Friday, May 16, 2008

Consumer 2.0

There's no shortage of advice on how to reach young consumers and a recently released report from Mr Youth and Rep Nation boil it down to this Top 5:

(click on the image and it will open a larger and easier to read picture)

These findings have implications and offer opportunities for both the programming and sales sides of our business.

Our challenge: radio, by its very nature is a mass appeal entity. Our entire system is built upon a platform of gathering as many listeners to our frequencies as possible and enticing them to listen for as long as possible. Therein lies the great paradox for broadcasters. How can we be personal, hyper-niched, and be a flexible brand all wrapped up in a singular mass-appeal broadcast signal? That is where our live interactions (on-air and in your communities), our websites, social networking, and mobile strategies come into play.

Some things for you to ask yourself:
  • Do you and your staff have a clear understanding of what your brand means to your listeners; and is it strong enough as the power of the brand (all brands, not just radio) erode?
  • Are your outward messages, across all your platforms, real and genuine?
  • When was the last time you used your real listeners to endorse your radio station?
  • What do your messages communicate to your listeners; and do you say anything that won't be filtered out?
  • Are you enabling your listeners to create their own content?
  • Have you planted the seeds for your listeners to form an active community centered around your station?
More and more, these are the type of conversations I have with clients and perspective clients. These discussions tend to be ongoing since things are moving very fast and not much is static for very long.

Share this list with your co-workers and then add to it. I would not be surprised if you came up with 3 or 4 times the number of questions worthy of asking.

I found this report thought provoking. If you would like to read the entire presentation simply click here.

Amazon Gets Musically Aggressive

Product widgets are nothing new to Amazon's sales arsenal --they have had widgets for video, TV & movie products as well as other products like their very successful Kindle book reader. Amazon thinks there is a fertile music market for DRM-free music and they have made it easy to sample and buy with this just released widget:

If you clicked through you were able to listen to song samples and you also probably noticed that pricing on some of the songs are less than .99. Will Amazon gain sizable traction against iTunes? Between DRM free mp3's and some lower prices, they just might.

Here's what they are saying are the top songs today:

Today's Top MP3 Songs

Bleeding Love (Album Version)
Pocketful Of Sunshine
4 Minutes [Featuring Justin Timberlake] (Album Version)
See You Again


1. Bleeding Love (Album … by Leona Lewis
2. Pocketful Of Sunshine by Natasha Bedingfield
3. 4 Minutes [Featuring … by Madonna
4. See You Again by Miley Cyrus
5. Love In This Club (Ma… by Usher featuring Young…
6. Low (Feat. T-Pain) by Flo Rida
7. Love Song (Album Vers… by Sara Bareilles
8. Violet Hill by Coldplay
9. No Air duet with Chri… by Jordin Sparks featuri…
10. Paralyzer by Finger Eleven
11. Lollipop [Explicit] by Lil Wayne
12. Take A Bow by Rihanna
13. You're Gonna Miss This by Trace Adkins
14. New Soul by Yael Naïm
15. No One by Alicia Keys
16. Leavin' by Jesse McCartney
17. Forever (Main Version) by Chris Brown
18. Sorry (Album Version)… by Buckcherry
19. Sexy Can I Feat. Yung… by Ray J
20. Say by John Mayer
21. Before He Cheats by Carrie Underwood
22. How Far We've Come (A… by Matchbox Twenty
23. Don't Stop The Music by Rihanna
24. Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen
25. Shadow Of The Day (Al… by Linkin Park