How Technology Changes Behavior

Almost every one I know is using Facebook.  (85% of the people in my ecosystem)

2 years ago, the common response when I asked, "Are you on Facebook?"

Common reply - "No, way I would NEVER do that..."

"Why would anyone do that?"  Another is -- "I have no time, and I think it is dumb."

Years later, to VARYING DEGREES of both time spent on the Facebook site, as well as frequency of pages consumed -- nearly all of those people are utilizing the Facebook tool, to connect, self publish, share, and learn about PEOPLE in their "ecosystem."

I find this FASCINATING.  

Right turn to another medium. 

Think about how we have all grown up with the RADIO.  A radio in your car, a radio next to your bed, a radio at work, a walkman radio, the home stereo radio ... (and my personal favorite, my grandfather's big black box that got every single station east of the Mississippi, it weighed like 50 pounds, and was a relic from the 1950's....you could listen to Jack Buck announce a St. Louis Cardinals Game from NJ -- which was unheard of, and a real treat)

Today Mediapost released some very interesting information regarding how people are consuming what was once delivered over the radio, namely AM/FM radio content --

"The latest study by Arbitron and Edison Research shows continued growth in usage and ownership of various forms of digital audio platforms, including online radio, iPod/MP3 players, and podcasting. The weekly online radio audience increased significantly in the past year to 17% of the U.S. population age 12 and older; up from 13% in 2008. On a weekly basis, online radio reaches 20% of 25-to-54 year-olds; up from 15% in 2008."

PEOPLE ARE NOT LISTENING TO RADIO'S ONLY IN THEIR CAR OR HOME -- they want to listen to it -- anywhere they are....(I certainly stream radio content while at home and work)

Some key findings from Mediapost article:

Online radio listeners are more likely to be upscale, well-educated and employed full time;

• 54% of weekly online radio listeners are employed full-time (compared to 43% among persons 12 and older);
• 16% of weekly online radio listeners live in homes with an annual income greater than $100,000 (vs. 10% among persons 12 and older);
• 37% of weekly online radio listeners have a college degree or higher education level (vs. 29% among persons 12 and older).

34% of persons age 12 and older report having a profile on Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, or any other social networking Web site, up from 24% in 2008

63%  of teens age 12-to-17 report having a profile on these social networking sites

64% 18-to-24 year-olds have a profile on these social networking sites.

"Tom Webster, vice president of strategy and marketing, Edison Research, concludes that "... consumer use of new digital platforms... is becoming nearly ubiquitous... a window of opportunity for radio to... spread its content across the expanding choices consumers use to control their media experience."

A few nuggets on this from my point of view:

1) Radio is really hurting bad.  Listenership is down, and overall the medium is in trouble.

2) Satellite Radio is taking market share.  (maybe not as quickly as the Sirius/XM folks would like, but the "time spent and frequency" (time and multiple channels) on satellite -- have taken a huge bite out of the terrestrial radio business.

3) Radio Executives (Clear Channel & Cox primarily) need to put out key findings for their clients (ex. advertisers) so they seem "relevant in a rapidly changing lifestyle of Americans." (that is what this data seems to be)

4) American consumers are expecting to consume content WHERE THEY WANT AND HOW THEY WANT....a huge difference between even a few years ago, when you had to be glued to the car radio to finish listening to a funny clip before you went into work.....no more)

5) Radio is in serious danger of becoming the media casualty -- similar to what newspapers are dealing with today. 

6) Serious Entrepreneur style thinking is needed by the radio industry -- and EVERYTHING is on the table for Radio companies when they think about their future.  Alot is BROKEN....and that is how strategy meetings should start by the teams responsible for execution. 

7) Howard Stern's departure had a DEVASTATING ripple effect throughout the entire radio business.  Radio executive's (and friends of mine who work in radio sales) will never ever admit this -- but, plain and simple it is a fact --- NOT ONE MARKET THAT HOWARD WAS ON, (before his departure to satellite) IS DOING BETTER WITH THEIR FORMAT, OR THEIR REVENUE--- IN THE ALL IMPORTANT MORNING DRIVE TIME.  NOT ONE. 

8) Clear Channel will eventually be forced to BUY SiruisXM.  May not happen in the next 6-12 months, but it will happen.....you can bank on it.

All of this leads me to one conclusion:

STATUS QUO -- is not enough.  All companies need to be thinking about TODAY, and planning their strategy in a "new world" where THEIR CONSUMERS are behaving differently than they did in the past.

Where advertisers can leverage "new technologies to reach their audiences."

Where content owners (radio owners, website owners, newspaper companies) think beyond their current issues -- TO BREAK THEIR SYSTEMS IN ORDER TO REBUILD IT.

"The future's here we are it, we are on our own..." (Weir/Barlow - Throwing Stones)

I love the evolutionary process of the "new media" world.  Oddly enough, the pace of change, the speed of behaviors changing is all relevant to the world we are living in -- where speed and consumption patterns of content are changing so rapidly -- how do companies keep up?

How do consumers keep pace?

Technology is changing behavior -- and behavior is changing technology.....let's hope that all these media formats we grew up with (newspapers, radio) do not go the way of the "horse and buggy" when auto's came out in the early 20th century....

Or, should they?

Comments

[Ron Samuelson]

Nice post Andy. I believe that the old technologies like radio and newspapers will go the way of the horse and buggy. Personally, I only listen to Sirius. On my iphone and at work, it's Pandora and youtube. I get my news from feeds, twitter, and right here on your blog and others. Now bloggers have the power to become reporters - and to do live video and more. The difference is now (like right now) WE are creating content. So it's all good stuff and I am personally excited to see where it leads. "At least I'm enjoying the ride"

[Andy Monfried]

thanks Ron.

i agree. i never listen to FM radio it is awful.

i listen to am sports once in a while, and a little news. but 98% of the time its sirius....howard, vinyl, dead, bruce and news there.

weird thing is it started wit hnewspapers, it has whacked radio -- and tv is gonna get hit hard as well....

thansk for the comment -- love it.

andy

[Rob D]

My guess is the entire industry around music is structured in such a way that it makes the evolution almost impossible. Who owns the digital rights and who gets paid is a big problem. Look at the Internet radio royalties, not sure where that ended up but at one point it was untenable.

Newspapers need to embrace micropayments, if they charged a penny an article consumed (ads still on the pages), most people would probably consume plenty and they'd earn at least $10 cpm which is probably better than what they earn today. We need professional reports with editors, I'm not sure as a society we are able enough to police what's accurate and what's not. Sure people will say bloggers will get comments correcting them etc, but for the majority of people they won't dig for the reliable sources.

[Scott Hoffman]

welcome back!

[Brian Tomasette]

You seriously think Clear Channel will buy sirius/XM? I just don't think the assets match. The key value proposition of sirius is no advertising and uncensored radio because it is subscription. Clear channel is ad sales driven. Their revenue models are conflicting. Also I don't think Clear Channel would take on the technology assets that sirius/xm has, they are too far away from any core competencies clear channel can offer and surely the debt/revenue would do no good to their balance sheet.

[Rudy]

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[NFL Jerseys]

thanks Ron.

i agree. i never listen to FM radio it is awful.

i listen to am sports once in a while, and a little news. but 98% of the time its sirius....howard, vinyl, dead, bruce and news there.

weird thing is it started wit hnewspapers, it has whacked radio -- and tv is gonna get hit hard as well....

thansk for the comment -- love it.

andy