2-1-13
It's called "Martha Live," and will feature all facets of Martha's interests in lifestyle, entrepreneurism, culture, social media and international explorations Live call-ins, interviews, special segments from Martha's worldwide travels, contributions from Martha's favorite experts and curated excerpts from Martha's extensive broadcast archives. The show begins February 19 on channel 107 and will air from noon to 2:00 pm ET.
12-5-2011
They compete in many markets across America, however, in an announcement leaked to the New York Times yesterday, Cumulus' Lew Dickey and Clear Channel's Bob Pittman have apparently found a way to work together on at least one major project. The Times is reporting that Clear Channel plans to help Cumulus succeed in the daily deals market. And, in turn Cumulus will help Clear Channel compete with Pandora. It's the second side-door entrance into the daily deals market for Clear Channel. The company recently announced a partnership with Living Social.
While online daily deals have become nearly a $2 Billion business, companies are popping up every day, with different models to compete for those dollars, saturating consumers. Clear Channel, according to the Times, will run ads to promote the Cumulus SweetJack daily deals program. And, in return, Cumulus will put its radio stations on iHeartradio. Cumulus has introduced SweetJack in 16 cities so far with more cities to follow.
Clear Channel CEO Bob Pittman was quoted in the paper saying the deal represented ?one more data point that proves radio is not a laggard, that we do see the future, and that we?re moving toward it in a smart and fast way.? Cumulus CEO Lew Dickey said ?What has happened in the daily deal space is that heavy users tend to have multiple sites they will look at on a daily basis. We found this an excellent opportunity for radio to enter that space and compete for the long tail of advertising.? By teaming with Clear Channel, Cumulus plans to take the service to 120 markets by the end of next year the paper says.
Clear Channel's iHeartradio is in a battle for brand leadership with Pandora and carries all of Clear Channel's radio stations in addition to providing users the ability to create their own stations. There are no details in the story about whether the Cumulus stations being added to iHeartradio will be in markets where there are already Clear Channel stations, making it competitive for the Clear Channel owned stations.
Add a Comment Send This Story To A Friend
A survey conducted by Borrell Associates and Presslaff Interactive indicates consumers may not be as burned out on daily deals as has been reported in the press lately. In fact, consumers still appear to love coupons. They always have. According to the survey, nearly 40,000 consumers indicated they not only love the deals, but they're also eager to sign up for more. And a simultaneous survey of more than 700 local advertisers shows that deals are driving a significant amount of new business as well as repeat business from those new customers.
Borrell CEO Gordon Borrell says, "the buzz lately about ??deals?? being burned out appears to be a bit off base. The headlines about these programs putting advertisers at risk might just be a reflection of some businesses being unprepared or making bad deals. The survey indicates that a significant percentage of advertisers are seeing business they ordinarily don??t get, and that there??s a lot of growth potential.??
The survey was launched through local media companies across the U.S., polling consumers who frequented local media websites and small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) who advertise or participate in deals and coupons programs. It ran Aug. 1 through Sept. 9 and polled 39,040 consumers and 741 advertisers.
Here is some interesting data from the survey:
-- 91% of the consumers said they??re likely to register for other deals programs.
-- 44% have signed up for four or more email lists.
-- 81% of advertiser respondents have not yet participated in a deals program
-- 48% said they would participate in another deal; 14% said they would not
-- Of those advertisers who have, the average deal generated 191 sales
-- 45% of the sales generated from deals come from new customers, and 22% of them become repeat customers.
CONSUMER HIGHLIGHTS
-- 97% said they??ve printed coupons
-- 18% get them via email; this is neck-in-neck with newspaper-distributed coupon usage. Email surpasses store circulars and mail coupons for the first time
-- 45% use coupons to save money, 29% to try something new
-- 44% have signed up for four or more email lists.
-- Nearly two-thirds prefer weekly deals. Only 21% say want them daily.
-- Two-thirds have purchase at least 2 deals in the past 6 months; 29% have bought at least 5.
-- 84% say they have printed and redeemed coupons directly from local merchants.
-- Half say they go online first to look for coupons
-- 53% say they??re using coupons more often than they did one year ago
-- 91% said they??re likely to register for ??new?? deals sites
-- Top deals programs are Groupon, LivingSocial, Restaurant.com and a local media company
-- While restaurants top the list, they are the ??most preferred?? category by just 11.7% of the respondents. Entertainment, automotive and clothing also ranked high, while medical and ??professional services?? ranked the lowest.
ADVERTISER HIGHLIGHTS
-- 63% say they distribute coupons, mostly through newspapers or direct mail
-- Only 19% have participates in a deal-of-the-day program. 81% have not.
-- 20% say they??re not satisfied with deals programs
-- The main reason for participation is marketing strategy; 7% of the businesses that participated in a deals program said they did so for the dollars they got back.
-- The most important gauge of success is the number of new customers. 15% said people spending more than the value of the certificate was a goal.
-- The average business does 5 deals per year, gets 191 responses, and sees 45% of the redemptions coming from new customers and 22% of those customers returning.
-- 48% said they??d participate again. 15% said no way, 37% said they??re not sure.
-- Better revenue-share offer is the No. 1 thing they??d like to see changed
Add a Comment Send This Story To A Friend
Radio companies like Cumulus and others have been looking at ways to get into the daily deals arena after seeing the early success (some would call it hype) of Groupon. However, this story may give them a little pause. After only 4 months Facebook has decided daily deals is not a program worth keeping. You may have seen the announcement from Facebook in the company's most recent privacy changes. Mark Ramsey also has written a compelling BLOG about the Groupon phenomenon today you should check out.
"After testing Deals for four months, we've decided to end our Deals product in the coming weeks. We think there is a lot of power in a social approach to driving people into local businesses. We remain committed to building products to help local businesses connect with people, like Ads, Pages, Sponsored Stories, and Check-in Deals. We've learned a lot from our test and we'll continue to evaluate how to best serve local businesses."
Groupon is heading to the IPO market in 2012 but there are reports that even Groupon traffic is down 50%. And, honestly, how often do you use a Groupon coupon or daily deal coupon from any company? Have consumers had enough daily deals? Or does radio have a better way to deliver them to consumers for local advertisers via traditional radio transmitters. Visits to the category of "Daily Deal & Aggregator" sites are down 25%, according to market researcher Experian Hitwise.
Add a Comment Send This Story To A Friend
Sirius XM Radio has announced that it will launch a live, interactive four-week radio series with Daily Kos, the liberal online political news website. Daily Kos Radio will launch on August 13 at 10:00 am ET, and air Saturdays through September 3 live from 10:00 am ? 1:00 pm ET on liberal/progressive talk channel SiriusXM Left, ch. 127. Daily Kos contributing editors David Waldman and Armando Llorens will co-host the show from SiriusXM?s Washington, D.C. headquarters.
Add a Comment Send This Story To A Friend