Paying Attention/Paying FOR Attention

The ad world according to Google:

Google uses the age old sales funnel of "AIDA" while taking all the credit for online processes leading to sale. 

Notice it also gives ZERO credit to any touch except online sources.

My take:  what online media misses is the "attention" part of the equation.  In traditional media we are so busy trying to be in that online space with them that we miss what we do best--generate attention for advertisers.

Occasionally, rarely even, online generates a "viral" action which brings people to the forefront without mainstream noise (see Psy, or Jena Marbles, or Ship My Pants) 

What we sell is attention. 

We are better at it than anyone. 

When you are on radio, you are on center stage.

Focusing on our strengths is a better use of our time and energy rather than trying to play a game on the other guys field.

KGHL/Billings General Manager Ray Massie spoke for me last month when he blogged: "You really don’t get anything for free–you pay for it with stress, time, opportunity, or cash."

So, radio seller:  Ask for a reasonable share of their budget.  Uncover their selling proposition.  Create a powerful message.  Run a good, consistent schedule.  Be a hero and get results.

That's worthy of your attention.

Who Do You Trust?

The stage is set for a terrific 2013, but nobody is going to hand us anything.  We live in a highly competitive world and just like virtually any other business, success will require us to be at our very best.  Our listeners and customers have nearly limitless choices.  So if our content (on-air or digital), service and execution are anything less than excellent, we will lose them.  At the same time, the opportunity to gain new customers from other media is greater than ever before.  We are a superior choice for any customer looking for enormous reach, local activation, and strong engagement at an attractive price.  No other medium can match us across these criteria.

With the start of a new year, each of us is awarded a fresh start.  A chance to raise our games, build on our strengths, and recommit ourselves to achieving our full potential.  Let’s steel ourselves with the determination to overcome our challenges and make the necessary changes to set a new standard of excellence in our work.  Let’s make 2013 a year of great accomplishment and pride.  

I trust David Field.

It’s a major breakthrough.  It changes the dynamic — and this is something that is going to make a lot of sense to the American public because they’re getting this for free and they’re not consuming data, so we think it’s a major step.

I trust Jeff Smulyan.

But let’s be clear about what this agreement involving certain Android and Windows phones is, and isn’t. Many smartphones already contain an FM chip (that’s the long-held belief of Emmis CEO Jeff Smulyan). But you can’t just wave a Harry Potter wand and activate that chip. It needs software to make a “tuner,” and not software you can download from an app store in the cloud. In other words, this victory will have to be realized one new phone at a time – it’s not retroactive to the one you’ve got in your pocket or purse. The Emmis Interactive-developed NextRadio app is one way to control the tuner on your next phone, but there will be others. It’s probably not a coincidence that Sprint offers unlimited data – it doesn’t “meter” usage by customers. So its economic incentives line up particularly well with broadcasters who’ve been lobbying the wireless industry. Other carriers have the meter running, and they benefit when their customers listen to radio over the Internet, using a data plan. But even so, the NAB and the other enthusiastic backers of FM chips on cellphones like Smulyan and Clear Channel CEO Bob Pittman call the Sprint deal a breakthrough, after years of talks (and sometimes ridicule).  

I trust Tom Taylor.

More than anything, I trust the Consumer Electronics, mobile dashboard, cable, satellite, internet, and phone industries to want to charge their customers - our listeners - more and more for what once was "free radio."

Ultimately, I trust that the average media consumer will want as much as they can get without having to pay for it.

Follow The Money

Facebook's latest report to analysts contains this stat:  the social networking giant is only able thus far to generate about 40 cents per user per month in spite (or perhaps because of?) having more than a billion users!

As a result, Facebook is considering offering a gift-buying retail online store for its users as a means of getting their ability to monetize the 14% of the world's population who are using Facebook.

Also this week, the Wall Street Journal is trying to sell a $3.99 ebook to the people who already paid $2 to buy the newspaper.

Disney "and almost every major media company has had a difficult tangle with the Web or gaming. Time Warner and AOL. News Corporation and Myspace. Viacom and the Rock Band game maker, Harmonix."

Is that our future too as we go online?  If so, just how much should a smart businessperson with solid profits and good revenues risk?

The Facebook report makes no claims about how often that average user comes back to the social network, but in spite of that fact I did a bit of back of a napkin number crunching using radio weekly cume and annual revenue estimates from Country Aircheck's June 2012 "Ratings And Revenue" issue and even taking note of the fact that the radio "revenue per average weekly user" probably understates what would be radio's monthly or annual cume vs annual revenues, it's easy to see why it's so difficult to radio and other old media to chase the smaller revenues of the internet when we're doing such a good job compared to Facebook.

Just a few randomly-chosen stations in various size markets, ranked by their ratio of revenue per user in 2011, compared to Facebook's:

• WZZK, Birmingham - 9.4:1
• KFDI, Wichita - 8.5:1
• WGNA, Albany - 7:1
• WBCT, Grand Rapids - 6.5:1
• WUBE, Cincinnati - 4.7:1
• WGH, Norfolk - 4.4:1
• KEEY, Minneapolis - 4.3:1
• WUSN, Chicago - 3.4:1
• WXTU, Philadelphia - 3:1

Do your station's own math (divide your annual revenue by your cume), using your own napkin, but I bet you'll find out that your local analog radio is converting your users to revenue MUCH better than Facebook is.

Our medium may be "old," but it seems like out-billing Facebook on a per-user basis from 3 to 1 to more than 9 to 1 is pretty "cool."