Happy 2014

No, that “14” is not a typo. I’m really wish­ing you a happy 2014, even though it’s a year away.

What’s with that? you ask.

Well, one of Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effec­tive Peo­ple is this:

“Begin with the End in Mind.”

So I’m sug­gest­ing that you keep the end—2014—in mind as you begin 2013. What do you want 2014 to look like for you and for your busi­ness? Where do you want to be? Think­ing about 2014 right now can deter­mine what you do in 2013.

For your­self, you can imme­di­ately under­take those activ­i­ties that will lead to “the 2014 you” that you’ve already visu­al­ized. A better you.

For your busi­ness, you can begin those adver­tis­ing, mar­ket­ing, pub­lic rela­tions and brand­ing activ­i­ties that will lead to a suc­cess­ful 2014. Activ­i­ties that will have long-term effects.

When Saints QB Drew Brees hurls a long bomb down­field, he has a very clear men­tal pic­ture of Mar­ques Col­ston arriv­ing under the ball to catch it when it returns to earth. His near view may be blocked by huge defen­sive line­men, but he knows the far-off result he wants. He begins each pass with the desired end in mind—and his com­ple­tion per­cent­age is pretty darn good.

Take the long view. Throw a few long bombs. Begin with the end in mind.

And have a happy 2014.

Radio is dead. Long live radio.

When I heard the news report that radio lis­ten­er­ship had grown two per­cent in the past year, I chuck­led and thought of all the obit­u­ar­ies I’ve read lately for “tra­di­tional” media.

+ Radio is dead.

+ News­pa­pers are dead.

+ Tele­vi­sion is dead.

+ Mag­a­zines are dead.

The killer iden­ti­fied in these death notices is usu­ally “the Inter­net” or “dig­i­tal media”—cold-blooded mur­der­ers with ice water run­ning through their bandwidth.

But wait just a tweetin’ minute—I like the Inter­net and dig­i­tal media, and I think they should be con­sid­ered inno­cent until proven guilty. Don’t con­vict them of killing tra­di­tional media until some­body pro­duces a body.

As an adver­tis­ing agency, we use all these sup­pos­edly “dead” media every day to deliver sell­ing mes­sages for our clients. We know that radio, TV, news­pa­pers, mag­a­zines, bill­boards and other “older” media are very much alive, and peo­ple are listening/reading/viewing. And if you place a com­pelling adver­tis­ing mes­sage in these media, you get results.

Now a word about the accused. The Inter­net didn’t kill these other media, but it’s tak­ing a big share of their influ­ence. And their audi­ence. And their mar­ket­ing dol­lars. No one can deny that it’s pro­vid­ing us with new and pow­er­ful ways to mar­ket goods and ser­vices, from online adver­tis­ing to social media.

And so?

• Don’t under­es­ti­mate the via­bil­ity of tra­di­tional media as adver­tis­ing vehi­cles. They still deliver audiences.
• On the other hand, don’t wait too long to embrace online mar­ket­ing. It’s a tsunami, and many other folks (your com­peti­tors?) have learned to ride it successfully.
• Make sure your mar­ket­ing mes­sage is clear enough to make an impact in what­ever medium delivers it.

Yes, radio lis­ten­er­ship actu­ally went up two per­cent in the past year. Radio—along with its tra­di­tional media brethren—can echo what Mark Twain said to set the record straight: “Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated.”