How Execs Are Stumbling In A New Media World

From GlobeandMail.com:

Executives at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia took great pains earlier this year to make certain the company's redesigned website looked flawless before rolling it out to the public.

After all, this is a media company whose magazines, books, products and programs feature ideas about attractive and tasteful lifestyles. Why not a beautiful site?

"That was a big mistake," Wenda Harris Millard, the company's president of media, said this week during a panel discussion at Advertising Week. "We put beauty before utility."

She said the front page, with its video player and jazzy graphics, included only about five links to actual content, "so the things people were looking for couldn't be found."

The mistake, she said, was in failing to understand that "when the reader or viewer or listener becomes the user, what she's looking for is much different — at least initially."

Read the entire article here.

Are You Keeping A PPM Diary?

From Dave Martin's PPM News & Comment Blog:

The early days of PPM include a growing store of advice, counsel on how to win in a PPM world. My thought is one of the most important and effective strategies is not yet getting the attention deserved.

Keep a diary.As a practical matter keeping a diary, or journal if you prefer, affords an outstanding return on investment. Your diary will prove invaluable in gaining an understanding of the PPM data.What is happening?

What is not happening? What are the players doing to influence the action?

Dave makes a great point. The level of granularity in the data we can see with the PPM is uniquely insightful.

Aside from what Dave mentions here, I would further recommend that each department in the station/cluster, especially Programming, Marketing and Promotions, track the activities and events happening inside and out of side of the station/cluster.

Why?

Ultimately, combining your diary/journal information with Arbitron ratings data, Media Monitors data and other market information will provide a comprehensive, multi-level tracking system to help you better determine how your station/cluster is performing under the PPM. Those insights will prove invaluable when crafting actionable strategies and tactics for operating in a PPM world.

2008 Demographic Targeting

2008 Demographic Targeting Tool

With the 2008 budgeting and planning season underway, here's a demographic targeting tool you can use to help determine the music years and/or eras most relevant to the your target (or hyper-target) audience.

Legendary programmer/consultant Todd Wallace first shared this focusing tool with me some years ago. And ever since then, I've kept it in my programming tool box along with other tools that I've created or collected. The tool covers all ages within the 25-54 demo, lower and upper end, making it easy to identify your audience's "coming of age" - and most passionate - music years.

If you would like a copy of the "Demographic Targeting Tool" excel spreadsheet, just drop me an email at geometricmedia@gmail.com and I'll get it right to you.

Monday Motivations (from The 100 Greatest Leadership Principles of All Time)

Here are a few of my favorites from The 100 Greatest Leadership Principles of All Time:

“The ultimate leader is one who is willing to develop people to the point that they surpass him or her in knowledge and ability.”
Fred A. Manske

“A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.

“I used to think that running an organization was equivalent to conducting a symphony orchestra. But I don’t think that’s quite it; it’s more like jazz. There is more improvisation.”
Warren Bennis

Read more here.

What Is Your Dream?

From Matthew Kelly’s The Dream Manager:

What Is Your Dream?

“The temptation is to convince yourself that your employees’ dreams are not relevant to your business. That is only true if your employees are not relevant to your business—and if that were true, why would you employ them?

Most employees feel like they are being used. But if you can genuinely convince them that you have their best interests at heart, then you will reverse that belief, and in the process create a spirit of teamwork and loyalty rarely unleashed in the corporate world before now.

Dreams are invisible, but powerful. You cannot see them, but they keep everything going.”

Mathew emphasizes that a key and critical role of leadership is the ability to recognize the dreams of those that we lead and inspire them to achieve those visions.

What are you and your management team doing to inspire your programming and sales talent to achieve their dreams?

10 Questions to Improve Your Communications

“How people talk to each other absolutely determines how well the organization will function.”

–Larry Bossidy, Chairman, Honeywell International

In her new book “Voice of Authority,” communications consultant Dianna Booher shares ten questions that will help you convey your message clearly, credibly and competently.

• Is it correct?
• Is is complete?
• Is it clear?
• Is it purposefully unclear?
• Is it consistent?
• Are you credible?
• Are you concerned and connected?
• Is it current?
• Does your communication make you look competent?
• Is it circular?

More at Booher.com.

It’s A PPM World—And There Are The Rules

Paragon Media Strategies unveils a new rule book for radio in a PPM World.

Here are the first ten rules:

Rule #1: DON’T PANIC!!!!
Rule #2: Get “married” to your core audience, but stay “engaged” to your cume audience
Rule #3: Retain listeners for longer periods
Rule #4: Set more listening appointments
Rule #5: Understand the value of different listeners
Rule #6: Delineate between your “Loyal P1s” and your “Fickle P1s”
Rule #7: Integrate programming
Rule #8: Location, location, location
Rule #9: Avoid “punch out lines”
Rule #10: Don’t play “rubber clock” games

Read more at PPMRulebook.com.

9 Things A Leader Must Do

Psychologist Dr. Henry Cloud says there are 9 secrets that will help you focus on the dynamics that make a difference in your organization, enabling you to break through to the next level of success.

A leader must…

• Discover and invest in your inner desires and drives
• Not allow a sense of negativity to take up space in your mind and life
• Evaluate your decisions in the present based on how they will affect the future
• Continually ask yourself, “What can I do to make this situation better?”
• Achieve big goals by taking small steps over time
• Develop the ability to hate the right things well
• Give more and better than you are given
• Not strive to be or to appear more than you really are—but really embrace your own identity
• Make decisions without fear of other people’s reactions

Now ask yourself, "Are you ready to be a breakthrough leader?"

The Power of Experiential Involvement

Some time ago, Science of Influence author, corporate trainer, and former radio sales executive Kevin Hogan shared this piece of advice with me for working with clients and their copy. I’ve passed his useful sales secret along to many of my friends in sales and consulting clients, but now I want to share it with you. It’s a simple persuasion tactic that will lead you to more sales.

Kevin’s advice (and I also recommend): Deliberately make a mistake (or two) on the proposed copy of your client’s commercial, so they get their pens out and correct the copy.

You might be asking yourself, who would want to bring attention to their own mistakes? Not me. Yes, YOU! And here’s the reason why: It helps you leverage the power of “experiential involvement” with your clients.

Although it may appear counterintuitive at first, this persuasion tactic gets clients more involved in the sales process. The act of physically making the copy corrections with pen in hand enhances the feeling of ownership of the project for your clients. And once that occurs, it will lead to conversation that will trigger more sales.

Again, it sounds simple, but it works!!

When you get your targets involved in the experience, they will readily accept your suggestions and easily comply with your requests more often. The power of “experiential involvement” will lead to more sales for your station or group.

T.I. + A.I. = Higher Ratings

“…[People] they can’t know what you’re saying if they don’t listen to you, and they won’t listen to you if you’re not interesting, and you won’t be interesting until you say things imaginatively, originally, freshly.”

–William Bernbach

When legendary advertising executive William Bernbach expressed this quote years ago, he was referring to what was needed in the advertising world of yesterday. However, I feel Bernbach’s words can provide insight and inspiration for personalities and producers in the “audio entertainment” world of today.

Using Bernbach’s words as a content model/checklist, (during the creative process and on-air execution) personalities and producers should continually ask:

Is this bit/contest/segment/feature…

• Imaginative?
• Original?
• Fresh?
• Interesting (Relevant and NOT Boring)?

Like a laser beam, personalities and producers must focus on creating content that captures listener attention and creates conversation. If not, listeners simple will not engage the talent/show/station enough to become fans and increase their listening.

Think of it like this…

T.I. (Talent Imagination) + A.I. (Audience Inspiration) = Higher Ratings

Do Client Testimonials Work?

Testimonials are intermediated word-of-mouth marketing, and they do work when credible. In fact they work very well indeed if you work hard to get the right kind of testimonial. They can provide the much-needed social proof that tips a wavering prospect into a paying customer.

It’s hard to sing your own praises, and it rarely works when you do. In a testimonial, you have a third party saying what you might not be able to. Effective testimonials avoid hyperbole and specifically address a potential sticking point that a prospect might arrive at.

Here are five tips for making good use of testimonials:

1. Don’t over-edit. Testimonials work best when they are in “real” language. Those small grammar and language quirks help the reader connect and demonstrate they are real.


2. Use testimonials that fit. Place appropriate testimonials along with a particular point that you are trying to make.


3. Address objections. If a prospect discovers that another customer’s worries have proved groundless, then that person is more confident to reach for the wallet (or into their budget).


4. Never fake it. While testimonials are crucial, it’s not worth the risk to fake them. Most people have well-trained BS detectors that can smell a fake a mile away.


5. Encourage specifics. Specificity works - and it is especially effective in a testimonial. Rather than “we saw a big improvement,” get your customer to state exactly what the improvement was, such as “we saw a 217% improvement.”

Ask for testimonials!

If a customer ever tells you how much they value your service or asks what they can do for you, ask them for a testimonial. In fact, even if they don’t, ask anyway! Testimonials are that valuable.

Thanks to Chris Garrett for the tips!

Internet Radio Made Easier

In his New York Times article, “Internet Radio Made Easier,” David Pogue discusses the variety of internet radio devices now available to access internet radio’s “endless smorgasbord of audio entertainment.” Click here to read the article.