I love this story because it merges my passion for good customer service with music.
Here is the CNN piece about Dave Carroll's plight with United Airlines after they broke his guitar and wouldn't pay for it. (Watch)
And here is Dave's video that in less than a week already had 1.5 Million views on YouTube. (Watch)
Of course United is now willing to pick up the tab. Sucks that it took a media storm to get this handled, but the exposure Dave has gotten is worth millions more than his $1500 guitar.
About two weeks ago my business partner Terry and I met with Edward Barrera the editor of Adotas, an online news publication dedicated to the interactive advertising and marketing industry. We had a great conversation and Edward video taped some of our conversation and posted it on the Adotas website. Edward has broken our conversation into a couple of different segments. I've posted below two he's run recently and if he runs more, I'll post that too.
I like posting video clips because when we speak, we don't really edit ourselves the way we do when we write. If I write a synopsis of something that happened or I pen an article about something, I've usually slaved over it for quite some time; making sure to use the right words, correct grammar, etc. In a video interview, you just have to go with the flow. No time to edit. Which in this case is great. Edward asks some very good and poignant questions about Social Media, where it's going, how it's implemented, and most importantly - how our clients respond.
ADOTAS — It’s more about social media being complementary to traditional advertising, according to Larry Weintraub.
Weintraub and Terry Dry are founders of Fanscape, a digital engagement advertising agency. I talked with them last week about social media and Internet advertising. Social media is not changing the world, Weintraub said, but it’s changing how we view advertising. We’re just not watching advertising the same way; we’re sharing it through multiple channels, fostered by social media, he said.
One thing they did say that stuck with me is that brands are sometimes resistant to getting involved in social media campaigns, saying that they don’t want to lose control of their message. Their general response is that most brands are already being talked about or will be somewhere online. The only question is if the brand wants to be involved in that conversation. They talk below about how they discuss options with reluctant brands as well as how they help brands that have problems with their products. (Here’s the link if the video disappears)
ADOTAS — Last week I met with Larry Weintraub and Terry Dry, founders of Fanscape, a digital engagement marketing agency.
We talked about a variety of subjects within the social media world, so I broke it into several video segments. This one is about metrics used within social media. The tension between traditional Internet advertising metrics, page views, etc., and the use of time and engagement in social media has been around for awhile, but it has grown because of the rise of social networks. In the video below, Terry notes the difference and the overlap between traditional and social media metrics. (If the video disappears, here’s the link.)
I've recently professed my new found love of the podcast and I've also mentioned Adam Carolla many times. The other day Adam took it up a notch and interviewed Francis Ford Copolla. The interview was excellent. And for me it was extremely timely because I had just viewed Hearts of Darkness - A Filmaker's Apocolypse, the documentary Coppola's wife shot during the filming of Apocalypse Now. Thankfully Adam had seen that movie too and they touched on that during the interview.
If you're thinking about giving Adam's podcast a spin, this would be a good place to start.
Another great bonus is that he filmed this particular interview and you can watch it all on Adam's site or YouTube (I've put the clips and the links below).
On Wednesday, June 2, 2009 I was on a panel at this year's Mediabistro Circus. The topic was Marketing Renaissance: The Age of the Consumer and here is the description of the topic:
Marketing Renaissance: The Age of the Consumer Social Media. Search. Customer Engagement. Word of Mouth. Authenticity. These terms are critical drivers in a new era of marketing and advertising strategies. This group of digital marketing experts will discuss how customer behavior is evolving around technology, explore emerging trends and business models that will shape marketing, PR & advertising in years to come.
There were four of us on the panel. We were each given 10 - 15 minutes to speak about how our individual occupations intertwine with the topic.
First up was Doug Jaeger who works for the agency Taxi where he is the Innovation Director. Doug showed us the power of social media by exhibiting the inspirational Jumping in Art Museums.
Then Garrick Schmitt, VP Experience Planning at Razorfish gave a very entertaining presentation showing the power of social media as recently exhibited by Starbucks and through a recent Razorfish campaign celebrating Barbie's 50th birthday. You can see his presentation on Slideshare.
Finally, it was my turn. Here is my presentation...
The number one reason people buy something or try something is because someone they trust told them to.
That's Word-of-Mouth
A few years back a caveman was sitting out in the cold, freezing his ass off, and he rubbed a few sticks together. He started a fire. He told another caveman who also started a fire. That cave man told another, and so on.
Word-of-Mouth
Fanscape is a Digital Word of Mouth Marketing Agency
We are hired by brands and by agencies on behalf of brands to create and foster conversations about their products online.
It is also known as Social Media Marketing because the Internet has become a very social place.
We used to write letters to each other, call each other on the phone, hang out at bars... But now we just do that all online.
We're friending each other on MySpace, uploading videos of ourselves on YouTube, Tweeting on Twitter, and re-connecting with people we haven't seen since 3rd grade on Facebook.
For a brand, it has become more complicated to reach people to tell them about their products.
Which is where we come in.
Now, there is one rule we've learned in our 11 years of business
People do not like to be interrupted.
Let me give you an analogy. On most Monday nights you will find me and my wife on our couch glued to our television set watching 24. Each week we watch Jack Bauer try to save the planet. He's beating people up, being beaten up, stopping bombs, you get the picture. We're enthralled. Action packed excitement. And at 12 minutes, bam! A commercial. There's Valerie Bertinelli telling me how she's lost 40 pounds thanks to Jenny Craig. I'm sitting there, with food all over me, sitting literally at the edge of my seat. I don't care about Valerie.
So what did I do? A couple of years ago I went out and purchased a Tivo. I've trained myself to now watch 24 delayed by a 1/2 hour or even a week. Basically whenever I want. And when the clock ticks on 24 and Valerie shows up, blip blip blip I skip right through the commercial.
That's what people have learned to do on the Internet. When we were getting to much Spam, we installed Spam filters. When pop up ads began to annoy us, we installed pop up blockers. We even tune out the ads that surround our favorite websites.
So once again, how does a brand reach the consumer when the consumer is tuning them out?
First, understand that social media is searchable. You can actually see what people are saying about you. And they are talking about you. Odds are somewhere, there is someone talking about your brand or product. So step back, take a moment, and...
You don't have to jump in and start marketing immediately. Just see what people are saying. And yes, there will be complaints. But a lot of people just have questions. They don't understand something. They need clarification. They need help.
Once you've observed for a period of time, then you can identify who is talking and who you should be marketing to.
At Fanscape, we take our time and we make lists of places we need to reach out to. And once we've made our lists then we stop.
We step back.
We imagine ourselves as the customer. We put ourselves in their shoes and we ask the question...
If we were being marketed to, what would we want? Why would it be ok to interrupt us? This is how we start EVERY campaign.
Let me give you a case study example of what I mean.
A few months back we did a campaign for GameStop, one of the largest video game retailers in the US. Each month GameStop does a promotion tied in with the release of a major game. We helped with a campaign for the latest version of the tremendously successful GuitarHero franchise.
It was a dream promotion. GameStop was giving away the opportunity for someone to win a chance to actually be in the next version of GuitarHero. Yes, a GuitarHero fan could find him/herself immortalized with a character of themself in the next game. All they had to do was upload themselves to the special promotion website and then the people with the most votes would win. There would be a winner every week for 8 weeks.
Now stop for a moment and think about that. This promotion addresses the two key issues I previously mentioned...
A) The audience is huge and definitive. Gamers. Specifically gamers who play GuitarHero and similar games such as RockBand. There are literally thousands of websites, social network pages, YouTube channels, and blogs dedicated to people's love of these games.
B) This answers the question: "Why do I care?" Isn't this the ultimate prize for a fan of GuitarHero? To be in the game!
So, we made our lists and we reached out to the influencers, the people who loved to broadcast their skills and their love of the game.
Which brings us to Freddie Wong...
Freddie is the definition of a GuitarHero guru. A few years ago he uploaded a video of himself hopping off a motorcycle, having his "roadie" strap on his "guitar" and shredding to the Rush classic, "YYZ."
That video has been watched over 6.5 Million times.
And it's both hysterical and amazing. I recommend you watch it.
Since then, Freddie has built up quite a following. He has over 10,000 people who subscribe to his YouTube channel. He has a a blog, a Twitter. He's a true influencer and considered one of the best, if not THE best GuitarHero player on the planet. He's even jammed alongside some of the greatest real guitar heroes like Joe Satriani.
We told Freddie about the promotion and what did Freddie do? He created a video. He asked his fans to vote. But Freddie went a step further. He told his fans, if they vote - and he placed a direct link on the video - then he would give away a $400 Peavy GuitarHero guitar that he had won himself.
Note: We didn't give anything to Freddie. All we did was tell him about the promotion. Freddie went the extra mile and created his own promotion, a thank you if you will, for his fan. Incidentally, that video he made has been viewed nearly 50,000 times.
And Freddie won the week. Hands down.
Turns out, over the course of the 8 weeks 65% of the votes to the promotion came as a result of people we reached out to.
Needless to say, the promotion was a tremendous success. The goal was to make people aware of the promotion and get them to the site. The RIGHT people! And we succeeded.
Keep in mind, we weren't the only thing going on. There was a lot of money tied up in this promotion and it was spent on advertising, activation, implementation, etc. We were a relatively small part. But we drove 65% of the activity.
That is the power of Digital Word of Mouth.
And we're just scratching the surface here. Social Media encompasses so many sites and avenues for reaching and interacting with people. Social bookmarking sites, social networks, blogs, wikis, information sharing sites, are just some of the outlets we use to create conversations with people on the web.
Now, the question that comes up most often when we're hired is measurement.
How do we measure success?
The GameStop example shows that success was determined by traffic to the promotion. But each campaign and each client is different. The object is to identify what is important to the client and that is what we establish as the goal and then we attempt to measure based on the achievement of that goal.
This graphic shows a snapshot of the various forms of measurement.
The list of measurements goes on and on. And what I tell each client is that we have to identify the Goal.
Once we know the goal, then we plan the strategy to achieve that goal. And our measurement is based on how we achieved that goal.
It is rarely that simple, but that is how we approach each campaign.
Because ultimately we want to move the customer. We want to engage them. To excite them.
And if we do it right, then they tell someone else.
You can see the whole thing here, but it doesn't really come through without the words, does it?
I am way behind on my posts. I actually have some things to report, I have just been in one of those runs lately where I can't carve out a half hour to sit down and write things out.
I was in New York last week speaking at the Mediabistro Circus. I will post my presentation in just a bit, but in the meantime, I wanted to re-post this article that just ran today on the website www.conversationagent.com. Valeria Maltoni runs Conversation Agent and she is an absolutely fascinating person. I'll talk more about her when I post my wrap up of the Mediabistro Circus, but until then, here is an interview she did with me for her blog / website that ran today...
The Agency Side of Business: Larry Weintraub, Fanscape
I've always been fascinated by the entertainment business, and a couple of weeks ago we learned a thing or two about sound design from Diego Stocco.
Larry Weintraub and I met when speaking on the same panel at Mediabistro Circus a week ago. He is the CEO and co-founder of Fanscape, a company that believes in creating a better connection between brands and consumers.
Over lunch we talked about the state of marketing communications, media, and our respective projects. This is my follow up conversation with Larry about his work.
How did you come to the decision to start your own company? Larry: I’ve been an entrepreneur since I was 12 years old. I started by mowing people’s lawns and painting their houses. When I was very young, I mapped out a career for myself in the music business and did that from the time I was 15 until I was 28, the latter 8 years I’d spent working for a major record company, A&M Records.
When that record company’s parent company was sold, I decided it was time to strike out on my own and try running my own business. I could have gone to another record company but I knew that I’d always regret it if I didn’t try my own thing, which is why I started Fanscape.
When you started Fancape 11 years ago, was your focus exploring alternatives to traditional advertising from the beginning? Were there other types of services you offer today available from the onset? What I'm trying to get at here is has there been an evolution of your work in a specific direction?
Larry: Continuing from the other question you asked, when A&M Records was sold, there was a 6 month period while the transition took place. During that time, my business partner and I concentrated on coming up with an idea that hadn’t been done.
We’d both spent the last 8 years helping to market bands and we realized that the old way of developing artists wasn’t being done any more, the record business was focused on chasing pop hits. The history of the record business had been to put out a record, hope it got played on the radio, and then if you were lucky, millions of people bought your album.
Then when it came time to put out the next album, the record companies had to try and find the buyer again. No one had ever thought to keep track of the fans. Sure, there were mailing lists, but none of them were well maintained.
We created Fanscape as a company that musicians could hire to keep track of their fans and ultimately communicate with them. Thus, this was not really an advertising-minded business, it was a database management and customer service focused business.
Over the years it has evolved into what we now call social media marketing, but the same core components are intact, which is to communicate with the customer through open and honest dialogue.
There has definitely been an evolution of the services we offered. When we started we literally had people fill out address cards at concerts, then we entered them into a database, then we printed out brochures and sent them to people in the mail.
Within a few months we put that whole process online. Our focus early on was e-commerce and ultimately selling a product – a t-shirt, CD, hat, etc. But after about two years we evolved into a marketing company, shed the e-commerce and subscription services and became pretty much the company we are today.
The other evolution over the years has been our clientele. For the first 5 of our 11 years, we were exclusively music. We were a dominant music marketing company but as the music business lost their way, we concentrated on other areas such as film, TV, and now products/brands.
You are an active participant in many social networks and have direct experience with social media. How much did your direct involvement help you feel you understand its dynamics well enough to explain them to your clients?Larry: For much of the past 5 years or so, education has been a major component of our business. I’ve had to explain to people why they needed to embrace social media; I literally had to simplify it because it was so confusing.
We used to start a conversation with, “you know how your kids are on MySpace?” or “Do you ever watch videos on YouTube?” – “That’s Social Media!” The term social media has actually evolved. First we were doing New Media Marketing, then Digital Marketing, and now it is Social Media (aka Digital Word of Mouth) Marketing.
It is all the same thing really – at least how we do it, connecting with people through the Internet. But most of our clients understood traditional media and the Internet was just this place they heard about but didn’t know what to do with.
In the last 2 years people have really woken up to it and that education process has become a little easier. Now, however, there are a new set of challenges, specifically measurement – and how our clients often want to measure social media the same way they measure advertising and search.
From the corporate side I have not been impressed with agencies over the years. Creative that did not sell and account teams that did not understand the business have by and large been a real challenge.Social media is transforming work, the dynamics and business models. Yet, it seems that agencies have underestimated this shift. As an agency that was born around the idea of joining the conversation, does Fanscape have the opposite challenge - that of educating and enlightening clients?Larry: Yes. I spoke to much of that in the previous question. The main thing that needs to be understood, and we’re not there yet, is that social media is not a campaign-based project. It is ongoing.
It is hard to really feel the effects after just 2 or 3 months. You have to build trust, you have to prove that you are going to be there and that you aren’t just popping in to promote your product and then you’ll disappear. It's very hard for a major corporation to understand that this is a division they have to have in their company.
It's merging customer service, marketing, and public relations. You can’t start a Twitter account, tweet for a few weeks, and then stop. Same with Facebook, YouTube, and on and on. But most companies run on quarterly systems and right now social media is primarily a project-oriented function and it needs to be put on the level with marketing, public relations, and customer service which never end.
Credibility and value are the currency of social media. Companies are struggling to figure this one out, especially those that are used to think in terms of their messages.You have an advantage over internal resources in companies: as an outsider, your advice may be followed. How do you work with companies to help them build better relationships with their customers?Larry: One common thing we hear is that companies want help making their media viral. Which, as you know, is impossible. You can’t make something viral, it is or it isn’t. If you have a community of people that like what you have to say, then you’ll have an audience to start your marketing with.
If you’ve built up a great report with your customers and they trust you and they know that you will give them good information then they’ll listen to what you have to say. If you want to show them a funny video, they’ll watch it. If they like it, they’ll share it.
I’m a big believer that every company needs to build a community around it and its product(s). This means creating an interactive online destination, i.e. a social network or socially minded website where people can interact with you and others like them.
You also need to have extensions in other communities where people congregate – Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Twitter, etc. But there should always be a consistent knowledgeable voice that can answer questions, ask questions, and inspire the audience. It’s a privilege to have customers come check you out, reward them, entertain them, engage them!
We tell each company this when we start a campaign. We let them know we need access to information and the ability to communicate with people and to allow people to communicate back – even if it’s negative. If you do this, then you will build better relationships with their customers.
What do you think is in store for agencies in the next 3-5 years? Will agencies rethink their dependency on media? Is there a new model in sight?Larry: I like what Shiv Singh at the Razorfish agency says. He basically states that there is no traditional media and social media, it’s all one. My extended thought to this is that every form of media will have a component that is social.
A television commercial that you see during your favorite show is also available for viewing online. You can comment on it, share it with your friends, and maybe even re-do it through editing tools. If you are brand, you shouldn’t care. It means people are spreading your message.
This is counter-intuitive to the historical advertising and the agencies that deliver that. Usually the agency creates the message and it’s a one way street. I see this social convergence of media happening quickly and agencies will just have to keep that in mind when they are creating media. I really think this is already happening and happening quickly.
What is your personal secret sauce? How do you influence your colleagues and team?
That’s an interesting question. I don’t really know. I’ve always just been a hard worker who cares about the people around him. I also believe in collaboration and that everyone should collaborate on new ideas. I like to make everyone feel like they can contribute and make a difference.
Who would be your ideal client?
A client that is excited to try new things. A client who says, please show me all the great new things that we can do to market our products. And then they let us do it!
I was forwarded this blog from mediapost a few weeks back but only sat down to read it today. It's written by Brandon Evans who is a senior exec at the Mr. Youth agency and it is a very well stated and simple to follow instruction manual for digital consumer communication. Check it out...
"Know your consumer" is a business commandment certain to be deeply ingrained at the heart of any successful company. Never, however, has that consumer morphed so quickly or become so elusive. It is important for marketers to grasp and understand the key drivers of this new empowered consumer, one who has grown up with brand new perspectives and redefined the interplay of communications, relationships, brands, technology and media. This is Consumer 2.0.
Presented here is a guide to understanding the mindset and expectations of this newly defined consumer.
1.Authenticity Trumps Celebrity: Consumer 2.0 responds to honest, relevant messaging from peers over marketing speak and celebrity endorsement. Not surprisingly, they increasingly trust recommendations from fellow consumers. In a recent SurveyU study, only 15% of college students agreed that a celebrity's endorsement of a product would influence their opinion of that brand.
2.Niche Is the New Norm: Consumers 2.0 do not form a mass market. They relish in choices and look for products and services that speak to them personally. This is a generation that simply doesn't follow a common path - they are more committed to following their hearts than a path pre-established for them by their parents, school or community. They are a generation that doesn't feel forced to a universal definition of cool but feels free to pursue their interests. As technology continues to bring the world closer together, people will increasingly associate themselves with people and groups that share a common bond.
3.Bite-Size Communications Dominate: Consumer 2.0 digests short, personal and highly relevant messaging in bulk while growing increasingly adept at blocking out noise. While adults send three emails for every text message, teens almost completely flip the ratio with 2.5 texts for every email. Now, technologies like Twitter are transmitting these communications across groups of people. Having grown up with the Internet, Consumer 2.0 is trained to multi-task and will at best provide divided attention. Communications need to reflect that.
4.Personal Utility Drives Adoption: Consumer 2.0 chooses to consume what they find useful in their lives over manufactured marketing needs. According to a recent SurveyU study, 78% of college students feel that people place too much emphasis on brands. Certainly, the brand still plays a key role in some categories but, increasingly, that will continue to wane as customers place more importance on products that meet their needs and have many more outlets for learning about new products from trusted sources.
5.Consumers Own Brands: Consumer 2.0 will speak about, repurpose and associate with your brand as they see fit. Empowered by new technologies, they require a larger voice in the brands they champion, helping to create and reinvent products and communications. They will increasingly write about products through blogs and product reviews and participate in online discussions. Marketers must focus on reaching and impressing their core vocal consumers in order to substantiate other marketing claims and spread to new consumers.
Shifting ad dollars to "new media" is not enough and will leave marketers short of their goals. Marketers need to demand that their marketing teams and agencies answer the right questions and deliver the right results (hint: not impressions).
They should begin focusing on the number and depth of engagements they have with consumers and the propensity their consumers have for recommending their product or service to others.
Listening closely to your consumers and engaging them in deeper, two-way relationships is a great start. Paired with an understanding of Consumer 2.0, marketers will be better equipped to navigate their businesses through unprecedented change. After all, Consumer 3.0 probably isn't far behind.
This post is brief. Just a re-post of my DM News blurb about how to start Twittering:
Get started Twitter is just one of the tools that you need to have in your social media toolbox along with things like a Facebook page, a LinkedIn profile, a blog, and an RSS feed on your website. We are living in an age of instant communication and a river of information flowing through our social networks, mobile phones, and email inboxes. Twitter is just the latest and most streamlined method for obtaining that information. So sign up and create an account, then find a few people you'd like to follow such as a celebrity or guru in your field, and follow them. Watch what they “tweet.” Some have lots to say and some have very little. Some “re-tweet” what others have said and some add links to photos, videos or news stories. This will help you understand how you should communicate. As you follow others, you will find people following you. You don't have to do a ton of marketing for your Twitter account. Just get started.
A recent USA Today article discussed how athletes are embracing Twitter. Mega stars like Shaq and Lance Armstrong have clearly mastered this micro-blogging medium, but so have many of the lesser known athletes. I was asked to comment specifically on Twittering NASCAR drivers. Answering the question, why would an athlete use Twitter? I noted that NASCAR is extremely fan-centric and that Twitter helps connect the drivers even closer to their fans. Meanwhile the drivers’ sponsors can gain tremendous access to the fans through instant, direct, and endorsed messaging.
My NASCAR section was part of a bigger USA Today sports section profile on how athletes are using Twitter to connect with their fanbase. You can read that HERE. The NASCAR part I was featured in is below...
Bobby Labonte has been Twittering for a month, and the 2000 Sprint Cup champion's followers have grown from 50 to 1,600.
"It makes a fan say, 'He puts jeans on one leg at a time like I do,' " says Labonte, the only full-time Cup driver Twittering on his behalf. "It helps them relate."
NASCAR's emphasis on fan access makes Twitter growth likely, says Larry Weintraub, CEO of Fanscape, a Los Angeles agency that spreads awareness for athletes and celebrities through social media. "A couple of major drivers will do it, and then everyone will," Weintraub says. "If Dale Earnhardt Jr. starts Tweeting a couple of times a day, he'll have 50,000 followers, and it'll change the game in NASCAR."
Weintraub expects NASCAR stars eventually will learn its benefits as many sponsors (Ford, UPS and M&Ms have NASCAR-themed Twitter accounts) already have. "It's the most direct form of advertising ever and think of how sponsor-driven NASCAR is," Weintraub says. "For Kyle Busch to win and thank M&Ms on Twitter, that's really helpful."
Earnhardt doesn't have a Twitter account because he says "there's a bunch of imposters … I would never get into social networking. It's dangerous." Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Jimmie Johnson, all Cup champions, also have passed.
Some athletes in other sports have chosen to Twitter to counter/refute "pheets" — tweets from users posing as athletes. Lance Armstrong and Shaquille O'Neal, for example, initially began using Twitter because they noticed imposters on the site. Hence, O'Neal's handle: THE_REAL_SHAQ.
I was interviewed by the publication DM News recently about Facebook Apps and whether they are still relevant. I won't re-hash the article, you can read it HERE. My favorite part is the misprint where they call me the CEP of Fanscape. A few years ago that would have made me the Chief Executive Partier. Later on I became the Chief Executive Pontificator and today I think I'm just the Chief Executive Papa to my little boy - or better yet, the Chief Exhausted Papa.
Here's a snapshot of my quotes from the article:
“Several years ago a great widget, game or video could garner millions of views because it was different, funny or controversial,” notes Larry Weintraub, CEP of LA-based Fanscape, which has completed social media programs for clients such as NBC, Game Stop to POM Wonderful pomegranate juice. “Today that same piece of content may only garner interactions in the thousands, so marketers are realizing it's not about hitting tons of people—it's about hitting the right people.”
And whether it's an entertainment brand, or a packaged consumer product, marketers are also realizing they want their social media application to do more that simply tout a brand. “There's no point in building a social media application that doesn't have a call to action,” Weintraub stresses. “There has to be something tangible—it can't be that a bunch of people threw a virtual snowball or played a game.”
I'm personally over the Facebook app. I got sucked in by the Zombie game, that was fun for a while (that's my zombie over there to the right - I just looked and it turns out I'm a Zombie Mogul - who knew?). But now people attack my zombie and I think to myself, "Don't you have something better to do?" I know I've accepted about a dozen apps, but I never look at them. I don't think I've ever actually gone out of my way to find and download an app. At least not a frivolous one. Strike that, I have downloaded the Shelfari app. I like the way it keeps track of the books I'm reading. But like the Zombie app, I haven't looked at that in a year. Probably right around the time when Facebook apps were all the rage. Funny how quickly this social media world changes, huh?
Now iPhone apps, that's another story. Damn you Solitaire app!
Radio is dead to me since I discovered the podcast. I know I'm late to the party and that people have been listening to podcasts for years. Hek, Fanscape was doing podcasts 4 years ago - ironically I never listened to those. Poor Shane in my office spent hours upon hours putting those together and sadly he gave up after he realized that the amount of people who listened didn't equate to the amount of effort he put into making the podcast. And do you blame him when his own boss wasn't even listening???
My epiphany moment happened when KLSX 97.1 in Los Angeles went off the air. Or rather, when it switched formats from talk to disco/pop/top40/hiphop/sameas3otherstationsinLA. My commute during the past year had gone from 7 minutes to 27 minutes and I was too lazy to change out the discs in my 6 CD changer in my car. Then I discovered 97.1 and I became a talk radio junkie. My morning commute was suddenly made heavenly by listening to Adam Corolla. My drive home was made bearable by Tom Leykis. Every day was different which is something I need. I LOVE music, don't get me wrong, but I can't listen to the same CD over and over. I need new. I've always needed new. And thank god for Adam Corolla, he gave me new every single day.
Adam took over when Howard Stern went to satellite. I thought about getting satellite for my car but (refer back to the laziness comment) I could never get off my ass to get XM or Sirius installed. I've been a fan of Adam for many years, from his days as the guest character "Mr. Birchum" on LA's KROQ morning show, to his cable program with Jimmy Kimmel, "The Man Show" to his co-hosting of sextalk radio show, "Love Line." Adam has always made me laugh, probably because I've always identified with him because we both grew up around the same time here in LA. His references to life in LA's San Fernando Valley in the 70's and 80's hits home on so many levels.
Then, about 2 or 3 months ago I went on a business trip to New York and when I came back Adam and his crew were talking about their last show. "Wha Happened?" I cried! Then I heard Tom Leykis talking about the same thing that afternoon. I soon found out, CBS Radio, owners of KLSX had decided to dump the talk radio format and switch to pop music. And I was crushed. The first Monday after they went off the air I got in my car and searched the dial. I tried KROQ again, and suddenly Kevin and Bean, the morning show hosts weren't as funny as I remember them being. They once held a special place in my heart, but they just didn't make me laugh any more. Much like Mark & Brian on KLOS had made my childhood (ages 10 - 15) so enjoyable but then they seemed boring after I discovered Kevin and Bean. So I tried NPR. I caught up on world events, heard a few good tunes on KCRW's "Morning Becomes Eclectic" show, but overall I was bored. So I started listening to CDs again. But after about 3 weeks I found myself tuning out radio and music all together and drifting in and out of daydreams as I drove.
Every day I'd say to myself, as soon as I get in the office, I'm going to look up Adam's website. I know he said he'd do podcasts, but not sure if he has. Then I'd get into the office, look at my emails, get distracted, and forget to look him up. As I'd get in my car to go home, I'd curse myself for forgetting to look for Adam's podcasts.
Finally, one day, after yet another painful commute, I found Adam's website and saw that he'd been doing podcasts for weeks and he'd been interviewing people like Seth McFarlane. I listened on my computer and was astonished. It was Adam. 100% Adam. No commercials. No sidekicks. No censorship. Just Adam, sitting in his house, talking to one person but mostly doing all the talking. And it was glorious.
Then I fired up my iTunes and low and behold, Adam was in the Top 10 podcast list. Turns out in just the span of a few weeks, he'd become one of the most downloaded podcasts on the Internet. I believe that Seth McFarlane interview alone has been downloaded over 1 million times.
I connected my iPhone to my computer, hit "download all" on the Adam Carolla podcast button on iTunes and within a few minutes I had over 30 Adam Carolla podcasts sitting on my iPhone. I couldn't wait to drive home and test it out.
Needless to say, for the past 3 weeks, I've been listening to Adam in all his glory on my way to work and on my way home. I even listen to him as I hike through the neighborhood with my son every morning.
If you are a radio station, how can you compete with this? It's free. Much like a record store has trouble competing with music that is free, radio is in trouble.
Oh, there is time. Radio's death isn't going to happen today or tomorrow. They probably have a couple more years. Recorded music was the first victim of the digital age, newspaper/magazine publishing is next, radio will follow and then film/television/video games after that. The latter will hopefully learn from the mistakes of the others and figure out a solution.
For the moment I'm being selfish. I hate driving. Can't stand it. But the Adam Carolla podcast has made that feat bearable - actually enjoyable.
I see much in life as a possible business. It is exciting, but also torturous. I just don’t have enough time. A new idea often sends me into hours of thought, research, and ultimately deviation from what I really need to do in a day. I believe that the Internet has made it easy for anyone to create a business. I believe that the Internet has made nearly everything in life easier. I believe that trying to impact the masses is a tough notion, but finding a group of people similar to you, is at your fingertips. I believe that music is free, and that is not a good thing. I believe that life is a collection of experiences and that every day I learn something new and forget something slightly new.
I have learned that the toughest part of running a business is inspiring your own employees. I have grown to understand that you have to show your family at least as much respect as your customers.
I went to college at the University of California, San Diego and majored in Economics and minored in Literature/Writing. I wish I had majored in Literature and only taken the one Economics class that taught me about Supply and Demand.
Larry Weintraub is the CEO at new media marketing agency Fanscape. All blogs posts are Larry’s personal opinion and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoints of Fanscape clients.
I see much in life as a possible business. It is exciting, but also torturous. I just don’t have enough time. A new idea often sends me into hours of thought, research, and ultimately deviation from what I really need to do in a day. I believe that the Internet has made it easy for anyone to create a business. I believe that the Internet has made nearly everything in life easier. I believe that trying to impact the masses is a tough notion, but finding a group of people similar to you, is at your fingertips. I believe that music is free, and that is not a good thing. I believe that life is a collection of experiences and that every day I learn something new and forget something slightly new.
