Posted by truecreek on February 25, 2009 under Opinions. Everyone has them. | 
To say it’s been brutal to those who chose the radio business as a career path is, unfortunately, an understatement.
Every few days, I hear about another round of job cuts, or rumors to the same. On-air talent, programmers, salespeople, broadcast producers and more continue to be let go.
I blame consolidation and syndication. And it’s been going on for years.
Prior to the passage of The Act in January 1996, the radio business was robust in this country. You had thousands of FM and AM stations dotting the nation. The majority of them were owned by small to medium sized companies.
The Act dramatically changed that landscape by removing or changing most of the media ownership rules and caps in place at the time.
Enter the era of the large radio ownership groups.
Today, there are six radio ownership groups that control more than 100 stations each. The largest, Clear Channel Communications, divested themselves of 448 stations in 2007, yet still owns more than 840 stations and coincidentally, announced mass layoffs just a week or two ago.
Second is Cumulus, with about a third of that number of stations. If they all continue to follow the ‘less is more’ philosophy, there will be even more creative and very talented people out on the street.
To best illustrate the comparison between pre-Act and post-Act, let’s look at some specifics.
During my tenure with CBS Radio, I was a sales representative for WYNF-FM and WSUN-AM in Tampa. YNF had its own management, on-air talent, programmers, engineers, salespeople, promotions personnel and a complete accounting and traffic staff.
Our sister station, WSUN-AM, also had its own on-air talent and programmers. All told, we probably had somewhere around 60 or 70 people working for those two stations.
It was the way radio was meant to be.
The station was unique in its programming, had great talent, a loyal following and was a real trendsetter musically. And the ‘numbers’ bore that out, allowing for CBS to garner some very nice profits from the two stations.
In August of 1993, the stations were sold to another large radio group and today that group owns 6 stations in the Tampa market.
You would think that’s a lot of stations for one company to own in a market, but it is easy today to find ownership groups running six, seven or even eight stations in a single market.
But here’s the rub: now, there’s one, maybe two, program directors. One General Manager. One sales staff. One promotions department. One accounting and traffic department. You get the idea. That’s a lot of people out the door.
Another beat down to full employment is syndicated programming.
This programming, primarily of the news/talk format, is much more prevalent today than ever.
That means local talent comes in second to nationally recognized (cheaper) talent, brought to you direct from New York City, or L.A. It might be Rush, or perhaps Ryan Seacrest, Sean Hannity or Glenn Beck.
Regardless, it’s just more jobs lost and it is wrecking havoc with our variety of voice. Local creativity and originality are gone. There’s no differentiation any more. You hear the same thing, coast to coast.
Consolidation of our radio stations is a serious issue that needs to be addressed sooner than later.
Without revisions to Title II, we’re going to see the destruction of the radio industry’s talent, sales and management base continue. The large broadcast groups have mismanaged the “efficiencies” in consolidation. It’s now nothing more than a code word for job cuts.
Posted by wordwrangler on February 23, 2009 under Opinions. Everyone has them. |
A Johnson Box is a part of a direct mail piece or letter that contains the key message, so named because it has been credited to direct marketer Frank Johnson.
Frank, a modest man apparently, claimed he did not actually create it, but only popularized its use.
Frank simply wanted to improve response to his offers for American Heritage magazine. He thought his box would capture the reader’s attention and entice them to read the whole letter.
Old Frank was right, and today most direct marketers employ the device. But as times changed, so did the technique of using the Johnson Box.
Today, you may find it in the middle or off to the side of the page or even down by the order form. In email blasts, the Johnson Box is the subject line.
So the next time you write a direct mail letter, add a Johnson Box. And the next time you read such a letter, see if it doesn’t jump right out at you.
P.S. Effective direct mail also includes a P.S., but that’s a whole ‘nother story.
Posted by truecreek on February 18, 2009 under More Dam News |
By Emily Bryson York
BOCA RATON, Fla. (AdAge.com) — General Mills, one of the package-food industry’s top performers, laid out a number of recent marketing successes at the Consumer Analysts Group of New York conference this morning, and offered a preview of the rest of its fiscal year.
The company has staunchly supported consumer-marketing spending increases — 19% in the first half of fiscal 2009, which began in June — while competitors, including Kellogg and Kraft, have begun to scale back on the heady marketing outlays of 2008, instead preaching bundling and greater return on investment. General Mills estimates that its consumer-marketing spending will be up by “double digits” for the full fiscal year.
CEO Ken Powell has repeatedly said that it’s particularly important to support well-known brands during the current economy.
“We’re meeting here in Florida at a time of great economic uncertainty around the world,” Mr. Powell said. “General Mills has weathered the storm due in large part to the strength of our product categories and the strength of our brands.” He underscored that the company has a number of well-known 50-year-old brands, such as Cheerios and Pillsbury, as well as 30-year-old brands such as Yoplait and Nature Valley, that consumers trust.
Positive response
General Mills’ sales have responded well to increased marketing support as consumers are eating more at home. Sales grew 11% in the first half of fiscal 2009, to $7.5 billion. The company has raised guidance with each of the first two quarters. General Mills is doing so well that analysts had been expecting the company to raise its earnings guidance again this morning.
For the balance of 2009, the company said it is planning a broadcast blitz for its cereal brands. Ian Friendly, chief operating officer of U.S. retail operations, said he expects the ad program to generate the biggest bump in sales. The company’s Cheerios, Honey Nut Cheerios, Multigrain Cheerios and Lucky Charms have been faring particularly well. General Mills is launching Banana Nut Cheerios, Cinnamon Chex, and Fiber One Frosted Shredded Wheat cereals in the coming months.
Some of these products are likely to be advertised to baby boomers, who Mr. Friendly noted will make up about half of the U.S. population by 2010. “When I started here in 1983, we didn’t do much advertising to baby boomers,” he said, adding that boomers are eating more cereal as they age. “We’re targeting them directly now.”
The company is also working harder to target Hispanics, with Progresso products such as Menudo being tested in Texas. Mr. Friendly said the company credits Hispanic-targeted advertising for Honey Nut Cheerios with a 35% increase in year-to-date sales with those consumers. Bromley Communications is General Mills’ Hispanic agency.
Online growth
But while the bulk of the company’s spend remains on TV, Mr. Friendly said in a conference with reporters that it has begun to see significantly higher return on digital investment. General Mills has been diverting funds online, driving traffic to recipe sites such as BettyCrocker.com. The company’s cooking sites had about 8 million visitors last month. General Mills also recently launched a free Betty Crocker iPhone application, which offers meal suggestions based on what’s in a consumer’s pantry.
“We are seeing very high returns from digital than broadcast,” Mr. Friendly said, declining to give the percentage of spending that’s moved online. “It’s not that our TV ads don’t work, but when you’re watching TV you’re doing it for a different reason. When you go to a website you have a very specific purpose.”
General Mills’ agencies include Saatchi & Saatchi and Cassanova.
Posted by wordwrangler on February 17, 2009 under Opinions. Everyone has them. |
I borrowed the headline and premise for this article from the classic song, Wonderful World, recorded in the 1950s by the legendary Sam Cooke and later again by Herman’s Hermits and Art Garfunkel.
Don’t know much about history
Don’t know much biology
Don’t know much about a science book
Don’t know much about the French I took
The point of this article is that this virtual ad agency, True Creek, defies the convention of typical ad agencies that historically have a brick-and-mortar headquarters where all the employees work.
There’s a lot of overhead in brick and mortar. Overhead we don’t need and our clients don’t want to pay for. So True Creek has no traditional headquarters, just a bunch of smart people who put their heads together to successfully solve clients’ marketing needs.
Don’t know much about geography
Don’t know much trigonometry
Don’t know much about algebra
Don’t know what a slide rule is for
Which brings us to the subject of geography. Our staff can and does work from anywhere on God’s green earth—anywhere with an Internet connection, that is.
Our office intercom is comprised of cell phones and e-mails. (It’s interesting how employees in traditional offices communicate mainly by e-mail even when they are just steps away from one another.)
The bottom line is this: instead of building a brick-and-mortar headquarters, we think it is more impressive to simply build our clients’ sales, market share and business. So ambitious, forward-thinking clients: join us.
And by the way, just what the heck is a slide rule for?
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Sam Cooke’s original recording:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNO72aCnVr0
