CES Report: Alexa, Vehicles And Poaching
(By Buzz Knight) Every year at CES we evaluate how technology integrates in our world and how it has the potential to change our lives. Last year we observed the growth curve of Artificial Intelligence and its impact on making products better and more efficient. Voice assistants were a big presence and the competition for share of voice was just beginning to heat up. And of course there are the automotive companies who are represented more prominently than some stand alone car shows. (more…)
Beasley Media Group Adds Comic Book Gurus to the bPod Studios Platform
Naples, Florida (12/12/18): Beasley Media Group is pleased to add the Comic Book Gurus podcast to the bPod Studios platform.
Produced by WMMR-FM Morning Personality Steve Morrison and WMMR-FM Assistant Program Director/ BEN-FM Program Director Chuck Damico, the Comic Book Gurus podcast is hosted by Craig Liggeons and Rob Templeton, along with many of their super geek friends. The duo’s weekly roundtable touches on everything ranging from superheroes, including comics, movies, TV shows, events and much more!
Craig Liggeons is a creative type who has hosted many events in and around the Philadelphia market, including his own one-man show called “My Life In 19 Inches” about how television shows of his youth helped inform the man he is today.
Rob Templeton is a member of WMMR-FM’s “MM-Army” promotional team who is also extremely well versed in the comic genre.
“Our Marvel and DC-centric movie screenings at WMMR-FM have religiously been attended by two people…all the time…without exception – Craig Liggeons and Rob Templeton,” said Morrison. “It became clear that to us that when it comes to true, built-into-the-DNA love of comic books, these two represented a level of fandom quite literally off the charts. I realized the time had come to unleash their encyclopedic knowledge on the Universe and the concept of “The Comic Book Gurus” podcast was born!”
To check out the complete network, please visit https://bpodstudios.com.
Beasley Media Group Officially Unveils “If You Give A Ric A Podcast” on bPod Studios Platform
Naples, Florida (12/4/18): Beasley Media Group is pleased to officially unveil season one of If You Give A Ric A Podcast on the bPod Studios platform.
The unique and entertaining podcast series created for children ages 2-8 follows the adventures of Ric and his older brother, Rece, as they travel the world and learn important life lessons through the pages of a new children’s book every week.
The duo is joined by Children’s Author Maria Dismondy as they journey through six of her wildly popular books published by Cardinal Rule Press.
The first book featured is Fruit Salad Friend. In this book, Chloe navigates the trials and tribulations that pop up on her way to discovering the recipe for lasting friendship.
New episodes will be released approximately every 10 days and are available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcast, Spotify and https://bpodstudios.com/podcasts/give-a-ric-a-podcast.
Produced and created by Beasley Media Group Detroit’s Ric Hogerheide, If You Give A Ric A Podcast is designed to provide families with a new way to enjoy books with their children.
“We focus on books that have a basis in teaching great lessons, all while being something that is easy enough to put on during a ride to school or on the weekends while cleaning the house,” said Hogerheide.
“If You Give A Ric A Podcast is a wonderful example of the ingenuity of our Beasley Media team members in the podcasting space,” said Buzz Knight, Beasley Media Executive Vice President of Strategy and Innovation. “Ric, in partnership with talented authors like Maria, is creating memorable storytelling experiences for children and parents through the medium of podcasting and we couldn’t be prouder of their work.”
Children and adult of all ages are invited to spend time with If You Give A Ric A Podcast and explore the concepts of friendship, kindness, empathy and just what it takes to make it through the world! To check out the complete network, please visit https://bpodstudios.com.
About Maria Dismondy:
Maria Dismondy has written nine books that feature stories with topics that include anti-bullying, overcoming adversity, friendship trials and tribulations, and more. Maria is dedicated to empowering those around her through her roles as an author, teacher, public speaker, community leader and friend. She is dedicated to making each day count. The author lives in Southeast Michigan with her high school sweetheart husband, three kids and two pet snails.
For more information, go to about Maria, please go to https://mariadismondy.com/.
About Cardinal Rule Press:
Cardinal Rule Press produces high-quality children’s literature that empower children through timeless messages of hope, courage and the Golden Rule. Cardinal Rule Press is a traditional publishing company located in southeast Michigan that produces a select number of books each year; all of which make a difference in the world while reflecting modern-day diversity.
https://cardinalrulepress.com/
We All Must Get On The Same Analytics Page
(By Bob McCurdy) Several weeks ago I wrote a blog about a chance meeting I had with an agency CEO in an airport and our subsequent discussion regarding radio accountability and analytics. It can be found here.
I had a follow-up meeting with this individual and his team along with my attribution provider, Analytic Owl, late last week. It was spirited and productive on a number of different levels.
The agency had seven executives participate in the meeting and what came across very quickly was their level of professionalism, knowledge, and intense interest in their clients’ success. These “guys” were pros, had done their homework, and knew what they were talking about. They were clearly a reflection of their boss, who requested a one-on-one Analytic Owl webinar last Sunday in preparation for this meeting. This agency’s clients are in good hands.
After 90 minutes of discussion, with the Analytic Owl folks playing the role of Gladys Knight and me primarily the role of a Pip, there was a considerably greater understanding and appreciation regarding the directional insights that these analytics could provide their clients and how they might contribute to the optimization of any radio campaign.
There were a few key takeaways for me from this meeting:
– There was no debate about the ability of radio to set the table for online search.
– As with any analytics, data, or statistics, there are dangers in parsing too finitely. Directional insights in terms of station, creative, and daypart performance can be sufficiently precise to optimize any media campaign — digital, traditional, or both. Quantifying to the decimal point the exact role each medium played in the purchase of any product/service remains the impossible dream due to the incredible complexity and zig-zag nature of the purchase journey in today’s fragmented media environment.
– Have the right people on hand for these kinds of high-value, one-chance-for-a-first-impression opportunities in the form of compelling “support” expertise. Watching and listening to the Analytic Owl team in action made me smarter and more capable of explaining and positioning the benefits of Analytic Owl, Google Analytics, and analytics in general to an experienced, sophisticated audience. Utilize them.
– Do not hesitate to reach out to your analytics provider, milking them for every ounce of expertise in positioning their product. Our goal should be to become their “mini me” when it comes to positioning our data capabilities.
– These types of meetings often result in some side benefits. Analytics aside, this dialogue actually may have contributed to an unrelated solution as to how this client might improve on their current media channel quantification protocol.
I followed up with the agency CEO later that day to get his “take” on the session. In addition to agreeing that this type of data can enable them to elevate the radio conversation (the plan is to put Owl to work for this client), he said something that caused some uneasiness when he once again stated, “You know if I had access to this data several years ago, I would have likely been able to keep ‘X’ client advertising in radio.”
I’m not sure if Analytic Owl and other similar companies were even around two years ago but they are now. And while we can’t go back in time, each of us, who have access to analytic data, has the responsibility to make sure to review these analytic capabilities with every client, thus decreasing the likelihood of any agency or key advertiser ever saying, “If only we were aware of or had access to this data….”
As the industry’s analytic capabilities proliferate there needs to be uniform industry analytic standards so that all within the radio industry are speaking the same language. The good news is that this process also began last week.
Bob McCurdy is The Vice President of Sales for The Beasley Media Group.
This article was previously published in Radio Ink.
Hear! Hear! That’s Really All It Takes
(By Bob McCurdy) It’s the spoken word, not love that makes the world go round, as we largely communicate in words and not expressions of deep affection, and certainly not pictures. Flash cards are rarely used to order a hamburger. And don’t believe that children’s rhyme baloney about “sticks and stones.” The spoken word can hurt, can start and end wars, end relationships, get one fired and hired, inspire, motivate, and modify behavior. So why isn’t it given more respect as an advertising vehicle? After all, how much “video” is really needed to communicate the reasons to buy one box of detergent over another or to remind someone to stop somewhere for a sandwich? Seriously.
Does someone need to be in our field of vision for us to react to what they’re saying? Is what we hear any less impactful if it is communicated over the phone, over a loudspeaker, around a corner, or from another room? The answer is obviously, no.
Word-of-mouth, words that come out of our mouths unaccompanied by any video, aka the spoken word, is generally thought throughout the ad world to be the most effective form of advertising in existence. The challenge with word-of-mouth has been and remains its lack of scale, although social media has provided some the past few years.
Having a trusted source speak about the benefits of a product or service is pure marketing gold. We are awash today in numbers. Data and digits are everywhere (which is good as it elevates accountability), algorithms are on the rise, but even in this digitized world of 2018 it’s still word-of-mouth, and not any algorithm or data set that sits at the top of the media-effectiveness pyramid.
What often goes under-appreciated by those in charge of the media selection process is that what enters our ears commands our attention and impacts our behavior. Do we need:
- To see the police officer who is commanding us to stop, to stop?
- To see the person exhorting us to duck, to duck?
- To see the person on the other end of the phone to act upon what they are saying?
- To see an ad spokesperson touting a sale to take advantage of the offer?
- To see the Gecko to be reminded that we can save 15%?
- To see the snake, or is its rattle sufficient to get us to stop in our tracks?
- To see the person yelling “fire” to begin heading for the exit?
- To see the trusted radio personality endorsing a product to get us to take action?
You get the “picture” in that we don’t always need a “picture” to effectively communicate and prompt action. In fact, there are times when a picture, video, or special effects can actually detract and distract.
Radio advertising, regardless of format, is all about the spoken word. Now factor in some “trust” and we’ve got something unique to radio when a radio personality does the “speaking.” When you think about it, word-of-mouth, the king of all media, is simply a human voice “fortified” by some trust. Sure sounds like radio to me.
Maybe moving forward, particularly when a personality endorsement is involved, radio should be thought of as word-of-mouth on a grand scale, taking its rightful place at the top of the media-effectiveness pyramid.
In the end, the media channel that was named by Popular Mechanics magazine as the second greatest “gadget” of all time behind the smartphone (television was #3), which relies solely on the spoken word, just might be the most efficient and effective way to communicate a marketing message or complement an existing ad campaign.
Bob McCurdy is Vice President of Sales for the Beasley Media Group.
This article was previously featured in Radio Ink
