and item copy will be placed, judged on actual in-the-moment purchase behaviors. Impulse purchasing is exploited, solutions defaulting to mobile (i.e., Help, I'm hungry or I'm bored). As ever, the research tool preferred by local retailers continues to be the cash register.

4. Creating awareness without generating completed transactions will become less and less attractive to buyers, especially those local merchants provided more performance-based options. Branding or pure image driven advertising will become more difficult to justify. John Wanamaker gets credit for the famous adage "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is, I don't know which half" but as AdWeek's Michael Wolff wrote just yesterday on the subject of digital marketing and TV's upfront week "...15 years into our ability to measure the absolute effectiveness of the way and the methods by which we sell something, and, still, TV advertising, which measures nothing, guarantees no sales, offers no data, registers no interest, quantifies no desire, provides no follow-up, and which no sentient being watches anyway, is making more money than ever before. Waste works." [ref]

While I appreciate Michael's point of view there remains major work to be done on the metrics used in the buying and selling of digital media. Serious debate continues and we have yet to reach a consensus relative to accepted definitions and measures. Bravos to IAB for their ongoing efforts. Further, while Steve Jobs continues using TV to sell his iPhones and iPads I'll remain bullish on the potential of TV advertising done right. We'll stipulate here that doing TV right is not at all easy and most don't do it right, however, Apple stands out as a good example of just how powerful TV advertising can be. Target, the merchant, is another exemplary TV advertiser. There is, imo, a significant share of the $65.9 billion in annual US TV ad spend [2010 cit] that is pure waste.

"At every crossroads on the path that leads
to the future, tradition has placed 10,000 men
to guard the past."
Maurice Maeterlinck

What's a broadcaster to do?

To those working in radio, those progeny of the first generation wireless, the true real-time media pioneers, let me offer five suggestions. As well, let me encourage you to share your thoughts, ideas and suggestions via comments here below.

1. Game it up. At your next sales meeting, play the Groupon Now! video and give sellers the following homework assignment. "How do we pitch Big Frank? What is our value proposition that will blow Big Frank's face off? How will we help him to fill his empty tables?" Make it a pitch competition. On pitch day encourage brutally candid discussion. Vote first, second and third place winners. Let the sales team and a good representation of staff not on the sales team participate in the voting. For those already deep into "Deal of the Day" and other discount coupon strategies, how are you measuring up? Would Big Frank buy your offer over Groupon Now? Do you have a video that demonstrates how your program works? A video that clearly articulates value that the prospective client can understand? Does your value proposition match or exceed the one offered in the Groupon Now video? You must have and present a compelling, engaging story. Remember Leo Burnett's counsel on great advertising being three messages: "Here's what we've got. Here's what it will do for you. Here's how to get it."

2. Work your network. Start a serious conversation with others. What's happening with Groupon, LivingSocial, et al in your market and others? What are your colleagues (and clients) hearing, learning and doing? What's the RAB's best thinking on this? Take the advice of Dr. Jeffrey Cole and ensure that your learning curve is consistently steeper than your action curve. "You have to be paying attention, learning and watching." Do your homework. Be prepared for your client's phone call asking you "What do you know about Groupon?"

3. Make something happen. Get in the game. Take measured action and experiment. Be willing to fail and learn how to fail faster. Be agile. Embrace iterative development. Take the winner of your pitch competition (see #1 above) for a test drive. Carefully study the results. Revisit your design and fine-tune or blow up and move on to your second place winner. Repeat. Move on to your third place winner. Hold another pitch competition.

4. Give your team a better chance to win. Be the best that radio can be. The anecdotal evidence would suggest 7 of every 8 potential merchant deals are rejected by Groupon. Can you imagine a radio sales manager failing to approve 7 out of 8 orders for new business? Even if it turns out not to be true let's admit it...7 of every 8 being rejected makes a killer urban ad legend for Groupon. If what Groupon is doing is working it's working, in part, because they do qualify their clients and work within a creative framework designed to optimize performance on the Groupon platform. Radio should consider taking a more pro-active, aggressive approach in working with clients to develop creative that plays into radio's inherent strengths and utilize smart scheduling of that creative to maximize the chances of producing best results for the client.

5. Check out what Fred Jacobs and the digital ninjas of Jacobs Media have to say about all of this. They're offering a good read. Make the jump to the always informative jacoBLOG here.

Keep in mind Groupon was Andrew Mason's second attempt at using the platform he developed. His first, ThePoint, failed to produce the results he expected but he didn't give up, he moved on to invent Groupon. Now he's inventing Groupon 2.0 What's your team up to?

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter.
Try again. Fail again. Fail better.
Samuel Beckett

Footnote: What did Google really want? My guess is Google - if they really did make an offer - already having the superior tech skills, wanted Groupon's creative staff and their local sales team. It would have been a very savvy accretive acquisition in their local strategy. They have since launched Google Offers.

Previously: My post about Groupon from late last year: Nobody likes it but the audience.

Finally, a must-see video and a book recommendation. Thanks for stopping by.

Bonus: TED: Eli Pariser: Beware online "filter bubbles."











Recommended:

The Filter Bubble: What the Internet Is Hiding from You by Eli Pariser.
Amazon info.

Reviewed by Jesse Walker: The Facebook Friend in the Plastic Bubble

"If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, it's just possible you haven't grasped the situation." Jean Kerr

"You're always a little disappointing in person because you can't be the edited essence of yourself." Mel Brooks

"To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing." Fred Shero

Today's image: And the Road Goes On Forever by Thomas Hawk. Amazing. Thank you for sharing.

Memorial Day
Help our troops and help their families.
Please, join me and give what you can
USO

Inspired by The Power of Pull by Hagel, Brown and Davison, today's post is a follow-on to my last post, here. This is the second in a series. From the book's introduction...

"It's quickly dawning on us...our education was at best a thin foundation
that needs to be continually refreshed in order for us to stay competitive.

The stress in our professional lives bleeds over into our personal lives as we find ourselves working longer hours and as long-standing relationships are disrupted by unexpected events...Incumbents at the core - which is the place where most of the resources, especially people and money, are concentrated, and where old ways of thinking and acting still hold sway - have many fewer incentives to figure out the world, or to discover new ways of doing things, or to find new information. They're on top, and they're ready to keep doing what got them there. But simply accessing or attracting static resources no longer cuts it. Accessing and attracting have little value unless they are coupled with a third set of practices that focus on driving performance rapidly to new levels. These practices involve participation in, and sometimes orchestration of, something we call 'creation spaces' - environments that effectively integrate teams within a broader learning ecology so that performance improvement accelerates as more participants join."

The authors suggest we are witness to a value migration from the "experience curve" to the "collaboration curve."

Answering the earlier call for "flow" we have the recommendations of another in my flow, Tom Webster. My thanks to Tom.

Justin Kownacki
Altitude Branding
Convince & Convert
in over your head
Six Pixels of Separation
Brian Solis

More from my flow. Three broadcasting (radio) blogs worth your bandwidth and three daily emails for you to consider.

Blogs/RSS:

jacoBLOG
The Infinite Dial
RAIN: Radio and the Internet Newsletter


Daily email newsletters, solid day-starters:

The Slatest
Mike Allen's Playbook
Hugh's Daily Cartoon

Who's in your flow? Please do get in touch with your suggestions. Thank you.

A word to the wise: It's no longer an option. You (and your stations) should be on Twitter. If you are, please consider this your written invitation to follow (@martindave), you have my pledge to follow back. Should you not be Twittering, why not? What exactly are you waiting for? Jump in! Getting started: Complete your profile including pic, link and bio. Tweet! Twitter tips: 1. Be yourself 2. Read replies, respond, engage. 3. Share the good stuff, RT and link 4. Manners matter, be nice. 5. Have fun.

Closed circuit to Jeff Haley: Join the conversation! Ready, willing and able to assist you in making the most of social networks including Twitter.

Congrats & cheers: All honored by Ad Age Magazine in their 2010 Entertainment A-List. The top five: Sony Pictures, Justin Bieber, Blind Side, Clear Channel, and The Beatles, Rock Band. Writing about Clear Channel, Ad Age says "Exec VP Evan Harrison's iHeartRadio makes Clear Channel a breeding ground for discovering new artists and a top earner in digital revenue" $175 million gross (SNL Kagan, 2009). 22 million monthly uniques at iHeartRadio.com

Bravos: The legendary Paulie Gallis on his latest lunch meet in Chicago. We had a great time gathered at Tavern at the Park. Attending were Mark Edwards, Brian Kelly, Tom Teuber, Kurt Hanson, John Gehron, Dan Kelley, Jim Scully, Dick Rakovan, Kipper McGee, Mike Shied, and Doug Dahlgren.



Summer reads: first in a series, the latest from N=1 fav Clay Shirky (non-fiction). From the publisher's release...

"The potential impact of cognitive surplus is enormous. As Shirky points out, Wikipedia was built out of roughly 1 percent of the man-hours that Americans spend watching TV every year. Wikipedia and other current products of cognitive surplus are only the iceberg's tip. Shirky shows how society and our daily lives will be improved dramatically as we learn to exploit our goodwill and free time like never before."

Pre-order: Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age by Clay Shirky. [Amzn info]

Got a summer read to recommend? Please share in comments.

Bonus: Cognitive Surplus: The Great Spare-Time Revolution. Daniel Pink & Clay Shirky via Wired Magazine, here. "...organizations that are founded to solve problems end up committed to the preservation of the problems." - Shirky

Learn more, earn more: The Conclave's Summer Learning Conference happens July 15-17, in Minneapolis. Rock radio maven Fred Jacobs and his Jacobs Media team kick off Conclave's 35th year with a new annual learning event, Jacobs Media Summer School. Just added: Jerry Clifton's Night School. More info and online registration, here. Being involved behind the scenes provides me with some unique insider knowledge. Let's just say Conclave 2010 is one you do not want to miss. FD: I serve as an unpaid director on the Conclave board.

Must-read of the month: May: State of Play by B. Kite Pt 1. Some notes on the growing pains of gaming culture, here. Pt 2. Considering the artistic future of video games, here.

Enjoy or endure

Sir Ken Robinson returned to TED this year. Sir Ken's talk is an outstanding follow-on to his last TED appearance. His thesis is we make very poor use of our talents. His suggestion is there are two groups of people in the business world. Those who enjoy what they do and those who endure and wait for the weekend. For those that enjoy their work, it's not what they do, it's who they are. Note to leaders: job one is to create the conditions for achievement. Check out his wonderful new Ted Talk: Bring on the learning revolution!




Have an amazing week. Thank you for stopping by. Your thoughts via comments and email are always welcome and appreciated.

"So then the year is repeating its old story again. We are come once more to its most charming chapter." Goethe

"Courage is grace under pressure." Ernest Hemingway

"The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise." Tacitus

Today's image: reflections (A) by camil tulcan. Wonderful shot. Thanks for sharing.

"So what have you learned since I last saw you?"

That's the question leadership scholar Warren Bennis threw at Tom Peters. Tom goes on, in his latest book, to speak about learning. [The Little Big Things. Chapter 118. Learning. Making the Grade: Lifelong Learning Is a Mission-Statement Must. Amzn info]

"In our rapidly gyrating world, learning-for-life is no longer an option; it's a professional life (or death) necessity - as more and more are beginning to realize. This is true of you at age 17 or 27 or 47 or 67..."

"Bottom Line: I strongly believe that an explicit focus on 'lifelong learning' for everyone on board could well be the most sustainable advantage an organization of any flavor can have!

Hence, I hereby strongly (!!) suggest that...'An unstinting commitment by every one of us to accelerated lifelong learning'...or some close kin be made a formal part of your mission-values statement. It deserves to be right up there in the stratosphere with the likes of superior quality and profitability."

It's impossible not to agree with Tom Peters on the critical importance of lifelong learning. Understanding we are all busy, dollars and time tighter than ever, let me encourage you to sign up for a valuable learning opportunity.

Should you be reading this on March 31st, and you're in the broadcasting business, congrats, it's your lucky day. My thought is there are two must-attend learning events coming up in 2010. Please allow me to suggest that you will benefit by attending both.

First, the 35th annual Conclave Learning Conference, being held in Minneapolis, July 15 - 17. It's a meeting built on a long and rich tradition. In fact, it's the longest running radio programming conference in America.

As you may have heard, this year's Conclave begins with the debut of the Jacobs Media Summer School, a very special new event developed by Fred Jacobs and his Jacobs Media team. Fred's event, certain to be amazing, is only the beginning. Everything I'm hearing from the Conclave agenda committee suggests that this year's Conclave Learning Conference will be one truly exceptional experience and one you should go out of your way to attend. It has the potential to be the best Conclave in history and that would certainly be something you should not miss.

If you've attended a Conclave you know all about the special, unique experience - this is the year you should come back. If you've not been to a Conclave Learning Conference then this is the year you should take your first Conclave deep dive.

Who should attend? If you work in broadcast media you'll benefit by attending. While the Conclave is an excellent networking opportunity, the actionable take away is unmatched. The agenda is packed with practical knowledge, stuff that you can put to work back at your stations.

Here's the best part. Until midnight tonight you can register for only $149, that's 50% off the $299 registration. But you must act today. Complete the registration form and in the Gang of Ten section use the code "35 Insider." That's it! You're in for $149. There's no need to list nine others in the Gang of Ten section of the form because this code has already qualified for the special discount.

This offer expires today. Pay $149 today or - if you wait - $299 or more. I'm suggesting you take advantage of this valuable learning opportunity by taking action today. Don't wait. Use the following link, the Gang of Ten code "35 Insider" and get registered today. Please email this post or copy/paste and forward this information on to friends and colleagues. Friends don't let friends pay retail. You can also get details on the special $99 rate at the host hotel. If you're reading this after March 31st let me again encourage you to attend. The cost of Conclave registration remains an outstanding value.

Here's the link, for more info and to register, Click Conclave. See you at the Conclave! [FD: I serve as an unpaid member of the Conclave board]

Tomorrow, information (and a discount code) about my second must-attend conference of 2010.

As always, thank you for stopping by.

"Thank God for screw-ups, for if life had adhered strictly to six sigma rules, we’d all still be slime." Gary Hamel

"Mindless habitual behavior is the enemy of innovation." Rosabeth Moss Kanter

"It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to management than the creation of a new system. For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old institution and merely the lukewarm defense in those who gain by the new ones." Nicolo Machiavelli

Today's image: canal by Banksy. Wonderful. Thank you for sharing.

It's the top line, stupid.

Broadcast leadership continues to be obsessed with tweaking the numerator.

My sense is too many are still keeping score like it's 1999. Preoccupied with optimization they continue to fail because they do not yet appreciate the critical importance of recognizing and unlocking the incredible value inherent in attempts at bold innovation. Truth be known, playing around with numerator has reached beyond the point of diminishing returns. To be blunt, optimization strategies for broadcast operators are well past their best used by date. Attention and resources continue to be invested in getting better at a game that is less and less relevant. Over the past ten years every department (and related function mission systems) at broadcast stations has fundamentally changed with one exception - sales. Proof of this abounds. Any candid accounting of results produced will tend to support this assertion. Let me suggest the best (and most important) evidence may be found by talking with buyers. How has the "broadcast buying experience" changed? How does this experience stack up when compared to other media options?

If you always do what you've always done,
you'll get what you've always gotten

Permit me to invoke an old saw from Zig Ziglar "Two sure ways to fail. Think and never do or do and never think." Broadcast leadership appears to have cornered the market on both. Enough! My thought (confirmed by recent experience) is the new game is getting really serious about changing the denominator. Sales development - the hard work of driving new top lines. Getting fresh and creative in perspective and approach. Experimentation. Discovery. Learning how to respect, appreciate and reward the art of failing faster in order to succeed sooner.

On the day job we have observed the best "return on imagination" begins with unvarnished discussion concerning the creation of new markets rather than the same old fights over how to grow an increasingly irrelevant metric - silo share of a declining market. Going to work to kill the guy across the street is simply not an effective strategy in driving top line development and the entire ball game is, plainly, to continually, consistently and creatively develop the top line without any excuse. To develop your top line you'll need to invest in developing your people.

Invite and encourage cognitive diversity in your organization

Paul Jacobs offers a writing that merits the attention of radio and TV leadership. Follow The (Shrinking) Money - his post on the Jacobs Media blog, is a call to action, to wit:

"...if we don't make major moves in our sales and marketing
strategies, we're in real trouble"

Read Paul's entire post, here. Kudos to Paul, he is right on the money. He presents a well-reasoned case for changing up the game and getting into a whole new reality, the competition that is measured media fighting for dollars at the dawn of the 21st century mediascape.

Congrats and cheers: Robert Feder, by far the best and brightest writer of his generation to cover the media beat, has returned. His new home is Vocalo.org, a new media venture of the Chicago Public Radio folks. More, in his own words, here. Welcome to the conversation, Rob. You've been missed.

Bonus: Cool kid Mary Meeker and her colleagues at Morgan Stanley delivered an important presentation at the Web 2.0 Summit. You may access the PDF of their presentation - Economy + Internet Trends - here. Bravos to Mary and the Morgan gang on a job well done.

Oldie but goodie: Malcolm Gladwell from 2004 on spaghetti sauce. Thanks, as ever, to TED.

"Everything you can imagine is real." Picasso

"Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple." Dr. Seuss

"I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that I don't know the answer." Douglas Adams

Today's image: Colors of Life by Lunalunita. Beautiful. Thanks for sharing.

The usual suspects

The broadcast trade show is broken

Please allow me to get the disclosures out of the way before we begin. In the last century I served on the committee responsible for oversight of the NAB RPC. I remain a fan of NAB, David Rehr, John David and others on NAB staff. I have always respected Steve Goldstein and believe him to be a good man. I served as board chair of The Conclave and continue to support that organization and its programs. Tom Kay and Ron Fell are friends. As any reader of this blog knows I am a loyal Dave Winer fanboi. Count me a long-time supporter of SXSW and a newfound advocate for Kelly O'Keefe. I make about a third of my annual income as a professional speaker and attend a variety of conferences for different industries. The following is offered in the spirit of constructive criticism. On with the show...

Dave Winer is a world-class expert on certain matters of the internet. Moreover, Dave has a unique pov when it comes to the world at large. Case in point, Dave's take on conventions...

"Let's get people with big ideas to contribute them, and to disagree with other people with big ideas."

Read Dave's post Time to shake up conferences? here.

Yesterday a uniformed federal employee brought me a beautiful full-color brochure from the NAB. The very well done piece promoted the NAB Radio Show which is now less than a month away.

Putting aside the expense, timing and not even getting into the communications channel used, the program - as outlined - was less than exciting. It did lead me to check out the complete agenda as presented on the NAB site. What I found, with some exceptions, was disappointing. The usual suspects leading discussions on predictable subject matter. Let me at least hope that I am dead wrong here and the association plans to do live streaming of sessions, enable/encourage live blogging and all kinds of other wonderful things now common at tech conferences. Please allow me to have child-like faith in the possibility of surprise.

Some of the people that put radio into critical care are among the presenters. Unless they plan on announcing their resignation, giving their last industry address before retirement or sharing something new or interesting they should not have been invited. Alternatively, they should have been honest enough to decline the invitation with the admission that they a) have no idea how to successfully address radio's present challenges b) have not been able to fix their own problems and don't feel qualified to counsel others.

What's needed badly here is intellectual honesty and cognitive diversity. Speakers should be qualified for invitation. The decades old practice of inviting the business card must come to an end. There are scores of people on the program that would never have a chance of being invited if they did not hold their present job.

I commend show chair and radio ace Steve Goldstein on making some bold moves this year, 15 sessions on digital is a good start. He's right to say there is a hunger for new thinking. What's required, however, are the new thinkers. The same old thinkers, ones that have found their way and are able to offer bullet proof evidence to support any such declaration, are certainly to be included. Where is the diversity? Where are the women? Kudos for inviting Kelly O'Keefe. Kelly gets it as too few do.

However, doing the arithmetic, conservatively...1,500 paid @ $500 each = $750,000 and this is the agenda we get?

Was it not possible to find a woman to at least moderate the all male group pd session? By my count there are 20 women speaking out of 141 speakers. Perhaps that says it all. Folks of color? Don't ask. Unless there is a sea change at this year's show my best guess is the majority of presenters will simply show up and wing it. Those that come prepared to deliver something of substance will be counted on one hand at the show's end (vendors excused from the count).

Where's the session with radio programming ace and award winning HD Radio innovator Mark Pennington doing a show and tell of the top ten killer HD2 streams? Let's get this straight, you give the guy a national award but failed to engage him in the design and leadership of a session related to his award, HD2 best practice?

How can the radio industry hold a meeting in 2008 and not invite internet radio rock star Kurt Hanson to put together a session or two?

Denise Shiffman would have made a great addition to the show. The smart kids at Google and Microsoft are reading her book this summer. And who forgot to invite Microsoft and Google? Susan Crawford is another that would have added much. Her take on the current regulatory environment would have been right on time. More fresh faces? Let me commend to you Clay Shirky and, since he's hanging his hat in Texas these days, how about inviting Hugh MacLeod to mix it up?

Some perspective.

Back in the last century when radio stations were powered by fire wood I had dinner in the city with my friend Rick Sklar. We had a wonderful time at one of Rick's favorites The Russian Tea Room. Over dinner Rick got into his agenda. As the highly successful and very respected lead programming guy on the NAB RPC Steering Committee he wanted his junior member on the same page. "Every year there are about fifteen hot people and ten or so red hot topics. Our job is to make sure the hottest people are invited and the red hot topics are covered. We play the hits, no excuses." Rick went on to suggest we stage point - counterpoint debates. "Jingles - YES or NO" was one I will never forget because the then CEO of TM, a jingle company, was also on the committee (representing show vendors).

Rick recruited me that night. I adopted his "damn the torpedoes" attitude especially about association politics. "Someone needs to care about the manager that pays their own way, uses their vacation time to attend and expects to go home with something practical they can use. That's our job. Dave, we gotta look out for the hard working station guy or no one else will."

Took that philosophy to heart when named chair of The Conclave. My version of Rick was "What can we provide that will cause the gal/guy in Bismarck, Omaha or Milwaukee to invest their own money, burn their vacation time, get behind the wheel, drive to The Cities and go home pumped, excited about getting back to work?" Conclave exec dir Tom Kay continues to lead that effort and has done some wonderful things. The Conclave is half-right on their brilliant Edison Research 30 under 30 collaboration. The next step should be unleashing the 30 to design, staff and lead their own sessions. Come on guys, this stuff writes itself. Take a flyer on the kids, they are living closer to the future than any of us.

Steve is right about fresh ideas. He's got the right attitude. He's got the almost completely wrong, business as usual agenda. Points given for some new stuff, just not enough of it. To borrow a line from Michael Rosenblum you need to "burn it to the ground" and start fresh.

Clearly, the problem here is close is not good enough. Close only counts in horse shoes, slow dancing, bad breath and grenades. ROI is the name of the game. More importantly, NAB should be leveraging tech and offering access online for those who will not attend for whatever reasons. Those staying at home will out number those attending by a very significant number. What can NAB do for those hard working folk?

Here are some things to think about for next year (and some for this year if someone is willing to do some work). Ordered as last minute this year and next year:

Flood the zone with connectivity, encourage live blogging. Live stream as many sessions as possible (audio feeds are ok, this year). Set up an official show blog with comments, chat, all handouts and ppt. Establish flickr and YouTube accounts, push a Radio08Austin tag, let all contribute. Enable and encourage export, sharing of all assets via CC license.


Engage the first tribe of wireless in the from scratch, blank canvas agenda creation. Allow all who wish to design and pitch a session using the SXSW model. Establish a wiki to design the conference particulars down to the food. Enable and encourage voting on the sessions pitched, again ala SXSW. Bake diversity into the steering committee. Create a new revenue stream by offering remote conference attendance. Qualify presenters. What have you done in the past six months that no one would question is totally amazing and game-changing, industry-changing? Show us. Ensure a mix of the wise sage and the young gun. More women! Fewer old white guys!

When Ron Fell ran The Gavin Report he once told me he wanted his conferences to "make a difference." Ron inspired me to do a great session at his conference the one and only time that I was invited to present. Pages of the leave behind from that session are still sent to me, the session still mentioned when I meet people. Ron raised the bar. He told me "let's give them something that makes them feel good about deciding to be at The Gavin, we have to give them practical things they can use, something that will help them to win and make them look good to their boss."

Thanks, Ron. You said it better than I ever could have.

Good luck, Steve. No disrespect intended, you have moved things forward and made some progress. We still need much more. Game on.

Congrats & cheers: Radio programming ace Fred Jacobs and the Jacobs Media crew are inviting you to participate in an election. Your choice for President of Radio. Mad cool concept. More info here.

"We can't take our eye off the ball, because if we lose it, we'll have a bitch of a time getting it back." Philip Knight

"Living in a world where everything is changing constantly, you learn to change." K. Ram Shriram

"Great art picks up where nature ends." Marc Chagall

Today's image: Go by dlemieux. Great shot. Thanks for sharing.

Congrats & cheers: Fred Jacobs and his Jacobs Media gang for W.T.D.A. Spot-on! Ray Ozzie and team deliver Microsoft Live Mesh (more via Channel 9 and the official tech preview here). Very cool.

Bonus: Dr Dave tells us what the smart kids are thinking..."a number from 1-10 saying what difference the Net will make, where “Net” includes the Internet, the Web, and the computing devices it uses, and where the potential for change is included in the number" Check the results here. Thanks and kudos to David, John and the students @ Harvard.

A conversation with retail fashion ace, the merchant prince Mickey Drexler from Charlie Rose. Highly recommended.

"There go my people. I must find out where they are going so I can lead them." Alexandre Ledru-Rollin

"Two kinds of ballplayers aren't worth a darn: One that never does what he's told, and one who does nothin' except what he's told." Oail (Bum) Phillips

"The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care." Colin Powell

Today's image: Josh and Footprints by Vu Bui. Wonderful. Thank you for sharing.

Today, my response to the RBR article Why HD Radio may never make it.

"Jacta alea est"

The typing, not to be confused with writing, was not signed. We were told only that the keystroke artist was a "loyal reader" and "For business reasons, this reader cannot be identified by name." Since RBR chief Jim Carnegie did ask "Got a different take?" Let me now say that I do. Here's my scribble on each of the article's six points.

1) The name is wrong...already taken...Why unnecessarily create the impression of a brand extension...Rookie mistake.

Absent the suspect HDR Alliance research there is no empirical evidence to suggest HD Radio means much of anything to the mass audience, only a minority of the population even admit to being familiar with it (Jacobs Media Tech Poll, Arbitron-Edison Infinite Dial). In sum, the name remains innocent, benign, albeit undefined. A professional name lab developed the consumer brand name "HD Radio", the same firm that created the brand "Blackberry" among others. It is the inexperienced or lazy PD that blames the call letters then insists on changing them. Tylenol wrote the primer on rescuing brand names. When product tampering killed customers they stood firm. Radio programming ace Lee Arnold reminds me "The Beatles was a really lame name for a band until they had their first hit, come to think of it what kind of a name for a computer is a fruit?" We should leverage the TV messaging. This is not an act of brand extension but one of brand creation. HDTV = better television, HD Radio = better radio. Let me suggest the rookie here is the anonymous contributor, one needing to read Jones & Slater (or Rosser Reeves the wellspring of Trout & Ries).

2) HD Radio is not listener/consumer driven...neither compelling Content nor is it Convenient to use or understand...listeners do not have faith in the rank-and-file operators.

Physician heal thyself! "The play's the thing." Content is a station level operations issue. This is a leadership problem manifest in a massive failure of imagination, lack of serious investment, an aversion to risk and a growing tolerance, acceptance of mediocrity. On the subject of multicasting my proxy goes to Chuck Tweedle. Chuck, as you may recall, was the GM who built, from scratch, one of the most successful brands in American radio, KOIT. It was Chuck who said "Multicasting is the killer app." The fundamentals remain the same, put something on the wireless that they really want and they'll find it. More on this "product first" approach from Kent Burkhart (#201). Listeners only care about what comes out of the speakers, everything else is a footnote. Some 230 million are keeping the faith weekly and turning on their radios, they could care less about the "rank-and-file operators" (until those operators take away something they care about). As to the ease and convenience issues bear in mind that HD Radio is software driven, we're dealing with version 1.0, first generations of any tech product suck in hindsight. Greed will ensure things will only get better. Hint: Apple developed a hit form factor using a dated common software app.

3) Your introduction...is almost always a disappointment...does not make a good enough first impression.

The consumer electronics retail value chain plays by cutthroat jungle rules. Few working in the trade today can even remember the last time radio operators had to sell receivers. While the rule sets of CE were changing radio was busy harvesting the golden apples of bcf. Complacent in this rich Garden of the Hesperides radio took its eye off the ball. Driving folks to retail and having retail channels ready and productive while a serious significant challenge is not the Sisyphean mission some make it out to be. The most effective solution to remedy those first impression problems and help create demand is organic - product innovation. We also have an urgent need to get deeply involved at retail and point of sale.

4) It was designed to solve a non-problem.

A popular canard. Let me also quote the "honest liar" Jamy Swiss "I want to highlight the line between illusion and reality." Pay radio had nothing to do with the creation of HD Radio that's a convenient illusion. The reality is IBOC was designed to solve the problem of migrating radio to digital using the same licensed spectrum, a rubric fraught with the perils of "acceptable tradeoffs."

5) Hillary Derangement Syndrome...HD Radio is the Sheridan Whiteside of Media...Even Radio people have lost faith.

Too clever by half. Like Hillary, HD Radio is arguably better than its campaign. Communications from the HDR Alliance are what they are, anyone confusing a press release with reality is, to be kind, tragically naive. The single purpose of this Alliance messaging, imho, is to gin up favor with the street. To say that HD Radio is Whiteside is to infer that operators are Daisy Stanley (or at least the Stanley family). Further, this scenario implies that HD Radio is culpable of blackmail. This stuff smacks of a wacky grassy-knoll theorist mindset. Yes, some radio people have lost faith, some others never had faith, however, some do have faith and are working to make a difference. Again, this is a leadership issue. One needs to remember that at one time the majority of AM operators had no faith whatsoever in the future of FM (as before VHF guys laughed at UHF and the suits of broadcast tv once made jokes about those silly cable guys).

6) The commercials don't work...the more we keep advertising this non-starter, the more it becomes obvious the radio advertising must be the villain.

Poor creative execution is one villain here not the communications channel. The simple facts are advertising fails for a variety of very good reasons. If all one needed to do was run an ad to produce results commercial time would be traded on the gold exchange. There's nothing wrong with radio as an advertising medium. There was, as written here previously, something seriously wrong with the messaging. Peter Ferrara is still not getting credit for changing up the ill-starred "Discover It!" and inviting input after the failed "It's your radio" creative. Will the new campaign work? We need disclosure and transparency to begin that learning process.

In understanding the giant story arc that is radio and media behavior it benefits us to remember. "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" so said George Santayana. The quote is probably familiar to most readers but let's put it into its proper context. Here's what Santayana said in The Life of Reason, Vol. 1, Reason in Common Sense...

Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

We are going around in one big circle folks. We've been at one of these inflection points before, this will not be the last. Observe! Think! Discuss! Decide! Act! Learn! Think! Repeat. Will HD Radio "make it" whatever that means? Yes, if and when operators get serious. Once we truly understand and respect the advantages inherent in being in perpetual beta. Wimps play defense. My sense is the HD Radio glass is half-full and I'm more concerned about who's pouring. Game on!

My response to the RBR follow-on article Part 2: Can HD Radio Be Saved later this week.

To send comments please use the contact me form (left column). Thank you.

"If you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original." Sir Ken Robinson

"If you're not failing, you're not doing something sufficiently difficult or creative." Scott Berkun

"As the spirit wanes, the form appears." Charles Bukowski

"...privacy is not just about information. It's all about the defaults." David Weinberger

Dr Dave has written a thoughtful piece about Facebook and privacy...

"Our privacy norms are changing rapidly. They have to because we've now invented so many new ways to be in public. That's why Facebook's move is especially disappointing. Although they are rigorously supporting informational privacy, they are setting the defaults based not on what's best for their users but on what's best for them. It's clearly and inarguably better for users to be able to opt out of the entire third-party system, but it's clearly more lucrative for Facebook to make it hard to opt out (not to mention making it an opt in system)."

Read the entire writing here. Kudos David! Perhaps this is another one of those cohort issues. The privacy norms of the Gen Y crowd are radically different than those of Boomers. Still, there is something fundamentally wrong in requiring someone to opt out before being automatically opted in. TOS and lawyers be damned. Transparency and disclosure should ever be plain and simple when it comes to personal elections. Facebook will get this right (or not). The issue will likely become which generation of users should decide? The deeper issue here concerns the myth of privacy. Sidebar: What would Jan Deverson and Charles Hamblett have named those Gen X teens provided advanced insight of the wide adoption of their convention? So, Gen Z is succeeded by?

John Battelle makes an excellent point...

"Pull to point" - I find that I read more things that have been pointed to by others, rather than only those which I pull down myself.

Agreed. Read John's post From Pull to Point: How to Save The Economist and The Journal from Irrelevance here. Deep links make it possible to export content, and help to make digital assets discoverable.

Bonus: The mad cool gift of this holiday season and the perfect early 08 buzz must-have.
Behold - chumby

Let the marketplace decide: Programming ace Dave Beasing of Jacobs Media blogs an open letter to the I-man wherein he suggests JD use his considerable talents to "everyone's benefit." I respectfully disagree with that notion. Read Dave's letter w/comments here. Some of my previous posts on the Imus mess here, here, and here.

"I have learned that it pays to fight for concepts and causes that may appear unpopular at the moment, rather than following the course of quick and easy agreement." Leo Burnett

Great to catch up with Dennis Lyle, President & CEO of Illinois Broadcasters. Illinois will join Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio in staging a super-sized summer conference. July 8-10 at French Lick, Indiana. Great idea!

Congrats & cheers: Ira Glass and his This American Life crew win a Peabody. Todd Cavanah VP/PD for Chicago's WBBM-FM adds oversight of co-owned Jack FM. (My thanks to Robert Feder for both tips here. Good to have you back Robert.)

Complete list 2006 Peabody winners: Kudos to HBO, Ugly Betty, The Office, StoryCorps, CBS News, our favorite Food Network dude Alton Brown and all the winners. Winners list here.

Ready for his closeup: The Man Who Would Change Microsoft: Ray Ozzie's Vision for Connected Software via Knowledge@Wharton here:

"What we as an industry need to deliver are seamless experiences -- however those things are accomplished -- to do the appropriate thing in the browser and the appropriate thing on a laptop or on a device to solve that problem.

So the way I view it is, first generation 'software as a service' really just meant browser. Second generation means weave together hardware, software and services to accomplish a specific solution.

The iPod is a great example of that. You have hardware, the embedded software on the device and an associated [online] service. The BlackBerry is another great example [of the combination of] hardware, software and service. The Xbox is a terrific example -- you've got amazing software in the games, hardware to support it and Xbox Live as a service."

"Is it difficult to compete with somebody who has executed as well in search as Google? Absolutely. We've spent the last few years putting some amazing people on it and the core relevance of search has increased progressively.

But I think you will find that Microsoft will take a different approach toward search than simply trying to copy Google's success. History has shown that any time you have a fairly significant market leader, the best way of competing is not to just simply take the same approach. You have to find your own unique approach. And Microsoft has a number of different ways that we could do that because of the different touch points we have with the market and how people use our products."

The emphasis and boldface above is mine. To count Microsoft out would be a significant error. Ozzie is driving things forward and doing so with the right attitude - they have to develop their own unique approach.

Survey says: Fred Jacobs is blogging about his firm's latest research - Tech Survey III. 25,000 rock radio listeners weigh in on all things tech. When asked to select the most important new feature they wanted in an MP3 player 33% of respondents said FM tuner. Read more here. Bravos and thanks to Fred and his Jacobs Media team for sharing the findings and for taking a leadership role in fielding the research.

Bonus: Steve Safran shares his "Things Viewers Never, Ever Say" to wit: "The police want MY help in solving this crime. Cool." Part One here. Part Two here. Steve's update, "Things Web Viewsers Never, Ever Say" here. Bravo Steve! Very well done.

"I don't know" Sam Zell. Now there's the sign of one very smart guy. He has the courage to admit, to say out loud "I don't know." Read the Sam Zell - Tribune interview here.

Which reminds me of something said by one of my heroes, Richard Saul Wurman...

"Perhaps the three principles closest to my heart - and the most radical - are learning to accept your ignorance, paying more attention to the question than to the answer, and never being afraid to go in an opposite direction to find a solution."

Nothing but a guess dept: What if? Should Tribune be required to spin broadcast. Here is one happy ending...TV to Randy Michaels accretive to his NYT portfolio. WGN Radio and Cubs to Emmis. WGN Radio would also be accretive to the portfolios of Dan Mason's CBS and Farid Suleman's Citadel/ABC. Of course the dark horse bet would be ESPN. Please allow me to mark 30 saying "I don't know."