Mobile Radio Simplified. Accessible. Relevant.

There is something very sweet about being in the right place just ahead of the right time.

Informa Telecoms and Media report, entitled “Mobile Advertising Services: Generating revenue through subsidised content” points to great trends coming into being, but even they can’t predict newer types of mobile advertising that is not even on the radar yet.

We are in that spot, with interactive spots available now, highly measurable and profitable.

Of course, as always I am talking about the cell phone, and about the voice channel.

What bears re-iterating in this post is that with all the intrigue about the next manifestations of New Media, the elemental success factors cannot be separated from what the mainstream can access and adopt.

We are finding that our competitive advantages are emerging in how we are not only innovating ways to make it easy for people to get radio media easily on demand, but in innovating around the power of the natural, familiar advantages that are inherent with the telephone.

As we are about to go from soft launch to the actual launching and announcement of the CelleCast Community version 1.0, and deliberating with team members, industry friends, and early adopters about what we are building, I am amazed by the advantages we have. We have made on-demand audio and sharing a no-barrier deal for all.

Having said that, we have a lot of work to do on messaging focus, so features and benefits are not too long of a laundry list. It is good to have great people and partners around me with who we can share problems and solutions with.

Thanks Mark, Israel, Geoff, Jim and the team for your great input this week as we are about to announce what radio is longing for.. a way to bring their listener communities together to opine, share info, and meet up with others around the shows they are loyal to.

Andrew

The Equity Kicker’s post about the trending of social networks is excellent in it’s forward thinking. I agree that the future of it is not all automatically guaranteed rosy, and that there is going to be a shakeout of this space soon… at least the generalized networks, where the community factors are an end unto themselves.

Our socnet niche is in building for a specific audience of people that love talk radio, or more specifically, thoughtful, informative discussion and debate that is relevant to their lives. Since people have a built in affinity around the media voices they listen to, there is a natural desire to gather together with others who share that affinity. Empowering this paradigm, we plan to bring a whole a new group of people into social networking, who have not bothered with it to this point.

The talk media channels are just the beginning, but are a powerful beginning, provided we can convince our emerging talk partners that the model is being built to support them, rather than derail their focus.

Here is some wisdom I can bring back from my visit to Hawaii. It is a snippet from Bob Harrison’s newsletter, whose conference I just attended in Maui. Starting a bit off-topic, it relates to what can happen to any of us who resist change or remain in close proximity to others that resist it.

An overzealous zookeeper who was trying to overcome an elephant’s constipation problem fed the animal 22 doses of laxative plus several pounds of berries, figs and prunes. When that didn’t seem to be working, he proceeded to give the ailing elephant an olive-oil enema. Unexpectedly, the relieved beast unloaded on him like a dump truck full of mud.

According to the article the sheer force of the elephant’s unexpected defecation knocked the keeper to the ground, where he struck his head on the pavement. The elephant evacuated approximately 200 pounds of dung on top of him.

I know what it feels like to have someone “dump their dung” on me. This situation has happened in my life on more than one occasion. It has occurred when someone was misinformed or had allowed an accumulation of negative feelings about a proposed change to persist in their thinking. As a result, some event or announcement triggered them to overreact emotionally and respond in a negative manner. At the same time, there have been times in my life where I have misinterpreted change and therefore have reacted negatively.

In his classic book Peak Performance author John Noe states… “The greatest challenge that people committed to going to the next level will face is disagreement from those closest to them. The reason is, most of the people close to you are more interested in you not getting hurt than they are in seeing you succeed.”

“Peak performers can not allow the possible negative reactions of these people to paralyze them from making correct decisions.” Noe goes on to state…

“High achievers must be willing to risk rejection by their peers.”

Over the years I have observed that the possibility of rejection by others is a key challenge that leaders must be willing to face. This is particularly true when they attempt to remove blockages to productivity, launch new products, change operating strategies, and/or when they introduce a new person to a position of authority or influence.

Thanks for the imagery Bob. I am sure we will all think twice before forcing change on those not ready to digest it.

Stay regular!

I had the honor to be on a panel at the Convergence Conference this week where the stated goal was to get down to the nitty gritty on ‘Revitalizing Stodgy Old Media’. Of course with any panel, there are many points to be made and moderator questions can create an unexpected context where the core issue loses some of it’s focus.

Mark Ramsey did a great job keeping things interesting, but surprised me a bit by defining the context of the session to identifying problems and solutions on the radio station and group level. No problem. We had a few minutes at the beginning to address the ’stodginess’ premise. I made the point that there is a droned narrative about radio’s backwards views on media that I don’t agree with at all. It is an unfair characterization, and as Mark also clarified, stodgy might just be another way of saying that radio is established and careful not to sacrifice it’s soul at the alter of ‘new’.

This brings me to the larger point I had hoped to bring across on the panel had we not moved on from the attitudinal to the practical. The point is that in my experience, new media types have issues of their own to deal with if we truly want to see convergence happen as it should to the benefit of all. New media has at times an unpleasant arrogance to it. There I said it. The idea that something new is categorically more valuable than something established makes as much sense as electing Barack Obama on the mere oratory of change alone. New media types expect to grow virally and replicate with impunity, but then come around to radio to exploit their mass reach.

Coming from the new media side, we have enjoyed much more success in convergence as we have sought to compliment radio and became students of the radio culture and mission. Not only has this been rewarding for me personally, but will reward us greatly as our partnerships continue to expand.

For all of our readers in the radio industry, the interest level is quite high regarding how our partnership with Westwood One is going to change with Gary Krantz no longer being at the helm on the digital side. After reading todays post on Thomas Beusse’s new leadership strategy at Westwood One, I am very encouraged. We can relate to some of the frustration expressed through his quotes in the article, and look forward to continuing to help them go “platform agnostic” as a key distribution partner. My favorite quote of his being, “We need to expand the focus of the business to become platform-agnostic. In the long term, my plan is to have Westwood One become a platform-agnostic content company.”.

It is clear to me that he understands, and it is already being reflected on WW1’s site now, that radio is being disassembled from being a package deal of content and distribution, to where content flourish’s best with multiple distribution methods, and distribution flourishes when it finds complementary, symbiotic new media partners. I’ll talk more about that in my next post, but I just wanted our friends at Westwood One (new and old) to know we are in their corner.

We here at CelleCast are excited to be a corporate sponsor at Radio Ink’s Convergence Conference on March 10th and 11th.

Not only will I have the honor of speaking on a panel, we are cruising in with a great deal of good will from our early partners and will announce some new advisors and content partners at the same time.

The conference itself brings together thought leaders who appreciate that the contribution of radio to the future of media is significant, and I believe this year there will be lots of nuts and bolts connections made that will affect consumer choice significantly by this time next year. Radio, “as we know it” will change indeed, and this is the place where the change agents are gathering.

For our customers, stay tuned as we work to bring more of the “all things radio” spectrum to your phone.

The wisdom displayed by Seth Godin in his recent post goes beyond the mere pointing out how the media world is changing. I have seen too many posts along those lines and can create them myself practically in my sleep. Yes, the rate of change is remarkable and many established media structures will not survive the revolution as on-demand tools like CelleCast, Slingbox, and others emerge into mainstream usage.

What is more interesting to me, and something we are very keen about here is the fact that being new is also no guarantor of success. Consumers are not flocking anywhere in particular, but are responding well to companies that truly empower them with not only their technology, but also their personalized attention and concern. Look at how OnStar treats their subscribers. Beyond their radio commercials, their marketing centers around their excellence.

Thanks again Seth for bringing the right things to bear, namely the concept of permission marketing. Readers will have delve further into the post and beyond to capture what that means. To close, I will just quote Seth’s blog closer.

The new monopoly of the future is permission. Permission to talk to your customers directly about new stuff. Permission to teach, permission to ask, permission to learn. If you have that monopoly, you profit over and over and over again.
…

The power is certainly moving. It’s moving from five oligopolistic status quo gatekeepers that controlled money and promotion and retail to a much messier, faster-moving, more interesting amalgamation of database keepers, musicians and fans. Today, there’s a chance to co-op parts of that system. Tomorrow, that chance will be gone.

The driving force that keeps us going beyond the obvious benefits of profit is the idea that the new cell phone era brings both benefits and challenges that must be addressed for the betterment of all.

We are interested in not only making a tool, but making a positive difference in the national discourse.

http://www.thefeaturearchives.com/topic/Media/Walter_s_Wireless_World.html

Consider the issues brought up here and let us know what you think we need to be on track in building our product.

Of course not.

I picked up on another blog that asked the same question and I knew as I was clicking that the first thing I would see is a citation of a study that shows they do not. Although the question is relevant amidst an overdeveloped amount of hype these days with so much being thrown at social media, the better question is: How can emerging online and mobile communication tools enhance our REAL SOCIAL NETWORKS? I don’t mean the digital ones. I mean the analog and biological ones. The places where we take our kids to school, pick up the dry cleaning, and strive together with sports and work teams to believe for a win. Oh yeah, and our existing friends, who all use different tools online and otherwise to network.

Our real networks are the places where those that care about us (or at least our money) meet us, hear us, read us and transact with us. We are all media makers in this new digital world, and the biggest thing to happen next is for our power to find its home in the ease of sharing with not just some, but all of those around us.

So beware of making too much of newer tools that very easily become an end unto themselves, and look around to the more familiar tools that are shared by multiple generations that bring us into common understanding. Just as familiarity breeds contempt, the lack I see among the leaders in new media is a blind belief that freshly discovered and marketed tools and models are inherently superior to the tried and true ways we humans interact.

The prize will go to the convergers.

The headline that inspired this post does have a good article attached to it BTW. Enjoy.