Updates from March, 2008

• 

  Random headlines from Advertising Age’s Digital Issue

  Admin 8:21 am on March 31, 2008 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: AdAge, Advertising Age, click-through rates, ctr, Stats (4)

  Weezie’s hipped me to this crazy RESET diet (five days of shakes and not much else) so in order to avoid eating (or sipping Scotch) on a nice Sunday afternoon I leafed through AdAge’s Digital issue. Here are some take-aways:

  • More than half of all Internet users conduct daily searches. For people who conduct daily searches, 23% of their searches are directly influenced by radio ads (iProspect, August 2007). [OK, TV and print influence is higher, but the radio stat sounds good in isolation.]

  • Borders is breaking their online store away from Amazon this year, and will need marketing partners to drive growth and sales – perhaps some of our Adult-leaning formats? Who’s got contacts?

  • Of the more than 100 million out there, 13 million blogs are actively updated. So as we move into the brave new world of blogging, we’d better be sure we’re posting about stuff our audience cares about – and frequently!

  • The click-through rate for standard display ads is 0.1-0.2%. For rich media (animated, interactive ads like video ads, Rovion ads, Spotlight ads, etc), the click-through rate is 2% at its “weakest.”

  • 95% of iPhone users browse the Internet on their device, versus 13% of average cell phone users.

  • This past May, American Express launched their Member’s Project, where they invited cardholders to submit, discuss, rate and vote on one charity project, pledging to contribute $1 per cardmember to the winning charity. 187K people registered, 7,000 project ideas were submitted, and 1.5 million uniques visited the site. AmEx ended up supersizing their donation to $2MM for UNICEF’s safe drinking water efforts.

  • On one Sunday in October, ESPN had more visitors to the mobile version of its site than its website. Good thing WEEI is creating a mobile version of their web site!
   

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• 

  “Twitter is Blogging at Light Speed with a Little IM feeling Thrown In”

  Admin 7:28 am on March 26, 2008 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  

  I love that headline… I only wish I had come up with it.

  Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send “updates” (or “tweets”; text-based posts, up to 140 characters long) to the Twitter website, via short message service (SMS) on phones, instant messaging, or other third-party applications. Great so what?

  If you haven’t caught on just yet, my theme for 2008 is to find ways for users to “touch the studio in some way”. Blogging is a must for any radio personality speaking to a modern audience. Folks these days want to opine over a point of view.  Blogging gives a voice to your audience they know is there on air but cannot express.  Folks want to hear that.  It’s just a fact, can’t argue with that. So Blogging = Good.

  Twitter… hmmm… Well I’m not entirely convinced this doesn’t go into the realm of “white noise” in our daily lives. I mean, getting a 100 character message telling me that “Dave, is walking to the office in a good mood” is something to make me all of a twitter… sorry for the pun. So how can we use a tweet to get in touch with our listeners. Well here are some ideas:

  • Events. If you are sending a person to a huge event, lets say The Super Bowl, you can give folks feedback instantly on what is going on as an experience. I found this useful with a podcast I listen to regularly. This person was going to attend the January Apple Conference. It was exciting and brought me into the event to get a tweet saying “Steve Jobs is presenting a new mac, MacBook Air. More to come”. I tell you what, i was on this guys website so quick to see this thing I don’t think I took a breath in between.
  • Alerting users of an unexpected on air event. Tweet out your next unexpected guest to the studio.
  • Topics discussions. For you news/sports folks, giving a tweet of a great topic you want others to listen to would add value and direct users to the stream (or on air).
  • Promotions. If your promotions folks are at a location, tweet out the location. Heck give away something while you’re at it (clean out those cabinets).

  All of these things will remind folks of the great value your station and station website is and keep your brand in their frame of reference.

  One last thing… and this is important. Just like with email marketing, and probibly even more, MAKE SURE WHAT YOU TWEET IS A VALUE TO THE RECIPIENT. Got that? If not, call me and I’ll send you 20 emails today so I can remind you that folks are busy and don’t want to be bothered.

  Twitter may not be anything your station may want to jump into, but keep it in mind. It’s just another tool for us to use.

  ~n

  —————-
  Now playing: Beck – Beercan

   
• 

  People Power – Web 2.0

  Admin 8:35 am on March 10, 2008 | 2 Permalink | Reply
  

  One of my favorite podcasts is the radio show On The Media. Last week’s episode included a great interview with Clay Shirky. His new book, Here Comes Everybody, depicts this online world, driven by networks that grow and act in never-before-seen ways.

   http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/20...

  Read the transcript or listen to the Interview. I feel this gives some good perspective on our future challenges in this medium.

  The best take away from this inteview is the opening line:

  “So it’s an old notion, isn’t it? Wasn’t it Ben Franklin who first observed that the Internet builds communities? What’s new here?”

  ~n

  —————-
  Now playing: Rodrigo Y Gabriela – Orion

   
• 

  Unduplicatable

  Admin 7:04 am on March 4, 2008 | 1 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: content websites

  Look at your station’s website.

  Are there three, unduplicatable reasons to go to your website on a daily basis (not including streaming or contests)?

  Can visitors to your site find this unduplicatable stuff the moment your home page loads?

  If either answer is no, we’re not getting the job done.

  What does your station do that is truly unique to it, utterly unduplicatable? Something that no other station can do? Because that is what will make our brands pre-sets on the infinite dial (ie, when everyone can get streaming radio in their car, on their phone, etc – it’s coming sooner than you think).

  For News/Talk/Sports brands, which create original, timely editorial content all day long, the answer is easy: Who but WEEI can provide the inside take on the Red Sox? Where better to learn about the daily trials and triumphs of post-Katrina New Orleans than WWL?

  For music-based formats, we have to uncover the unduplicatable.

  If it’s our talent – name-brand AM/PM drive personalities – then we need to amplify the experience of their show online, and do it daily, and with the same relevance and connection they bring to their air shifts.

  For younger demo formats, our talent should be posting content that firmly establishes them as their audience’s ambassadors to pop culture. Why let some faceless blog become their tastemaker, their water-cooler, their gossip guru? That used to be OUR role – and it should be again.

  For older demo formats, we need to tap into the lifestyle passions of our audience. Just because they tune into our station as a background experience, as a rush hour or workplace oasis, doesn’t mean we can’t bond with them online. What’s the connection? Is it family-related content? Unique recipes? Funny anecdotes? Romantic memories?

  Since 80 percent of our streaming takes place during work, think in terms of ‘lunch break.’ What can you tout on-air that would compel your average listener to click over to your website as a form of instant recess during their workday? Chances are, our audience is jazzed about the same stuff our talent is jazzed about, so if something is compelling enough to get our air staff to go online, then it’s probably the same for their audience.

  So are we getting the job done?

  If the deepest content you have about your star morning guy is a static page with a bio and photo that never changes, then we’re not getting the job done.

  If our talent promotes their station website on-air with rote, pre-fabricated liners and no mention of specific, fresh content, then we’re not getting the job done.

  If the bulk of our talent’s time online is spent updating their MySpace profile, then we’re not getting the job done.

  If your concert calendar (or your ‘babe of the day’ page) is the highest visited page on your website, then we’re not getting the job done. Do you know how many places a listener can find out who’s playing in town – or see a hot babe – online?

  Unduplicatable is our rallying cry.