Sunday Afternoon Thoughts Part 12

Just when I think I have things figured out, somebody comes along . . . .

From everything I’ve read, the radio industry is imploding. I’m still placing regular spots both regionally and state-wide but have planned within a few years to shift all promotion to the Web.

Then Wizard of Ads guru Roy H. Williams comes along calling radio “the best value” of any type of media. “I believe 2008 will be a major growing-up year for radio and readers of the Monday Morning Memo need to understand what’s going on,” the Wiz says in a recent post. I respect Williams a lot. I’ve seen him person twice. On stage he’s dynamic, electric. In person, he’s quiet and shy.

He’s also an advertising visionary.

Check out his thoughts and see if you agree.

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I had also concluded that there’s not more of a handful of kids in the civilized world that read newspapers. Then last week a business professor friend stopped me on campus and said he had taken his class to New York City for a competition. He took pictures of them. “Several of them asked me if the picture could be in their hometown newspapers,” he said.

Maybe it was a fluke or maybe I’m off base on this one, too.

No. It was a fluke.

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Check out Advertising Age’s article, “Yahoo Makes Goo Goo Eyes at Google. There’s a strange dance going on among Microsoft, Yahoo and Google and it’s going to affect us all. Oh, and there’s Rupert Murdoch pacing along the edge of the dance floor.

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Good article in Podcasting News on podcasting, Madison Avenue’s Worst Nightmare and the phenomenon Willitblend which increased its business 500% with its zany videos.

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Also through Podcasting News I found a cool site entirely devoted to microphones. (Umm, yes, I love mics). Professor S.O. Coutant’s features information about a large variety of microphones used in broadcasting and recording studios.

The site delves into the most commonly used mics in broadcasting, as well as articles on communication pioneers. There’s also a page devoted to early celebrities and the mics they used, including the first host of the Today Show in 1952.

My favorite feature, however, is the play button below each photo which lets you hear how each mic sounds in the studio.

A lot of work went into this site.

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100 college presidents and athletic directors are lobbying NCAA President Myles Brand to rethink the presence of alcohol ads on broadcasts of games. They feel that college sports and beer advertising are a “bad mix.”

I gave this one some thought and, concluded: yes, I’ll drink to that. . ..

Sunday Afternoon Thoughts Part 8

Hmm.  The celebrated 100^th post slipped right by me.  Just noticed I’ve done 102 posts since I started in February 2007.  We’ll toot the horns at 200.

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I’ve given in. I’m beaten.  I’ve taken the sex out of Lonely Girl.  I tried an experiment and entitled my July 3^rd entry Lonely Girl 15: Sex, Mystery and Web 2.0 just to see what would happen.  It’s an accurate title and I did get hits, lots of them.  Still does.  But a lot of them are coming through searches for subjects I don’t even dare mention.  Anyway, I want my readers to be those who share my interest in higher ed marketing.  I don’t care how popular I am (well, that’s a lie; I care a lot).  So I  changed the  title to Lonely Girl 15: S**, Mystery and Web 2.0.  Is that going to solve the s*x deviant problem?  If not, I may have to boot her off my blog, lonely or not.  I shudder at  the thought of how many testosterone-driven teens are disappointed when they hit my post. And if they are getting off on it, we have some major problems with American teen males.

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Found:  through Bob Johnson’s blog this site which just blew me away at the Virginia Commonwealth University Brandcenter   That’s right.  It’s no longer the Adcenter.

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Radio sales reps, to survive, must live in a constant state of denial.  A rep was selling me on her station. I said I was thinking twice about radio in the face of iTunes, etc.  She said it had not affected the listenership of her station a bit.  I knew she had daughters, ages  12 and 15.  “Do they have iPods?”  I asked.

“Oh, yes.  They  listen to them all the time.”

“When do they listen to your station?”

She smiled.  “When I drive them to school, I make them leave their iPods home and we listen to my station.”

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I couldn’t get out of my mind Karine Joly’s post about the study showing the TV-online activity among kids.  This has huge implications for marketers.

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Found this dichotomy while surfing Podcasting News.  Podcast guru Adam Curry’s company Podshow  just laid off 1/3 of its workforce.  At the same time podcasting network Wizzard Media announced it’s  working on the “first international geo-targeted audio podcast advertising campaign.” Tumultuous times.

But the biggest news?  There is a podcast dedicated to The Big Lebowski .  Dude, that’s awesome . . . .

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Scoble Rocks Out:  Came across this from a facebook friend.  Robert Scoble as rock star.  Hilarioius.  

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What do you do when the most popular DJ in the region goes off on a half hour rant calling you the “worst PR person in the world?”

That’s the subject of my two-part blog next week. 

 

Sunday Afternoon Thoughts Part 7

I write three blogs. One is an offshoot of my novel, The Perfect Song. I started the blog thinking I would be doing posts about writing, but the humorous side of my personal life nudged its way in. As anyone who’s blogged a long time knows, sometimes you run dry.

This happened to me recently. I couldn’t think of anything to write about. I never force the issue. Writing is larger than the writer. Then one night a line came to me: “My name is Dennis Miller and I’m an eBayholic.” From there everything flowed out in 10 or 15 minutes. Why? Because I had found a platform (Alcoholics Anonymous) and a writing tone (that desperation-tinged tone of people fighting addiction).

I know we don’t always have the luxury of time in higher ed to wait for the muse, but with more and more content needed for content management systems, and audience demand to write in a compelling, even entertaining way, I think we’re going to have more freedom to experiment with styles, tones and approaches.

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While Brad Ward beat me to the punch by a few weeks, I did finally post a couple very basic videos shot on our Flip camcorders. My student intern and I attended a faculty-staff talent show. Check these for video and audio quality.

My intern, Katrina Brumfield, created the format and did the editing, so it cost me very little in time. If you don’t have time to watch them in full, fast forward on Dick Soderberg and listen to “Let’s Talk Dirty in Hawaiian” to lighten your day.

The trade-off on broadcast quality is this: you pull the vidcam out of your pocket, shoot and leave. Some basic editing and your up for the world.

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There will always be a need for broadcast quality videos and professional photography that tell your unique and compelling story, especially in the areas of admissions, alumni relations and fund raising. But our Website sucks up content like a moon-sized sponge. We’re all going to have to learn the basics of writing, video, photography, and audio recording—sooner than later.

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A new Zogby International survey shows that 2/3 of Americans are turning to the internet for their news because they’re dissatisfied with traditional media.

“Overall, the survey finds the Internet not only outweighs television, radio, and newspapers as the most frequently used and important source for news and information, but Web sites were also cited as more trustworthy than more traditional media sources – nearly a third (32%) said Internet sites are their most trusted source for news and information, followed by newspapers (22%), television (21%) and radio (15%).”

There’s also information about blogs. The trend, by the way, includes older Americans, as well. This huge shift, as we all know, has implications for web folks and PR people, in the way we communicate not only with potential students but parents, alumni and constituency as well.

The quoted graph is from the Podcasting News story.

Also, I see Kyle James has included a blurb about it in the newest post of his always excellent Links of the Week.

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Final note: The dumbest prediction I ever made. In the mid- 1980s I persuaded Sony to give us a used professional camera and editing equipment. We produced our own shows and won a couple awards. I was invited to speak at a conference on emerging video use. During the talk I predicted the demise of still photography, or at least a greatly reduced use. I immediately alienated all the photographers in the audience, a few of whom gave me a piece of their mind after the presentation.

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Now I stick with such predictions as “there is a very good chance that darkness will follow dusk.”

We’ve all been wrong about something. Share your prediction or thought that was, well, off the mark.