Drive Time for Radio

If you're in the radio industry, you should read yesterday's piece in MediaPost entitled Possible Automotive Media ReThink.

The article summarizes an analysis conducted by BIGResearch that measures the gaps that exist between how ad dollars are spent versus what consumers say works best when it comes to buying a car.

The big loser is TV, where automotive manufacturers spend at a rate that is roughly 2.5X greater than what is necessary based on consumer inputs.

The big winners are radio and outdoor. The spending model would have radio getting 21.5% of media dollars when it now gets less than 3%. Outdoor's under-allocation is even more pronounced with about 1% of current spending versus an ideal level of 14.6%.

It is important to note that these spending figures cover dollars spent by the Big Three manufacturers. Nonetheless, I think it has tremendous relevance for local dealership spending because it clearly supports the fact that radio is important when consumers are shopping for a car.

Perhaps the best way to get around TV's default as a visual medium, is for the radio and outdoor industry's to band togetehr to create compelling cross-platform programs that go head-on against local TV.

So, get out there and sell some radio time so that I don't have to keep seeing those awful Tom Gill TV spots during every freaking commercial break!

My Kindle Dilemma

In the movie "Anchorman," Will Ferrell’s smarmy protagonist, Ron Burgundy, is putting the moves on his sexy new colleague, Veronica Corningstone. "I'm kind of a big deal," says Burgundy. "I have many leather-bound books."

I recalled this scene as I familiarized myself with the new Kindle my wife gave me for Christmas. I was skeptical of Kindle. I enjoy the tactile aspects of reading...curling up in bed each night with one of my many leather-bound books (You know...I'm really kind of a big deal!). But it didn't take very long for me to become Kindleized.

Kindle's print is large and legible. It has a built-in dictionary feature that can be used to help define obscure words. If you come across an interesting quote, the page can be stored in a separate clipping file. And for about nine bucks a best seller, it really makes reading cost efficient.

The problem, of course, is that books stored digitally through Kindle can not be displayed in all of their leather-bound glory in my home library. Who among us doesn't spend a fair amount of time deciding which authors and titles get prime display space so as to impress our visitors? I love my collection of "The Onion---Year in Review." But if you visit my home and browse my library, it will be Camus' "The Stranger" that will catch your attention. After all, a library, more than any other aspect of one's home, speaks volumes about who we want the world to believe we are.

I suspect my strategy will be to continue enjoying the value and simplicity of Kindle while searching garage sales and used book sales for just the right leather-bound versions of the classics for my home library.

Simply Ex(mas)hausted!

I went to the mall this past Sunday.  I really didn't need to go, but my son and I just went to burn some time and look for last minute gift ideas.  

As would be expected, the mall was packed and an air of Christmas frenzy was pervasive throughout.  But instead of igniting any latent Christmas spirit that might have been trapped inside, my trip to the mall resulted in an almost overwhelming sense of exhaustion.  I felt drained and anxious.  Not even an Annie's Pretzel could quell my feeling of being disoriented as I wandered aimlessly past window after window of merchandise that was neither interesting or attractive.  

Upon reflection, it occurred to me that my bout with exhaustion was, perhaps, emblematic of what is now happening in the economy.  I think we are exhausted by the demands of consumerism.  It's very possible that this economic melt-down is really a badly needed consumer time-out.  There is actually some macro-economic support for my theory.

In the post-war years, the GDNP was fueled in equal parts by business investment and consumption.  America's prosperity was driven, in large part, by a healthy and vital entrepreneurial environment.  

Starting in the 80's, the game began to change.  Instead of business investment being a key driver to growth, the burden began shifting to consumption.  Today, consumers fuel more than 70% of the GDNP.  The penultimate example of this shift to a consumption based economy was the creation of creative financing that allowed more Americans than ever to partake of the dream of home ownership.  Nobody ever thought to ask if the dream was realistic.  We just plowed forward on the arrogant belief that every American should have a nice home and bigger car(s).

Well, everyone knows how the strategy backfired, leading us into the mess that plagues the economy today.   What is clear (and has been clear longer than anybody wants to acknowledge) is that consumption cannot sustain the economy.  Not everyone can afford a home in the suburbs.  Not everyone can maintain four over-extended credit cards without having to pay some consequence.

I realized, in the days following my trip to the mall that I was exhausted by the burden of being an American consumer.  There is too much pressure on me to keep the engine churning and to buy more crap that I neither need or want.  So, we cut back this year, not out of financial necessity but out of a need to simply take a break and let the economic cards fall where they may.  Perhaps America is going through a collective "consumption colonic" the results of which will be a healthier awareness of how we "use" money.

Wow...that was a little over-the-top, but it's my blog and I can do with it what I want.  If anyone happens to read this, I'd love to know if you are having consumption exhaustion...and, if so, how are you handling it.  Do you feel responsible for perpetuating the consumption ethos in this country?  

Happy Holidays

The Future is...Yesterday!

I have been on extended hiatus from this blog...for no other reason than, well, I have.

I have a full notebook of stuff to riff on. But I want to come out of the blocks with a piece that I'm sure many of you have seen. It is incredibly powerful...almost scary powerful.

It was produced by Sony and is called "Did You Know"

Watch it. Watch it again. I've already watched it three times (no, not during working hours).

What is most frightening, I suppose, is the thought that our kids and our education system are simply behind...and behind in a way that makes me realize that we will likely, never catch up. Here's a stat: India has more honor (high IQ) kids than the U.S. has kids!

Anybody out there have any thoughts on this.

If so, I'd like to get them... yesterday!