Seth Godin’s soon-to-be-released book Meatball Sundae is built on the following premise: That too many companies look at the “cool tools” provided by the new media to extend their brands rather than redefine the business itself in the context of what these new tools represent.
This is no subtle distinction.
Because you can either label your revenue as “non-traditional” as we in Radio label pretty much everything that doesn’t come from selling air for cash, or you can consider it what I call “new-traditional.”
The difference between “non-traditional” and “new-traditional” is the difference between business which matters only at the margin and business that will constitute the center of radio industry revenue in years to come.
Today’s dessert is tomorrow’s main course, and the sooner the radio industry recognizes this and preemptively acts on it, the better.
Recently I heard a radio cluster General Manager say the following words: “We’re not necessarily in the page view business.”
Oh yes, actually. Yes, you are. So I suggest you repeat these words over and over until you can avoid blurting out stupid statements in the future:
“I am in the page view business. I am in the Internet business. I am in the text messaging business. I am in the mobile audio business. I am in the social networking business. I am in the streaming audio business. I am in the content business. I am in the business of leveraging relationships between consumers and advertisers which can be mediated by my station and its content in any and all of its forms.”
Until you can understand that sentence and repeat it in your own words, you have no chance of maximizing “new-traditional” revenue, and you will be scratching your head as “old-traditional” revenue slowly and surely declines.
Bet on it.
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